The new alliance of extremes

Brett Freeman

The ideological lines between extremes are collapsing. You can see it in places like X (formerly Twitter), where Nick Fuentes’ followers—the "Groypers," an openly antisemitic network steeped in neo-Nazi ideology—actually celebrated Mamdani’s victory. They recognized a shared enemy: Israel, and by extension, Jews.”

Editor's note: One line about an imam in Puerto Rico has been removed for sourcing clarity. The column’s analysis remains the same.

It was only a matter of time before the left’s obsession with identity politics found its mirror on the right—reflecting the same poison in a different bottle.

And now, we’re seeing the fallout—in our politics, our culture, and even our local economy.

Last week’s local elections brought few surprises. Incumbents mostly fared well, confirming the political stability of our towns. But the real political earthquake took place in New York City, where State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani—a self-proclaimed socialist and anti-Israel ideologue—won decisively.

Throughout his campaign, Mamdani refused to condemn the phrase, "Globalize the Intifada," a rallying cry of the "Free Palestine" movement that calls for violence against Jews worldwide. He also has stated his support for the odious BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions) movement.

Also during his campaign, Mamdani appeared at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, whose imam, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Barr, has publicly prayed for the “annihilation” of Israel and praised Hamas fighters as more effective than Arab armies. He has also been photographed arm-in-arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, identified by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a cleric known for years of extremist, anti-Western rhetoric. These are not accidental associations.

His victory has already had a ripple effect in Westchester, where many local real estate professionals have dubbed it the “Mamdani effect”—New York City residents looking north to Westchester County for stability and sanity.

As someone who runs a business that often reflects the local economy, I can appreciate that silver lining. But the cause behind it—the deeper cultural shift Mamdani represents—is nothing to celebrate. His victory is the latest sign of how identity politics has metastasized, not just shaping elections but warping our moral compass.

And here’s where it gets darker: this contagion is no longer confined to the left. The ideological lines between extremes are collapsing. You can see it in places like X (formerly Twitter), where Nick Fuentes’ followers—the "Groypers," an openly antisemitic network steeped in neo-Nazi ideology—actually celebrated Mamdani’s victory. They recognized a shared enemy: Israel, and by extension, Jews.

The roots of this convergence run deep—and they begin with the way the left has taught us to see people through the prism of identity itself. For years, the left’s narrow focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion has treated identity as destiny—ranking people by race, gender, and sexual orientation rather than by merit or moral character. Under this worldview, “privileged” groups are assumed guilty and “marginalized” ones virtuous, regardless of the individual.

This same worldview helps explain why many progressive Jewish voters — including some in my own family — supported Mamdani. Some share his economic concerns, and others are equally critical of Israel, falsely viewing it as a Western colonial power and further disassociating themselves from a country seen as a military and economic powerhouse.

Conservatives have long warned that this obsessive focus on identity and group hierarchy is a corrosive way to view society, one that divides rather than unites.

While Mamdani focused his message on the cost of living, his disdain for Israel wasn’t incidental; it was central to his support. He captured a generation conditioned by social-media algorithms to view Israel—and often Jews themselves—as villains. After his victory, the Democratic Socialists of America released an internal memo outlining demands for the incoming Mamdani administration, all of which focused on severing New York City's ties with Israel.

This convergence between the neo-Nazi "Groypers" and the social justice activists should terrify anyone who still believes politics should be about ideas rather than identities.

Even more alarming is how this toxic ideology is creeping into the mainstream right. Vice President JD Vance, when asked at a recent Turning Point USA event about the antisemitic trope that “Israel controls the United States,” didn’t challenge it—he merely said, “Israel doesn’t control this president,” referring to Donald Trump. Tucker Carlson, meanwhile, recently gave a friendly interview to Fuentes. When Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts defended Carlson’s right to do so, many conservatives, including staff at Heritage, publicly pushed back, arguing that defending free speech doesn’t mean defending those who peddle hate. Roberts later apologized.

That pushback matters. It shows there are still people on the right who are willing to draw moral lines and say, “This isn’t who we are.” Locally, when several racist and sexist comments from a recent private group chat surfaced from members of a Young Republicans organization in New York, they were quickly—and rightly—denounced by Congressman Mike Lawler and Assemblyman Matt Slater. Both deserve credit for responding with clarity and principle.

On the other hand, Gov. Kathy Hochul and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8) both endorsed Mamdani, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, also from New York, remained silent before the election, reportedly fearful of being primaried from his own left flank. Commentators have suggested that Hochul's endorsement was also a calculated political move to fend off a primary challenge.

The missing ingredient from Hochul, Jeffries, Schumer—and now Vice President Vance—is moral courage when it comes to confronting extremists within their own parties. But Tucker Carlson is in another category entirely. I once admired him, but he has become a megaphone for ideas no decent conservative should defend. That distinction matters, because antisemitism wears different masks.

Left-wing antisemitism tends to frame Jews as privileged, as beneficiaries of “whiteness,” and falsely accuses Israel of colonialism, apartheid, and genocide—narratives dressed up in the language of justice and human rights, making them easier to excuse and harder to confront. Right-wing antisemitism, by contrast, casts Jews as outsiders—never quite “white” enough—and revives the old paranoia that Jews secretly manipulate and control institutions while adding a racialized layer that produces the kind of hateful imagery that should have been buried after 1945.

But both left-wing and right-wing antisemitism distort reality through the same lens of identity and power, reducing people to categories rather than individuals. Both versions are toxic. And both are gaining ground—fueled by social media platforms that profit from outrage. The algorithms reward anger, flatten complexity, and amplify the loudest, most divisive voices. When the far left and far right start cheering the same outcomes for the same ugly reasons, the problem isn’t partisanship—it’s moral decay.

I’ll be honest: I don’t enjoy writing about Jews or Israel as often as I do. I wish I didn’t have to. But antisemitism keeps rearing its head, forcing the issue back into the conversation. I write about it not because I want to, but because silence has never served us well.

And this moment isn’t just about antisemitism—it’s about the broader moral fractures now visible across both parties. The fault lines have been drawn in both political parties. Maybe it’s just the algorithm showing me what I want to see, but there’s no denying that a civil war is underway on the right—one that will surely reach a crescendo in the 2028 presidential primary. It makes me hopeful, to the extent that people are pushing back against this identitarianism. Will this same fight take place on the left, or have they already raised the white flag?

Jews are the canary in the coal mine of civilization. When hatred of Jews is tolerated or rationalized—whether in the name of justice or nationalism—it’s a sign that something deeper in society has gone rotten. And today, that decay spreads faster than ever through the algorithms that shape our perceptions and politics alike.

Jews—and indeed all people—can only flourish in a culture that values character over category. That means judging people as individuals. And it means judging nations—including Israel—by the same standards applied to every other nation.

Anything less leads us backward into a darkness we’ve seen before.