BFT Video Pod: NPR Wonders If Rural Americans Like Affordable Groceries
The press is doing everything it can to delegitimize the platform of Zohran Mamdani
I had no choice but to podcast about an infuriatingly bad-faith NPR segment that touched on every right-wing talking point used against populist Democratic candidates.
And by populist, I mean actually populist, not someone who cosplays populism while pushing for monstrous economic austerity and the unleashing of government force against marginalized populations. In the NPR segment in question, the host asked if there was a difference between the populism of Zohran Mamdani, our current Vibes King, and the populism of Donald Trump. The short answer: One is real, the other is not. Unfortunately, in mainstream media outlets, good and bad things are exactly the same.
The most maddening part of the NPR segment on what Mamdani's crushing Democratic primary victory means for the American left was the idea – accepted as unshakeable reality – that rural folks in red states would reject Mamdani's actual, real-life populism, which includes city-run grocery stores.
Mamdani's idea for a municipal grocery store comes from rural Kansas, something that went unmentioned during this NPR segment. I guess that would have ruined the bit.
From rural Minnesota to rural Kansas to rural Nebraska, Americans have launched successful experiments with municipal grocery stores, largely because the other option was no grocery store at all. The question: Will socialism play in rural Kansas? The answer: Yes, as long as mainstream outlets don't say the corpse of Karl Marx will rise from the grave and rule the rural Kansas town with an iron fist. People like socialism, they just don't know it.
Anyway, check out today's podcast (in video and audio form). I hope your weekend is less doomy than usual.
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