MAGA fans are losing their minds online after an X account posted a rage bait tweet claiming that New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will "require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals"—completely overlooking a key fact about the numbers we already use from day to day.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, will take office in January after winning November's election despite a wave of racist and Islamophobic attacks. His win has rocked the political establishment nationwide and sent shockwaves around the world.
Since then, he's become even more of a target and the X account @Polymarket decided to capitalize on this with the following tweet:
BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani to require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals.
You can see the post below.
MAGA fans were furious and were quick to condemn Mamdani.
But here's the thing.
Arabic numerals are nothing more than the digits 0–9, the everyday numbers used in classrooms, on bank statements, street signs, phone screens, and government paperwork. The term reflects their transmission to Europe through medieval Arabic scholars, but the symbols themselves are universal and have been standard in U.S. education for generations.
For that reason, the assertion that Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is “introducing Arabic numerals to New York schools” is entirely unfounded. Mamdani has put forward no bill, made no proposal, and issued no public statement involving numerals in any form.
How embarrassing.
People couldn't resist mocking the MAGA meltdown as a result.
As of this writing, @Polymarket's post has more than 30 million views, which means there are millions of people out there who are convinced that Mamdani is going to somehow wipe "American numbers" from the educational curriculum.
They might need to go back to school and pick up a book or something. Might be a good idea.
