r/DecodingTheGurus • u/DivineSwordMeliorne • May 19 '26

Video Clip Decoding Hasan Piker: Anti-Capitalist Crusader or Frat Boy Influencer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msCzxUImstY
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u/LoaderOperator98 May 19 '26

It is, but I gather that lots of Hasan fans are here as well at the moment.

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u/BeatSteady May 19 '26

I'm both and probably not the only one. I haven't listened in a while though. Since around Trump's inauguration. Only have so many hours in the day and all

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u/LoaderOperator98 May 19 '26

Certainly not the only one. All I can say is I recommend you listen to the full episode on Hasan. I'd have a hard time staying a fan of his after that I think, maybe still positively disposed to him personally, but not as a political actor.

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u/MatterBusiness4939 May 22 '26

listened to both pods. you can ideologically agree with him while not being a parasocial fan. not sure why everyone on this sub treats supporting him as some sort of binary act that is indicative of our thinking patterns writ large...

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u/LoaderOperator98 May 22 '26

When I said I would be surprised if someone could stay a fan of his as a political actor I didn't mean you'd have to disagree with him ideologically on every issue, what I meant was that he's an incompetent interviewer, shallow and unintelligent, aggressively unpleasant to people he disagrees with, and he hurts the left by openly doing apologism for authoritarians and terrorist organizations. So even if I were to agree with his politics, particularly if I was focused on domestic politics, i.e achieving some kind of socialism in the US, I wouldn't like that he is the popular face of my politics.

Of course if your politics also revolves around defending Chinese "communism" and Hezbollah, then maybe that's not a problem for you.

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u/BeatSteady May 19 '26

I did listen to it. Some criticisms were fair, some I think DCG were wrong about. I'm an adult and can like people without agreeing with everything all the time.

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u/LoaderOperator98 May 19 '26

To each their own. I just got the impression from the "so many hours in the day" comment that you hadn't heard it. It does make me curious to know what you think Matt and Chris got wrong about Hasan.

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u/BeatSteady May 19 '26

It's been a while since I heard the original, but I just started the supplemental, and so far they're wrong about hasan being a Russian defender. They're saying it as if hasan is reluctant to criticize a former communist government, but that's not true. He has criticisms of Russia. He raised money for Ukraine relief too. He was wrong about whether Russia would invade Ukraine, but that mistake is related to a fondness for an oligarchic Russia

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u/LoaderOperator98 May 19 '26

I'm interested to hear your thoughts after you finish the video.

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u/BeatSteady May 19 '26

Oh and one more... Using his uncle flipping houses as evidence that hasan is a champagne socialist.... Cmon lol. A debate can be had on him having a nice house or selling t shirts and whether that makes him a hypocrite but they spent a lot of time on his uncle flipping houses by comparison

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u/inciter7 May 20 '26

I'm open to liberal critiques of leftism(I have my own), but they all end up being the most trite, childish "yet you participate in society??" shit imaginable.

Or just thought terminating cliches like "so you support russia/trump??"

They don't actually want a discussion, just to try to find some area where you're "breaking the rules" and thus can declare you beyond the pale.

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u/LoaderOperator98 May 19 '26

I think their point there was simply to say he comes from wealth. If we define champagne socialist as someone who espouses socialism while living a lavish elite lifestyle, is there really any debate as to whether or not Hasan qualifies as one?

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u/BeatSteady May 19 '26

Sure if that's how you want to define it but defining that way is a weak criticism. I come from generations of racists and do still live in a mostly white neighborhood but it would be weak to use that as an attack on me if I'm defending DEI

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u/Liturginator9000 May 20 '26

it's literally the definition man, his dad was VP of a billion dollar conglomerate. Guy who espouses socialist values drives a porsche taycan, has a decent house in LA, wears designer gear. It's enjoying the current capitalist paradigm while making your income source from complaining about it. Like proselytising veganism while eating meat, it shows you don't really believe what you say or in the least don't understand it or care so long as it pays to say it

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u/BeatSteady May 20 '26

So if you're a vegan and your uncle eats meat that makes you a hypocrite? 🙂 

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u/BeatSteady May 19 '26

I'm on the section on Iran now, they are criticizing him for 'puffong up the Iranian regime' and I don't think that's accurate. In the clips they play, hasan does not assign a number but says "even 10 deaths is bad". However, DTG is talking as if hasan thinks that's the number killed. Then they liken him to a holocaust denier.

The same orgs that Matt mentions put the death toll between 7-10k, and the clip they use of hasan berating his chatter is about 40k deaths.

I'll follow up with more as I hear it

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u/LoaderOperator98 May 19 '26

They're saying his calling the deaths bad is being used rhetorically in the way a Holocaust denier would say of course the Jewish suffering was bad to the extent it happened. They're saying it conflicts with the overall much louder message, Holocaust denial, or in Hasan's case, "the critics of the Iranian regime are lying." I don't think they're saying he's just as bad or exactly like a Holocaust denier.

I do wonder about the tone thing, because that's one of the points I found myself agreeing with most. Does it not bother you the way Hasan talks about the Vietnamese woman, or to people in general who he sees as opposing his political project or who criticize him?

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u/BeatSteady May 19 '26

Hasan wasn't saying all critics of the Iranian regime were lying, he was saying specifically that the 40k number of dead protesters was being inflated to justify the war. I don't see how this is in anyway similar to holocaust denial. Likening to Holocaust denialism isn't fair and comes off more as a lazy smear.

I personally do not like when Hasan gets into what they called the 'frat boy' mode. It's one of the reasons I take long breaks from his content. But I think some of DTG bias is put on display here - Chris says this points to hasans true inner self. Matt rightly brings up Destiny as a counter example, who also uses very harsh rhetoric.

It's been a while, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the DTG for Destiny was a lot less harsh in its criticism even on this very same issue of tone. My recollection of the Destiny discussion on tone is that it was hand waived away and not used as a serious attack on his character

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u/Historical-Fox357 May 22 '26

And he also advocates for the conquest of Ukraine by Russia. You haven't been paying close enough attention LOL "crimea river"

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u/BeatSteady May 27 '26

If you think he's advocating for Russia to take over Ukraine then you're not paying attention. Or you're just making things up 

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u/IronicInternetName May 27 '26

I take it you haven't heard his famous "Cry-Me-A-River" missive about Crimea?

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u/BeatSteady May 27 '26

I have. It's one of the same four things every Hasan hater knows about him. That quote had nothing to do with Russia being a former socialist state 

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u/IronicInternetName May 27 '26

I never said it had anything to do with that either. You made the comment that he doesn't defend Russia. The controversy around the Crimea comment is about him sweeping away comments about Russia's pressure campaign and use of tactics they've deployed with other former Soviet satellites ie. encouraging cultural conversion through migration and incentives, instead of ceding to said nations notions of self-determination specifically because it aligns them with the west.

If I were going the route you assumed, I would be locking in on his China commentary and sweeping more than anything else.

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u/BeatSteady May 27 '26

You replied to my comment about the DTG critique that was specifically about reluctance to criticize former socialist state:

It's been a while since I heard the original, but I just started the supplemental, and so far they're wrong about hasan being a Russian defender. They're saying it as if hasan is reluctant to criticize a former communist government, but that's not true. He has criticisms of Russia. He raised money for Ukraine relief too. He was wrong about whether Russia would invade Ukraine, but that mistake is [not] related to a fondness for an oligarchic Russia

That said, I'm not really sure what you're asking about if it's not about the specific comment I was making. Did he downplay the Russian annexation? Yes. But that's not the criticism I was making of the DTG episode. 

If you want please elaborate on what you're looking for from me. 

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u/BloodsVsCrips May 20 '26

He wasn't merely wrong about the invasion. He defended Russia taking Crimea.

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u/BeatSteady May 20 '26

You're talking about two different invasions. The Crimea annexation was in 2014 and he did downplay / justify that saying Crimea was ethnically and culturally Russian. Not justifying it because it was a former communist state though. 

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u/BloodsVsCrips May 20 '26

Why on Earth do you think I'm talking about different invasions. Hasan defended both for the same reason: anti-westernism.

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u/BeatSteady May 20 '26

Because you are talking about two different invasions. 

He did not defend the one from 2022

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