The new mayor of New York has a complicated identity. How Muslim is he? How American is he? While those questions have fascinated much of the online right, John Ketcham focuses instead on Mamdani’s appeal to the base. The professional class, six-figure earners, academic radicals: The women and men who elected Mamdani actively reject the idea of “New York [as] an engine of actualization . . . the possibility to become the best version of oneself and be rewarded for it.” They’re blinded by their own entitlement.

For further reading: Christopher Caldwell wrote a whole book arguing that we’ve long lived in an age of entitlement. Read Rusty’s review, “The Antidiscrimination Regime,” in the March 2020 issue. Also, there’s something in Mamdani’s oeuvre that reminds me of Roger Scruton’s neologism: oikophobia. For more on the often-prophetic philosopher (and First Things contributor), read Carl Trueman’s April 2023 review of a posthumous collection of Scruton’s writings, “Scruton’s Castles.”

Violence against Christians in Nigeria has long simmered in the public consciousness. People know it’s happening and know it’s bad, but are uncertain of the scale and what can be done to end the killing. Sonnie Ekwowusi provides a much needed explainer to recent events and the moral stakes involved. He writes that the “Nigerian government has largely remained silent. . . . Authorities frequently describe these massacres as ‘armer-herder conflicts,’ but human rights observers disagree. The pattern of targeting—churches, Christian villages, and pastors—points to organized religious persecution.”

For further reading: First Things has provided coverage on the circumstances of vulnerable Christian populations for decades. From the March 2016 issue, Thomas Howard’s “The Dangers of Hindu Nationalism” is an important contribution to the topic.

From the November issue: “Change is not always progress.” Rusty greets AI not with a fire alarm or a ticker-tape parade, but with a yawn. The technology is limited. It can be easily manipulated. It will introduce to the internet vast oceans of slop. AI may transform the world but, it won’t necessarily be explosive; it will be mediocre.

For further reading: Is ChatGPT infested with demons? I think so. Thomas P. Harmon has a more nuanced warning in “Demons and ChatGPT.” He cautions that demons exploit our already-present desires. AI chatbots, in the ways they mirror user input, do the same.

Listen: Julia Yost, Dan Hitchens, and Rusty Reno discuss anti-Semitism, generational conflict, and Heritage, the conservative think tank whose president recently touched off a controversy by releasing a video statement in support of Tucker Carlson.

It’s a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation. What stood out to me was Rusty’s point. In his youth, there was a firm line between television advertisements and programming. Today, young people are being sold to 24/7. Nothing is authentic. The only way for a commentator to establish trust and authenticity with a jaded viewership is to say something that puts him outside of the omnipresent commercial order. Nick Fuentes’s strategy is to prove himself authentic through transgression.

Upcoming Events

• Tomorrow: The Future of Higher Education, a discussion with Mark Bauerlein and Mark Regnerus | Irving, TX. Register here.
• January 9, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida | Sarasota, FL. Details coming soon.

Until next time.

JACOB AKEY

Associate Editor