This isn't my effort post so it might be against the rules. I'm just linking and copying two posts from subreddits that have compiled all that has happened over the past week.
First, here's a thread of all recent H3 controversies, sorted by date. There is a lot in there, so I'll be copying the ones related to this topic.
October 15th
Ethan says 100% of the Jews he knows are struggling after Oct 7th and says Zionist is a slur
Ethan posts about defending "antisemitic terrorists"
October 16th
Ethan makes a video dedicated to canceling and de-platforming Hasan Piker, admits he wants to deplatform Hasan on Twitch for "interviewing a terrorist", and shows an unlisted clip of Hasan titled "HamasAbi"
October 17th
Hasan says Ethan is too focused on his personal feelings and calls him self-centered
Ethan calls Hasan's stream "vile embarrassing trash"
October 19th
Ethan posts video titled, "Twitch has a major problem"
Frogan provides context for the "Habbibi pass" tier list - A bunch of Arab streamers made a tier list on who had the Habbibi pass, the controversy was around the lowest tier which was titled ' Loves Sabra' i.e. likes Sabra hummus. Ethan claims this is antisemitic and a dog-whistle about Jewish people.
Ethan posts about Yahya Sinwar
October 20th
Frogan responds to Ethan's claims around hummus/"Loves Sabra"
Hasan debunks the Hummus/Sabra debate, says it's NOT antisemitism
October 21st
H3 Podcast covers Twitch, Frogan and antisemitism, says Twitch CEO Dan Clancy must resign and puts Nazi Symbols on Twitch CEO in his YouTube thumbnail
He successfully gets the Arab streamers banned off Twitch.
October 22nd
Ethan posts video titled 'I Won't Let Hasan Piker Lie About Me To His Audience, then lies about not knowing Destiny, says the Left is eating itself
Ethan claims he "conceded" on far-left ideals such as letting the Palestinians have a state
October 23rd
Hasan calls Ethan Islamophobic
Ethan makes an instagram story about nmplol
Hasan says Rashid is not a terrorist, just like Hila is not a terrorist
Hila admitted to raiding homes in Ramallah and move from her assigned desk job into combat roles because she was “bored”. BadEmpanada HAS MADE a video titled 'Hila Klein is a Terrorist' due to her time in the IDF where she asked to be transferred to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, performed logistical duties for the IDF terrorist organization, and volunteered to tag along during an IDF terrorist attack against a Palestinian house in Ramallah.
Ethan targets Emma from Majority Report - LINK 1, LINK 2, LINK 3, LINK 4
Second, here is a thread correcting the misinformation Ethan spread about Hasan
Reading through the synopsis made me realize I am past the point in life where I find interest in this type of drama.
2 unemployed rich dudes calling each other the bigger hitler is wildly unhinged to me.
I appreciate Hasan’s stances and views and enjoyed his streams a lot earlier in the pandemic. Recently tho I’m getting hung up on the feeling that he is part of the grifter class to some extent. Ethan on the other hand seems to be 100% ingrained in the grifter class and I never really liked him. Hasan is at least still likable.
The way things work he can come off as a grifter. But that's part of living under capitalism. We are at the end of the day, all capitalist subjects. All of us in the West in some way contribute to the worst elements of capitalism (for example how were the materials for your tech items mined? Not humanely most likely and definitely not at fair compensation to the workers or country of origin). This applies to Hasan as well.
Lastly the reason I give Hasan a pass is that while he will take a moderate approach when he can without sacrificing his ideals he will. For example raising money for Ukraine. We all know Ukraine is being used by the US but raising money for Ukrainians is not a ethically objectionable thing but will get moron centrists to stfu about you being wrong (not even justifying ) the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand Hasan might have torched his career by being 100% clear about the
genocide. He even got booted out of the DNC for this. But he continues to call the genocide a genocide and the Jeremy Corbin style antisemitism smear campaign has begun.
Agreed, that’s why I really take no issue with him, I just don’t give his brand much of a thought. I appreciate him for what he is, but don’t invest much into him or other politic streamers at that. Their universe annoys me and this is just new age tabloid shit.
All streamers are bad, sorry friends. The demands of the attention economy and monetization are directly in conflict with having principles and good takes.
Exactly this. I too wonder how the thinkers we often cite would react to modern material conditions. Probably would make an addendum or two about the attention economy, maybe even a whole book.
The problem is that with his whole 2.5M house shit, is that whilst he technically didn't exploit anyone to ultimately get that money, he doesn't exactly seem to use it on anything relating to his principles either. He makes the money off criticizing western capitalism and imperialism, only to buy house and fashion which ultimately reinforces that same capitalism and imperialism. It isn't technically wrong, but it's just a bad look. Basically the same way that you would know, if you follow bball, how having the last possession in a game in which you beat your opponent handily and are still trying to score is bad and disrespectful thing. It's not against the rules, but it is something called an "unwritten" rule, and people will get mad that you didn't respect that.
In the aftermath of the Turkey–Syria earthquake, Piker organized a fundraiser that raised over $1,200,000 for charities such as CARE International's Turkish and Syrian branches as well as two Turkish NGOs: the AKUT Search and Rescue Association, and Ahbap, which was founded by Turkish musician Haluk Levent.
During the Israel–Hamas war, Piker's charity drive on his channel raised over $1,000,000, as of October 21, 2023, for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, American Near East Refugee Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
His merchandise line, Ideologie, is union made, with profits going to strike funds.
He was also the biggest individual donor to the Amazon Labor Union, just behind organizations like the ACLU.
There's way more, but this is the stuff I remember from the top of my head. He also frequently collaborates with and interviews people and orgs that would otherwise have no platform or voice - like organizers during the student encampments earlier this summer (which he also visited and supported), the Yemeni teen accused of being a terrorist, Palestinian journalists etc.
I'm glad this comment appeared because he did do more than I anticipated.
Still, the criticism stands. He does indeed engage pretty proudly with consumer capitalism, and not exactly in the sense that he treats himself every so often. It's not technically, precisely defined as something wrong by theory, but it is a bad look. I mostly agree with him on a lot of stuff, but I do still believe his lifestyle does diminish his (and our) message.
And maybe it's unfair to him, but when I look at some history of american leftism, I see a guy like Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party. Like, I don't believe they exactly had millions of dollars like Hasan does, yet they managed to do for leftism in america than any other person or group of people. Maybe it's just the american feds and whatnot, but I don't see a reason why people can't at least try to organize in a similar manner. Like idk, sure he does his little thing of giving people a platform and all the aforementioned things, yet I still feel like he could be doing more. Feel like it's more just a bit disappointing that nobody is really willing to give up their comforts of everyday life to actually do something.
I don't have any opinion about this dude and my only involvement with him is meta conversations like this one. I find the whole streamer thing kind of odd but understandable. That said I disagree with the critiques as stated.
If you don't think Fred Hampton had millions of dollars to help him along than why aren't YOU the new Fred Hampton? Why be any more disappointed that this guy isn't Fred Hampton than that I am not Fred Hampton? (I'm not.) Its a criticism than applies to 99.999999999% of people so I am not sure what is the meaning?
If you think that he himself should try to become Fred Hampton, I don't know that I could agree with you. On what basis would a person in a position like this be organizing and what kind of organization could they possibly create? I can only imagine the hijinx of a political party who's basis of unity was a twitch streamer. Whatever wacky shenanigans would arise, the BPP it won't be. I just don't see it going anywhere. Whatever skills/charisma are involved in becoming this kind of famous, is there any reason to think it would translate to being an organizer? If I heard someone like this had such a plan I would think they had a mega inflated ego.
If it is about nobody/everybody, I think the importance of this guy is being over stated. He's not representative of everyone, just himself. It isn't fair on him or to all the rest of humanity to conflate the two.
Well, first of all, I can't be Fred Hampton because I'm just a poor, rural, Eastern European mf who is basically scraping by. Not to even mention the myriad of social and physical health problems, along with the crux of it all being social anxiety and chronic loneliness. Also, I could be living in a socialist state today if not for american interference. And whilst interference in the first conflict we had could even be debated, the second one where they bombed the shit out of us, definitely can't.
But for the sake of the conversation, lets assume I'm just the average american joe. Even if I was one, lived in the united states and all, I would still expect Hasan to have a much better chance of doing anything revolutionary than me, because he has a platform, money and ultimately that kind of soft power. Like, however ridiculous you find it to be, shit like coca cola and mickey mouse definitely can be used to project american "ideals" and "values". You will see a coca cola ad, think it's fucking idiotic, yet it will stay drilled in your subconsciousness. Then when you go to buy some soda or something, you will buy coca cola, not because they're good, but because they're a "trusted brand". You won't say this, but you will subconsciously think it.
Why denigrate stuff like twitch streaming? Hasan isn't exactly the most ridiculous thing that could ever happen, considering the fact that the 45th president of the us was a celebrity tv star, and his current opponent ran her early campaign on a meme based off of a successful album of some british pop singer. Not to mention stuff like Zelensky, ironically, playing the fucking president of ukraine in a tv show before actually being elected president lmao. Hasan would honestly be the least surprising thing as of late. I don't necessarily expect him to be that, I just feel like given his platform and kind of inherent influence, which neither you nor I possess and might never possess, he just could be doing a lot more for the cause.
This also kinda correlates to another thing I commented, which is this kind of mythologizing around politicians, like they're some 200 IQ people that are receiving this 1 in a 1000000 education of how to rule a country. I think if given the choice in an election between genocide joe and Hasan, not even correlating to their views, I would rather have Hasan. It takes some skill to be constantly entertaining for multiple hours at a day to tens of thousands of people, certainly more than just twiddling your fucking thumbs in the senate or wherever, raising your hand only when it's time to be racist, sexist, homophobic etc. In my country, we call these people "career politicians", and considering some of the fucking people that have power in it, I would seriously fucking love to have Hasan take their place lmao.
Well Fred Hampton wasn't a Chinese peasant but he didn't let that stop him. ;)
But that's a totally different thing than emulating the BPP. While the Panthers did attempt electoralism they didn't meet much success and it's not what they are really known for. Their legacy is of grassroots organizing, mass education and the theoretical/political contributions derived from these. It's a completely opposite approach to just incompetently filling a seat like you describe.
Anybody can get elected if they have enough cash, but I don't know if Hasan is on that level. People who buy themselves political positions don't just have a lot of money themselves, but they are embedded in networks of friends, family and fellow travelers who are also wealthy/influential who will support them. He's rich, but is wealthy?
I think what you are kind of getting at is something akin to Upton Sinclaire's campaign for governor of California in 1934. He was a well known leftist author who's writing was syndicated in newspapers and broadly popular. His book The Jungle led to the creation of the FDA which was a significant step forward at the time in terms of food safety. (Although it had less of an impact in terms of worker safety and veganism which were arguably points the book made more strongly.) Although he lost the election, it is still looked at by some as a positive contribution, e.g. a Socialist Candidate Who Succeeded Through Failure.
I don't totally hate the idea of leftists throwing themselves at the political system like spaghetti at the wall, but I can't fault any specific person for not doing it. I've known people who have run for office in small political parties or as independents. Even a campaign that you know is going to lose last place and you are mainly doing as a kind of placeholder or to make a point is a huge undertaking. I've never known anyone personally who has won a campaign like that but it does happen now and again. Usually as a protest when people are mad at the main parties. Never really comes to much. Occasionally it's a big splash like that fetterman guy. What good he ever do?
Except I'm not arguing for Hasan running in an election or electoralism in general. I'm just giving an example of politicians who, realistically, weren't anything special in a kind of "societal prestige" way before they were elected. Hasan, just because he is a twitch streamer, should not automatically be discredited from doing something actually serious. Trying to participate in elections or organizing.
Exactly, he may not be a bad person, but he is just capitalizing off of the anti-capitalism sentiment that drums up the chat hogs.
If I had all that money I'd be doing a shelter for homeless trans people
He's donated hundreds of thousands of his own money to the charity drives he's organized.
He literally made T-Pain’s jaw drop and go speechless when he told him what neighborhood his mansion full of Gucci and gold was in
I truly understand Hasan’s role he claims to have. I hope this isn’t taken as argument bait, overall I’d rather have his voice and takes in the twitch cesspool than not. And you know what, he should absolutely be paid for it.
I like nice things too, comrades. I just can’t reconcile that amount of lavish excess and spending. A nice house is one thing, a celebrity mansion is quite another.
Like the other poster said "celebrity mansion" is kind of a stretch. It's a valid criticism but it's not particularly compelling.
And that's great and all, but someone donating isn't exactly the end all be all of things a person can do. Bill gates donates a lot to certain health organizations in Africa, yet I don't think he is exactly much concerned about them really succeeding in doing anything substantial. Sure, it's a pretty big difference between the two of them, but still.
It's obvious you didn't watch his content, I dont really care though cause his content isn't super important anyway.
My problem with Fidel Castro is that hes a well of lawyer, and while he technically isn't exploiting anyone to get that money he doesn't exactly do anything relating to his principals with it either. What, a failed electoral campaign is all he has to show for it? He's not even a real socialist.
My problem with Mao Zedong is that hes the son of an affluent grain merchant...
Wait hold on...
My problem with... Che is that hes a well paid... Doctor... Uuuhhh,..
My problem with Lenin... Is has... A middle class lawyer
MY PROBLEM WITH ENGELS IS THAT HES A WEALTHY FACTORY OWNER
Fidel had two Rolex watches at the same time!?!
Listen. This is mostly a goof, but you're literally making the same reactionary argument chuds make about all kinds of socialists.
The guy donates, he fundraises, he takes the stream to rallies and strikes, he talks to protesters, he uses union shops for his stupid merch, he houses his brother, father, and mother in his home, , paid for his brothers student loans, all his business ventures are organized as cooperatives, he doesn't enforce IP law on fan channels clipping and shipping his content. He's no Castro, but like I said, Castro had two Rolex watches 😱.
I really don't get where you're going with this whole argument. All of those guys either worked working class jobs and/or literally became legendary revolutionary leaders. Even Engels wrote works that are still being analysed to this day. Hasan isn't even on track to do any of that, let alone close to actually becoming it. I'd be glad to eat my own words and be wrong about him, with him in a 100 years being looked as some important figure of american socialism lol. You certainly can't compare the kind of money today's doctors or lawyers have in general vs. someone like Hasan, who just off his twitch contract has millions. Not to mention that his platform is a lot bigger than any of those guys had early on.
And in terms of two of Castro rolex watches, a guy in the same thread you linked points out that that watch was much cheaper back then, about 2k in todays money. Not little, but certainly not a whole lot either. Also, apparently these watches were some of the most accurate of their time, explaining why he has two and one of them is set to Moscow time. Not to mention he was literally a state official of a socialist country. Literally an excerpt from wikipedia
I mean, all his content is literally reacting to videos and news lmao. It would be pretty hypocritical if he did, since he doesn't exactly abide by it most of the time anyway lol.
It's funny, because I'm honestly not arguing that he's some kind of grifter. I like him, I just feel like he still has certain issues that don't hurt to be pointed out. It just feels like he's not actually doing anything to differentiate him from any other progressive lib. I mean, fucking ludwig sold his company to his workers to become a coop, which doesn't make him some revolutionary. I'd say someone like the guys from boy boy are doing much better in terms of covering various aspects of capitalism and bringing attention to exploitation some of us didn't even was happening. Even fucking JT from Second Thought had homeland security knock on his door.
I'm just going to reiterate this. I'm not saying he's a revolutionary, but what I am saying is your critiques centered around his wealth and his engagement in consumerism echo fairly common anti-communist sentiments that have been levied against actual revolutionaries and revolutionary thinkers. It also treads close to the shores of
type critique.
I view Hasan as the stoop before the door. He engages with JT, BoyBoy, The Deprogram, (and more) who do more to highlight, dissect, and explain both the horrors of capitalism, and the political theory to understand those horrors. It's hard to say if I would have found my way to JT, BoyBoy, or The Deprogram if I hadn't first landed on Hasan's stream several years ago. I could have just as easily landed on the streams of Destiny or Vaush and become more reactionary instead of less reactionary. Hasan's position within the Internet's leftist activation pipeline lays in the front, and I think because of that, it's almost required that he sits closer to a "progressive lib" than an out and about Marxist-Leninist like JT Chapman. You're not going to onboard disillusioned progressives onto the leftist train by jumping straight into the deep end of leftist political theory. You have to disarm their anti-communist world view first, which is something I think Hasan is fully capable of doing, and has done for plenty of people.
This is something I'm sure you already know, so I'm moreso laying it out for others who might read this comment. You need an onramp for people, and I think Hasan performs that role. I'm not concerned with how big his house is, how fancy his car is, how expensive his stupid Hawaiian shirts are, so long as he continues to disarm people's anti-communist world view.
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