Asklemmy

I can give you my two cents. Currently, there aren't many left leaning pundits, and I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. His privilege means nothing if he's actually being a good progressive advocate. Also, he's actually talking about the things the left populace actually care about. Controlled opposition wouldn't look like him to me. They'd be more like the Democrat party, trying to copitulate with the right. He's been fairly consistent with his messaging of workers rights, lgbtq rights, womens rights, and the atrocities happening in Gaza. His income from streaming is incidental, and isn't a problem in and of itself. In fact, it lets him be independent and not beholden to corporate media. It's hard enough to afford bills working a regular job. The vast majority of regular jobs take all your time, leaving none for anything else, much less being a left leaning advocate online. I'm assuming you'd rather a full-time employee take his place, but how would someone like that be able to be effective in their advocacy?

Is this a "no true Scotsman" thing where only poor people with a blue collar work history are worthy of being listened to?

I understand where you're coming from, honestly. But I think this is a sort of trauma response on our end (myself included) at this point. I'm not trying to pin mental illnesses on you, I'm nowhere near a licensed head doctor of any kind, I'm saying that we've been kicked and abused so much by the rich, that it's only natural for those of us who broke free of the brainwashing to be on high alert, at least for a while. The continued unfolding of things surely can't help this situation, either.

That being said, as long as he acts in good faith and is sincere and logical in his approach, which so far seems to be true, I'd say we should embrace his participation! As I see it, we need all the voices we can get. We're already arguing semantics amongst ourselves all day long, I think it'd be a shame to let mistrust shatter "our side" without concrete proof of malicious intent.

At the end of the day, the greatest weapon the Right has is the fact that they yell united at everyone else. Let our chorus rival theirs!

Hasan occupies a niche within the broad "leftist" umbrella niche within the West. Unlike many breadtubers, he actually doesn't serve as much of a barrier for further leftist movement (see: Vaush, Destiny, etc.). He is privledged, but so was Engels. Hasan certainly is no Engels, but he does serve a useful role in radicalizing liberals towards the Left, like how he vocally combats the nonsense usage of the word "tankie" trendy among liberals these days.

Hasan is a pundit at the end of the day, and isn't bringing about the revolution, and he is definitely more of a USophile than he should be, but he is better than most leftist commentators and helps serve as a conveyor to the left of himself.

I think you have an extremely online view of "leftist political spaces" because I have never even heard this guy's name mentioned in any real life context, and I've been a very politically active communist since I was a teenager.

You can advocate for hungry people after eating a meal. You can advocate fornsex worker rights even if you are a virgin.

You can't tell people you are "working class" if you're rich. You can't advocate for punishing day people while pretending to be straight.

It is not complicated.

What's with the identity politics man? Does what he says makes sense or not? Don't tell me you won't listen to rich white people when they make sense because they're rich and white.

A person's class is defined by their relation to labor, not their wealth. He's not exploiting labor. I'm not sure the people claiming he's a hypocrite for having money understand anything about communist/socialist theory. Engels was famously in a very similar situation.

He sometimes tells his audience to log off and join an org, we get a handful of new recruits occasionally due to the guy.

So he actually is successfully moving people from being socialist sympathizers to actual socialists (you need to be part of an org to be a socialist)

That's all I really know about him, besides some people being thirsty about him.

'This person's not allowed to do the right thing, because he was born wrong.'

Uh huh.

I don’t know Piker from a hole in the ground. This sure sounds like a red flag, and I think The Young Turks are hacks. Nonetheless, bourgeois class traitors are a thing, Engels & Mao being a prime examples.

Not knowing Piker’s particulars, I can only speak at the 30,000 foot view: Western “leftist” spaces have largely been captured by US imperialism since the end of WWII.

• Gabriel Rockhill » Imperialist Propaganda and the Ideology of the Western Left Intelligentsia: From Anticommunism and Identity Politics to Democratic Illusions and Fascism
• Domenico Losurdo » Western Marxism: How it was Born, How it Died, How it can be Reborn

The revolution will not have a channel on youtube.

In case you're actually, seriously asking and not just trolling, having privilege and success under capitalism does not disqualify a person from being a leftist. You can't really criticize a person for participating in a system where if you don't participate, you starve.

He's using his influence to organize the working class and advocate for collective action, which is the one tool workers have in the fight against their own exploitation. Even if you don't like him personally or don't think he's part of the working class, he is a very strong ally and has undeniably strengthened the movement.

My partner watches him a lot and while personally dislike Hasans loud yelly bro style I've never heard an opinion from him that I disagreed with.

Embrace petty bourgeouis class traitors and don't fetishize the working class.

He's more conventionally attractive, confident, charismatic, muscular, well dressed, and less of a drama king/queen than most other leftist influencers his age, and he speaks in more Gen Z lingo/vocabulary than other left wing influencers (who are often older) with similar knowledge levels and political stances.

Oh, and he is already popular, on a platform where people love to exist in one-sided, parasocial relationships.

... Sorry if this bursts your bubble, but even most self described leftists basically operate by the same fundamental popularity / favorability dynamics that middle or high schoolers do, whether concsiously or subconsciously.

Hes good at breaking down media. Gets involved on community organizing. Does good propaganda.

People are free to like who they like and make up their own minds. Why you hating? Who made you thought police?

Never heard of him.

I've never listened to him for more than a few seconds. He gives me shyster vibes and I don't need a pundit to tell me everything is shit.

I'll state this: I know of this person in name only.

He's a hypocrite. It's as simple as that. His popularity is probably derived from the novelty of a member of the upper class agreeing with the lower classes and his ability to entertain them. It gives those that belong to the lower class hope of change being enacted by those with capital. The Wikipedia page states he brought a $2.7 million USD mansion. He has access to capital, and what does he do? Asks others to donate to 'worthy' causes whilst accruing more capital for his own vested, personal vanity projects?

From what I've read he is not an ally. He's an entertainer. The capitalist system is able to create products that espouse anti-capitalist ideas. This is just another such product. It's not controlled opposition. It's just an individual who's found himself the owner of a sought after product. Just another capitalist.

Addition: his father is a founding member of a right wing party in Turkey

Semi off-topic but genuinely curious: did going to Rutgers become something that is fancy/seen akin to Ivy league? Or was mention of the school just a mention that he went to college?