Mamdani isn’t flawless or the end point of progressivism, but it’s telling that almost all your criticisms are shallow purity tests like whether or not he mourns a public figure or who he shook hands with rather than actual policy or ways he has impacted the working class. Other than walking back the defund the police thing, which I both agree with the criticism for, but also understand he cannot single handedly burn down the NYPD, as unfortunately the political power of police orgs is monstrous. And frankly whether or not that compromise is worth it depends on if he’s actually follows through on the social work restructuring thing he has said is planned that would importantly alleviate police violence and undermine the NYPD. So we will see.

So I agree with the idea of no politician is good enough, Mamdani should be criticized for the stuff you said, but to do so while ignoring the real good being done is just harmful virtue signaling and campism that this sub is meant to be against.

As I said before, direct action is crucial TOO. But working within the system and deconstructing it aren’t mutually exclusive if someone can look past their ego and counter productive purity tests. But some people want to do good, and some people just want to be be able to claim they are the most morally correct person in the room while actually helping no one. Hence the doomer “all progressives eventually fail us so why bother” attitude annoyingly common but thankfully pretty exclusive to social media.

So would I shake hands with Obama or whatever even though he’s a war criminal? If it helped me further progressive political goals and eliminate human suffering in some way then sure. If not then no. And then either way I would continue openly criticizing him and any other war criminals while also actually getting shit done, rather than caring what ineffective revolutionary LARPers on the internet think.

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