It’s hilarious that New Yorkers elected Mamdani. Obama’s opponents imagined a radical, foreign-born Muslim boogeyman—so now here comes, actually born in Africa, actually Muslim, actually leftist… and he’s crushing NYC politics with exactly the sort of unapologetic progressive vision they feared Obama might secretly harbor. It’s like the birther fantasy accidentally willed itself into being—but 15 years later, and way more ideologically potent. Progressives win when they stop running from the insult and start owning the slur flipping it—whether it’s “queer,” “dyke” or “whatever,” or in this case “Muslim born in Africa”—the moral panic collapses under its own weight.