Christopher Rufo: The Rise of Schizo-Politics

Candace Owens has insinuated that the official story of Charlie Kirk’s assassination is a cover-up, arguing that the alleged shooter’s chat messages were fake.  

This nonsense narrative reflects today’s emerging “schizo-politics,” shaped by conspiracies and counter-conspiracies on both the Left and the Right. “On one side, we have the left-wing terror memeplex, optimized toward radicalization and random acts of violence,” Christopher F. Rufo writes. “On the other side, we have a paranoid right-wing variant, which refuses to accept reality—‘maybe we didn’t really land on the moon’—and directs a growing segment of the population down rabbit holes.” 

It’s a sociological problem, yes, but it’s also a technological one, given the Internet’s capacity for disseminating narratives on a mass scale.   

Read Rufo’s take.  

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s mayoral election would appear to be the crowning achievement of the Democratic Socialists of America. But instead of taking a victory lap, the party is showing signs of unraveling. 

A new report by Stu Smith disentangles the fractiousness that has emerged within the DSA over how to approach the coming Mamdani mayoralty—with some factions emphasizing “political reform and the need to preserve strong relationships with mainstream progressives and Democrats,” and others, including avowed Marxists and radicals, arguing that the mayor-elect should pursue revolutionary politics. 

“His ideological allies cannot agree on the purpose of his mayoralty, or even whether it’s worthwhile,” writes Smith. “Is the mayor-elect merely an ‘organizer in chief,’ or does he have the ‘radical potential’ to spark a crisis that ushers in a socialist revolution?”  

New Yorkers will soon find out. 

For years, New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani backed defunding the police, at one point describing the NYPD as “racist” and a “threat to public safety.” He temporized during his mayoral campaign, instead calling for downsizing and the creation of a Department of Community Safety.  

While many critics predict that Mamdani’s mayoralty will lead to an exodus of police officers, Thomas Hogan writes that they shouldn’t underestimate the NYPD’s strength. “Officers in mid-career aren’t going anywhere,” he argues. “They’re locked in by seniority, wages and benefits, pension qualifications, and an old-fashioned desire to do their job.” 

Is socialism gaining ground in America—or just getting a rebrand? In this episode, Rafael Mangual, Daniel Di Martino, and Stu Smith examine the shifting perception of socialism in U.S. politics and the growing visibility of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Long seen as a political nonstarter, socialism is finding new support among younger voters and progressive movements. What’s behind this change—and what does it mean for the future of American democracy and the traditional two-party system?

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