The US right has gone into apoplexy over an X post by Jewish left-winger Brian Krassenstein that New York City mayor-elect’s Zohran Mamdani is going to make the study of ‘Arabic numerals’ compulsory in the city’s schools.
All western numerals are, of course, already Arabic, since the Arab world had the world’s greatest mathematicians in the medieval period. They built on the work and concepts of their Greek and Indian predecessors and produced significant contributions to knowledge. But this knowledge appears to have escaped the notice of many US right-wingers — presumably the same ones who think that since the King James translation of the bible was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for anyone.
The Polymarket betting company account took Krassenstein’s claim at face value and amplified it in a tweet that went viral and was read more than eighteen million times. This, apparently, made the far-right take notice — like Israel fanatic and self-declared ‘proud Islamophobe‘ Laura Loomer, who replied “Dear God, it’s real, isn’t it”:
She appears to have realised her ignorance as the post was subsequently deleted and replaced by a less embarrassing one. But as commentator David Doel pointed out, she was far from alone among ‘leading’ Trumpians. MAGA ‘influencer’ Ada Lluch — who boasted that her (now ex-) husband asked her to marry him because Trump said she was beautiful — quoted the Polymarket post, clutching her pearls and asking how long it would be until NYC is woken up by Muslim calls to prayer:
Her ex chipped in that Mamdani — as “a jihadist first and foremost” and a “national security threat” — should be body-searched before being allowed to meet Trump:
‘Asmongold’ — a ‘Twitch streamer’ who apparently has millions of followers. — blew a gasket in a video that has apparently now also been deleted. Gold has said he doesn’t “give a f***” about Palestinian civilians slaughtered by Israel in Gaza because:
they’re terrible people… they come from an inferior culture.
The sight of fascists and racists melting down over a piece of genius trolling is heartwarming, but the reaction of non-racists (and non-ignoramuses) — including Krassenstein, whose replies poked even harder at fascist sore points — was the icing on the cake:
As Doel also pointed out, the right’s ignorance is anything but anomalous — more than half of Americans, when actually polled about it, opposed the teaching of Arabic numerals in schools. This fact was also referenced humorously:
Sadly, the ignorance — often proud ignorance — of the far-right is not just funny, it is very, very dangerous. The Americans, UK citizens and their victims know this all too well.
Featured image via the Canary
