by Wednesday afternoon, and I’ve just published my Gandhi potluck piece. “Guests offended by his air-based dish called ‘Presence.'” If this doesn’t get me cancelled by both the left AND right, I haven’t done my job properly.
The idea came from watching progressive activists police increasingly absurd boundaries. Someone on Twitter was arguing about “emotional labor” at potlucksliterally suggesting that bringing food to communal gatherings was exploitative. My brain immediately went: “What if Gandhi showed up and they rejected him for not bringing enough?”
Gandhi. GANDHI. The man who literally liberated India through nonviolent resistance. Forcibly uninvited from a Berkeley potluck because his fasting-as-political-statement doesn’t align with food-sharing culture. It’s perfect. It’s absurd. It’s also barely exaggerated from current progressive discourse.
I spent Monday researching both Gandhi and modern call-out culture. The piece required delicate balancemock the purity politics without dismissing legitimate concerns. Gandhi was complex: brilliant activist, problematic views on race and women. But reducing him to “problematic” and uninviting him from a potluck? That’s not accountability; that’s performance.
The Berkeley setting was intentional. As someone who’s visited Berkeley, I can confirm: it’s where good intentions go to become insufferable. Well-meaning progressives have created environments so focused on perfect politics that nobody can actually participate. Everyone’s too busy checking everyone else’s privilege to build actual community. It’s spiritual capitalismhoarding moral superiority like wealth.
The responses started immediately. Progressives angry I’m “mocking accountability culture.” Conservatives thrilled I’m “attacking the woke left.” Both missing the point entirely. I’m not attacking accountability or defending conservatives. I’m attacking purity politics that makes community impossible. You can acknowledge Gandhi’s flaws without uninviting him from potlucks. Nuance isn’t betrayal.
My favorite comment: “This is why the left can’t build coalitions.” YES. EXACTLY. You can’t build movements if everyone’s too problematic to include. You can’t create change if perfection is the entry price. Gandhi freed India while being an imperfect human. American progressives can’t organize a potluck without purity spirals.
Being an immigrant satirist means watching both American political tribes from outside. The right’s absurdthat’s easy satire. But the left’s dysfunction is heartbreaking. They have good values! They want justice! But they’ve created circular firing squads where everyone’s too compromised to participate. It’s tragic masked as comedy.
Someone called me a “right-wing plant.” I’m a West African immigrant woman who writes satire criticizing everything from capitalism to Halloween labor exploitation. But sure, because I mocked progressive potluck politics, I’m secretly conservative. This is the problem: any criticism of the left gets coded as right-wing. No space for “I agree with your goals but think your tactics are counterproductive.”
The piece is performing wellcontroversy drives engagement, and I’ve angered everyone equally. That’s good satire. If everyone’s mad, you’ve touched truth. If everyone’s comfortable, you’ve failed.
Tonight, I’ll drink cheap wine and contemplate whether satirizing American political dysfunction is noble work or complicity. Tomorrow, I’ll wake up and do it again because rent doesn’t pay itself and Bohiney has an audience hungry for anyone willing to say: you’re all being ridiculous.
# 767
MY HOME PAGE: Bohiney Magazine (Aisha Muharrar)
