Being Weird About Zohran

Episode 22 of the Half the Answer podcast, hosted by Liberal Currents, titled "Being Weird About Zohran" was published on July 16, 2025 and runs 89 minutes.

July 16, 2025 ·89m · Half the Answer

Summary

Caitlin and Trent speak with Eiynah about how people simply cannot be normal about NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the way the New York Times keeps getting puppetted by far-right propagandists, and the manufactured nature of “newsworthiness.”Resources:News media propagate moral panics: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203828250/folk-devils-moral-panics-stanley-cohen“Newsworthiness”: https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-1991-Racism-And-the-Press.pdfIteration: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810107885/limited-inc/ Reported speech can be recontextualized: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216699000806 The Bulwark Podcast June 17: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/zohran-mamdani-fypod-crossover New York Times June 21: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/nyregion/mamdani-globalize-intifada.html https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/mamdani-globalize-intifada-democrats/ Don’t quote the ADL: https://truthout.org/articles/its-time-to-break-with-the-adl-as-a-source-for-news-and-research-on-extremism/ Dan Goldman’s bias should be mentioned: https://www.dangoldmanforny.com/israel Jon Chait asks, why won’t he denounce the phrase? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/zohran-mamdani-globalize-intifada/683300/ Jon Chait hates attacks over a “decontextualized phrase or weaponized misunderstanding” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/cancel-culture-illiberalism-dead/681031/ NYT Columbia hacked https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/nyregion/columbia-university-hacker.html NYT Columbia “exposé” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/nyregion/mamdani-columbia-black-application.html NYT looking for justification: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/us/census-racial-categories.html “Black New Yorkers”? https://nypost.com/2025/07/04/us-news/black-new-yorkers-rage-over-mamdanis-african-american-claim/ https://thehill.com/opinion/robbys-radar/5388110-black-new-yorkers-slam-zohran-mamdani-over-race-claims-on-his-college-application/Why the NYT keeps getting played: https://www.findinggravity.net/p/christopher-rufo-and-elise-stefanik?utm_source=publication-searchhttps://www.theverge.com/culture/700082/nyt-mamdani-news-judgment Chris Rufo lying about a drag queen: https://x.com/caitlinmoriah/status/1582415915508895746Chris Rufo lying about eating cats in Ohio: https://web.archive.org/web/20240914120637/https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohioCrémieux/Jordan Lasker https://www.cjr.org/news/times-mamdani-college-application-race-article-hack.php Lasker is a grad student who believes in racist pseudoscience https://x.com/thecollegehill/status/1847372903077335501 Mamdani’s policies are not out of step with US opinion https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-zohran-mamdanis-policies-are-popular-with-americans-outside-new-york--even-if-mamdani-is-not-162406841.html Mamdani eats with his hands: https://newrepublic.com/post/197538/maga-reaction-zohran-mamdani-eating-food-hands

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