More than 50 years ago, I witnessed firsthand how Mao Zedong’s socialist experiment dismantled market competition, suppressed innovation, and plunged China into economic ruin. As a survivor of that experiment, I watched in horror last week as Zohran Mamdani won over 50% of the vote in New York City, promising a socialist illusion of city-owned grocery stores, free public transit, universal rent control, and a defunded police department.

Such proposals might sound compassionate, but they threaten to repeat the class warfare and state control that devastated China from the 1950s to the late 1970s, only this time they are taking place in the financial capital of the world.

The unpleasant truth is that America may have won the Cold War, but we are losing the ideological war at home.

Consider Mamdani’s push for “good cause eviction” laws and expanded rent control. He claims these measures protect tenants from exploitation, but they discourage property ownership and investment — just as Mao’s housing policies did.

In communist China, the state assigned apartments to urban families, but most people lived in poverty. My family of five was crammed into a 200-square-foot unit with no running water or a toilet. Today, rent control has already reduced housing supply by 20% in parts of New York City, driving up costs for everyone else. What Mamdani offers isn’t progress — it’s stagnation disguised as equity.

Mamdani’s support for “Medicare for All” and fare-free buses also ignores fiscal realities. Mao’s “barefoot doctors” promised class equity but delivered substandard care, contributing to millions of preventable deaths. America’s health care system leads the world in breakthroughs because of merit-driven research and competition, not government mandates. Meanwhile, New York City’s transit authority estimates free transit would cost taxpayers $1 billion annually without improving service. When socialism promises “free” services, it often delivers shortages, rationing, and inefficiency.

The proposal for city-owned grocery stores is another red flag. Under Mao, government-run stores led to chronic food shortages. Rice, cooking oil, and meat were rationed. Each urban citizen received only two pounds of meat per month. Even with ration coupons, I had to wake at 3 or 4 a.m. and wait in line for hours to buy a few ounces. Mamdani’s plan threatening private grocery competition risks repeating this nightmare.

Then there’s his support for defunding the police and replacing them with vague “community safety” alternatives. In 2020, he co-sponsored bills to slash NYPD funding by $1 billion, claiming it would combat systemic racism. This mirrors Mao’s Red Guards, who dismantled law enforcement and replaced it with ideological enforcers — leading to chaos, violence, and mass suffering.

Since 2020, crime in New York has risen by 15%, according to NYPD data. Weakening law enforcement doesn’t protect vulnerable communities — it leaves them exposed. As a father of a New Yorker, Mamdani’s reckless approach to policing is not just a political concern; it’s a personal one.

Mamdani also seeks to eliminate gifted and talented programs in public schools, calling them “inequitable.” But these programs offer high-achieving students — often from diverse backgrounds — a path to excellence.

RELATED: The right needs bigger ideas than tax cuts

Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

During the Cultural Revolution, China crushed its intellectual class and smothered innovation. New York is making a similar mistake. Gifted programs lifted math proficiency by 25%, according to a 2022 Department of Education report, yet Mamdani wants them eliminated in the name of “equity.” As an Asian-American parent who raised a child in STEM, I’ve seen how excellence takes root: You cultivate talent; you don’t level it.

Mamdani’s agenda mirrors the same destructive ideology I fled from. Socialism thrives on utopian promises pitched to voters who have never lived through the consequences. I have. And I recognize the warning signs.

Yet according to CNN exit polls, 70% of voters ages 18-44 supported Mamdani, compared to just 40% of older voters. Even more alarming: 57% of New Yorkers with college degrees voted for him, versus only 42% without. This reflects the growing influence of pro-socialist indoctrination in American universities.

The unpleasant truth is that America may have won the Cold War, but we are losing the ideological war at home. To prevent a socialist takeover, we must fight back by reforming higher education and teaching our children the truth about socialism in K-12 classrooms.

​Opinion & analysis, New york city, Zohran mamdani, Socialism, Leftism, Ideology, Mao zedong, Cultural revolution, China, Communism, Rent control, Rent freeze, Housing shortages, Cost of living, Food shortages, Free buses, Defund the police, Public safety, Equity, Nypd, Public schools, Gifted and talented, Cnn, Exit polls 

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

RELATED: AI can fake a face — but not a soul

Seong Joon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

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​Ai, Country music, Human, Mind, God, Opinion & analysis, Artificial intelligence, Billboard, Walk my walk, Breaking rust, Soul, Elon musk 

A tech entrepreneur is hoping casual AI users and businesses alike are looking for a new pal.

In this case, “PAL” is a floating term that can mean either a complimentary video companion or a replacement for a human customer service worker.

‘I love the print on your shirt; you’re looking sharp today.’

Tech company Tavus calls PALs “the first AI built to feel like real humans.”

Overall, Tavus’ messaging is seemingly directed toward both those seeking an artificial friend and those looking to streamline their workforce.

As a friend, the avatar will allegedly “reach out first” and contact the user by text or video call. It can allegedly anticipate “what matters” and step in “when you need them the most.”

In an X post, founder Hassaan Raza spoke about PALs being emotionally intelligent and capable of “understanding and perceiving.”

The AI bots are meant to “see, hear, reason,” and “look like us,” he wrote, further cementing the use of the technology as companion-worthy

“PALs can see us, understand our tone, emotion, and intent, and communicate in ways that feel more human,” Raza added.

In a promotional video for the product, the company showcased basic interactions between a user and the AI buddy.

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A woman is shown greeting the “digital twin” of Raza, as he appears as a lifelike AI PAL on her laptop.

Raza’s AI responds, “Hey, Jessica. … I’m powered by the world’s fastest conversational AI. I can speak to you and see and hear you.”

Excited by the notion, Jessica responds, “Wait, you can see me? That’s so cool.”

The woman then immediately seeks superficial validation from the artificial person.

“What do you think of my new shirt?” she asks.

The AI lives up to the trope that chatbots are largely agreeable no matter the subject matter and says, “I love the print on your shirt; you’re looking sharp today.”

After the pleasantries are over, Raza’s AI goes into promo mode and boasts about its ability to use “rolling vision, voice detection, and interruptibility” to seem more lifelike for the user.

The video soon shifts to messaging about corporate integration meant to replace low-wage employees.

Describing the “digital twins” or AI agents, Raza explains that the AI program is an opportunity to monetize celebrity likeness or replace sales agents or customer support personnel. He claims the avatars could also be used in corporate training modules.

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In his X post, Raza also attempted to flex his acting chops by creating a 200-second film about a man/PAL named Charlie who is trapped in a computer in the 1980s.

Raza revives the computer after it spent 40 years on the shelf, finding Charlie still trapped inside. In an attempt at comedy, Charlie asks Raza if flying cars or jetpacks exist yet. Raza responds, “We have Salesforce.”

The founder goes on to explain that PALs will “evolve” with the user, remembering preferences and needs. While these features are presented as groundbreaking, the PAL essentially amounts to being an AI face attached to an ongoing chatbot conversation.

AI users know that modern chatbots like Grok or ChatGPT are fully capable of remembering previous discussions and building upon what they have already learned. What’s seemingly new here is the AI being granted app permissions to contact the user and further infiltrate personal space.

Whether that annoys the user or is exactly what the person needs or wants is up for interpretation.

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​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Salesforce, Ai companion, Chatbot, Language model, Tech 

In the past three years since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, pro-life organizations have been searching for a new national priority. They appear to have found one in the form of permanently defunding Planned Parenthood.

This objective, of course, is far from an original idea. Any conservative voter will know all too well that Republicans have been promising it for decades.

We should end the abortion holocaust without exception or compromise.

This year saw the first time national Republicans actually did defund Planned Parenthood. But it was only for one year — a lackluster achievement given that Republicans control both Congress and the White House.

A coalition of pro-life groups such as Live Action, Students for Life, and National Right to Life has now set “a permanent taxpayer defund of all organizations that commit abortion” as their new national priority.

The intention, according to Live Action, is to make sure Planned Parenthood is “permanently defunded” by July 4 of next year.

Certainly, stopping the flow of taxpayer dollars to organizations like Planned Parenthood is a worthy action, and we hope it is successful. But setting that as a central priority of the anti-abortion agenda is underwhelming at best, and doing so will end up distracting from what should be the ultimate goal — passing laws to abolish abortion.

Defunding is not enough

We live in the midst of a holocaust. Beyond the more than 65 million pre-born babies murdered under Roe, abortion numbers have continued to increase over the past three years since it was overturned, now surpassing 1 million pre-born babies per year.

This trend even extends to red states with restrictions claiming to ban abortion.

The removal of taxpayer dollars from the abortion holocaust is not wrong. But it is far from an action that will move us toward a decisive end to the bloodshed. Moreover, setting the mere defunding of baby murder as a central priority diminishes the gravity of this atrocity.

The main problem with abortion is not that we are forced to help pay for it. The main problem is that people are murdering babies.

We should not merely defund specific facilitators of the abortion holocaust. We should end the abortion holocaust without exception or compromise. The best way to defund Planned Parenthood is to criminalize abortion as murder.

For every year we let something else overshadow that objective, we allow another million babies made in the image of God to be murdered.

False victory

As we have seen before, many leading pro-life groups have shown a pattern of overstating their wins. Some will undoubtedly do that if Planned Parenthood is defunded. Such inflated rhetoric misleads anti-abortion Christians and conservatives to think substantial victories have been won, decreasing their zeal to remain engaged and win the actual battle.

When leaders at Planned Parenthood Michigan closed four locations earlier this year, Students for Life insisted that “the death industry is collapsing under its own weight” and proclaimed that “fewer Planned Parenthoods” means there are now “fewer babies killed.”

RELATED: Planned Parenthood’s ugly truth finally has consequences

Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

But just a few months after that proclamation of victory, Planned Parenthood Michigan announced that it would expand virtual appointments to “seven days a week, including weekends, morning, and evening appointments.” The organization also reported “growing demand” for the virtual appointments, leading it to “expand the program even further.”

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has also called the defunding of Planned Parenthood this year the “biggest national pro-life victory” since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The organization has repeatedly highlighted the closure of individual abortion clinics as evidence that “the lives of moms and babies are being protected.”

In its public statements about the move, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America insisted that Planned Parenthood closures are evidence that “life is winning.” The organization failed to include the context that abortion rates across the nation are still on the rise.

In other words, the closure of physical abortion clinics does not necessarily mean fewer babies murdered. But pro-life groups celebrating as if that were the case are sorrowfully leading anti-abortion people to think otherwise.

Exaggerated impact

Planned Parenthood facilitates about one-third of all abortions in America. But even if it lost access to taxpayer dollars, the same number of abortions in our nation would almost certainly continue.

If the federal government were to cut off all funds to Planned Parenthood, the organization would find money elsewhere — from blue-state legislatures, from private billionaire donors, and most of all from the men and women who themselves fund Planned Parenthood by paying to murder their own pre-born babies.

Also, taxpayer money does not cause the abortion holocaust in our nation, but it subsidizes an already existing marketplace that will continue even if Planned Parenthood disappears tomorrow.

In other words, as long as there is abortion demand, there will be some form of abortion supply. We must address both the supply and demand for abortions, or else the murder of pre-born babies will continue.

The real priority

By prioritizing a weak objective of defunding Planned Parenthood, pro-life groups might achieve exactly that goal, but they will not get more than that goal any time soon. In order even to substantially decrease abortion in America, let alone actually abolish abortion, a much more ambitious goal must be set.

That is why every anti-abortion leader and organization should support legislation enacting equal protection of the laws for pre-born babies, which would not only break the power of abortion providers, but truly abolish abortion itself.

Christian conservatives rightly affirm that pre-born babies are made in the image of God and should be protected from the moment of fertilization. By calling for equal protection bills at the state and federal levels, anti-abortion groups would be setting the expectation that the exact same laws protecting born people from murder should protect pre-born people as well.

The focus should remain on establishing equal protection. This is the only policy that would criminalize abortion as murder for all parties involved, obey God, and dramatically reduce the number of murders of pre-born babies in America.

If such an expectation is set, then state and federal lawmakers may still defund Planned Parenthood — probably even faster than they otherwise would have. But setting a lower expectation than equal protection, such as defunding Planned Parenthood, decreases the likelihood of strong anti-abortion policies advancing.

The pro-life organizations searching for a new priority after the overturn of Roe should not set their sights too low, and they most certainly should not exaggerate their victories.

If they truly desire to protect pre-born babies and move America toward the abolition of abortion, merely defunding Planned Parenthood will not suffice. They must remember that we are in a holocaust that has continued for far too long — and act with the appropriate urgency and priority.

​Christianity, Image of god, Planned parenthood, Abortion funding, Abortion