this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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After New York City’s race for mayor catapulted Zohran Mamdani from state assembly member into one of the world’s most prominent progressive voices, intense debate swirled over the ideas at the heart of his campaign.

His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal child care and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive.

But some have hit back, highlighting the quirk of geography that underpins some of this view. “He promised things that Europeans take for granted, but Americans are told are impossible,” said Dutch environmentalist and former government advisor Alexander Verbeek in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

Verbeek backed this with a comment he had overheard in an Oslo café, in which Mamdani was described as an American politician who “finally” sounded normal.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 273 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

From a unitedstatesian:

Genuinely, thank you, European politicians and public figures, for pointing out that reasonably socialized public services are considered de rigueur by the vast majority of the rest of the developed world.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 143 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It felt so weird when Tim Walz was lauded as a “gift to progressives” when he was running on a platform of “kids deserve food”.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 81 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

I live in Colorado where we just passed a resolution to pay for school lunches by a small tax on individuals making $300,000 or more.

I swear to God, there were a ton of people complaining about it. My favorite was a Facebook friend of my brother who posted "Why are we allowing people to vote on this who don't make more than $300,000 a year if it doesn't affect them? That's not how democracy works."

These people are fucking insane.

[–] Ithral@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Did you point out TABOR does require a vote for all new taxes, to include ones that don't affect everyone?

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 26 points 2 weeks ago

No, since it was my brother's friend, I just told my brother that dude was a moron - and left it at that.

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[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 31 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not just the developed world as quite a lot of developing nations strive to offer these services as well.

Which is even more insane.

But at the same time, 40 or so of our states have been essentially un-developing for the last couple decades. The US is essentially a dozen first-world countries supporting a few dozen third-world countries, and the latter constantly politically attack the former. Really would be nice if those of us who live in the actually productive regions could just cut bait on the regressive states and let them find out the hard way.

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[–] not_me@piefed.social 147 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It is time for the Americans to wake up and strike for all the freedoms and benefits that we have enjoyed here in Europe for 50 years

[–] tornavish@lemmy.cafe 42 points 2 weeks ago (22 children)
[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

TSA didn't show up to work in Houston, people are starting to protest how they can. If they're not getting paid anyway...

Edit: here's the video: https://nitter.net/Suzierizzo1/status/1985813704277991745#m

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[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 136 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Yes. Thank you.

The fact that even r/democrats has banned posts about Mamdani is shocking to me. (I found out from Bluesky, went to Reddit and checked and it's true)

This dude is normal. Full stop.

EDIT: And yea, I was literally thinking these days "It's nice to see Europe influencing the US for a change"

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 65 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because Reddit is run by billionaires like any other enshittified format.

[–] CAVOK@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Head over there and promote a platform of free speech where Mamdami can be discussed. Like... this one?

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Talking about Lemmy will also get you banned there. It’s best to treat Reddit like the plague house it is and stay far away.

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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

The fact that even r/democrats has banned posts about Mamdani is shocking to me.

I don't see why it's shocking. That sub is basically an enforced echo chamber for the netanyahu wing of the party.

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[–] Steamymoomilk@sh.itjust.works 130 points 1 week ago
[–] SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world 98 points 1 week ago (1 children)

“Europeans recognize his vision about free public transit and universal childcare. We expect our governments to make these kinds of services accessible to all of us,” said Verbeek. “We pay higher taxes and get civilized societies in return. The debate here isn’t whether to have these programs, but how to improve them.”

Yes.

[–] volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz 43 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Honestly I love taxes. I don't love that billionaires don't pay enough taxes and the unequal tax burden across different social groups but I love taxes and I love the idea of taxes. My dream would be a society where I work for basically pocket money and everything else - quality staple food and fresh food, education, healthcare, adequate housing, transportation, communication, childcare - is provided to me.

[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (11 children)

Honestly, one of my biggest conspiracy theories is that US employers (which are almost universally rich conservatives) use pre-tax income specifically to garner hate for taxes. Because conservatives always want to lower taxes on the rich, so they try to poison the average person’s view on them to sway public opinion. Whenever Americans discuss their income, it is always referencing the pre-tax amount. For instance, if an American says they’re making $50k per year, they’re probably only taking home ~$42k. So they tend to see taxes as an extreme burden, because they’re always looking at their pre-tax amount when they think about their income.

The American tax code is also intentionally kept extremely confusing, to further stoke hatred for taxes. Taxes could be an automatic “hey, here’s how much you owe, and how we calculated it. Let us know if you have any deductions we missed, and we’ll amend it for you” letter from the IRS. But instead, Americans are forced to calculate their own taxes, (even though the IRS already knows how much they owe), which means every American is annually reminded of how much income they’re “losing” to taxes every year.

In contrast, the rest of the fucking world uses post-tax income, because that’s how much money you can actually plan to take home. The taxes are a consideration, but if a job advertises €50k, it means the employee is taking home €50k. The taxes are more of a given, and are handled on the backend where the employee doesn’t need to worry about it. They apply for a job that makes €50k, and they know that’s how much they’ll take home. The taxes are already calculated for them, so they don’t need to worry about it.

Same for things like sales tax. If you see an item on the shelf for $1.00, it’ll actually ring up as $1.08 (or higher, if their state also has a sales tax) at the register. So Americans are constantly reminded of how much they’re spending in taxes, because every single purchase they make is noticeably taxed and hits their bottom line. Whereas Europe just lists the post-tax amount. So Europeans don’t need to worry about sales tax, because it is already factored into the cost of the item. If they see something on the shelf for €1.00, it will only cost €1.00…

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 84 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Of course. Your Democrats are our conservative parties, and your Republicans are our rightwinger/neo-nazi parties. And we have parties, left of the American spectrum that are mainstream.

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[–] elbiter@lemmy.world 62 points 1 week ago

Yes, it's called Social Democracy and the countries that apply it always have the highest standards of life.

Don't let the billionaires bullshit you.

[–] huppakee@piefed.social 58 points 1 week ago (2 children)

“Here, taking care of one another through public programs isn’t radical socialism. It’s Tuesday.”

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[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 50 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I always found it absurd that in the richest country in the world, there is no universal health insurance, no parental leave, no public holidays, that a college education costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, that there is no protection against dismissal, that people are starving or working but still homeless because they cannot afford an apartment—all of this is inhumane, uncivilized, and a disgrace to the US, not its recipe for success; it is its downfall, as the current regime is demonstrating.

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[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's absolutely nothing radical about Mamdani.

All of his proposed policies are favored by the vast majority of Americans and normal in actually developed nations.

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[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 31 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

The whole "it's too expensive" thing is kind of nonsense. There are billionaires. We would get something for the money. It's not like Zohran is proposing building a 500 solid gold statue of himself, or a ballroom that would only be used by a handful of people. Healthcare, buses, grocery stores, those all actually help people and will lead to more good stuff later.

People who stay healthy later go out to concerts and spend money, or whatever.

[–] Enkrod@feddit.org 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Giving money (especially in the form of services) to people who need it, immediatly injects money into the economy. Because needy people don't save big sums. When they have money to spend, they spend it. It remains in circulation, serving the economy until it reaches the hands of someone who can afford to not spend it. The very instant money reaches rich folk it could just as easily not exist anymore for all the good it does then.

The US cannot afford tax breaks for the rich, but injecting money into services and payments for the poor has a really good return on investment for a country.

[–] core@leminal.space 13 points 2 weeks ago

Rs will say it's too expensive while at the same time giving tax breaks to businesses and millionaires/billionaires, and writing blank checks for war.

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[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 30 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Can confirm.
By the way my country has an actual Communist Party with some representatives in government (not enough for anything really).

And FYI EU politicians are learning from the US: the EU, either at top level or at countries' governments, is veering right as of late, towards the same fascism we now see in the US.
So perhaps we shouldn't be so smug, not right now at least.

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[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

FOX is pushing HARD to paint him as a communist foreigner dictator.

Its working perfectly on my parents who swear he is the anti Christ. While they worship drumpf.

Help.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I would lead with your values and ask questions like why they think childcare or public transit are bad things.

[–] AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Oh, it's not that they think those things are bad, just that they want to be the arbiters of who deserves those things. They're not against social programs, they just want to put their churches in charge of them so they can police behavior.

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

The actual European policies the US is in dire need of importing, not the Orbán and Putin-style dismantling of secular democracies.

[–] arc99@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As a European I'd see his policies as left wing but not as socialist, communist or whatever. And as a person who has been to New York countless times I would see anything that improves the quality of life such as public transport, childcare, food poverty as a generally good thing. Whether Mandani manages to pull it off and doesn't go to the dark side like every single other New York mayor remains to be seen.

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[–] rageagainstmachines@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You put Mamdani, Bernie, or AOC virtually anywhere in Europe, and they're slightly left leaning moderates.

[–] 33550336@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

not in Poland, Hungary, Turkey and few others

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[–] tty5@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Extreme left as defined in US falls somewhere around center-center right in EU on most issues.

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[–] ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago

lol or for some child’s play. US far left ideas is basic in most countries.

[–] Justas@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 weeks ago

Am European; can confirm.

[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago

Americans live in a world where their "left" is already pretty far right. Someone who isn't that right but more centre / mildly left I indeed consider normal. It's still kilometers (miles) away from far left.

[–] mrmanager@lemmy.today 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Hopefully this is not news to Americans, but I guess it may be. Seems the entire country is in its own bubble, separated from what Europe is doing.

We are just people, wanting mostly the same things.

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