this post was submitted on 13 May 2025
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Well that backfired on Ethan

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[–] grym@hexbear.net 89 points 14 hours ago (6 children)

It's when I see people here say shit like "he's a fed" and thinking he may be "making this up" that I'm reminded a lot of people here need to touch grass and do a bit of a reality check lmao.

Hasan is good. This is not surprising. He's doing well to talk about it and make noise about it.

[–] CarlMarks@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Hasan is a slightly-left-of-AOC streamer doing the "we can push them left" thing, where the "them" is imperialist social democrats/left liberals. The place at which his followers arrive is, "I will only reluctantly vote for Kamala Harris" and, "I wish I could vote for AOC 2028". He occasionally arrives aa socialist positions and language like a toddler finding a new toy. He learns the toy, plays with it for a while, talks about it on stream, and then discards it. He wants to be on the edge of mainstream. Can't let the toy get in the way of that.

This is only good and useful in the same fashion that Bernie could be thought of as useful: some will be inspired by the toy, the appeal of possibility and pointing to (mostly) correct culprits of oppression, and then their disappointment at nothing changing may help radicalize. But many, probably the vast majority, will be led back to the Democratic party and liberalism, as Hasan neither offers them an onramp himself nor points anyone to next steps. He just returns to stream about electoral politics, Trump, the next elections, etc. And his audience follows him there.

Hasan should be considered situationally useful. We should be there to pick up the disaffected, as he is not pointing them to us. And doing it through our organizations. If we are not, then he is not part of any pipeline to developing more socialists, but just creating more Bernie-adjascent electoralists that sit at home and will be susceptible to most propaganda.

[–] grym@hexbear.net 3 points 2 hours ago

I don't know how you arrive at this assessment on him but alright, that's fine by me. I don't agree at all with this analysis, it seems kinda fashioned out of nothing. It doesn't align with the few positions i've seen him take, at least recently. I never really watched before a couple months ago and most of that has been about the palestinian genocide, his anti-zionism and coverage of israeli crimes, so idk.

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 10 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I think Hasan deserves more credit than that, I dont know anything about his content from 6+ months ago but these days he has the unique ability to mention that sometimes China good without a 4 hour but-at-what-cost qualifier, infact he openly mocks the trope that most liberals can't mention China at all without also stating the official NATO party line (Uyghur genocide, mao bad, tiny man square, etc.).

[–] CarlMarks@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

He can have some positive influences while still being the same thing I described. For example, Bernie focusing on vulgar class analysis and making socialism a more acceptable word (despite bastardizing it) were both useful things and yet Bernie is a pro-genocide chauvinist that sheepdogs for Dems. If Hasan's pattern holds, his takes on China will be, "China somewhat bad but USA worse and targeting it with nonsense" while trying to humanize actual Chinese people. His pattern is based on a vaguely left-liberal-with-socialist-language anti-racist internationalism of having empathy for people that the imperialist state seeks consent to do violence to. It's a good and useful thing to have voices opposed to that. But under his pattern, what will be the call to action, implicit or explicit? It will be to try to "push left" some Democrat imperialists and keep the focus on dead end electoral reformism. The only positive outlet for that is the same as for Bernie: disillusionment that we can build on for recruiting.

It is possible that he might give up on the electoralist angle eventually, which would also be useful if his audience is large. But I don't see that as his current trajectory.

[–] Nakoichi@hexbear.net 6 points 6 hours ago

They literally pulled me aside at TSA to inspect the blunt stakes in my tent bag that I was taking as carry on because it was way smaller than my big duffel bag. Funnily enough they only did this on my way BACK from going to Pine Ridge to meet with a bunch of former AIM elders. three-heads-thinking

[–] XxFemboy_Stalin_420_69xX@hexbear.net 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

the people who need to touch grass are those who are on a first-name basis in their parasocial relationship with a streamer

[–] grym@hexbear.net 4 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

What? That's his name, i don't know what else to call him, mister piker? I barely watch a part of a stream once in a blue moon, sheesh.

Maybe this is being said in a joking way but i'm gonna be real I really don't appreciate this kind of comment, weird thing to say and a weird way to say it, not the vibes i'm used to on hexbear.

[–] TrustedFeline@hexbear.net 6 points 8 hours ago

The only really dumb take I've seen is him saying that owning a credit card would make him bourgeois

[–] Sinisterium@hexbear.net 29 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Hasan is criticized for advocating for leading baby leftists back into the fold of the Democratic Party. And its not just “hexbear” who says this. We already had a similar situation where an obvious British agent was victimized due the genocidal policies of the empire.

Hopefully hasan can grow from that injustice, but that suddenly doesn’t make him lenin 2.0.

[–] grym@hexbear.net 30 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think he's lenin at all. I think he does a good job agitating and educating, that's it. That's much more than most people can claim to do. I disagree that he leads leftists back into the democratic party, then again i'm not american, but that sounds nonsensical to me.

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I like him okay. I just don't really find his stream that interesting. Plenty fan of his message, enjoy that he watches One Piece, sometimes he hangs out with Valkyrae's group. But I'm there to watch video games personally. I don't feel any extra love for the Dems because I follow him

[–] grym@hexbear.net 5 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

same, i sometimes put on his stream if there's something interesting going on but mostly that type of content and the constant derailment by chat annoys me. His message is good and i'm glad he gets people on the right track.

[–] KnownUnknownKnower@hexbear.net 3 points 8 hours ago

The chat stuff pisses me off. A firehouse of liberalism and trolls to the face would probably drive me insane though so props

[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 67 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, too many on Hexbear got that "Too cool for school" ass energy that needs to be dispensed with asap

[–] ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net 30 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Offshoot of the Western leftist mantra of nothing ever being holy enough.

Hasan does good shit within the confines of the parameters he can exist within, and is a net positive for us, even if he doesn't share our views one-to-one.

[–] Aceivan@hexbear.net 19 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

yeah someone who watches hasan and learns about the world and takes what he says seriously is a lot more likely to then be receptive to going further, learning more and coming to understand hasan's limitations and bad/mid takes. But on the whole he's a positive, even if he's got a ton of fans who are oblivious or don't fully take his points/logic to heart, let alone go further, they are at least not instinctively anticommunist and generally vibe with us.

He makes calls and has takes that i don't agree with, often in the interest of "optics",, but just covering the shit that he does is a huge boost to the level of discourse happening in a lot of corners of the internet. Just getting people talking about ansarallah and their blockade in a positive light and with context is a huge boost against the "they're just terrorists attacking civilian shipping vessels" people

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@hexbear.net 27 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

They don't like it that a guy can be both 'on the right side of history' and handsome, probably, lol.

[–] T34_69@hexbear.net 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Maybe this is because I'm not a Hasan watcher but all this "he's doing more than any of you critics and complainers" and "you're just mad because he's better looking / richer etc" reminds me of the kind of glazing that goes on in any cult of personality.. not that Hasan's politics are anywhere near as bad as Musk's obviously, but it does remind me of the kind of glazing that Elon stans do.

There's an element of classism too, like you can't critique your betters because you weren't born with the family resources and connections that you get from being born moderately wealthy. Like excuse me if I'm not well positioned enough to talk to a million people online every day, but I think "progressive" streamers should not be glossing over AOC and Bernie's social fascism, (EDIT) for example.

And yes I am aware that Hasan is always raising money for based causes and that's awesome, he should keep doing that. I'll keep criticizing his liberal and reactionary tendencies though. This "you only criticize Hasan because you think you're too cool for school and nothing ever happens, you only criticize because you're an edgelord" BS is gross and childish, tbh.

[–] T34_69@hexbear.net 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Also I did watch his ~45 minute video about the detainment and it is disturbing what he went through, and I think the fact that he is getting this kind of attention from state security forces is an indication that he's on the right side of history, so that's granted, just so it's clear I'm not biased. But I was made to listen to a rant from Hasan against veganism and it was such an ass take I couldn't listen to the whole thing. If you're a Hasan fan that's fine, I enjoy some much worse media, just real slop on the regular so I'm not being edgy or holier than thou. But if you're a Hasan fan then I think you should be able to recognize where he sucks without (EDIT) immediately jumping to his defense, at least among more radically minded people.

(Edit: more radically minded than the general population, I mean.)

[–] tocopherol@hexbear.net 23 points 11 hours ago

That is silly. All hexbears are remarkably good-looking and I refuse to believe otherwise.

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 19 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Incorrect, the reason I don't like him is because of this rod-polishing parasocial relationship people have with him for scraping the literal bare minimum, which isn't unique to him but part of a larger critique of the alienation that is inherent to streamer media.

I mean for Christ's sake, this is the exact same argument as 'You just criticize capitalism and want communism because you are jealous of other's success' level of breadtube argument slop.

[–] ArgumentativeMonotheist@hexbear.net 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You don't like him because people e-fellate him? That can't be on him. Sure, I understand if you want someone as popular and 'on our side' to be deeper, more intellectual, more politically engaged, but I won't let perfect be the enemy of good. In a world of Ethans and Musk fanboys, Hasan is a breath of fresh air, and that is enough for me.

[–] TreadOnMe@hexbear.net 10 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

I never said it was 'on him'. I'm not even mad that he is surface level. Don't put words in my mouth, please.

I said that it was part of a larger critique. Streaming culture is bad for us, politically, as leftists. It is inherently bad because it creates a simulacra of community, without even a hint of theoretical will to power. It is the ultimate liberal simulation of politics without actually being politics. You feel 'politically engaged' without actually engaging with the polity. How can you? The community only exists if you are actively online supporting it, which means you are actively disengaged from the polity. You are engaging with a petite bourgeois capitalist influencer on a capitalist rentier platform. At least recognize it.

As such, even the best part of it, which Hasan absolutely is, is still bad. Therefore, I don't like him, because I don't have to like him.

[–] T34_69@hexbear.net 4 points 4 hours ago

You are engaging with a petite bourgeois capitalist influencer on a capitalist rentier platform. At least recognize it.

Thank you, yeah this is one of the main points I'm saying and I don't think it's holier-than-thou or edgelord to point that out.

[–] Rey_McSriff@hexbear.net 5 points 7 hours ago

Fantastic comment, saving it for the next time I need to articulate one of the reasons why I don't watch streamer media

[–] OldSoulHippie@hexbear.net 38 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Wonder if my radlib boss will notice or if she will just stick to theo von

[–] sovietknuckles@hexbear.net 7 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

I wonder what your boss thinks about

  • Theo Von's episode with Hasan a couple months ago
  • Theo Von's episode with Candace Owens the week before that
[–] OldSoulHippie@hexbear.net 5 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

She doesn't think. She is a chameleon for any of the lib shit that comes along. She went to the women's march in DC. She has Notorious RBG "I dissent" stickers on her water bottle. She loves the daily slams in the news.

She moves on so fast that if I brought up something she talked about last week, she would look at me like a dog noticing an ant on the floor

[–] CthulhusIntern@hexbear.net 64 points 15 hours ago

Ethan is so incompetent, he can't even sic the US government on a middle eastern guy named Hasan with leftist tendencies lol

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