Melber Hails Mamdani's 'Compelling Offer Against Fascism'

Alex Christy
September 26th, 2026 12:32 PM

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MS NOW’s Ari Melber welcomed author Naomi Klein to The Beat on Friday to continue her End Times Fascism book tour. Both would hail New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “compelling offer against fascism,” while showing a fundamental lack of understanding of what fascism actually is.

Against the backdrop of an increasingly tech-based economy and the rise of AI, Melber read from Klein’s book, “I want to turn to some other themes in the book, including the political response. You write, and it's been fast-moving. When you were writing this, I imagine that democratic socialists hadn't won as many primaries as they had. That ‘Mamdani showed in New York there has to be a compelling offer against fascism, a compelling vision for a better way to live, willingness to collaborate across difference. Do the work required to make that vision real.’”

 

 

Melber then played a clip from Mamdani’s inaugural address that included the line, “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

Fascism is a lot of things, but one thing it is most definitely not is “rugged individualism.” Actual fascism is quite collectivist.

Nevertheless, Melber inquired, “I want to put the question like this: What do you say to maybe a traditional Democratic voter over 50 who has been skeptical of what they view as the excesses of liberalism or communism in the past, about what he's tapping into? Because it does seem to be more than just some point on the economic spectrum.”

Klein began by claiming, “Well, that speech is so interesting. And to be honest, I think there's a lot of evidence that the base of the Democratic Party has moved to the left and really has been radicalized by the radicalism of not just the Trump administration, but billionaires and the willingness to take such risks with the lives of working people.”

Throwing in more Mamdani praise, Klein added, “But, you know, one of the things that we see when we study the right is that they bring the sense of the mythic into politics, this deeper meaning that is beyond the material, right? And Mamdani is a great example of somebody who combines the two, right, who ran on these very material promises: free and fast busses, freezing the rent, universal child care. But combines—understands that people also hunger for that kind of soaring sense of meaning and belonging.”

 

 

Broadening the conversation, Klein focused on tech leaders and made it clear that while Klein writes about religious people, it is clear she misunderstands them:

I wrote this, co-wrote this book with Astra Taylor. And we make the argument that whether we're talking about religious fundamentalists who welcome the end times because they believe they're going to ascend in an elevator to the sky in a gated city, or whether it is the tech executives who want to ascend into the digital realm and have no care for this realm, for the animate world, for the living world, and are willing to sacrifice communities and things like water and farmland in order to build their data centers. We—most people like it here. You know, the last section of the book is called the leavers versus the stayers. And all of these figures really see paradise as elsewhere in the next realm. But most people see it as here.

Nearly every religious person, “fundamentalist” or not, does not believe in heaven on earth, but Klein kept rolling, “And, you know, isn't that radical? You know, it may take democratic socialists to tap into it and be willing to take on the tech oligarchs, but it's actually a really basic and this is why this has become not just a base issue for Democrats, but it has been called the most bipartisan issue since beer by a comedian in Wisconsin. And it's really — this is the bipartisanship we've been waiting for. It's humans versus the machines. And we can really come together on this issue, I think.”

No matter how much MS NOW may want it, Zohran Mamdani is never going to be a bipartisan figure. In the meantime, the network should read up on the actual definition of fascism.

Here is a transcript for the September 25 show:

MS NOW The Beat with Ari Melber

9/25/2026

6:39 PM ET

ARI MELBER: I want to turn to some other themes in the book, including the political response. You write, and it's been fast-moving. When you were writing this, I imagine that democratic socialists hadn't won as many primaries as they had. That “Mamdani showed in New York there has to be a compelling offer against fascism, a compelling vision for a better way to live, willingness to collaborate across difference. Do the work required to make that vision real.”

Here he was at his inaugural.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI: We will draw this city closer together. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this government foster it. Because no matter what you eat, how you pray, or where you come from, the words that most define us are the two we all share: New Yorkers.

MELBER: I want to put the question like this: What do you say to maybe a traditional Democratic voter over 50 who has been skeptical of what they view as the excesses of liberalism or communism in the past, about what he's tapping into? Because it does seem to be more than just some point on the economic spectrum.

NAOMI KLEIN: Well, that speech is so interesting. And to be honest, I think there's a lot of evidence that the base of the Democratic Party has moved to the left and really has been radicalized by the radicalism of not just the Trump administration, but billionaires and the willingness to take such risks with the lives of working people.

But, you know, one of the things that we see when we study the right is that they bring the sense of the mythic into politics, this deeper meaning that is beyond the material, right? And Mamdani is a great example of somebody who combines the two, right, who ran on these very material promises: free and fast busses, freezing the rent, universal child care. But combines—understands that people also hunger for that kind of soaring sense of meaning and belonging.

And you heard him tapping into that in that speech. But, you know, I wrote this, co-wrote this book with Astra Taylor. And we make the argument that whether we're talking about religious fundamentalists who welcome the end times because they believe they're going to ascend in an elevator to the sky in a gated city, or whether it is the tech executives who want to ascend into the digital realm and have no care for this realm, for the animate world, for the living world, and are willing to sacrifice communities and things like water and farmland in order to build their data centers. We—most people like it here. You know, the last section of the book is called the leavers versus the stayers.

And all of these figures really see paradise as elsewhere in the next realm. But most people see it as here. And, you know, isn't that radical? You know, it may take democratic socialists to tap into it and be willing to take on the tech oligarchs, but it's actually a really basic and this is why this has become not just a base issue for Democrats, but it has been called the most bipartisan issue since beer by a comedian in Wisconsin. And it's really — this is the bipartisanship we've been waiting for. It's humans versus the machines. And we can really come together on this issue. I think.

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