this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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Another post from betting market company Polymarket read: "BREAKING: Zohran Mamdani to require all New York elementary school students to learn Arabic numerals." The post has almost 14 million views.

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[–] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

It's not that confusing for anybody that paid the least bit of attention in school. I didn't know all the nuances of it, but I was well aware that English (as well as most other Western languages) uses the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals since like 8th grade.

Seriously, the whole bit is just showing how ignorant these people are and how easy it is to frighten them. Like the "ban dihydrogen monoxide" petitions, but for racist chucklefucks.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 0 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

But you dont use the same numerals that Arabic people use

[–] ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I honestly have no idea what numerals Arabic people use. But as I said, I've known that the numerals we use are called Arabic numerals since at least 8th grade.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Lies your teacher told you, for the purposes of oversimplification

Not a lie. An oversimplification, perhaps, but that is entirely besides the point.