Laura Loomer managed to prove once again how quick some people are to panic without understanding what they’re reacting to. Polymarket posted a joke claiming that New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, would require all elementary school kids to learn Arabic numerals. Loomer immediately treated it like a national emergency. She replied asking if it was real and sounding horrified. She eventually convinced herself it was real.
Here’s the funny part. New York kids will learn Arabic numerals. So did you. So did everyone else.
Because Arabic numerals are literally just numbers. The same numbers you use every single day. One, two, three, four, and so on. These numerals were developed centuries ago during the Islamic Golden Age and spread into Europe long before any of us were around. They replaced the clunky Roman numeral system because they were easier to use and made math simpler.
This is one of the oldest internet jokes, like calling water “dihydrogen monoxide.” Loomer didn’t recognize it and completely fell for it. After realizing her mistake, she deleted her first comment and replaced it with a vague complaint about not knowing what’s real anymore.
She wasn’t the only one fooled. Popular streamer Asmongold also reacted with alarm, proving that plenty of people jump straight to outrage the moment they see the word “Arabic,” without pausing to think or do a quick search.
If there’s a lesson here, it’s simple: reacting to headlines based on fear or bias makes people look ridiculous. A two-second Google search would have shown them that “Arabic numerals” are the same basic numbers everyone learns in early childhood.
And honestly, if they’re already melting down over kids being “forced” to learn numbers, just wait until they hear the next fake panic about “non-binary math.”
