Zohran Mamdani smiles into the camera: “I’ll make buses fast and free,” he says. “I’ll make child care available to all New Yorkers, at no cost. And I’ll freeze the rent for every single rent-stabilised tenant.” The footage is clearly professional, yet overlaid with a warm, grainy tint. The resulting video feels both polished and personal, both inviting and gritty. Wearing a white kurta, Mamdani comfortably signals a postcolonial identity.

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As the camera turns away from him, a five-point red star is visible on the back of his shirt. Banned in several countries for its association with far-left totalitarianism, the symbol also represents the Red Star caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). An open DSA member, Mamdani received the group’s congratulations for his recent victory in New York City’s  Democratic mayoral primary. The caucus’ stated aim? To “abolish capitalism, and ultimately, to achieve communism.”

Since mid-2024, figures such as Tyler Cowen, Lionel Shriver, and Niall Ferguson have argued that the Anglosphere is undergoing a “vibe shift.”  Woke excesses are now being ignored, or even mocked, by the same corporations that once championed them. Support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and other progressive cultural causes have dropped off a cliff. From blonde-haired, blue-eyed Sydney Sweeney quipping about her “great genes,” to a banker boasting to the Financial Times that he can “say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled,” the shift has been hard to miss. The sentiment has also been observed in books: British playwright and satirist Andrew Doyle refers to wokeness in the past tense in his May book, The End of Woke, and in June, Piers Morgan released Woke is Dead.