Waleed’s Substack

A personal update.

Transitions.

Jan 26 • Waleed Shahid

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Pluribus Finale, or The World’s Most Helpful Apocalypse

Gilligan's hive mind doesn’t conquer you. It politely completes your onboarding.

Jan 2 • Waleed Shahid

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December 2025

How One Primary Gave Democrats Affordability

Zohran Mamdani’s upset win did not change the map, it changed the script that Democrats now run on.

Dec 11, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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The Henhouse Liberalism Built

A response to Matthew Yglesias. What he calls “postliberalism” is often liberalism’s own elite, anemic offspring.

Dec 4, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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The 2028 “Ideas Primary” Probably Won’t Be About Ideas

It will be about theories of power...and vibes.

Dec 4, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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Pluribus and the Sycophantic AI Hive

Vince Gilligan's show turns an alien hive mind into the ultimate yes-bot: endlessly supportive, catastrophically accommodating.

Dec 3, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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November 2025

You Can Hold Her Now

What happens when our friends meet our baby (and themselves) for the first time.

Nov 25, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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How South Asian Turnout Redrew New York's Map

The 350% surge that flipped the map for Zohran Mamdani.

Nov 14, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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The Heterodoxy Mirage

A yearning for a bygone era that substitutes nostalgia for power.

Nov 12, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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The Long Arc of Immigrant Power in New York

What Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech shares with the Irish ward bosses and Jewish socialists who built the city’s first immigrant-powered coalitions.

Nov 6, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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Zohran, NYC's Old New Majority, and 2026

Plus four lessons on Democratic populism.

Nov 5, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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October 2025

Plato’s Warning About AI

Plato feared that writing would dull the mind. AI risks finishing the job.

Oct 20, 2025 • Waleed Shahid

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