Mamzady Moment & Other Memes

For the past many years, the world’s been spiralling down a slippery slide rightwards and I always had this cynical thought, that we’re in free fall, accelerating straight into a political doomsday. Every headline felt like a punch in the gut. From our terrible Modi thundering in India to his petty phrend Trump blabbering in the USA. From Netanyahu bombing his way through Israel to Meloni grinning hers through Italy. With Bolsonaro shouting down Brazil and Wilders whispering hate in the Netherlands, this world was rotting right. And I was just here. Watching. Brooding. Sulking.

Helpless.

Then, in an entirely unrelated episode, I had to attend our monthly review meeting at work. Having been on medical leave for almost the whole month, I had nothing to show. Nothing to report. Nothing to present. But I had this one slide prepared anyway.

Just one.

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I AM BACK.

Terminator style.

At the time, it was just a joke to lighten the room. But this morning, skimming through the news, I smiled.

Because that meme… fits the world too.

It had started earlier this week with the Mamzady moment. Zohran Mamdani’s shock surge to mayor-elect in New York, a shot of progressive adrenaline the algorithms couldn’t help but amplify. Maybe social media’s blowing it up. Or maybe not (Truly, social media is the new mass media now, whether the old guards like it or not). Either way, it shows something: in this digital din, the people can still make themselves heard.

And it wasn’t just one noisy win. There’s Catherine Connolly in Ireland, the president-elect after a landslide. And Claudia Sheinbaum’s historic rise in Mexico (a left-leaning tradition that’s had mixed results, sure. But still a statement). Also, we have Starmer in the UK (whose 'left' often feels like centre-right in a better suit) and Yamandu Orsi in Uruguay. And in Germany voices like Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken are gathering wind. Then of course, back home in Kerala, Pinarayi is still holding ground. All small but real pushes back from the drift.

So maybe, just maybe, all is not lost. The world’s limping back. Crawling. Standing up after the fall.

And we’re posting our own meme now.

Quintessential Arnold.

I’LL BE BACK!

Truly, Terminator style.

It’s healing time.

The world is crawling back from the rotten right, one meme at a time.

But let’s not get drunk on optimism. For history doesn’t do clean dichotomies. It only repeats in clever disguises. Too much socialism bleeds into fascism dressed in poetic robes, and every revolution risks birthing its own dictator. So let’s keep our game sharp.

To be a true working-class hero, one ought to be a worker first. 

Not a slogan. Not a statue. Not a savior.