Politics Is Fandom; Fascism Is Fanfic

From Zohran Mamdani's campaign to the US government's memes, fandom has become the defining language of US politics. Zohran Mamdani never auditioned for, but one of his campaign's final television ads placed him in the middle of the show's infamous Tribal Council. For roughly 30 seconds, a handful of former contestants addressed the camera while explaining their decisions to vote Mamdani's top opponent, Andrew Cuomo, off the "island" of Manhattan. "Didn't we already vote you out?" asks one former contestant. The spot is just one of a handful of fandom-influenced ads that Mamdani's campaign put out in the final weeks of the New York City mayoral race .