On the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack, Union Square became a stage for déjà vu. Protesters chanted slogans that would have been unprintable a decade ago but are now recast as “calls for peace.” Politico and Reuters dutifully described the demonstrations as vigils. The New York Post called them what they were: a celebration of grievance. And the New York Times, in its even tone, noted that state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani dropped by between campaign stops—one more progressive official blurring the line between compassion and endorsement.
Bill Ackman wasn’t there. He didn’t need to be. His weeks-old critique of Mamdani’s rhetoric—an accusation that progressivism had become a moral hall of mirrors—was already echoing through every conversation about the day. Without saying a word, Ackman became the ghost in the crowd: the billionaire who’d called the bluff of fashionable radicalism, and whose absence spoke louder than the bullhorns.
The choreography felt familiar. Politicians nodded solemnly while activists framed October 7 as a symbol of occupation, not atrocity. Pundits urged “nuance,” a word that now functions mainly as disinfectant. By evening, cable panels were debating tone instead of truth. The pattern repeats every year: an act of violence becomes a metaphor, a metaphor becomes a hashtag, and a massacre becomes a teachable moment about someone else’s feelings.
Mamdani, ever the movement’s avatar, embodies the new piety: certainty without introspection. To him, resistance is always righteous, provided it’s directed at the West. That attitude plays well in rooms that mistake volume for virtue—and disastrously in a world still counting bodies from the last time moral relativism went viral.
Ackman’s original complaint—that antisemitism rebranded as social justice is still antisemitism—has aged into prophecy. His critics mocked him for “punching down,” but what he really did was strip away the euphemism. The response proved his point: outrage at the exposure, not at the behavior.
October 7 should have been a day of mourning. Instead, it became another public audition for moral inversion—an event where empathy is rationed by ideology and truth is treated as a partisan luxury. The crowd went home convinced it had done something brave. All it did was prove Ackman right.
Citations:
- New York Post – “Anti-Israel Protesters Chant Antisemitic Slogan in NYC on Two-Year Anniversary of Hamas Oct 7 Attack” (Oct 7 2025)
- Politico – “Protests Held in Support of Palestinians on Two-Year Anniversary of Hamas Attack on Israel” (Oct 7 2025)
- Reuters – “Planned Pro-Palestinian Protests on Gaza War Anniversary Draw Criticism” (Oct 7 2025)
- New York Times – “Oct 7 Anniversary Arrives During Heated Final Stretch of Mayor’s Race” (Oct 7 2025)
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