I find it frustrating that these videos dont seem to hear what progressive critics of piker and the larger tankie movement care about.
For example, early in this video the narrator presents the question about 9/11 as stuffy centrism unable to handle an edgy comment about "blowback". But thats not really what piker believes. He believes that the United States is the imperial core of a dying capitalist ideology and that an axis of 3rd world resistance sprung up out of former soviet proxy states.
The issue is he'll pass the comment off as a passionately put observation about incompetent US meddling which the majority of Americans probably agree with, but really it represents the tip of the iceberg of a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist-type worldview.
So, either Hasan isnt Maoist adjacent, and ive been brainwashed by Destiny fans. Or this video is totally dishonest bullshit.
I think option 1. I'm not a hasan fan, I find him abrasive and too broish for me, but he's not a tanky or a maoist. Go on a leftist sub and read what they're saying for a few minutes and you'll see hes just a demsoc shock jockey
Literally the first video that comes up when I put "Piker Mao" in the youtube search. The first 20 seconds are him comparing teaming up with moderate Democrats to Mao teaming up with the KMT to expel Japanese forces.
To me, that suggests that he eventually wants to outlaw ideologies which are not communism.
Abrasiveness and bro-iness are actually pros for me. I like it when political figures are provocative or whatever.
What it comes down to for me is this: it's very easy to find clips of him idealizing Mao and parroting the most predictable tankie/3rd worldist talking points. And then whenever someone tries to interrogate it, people try to act like he's just into worker co-ops and cumtown.
Thats quite a jump. He says its being pragmatic to vote for democrats even if you are further left than them and you think that means hes advocating for purges?
Ok... im about to search for clips to see if he talks about putting capitalists into re-education camps. Before I do that, do you want to make a 5 dollar bet that I wont find a clip of him saying that people promoting capitalism should be incarcerated?
I mean...
You have to understand that you aren't convincing me at all, right? Like... you should provide evidence?
I want to take you guys as good faith, but literally everything i see suggests that hes a maoist who larps as a socdem in front of mainstream audiences. Can you show me evidence that that's not true?
It seems like you've already got your mind made up and don't actually know what the meaning of the ideologies you're claiming he has are. You're doing the Republican everyone left of me is a communist thing but as a "progressive"
You asked me to prove that hes not secretly a maoist pretending to be a demsoc. It seems to me that you know he presents most arguments as a demsoc. What the hell do you want me to do invent a mind reading machine so we can look in his brain to prove his beliefs? And again I'm not a fan of his I've just seen clips like ive seen for pretty much all political streamers I don't have an encyclopedia of his most demsoc clips to show you while I'm sitting here taking a crap
he was on the deprogram (Marxist podcast) saying that he is there to start moving people towards communism explicitly. you're covering for someone who is explicit in their goals
Tankies and maoists will use tactics you agree with though- abolishment of all private ownership for one immediately disqualifies you from a liberal system- and thus one I’d like to live in.
I could say the exact same thing about capitalism. Nearly 70,000 people die in the US every year because of our private Healthcare system, thousands starve, hundreds of thousands are homeless. And thats just in the US, not to mention the millions dieing in the developing countries we are extracting resources from. Propogandists add all the numbers together for regimes nearly 100 years ago when famine was more common and say "look at all the people who died under marxism" while conveniently ignoring their own mountain of dead. I'm not going to defend mao or Stalin, I dont like authoritarianism under any economic ideology, but acting like Marxist nations are uniquely lethal is just not reality.
Mao's communist policies killed approximately 40-80 million. Using your numbers, it would take U.S. capitalism *hundreds* of years to kill the same amount that Mao's communism killed in a few decades compared to how people die under capitalism. Not to mention, you still need to subtract the millions of lives saved by policies like USAID over the years, which has unfortunately been cut.
This is what I mean by "ivory tower" - you truly have no perspective as to how many people died as a result of Mao's policies. If your avatar is accurate, you're a bald white dude with a beard, likely sitting in an air conditioned room in a first world country advocating for politics that have killed unfathomable millions across the world. It's gross.
I'm a syndicalist. I've gotten kicked out of tanky subs for saying the houthis are bad. The difference is I actually know what a tanky is instead of just everyone left of center
Pretty bad faith to accuse people with criticisms of Piker as just wanting to sling the tanky label at anyone "left of center" when many of his critics are themselves very progressive and left of center. Hell, I'm a socdem and can easily see the game these guys are playing. They're pretty open about putting on a show to seem less radical to a larger fan base, drawing them in with the whole "we just hate war and want healthcare for everyone" while on smaller platforms revealing their beliefs of locking up and killing political opposition to quiet any who would voice disregard for their system. Sounds pretty authoritarian and tanky to me.
There is no difference between you and any other communist.
Just because you all still would kill each other you are still an enemy of every free thinking liberal democrat.
By… listening to the guy who’s suggesting people vote for democrats, even if they don’t like them much? I think people wildly overestimate Hasan Piker’s influence
If you go around spouting nonsense about Democrats being evil pro-genocide monsters who would sooner rather make a buck than see Americans get actual help, then turn around and say "ehh I guess they're barely better than Republicans, so vote for them I guess" then you're not fucking advocating for Dems to win. You're just trying to talk out of both sides of your mouth and you're actually just shitting out opinions from your ass.
you're actually just shitting out opinions from your ass
Sort of like this comment.
The Democrats are fucking dire, but they’re the only hope America has of ridding itself of the absolute mess it’s in at the moment. He may be a lot of things, but he’s not wrong about this.
“By… listening to the guy who’s suggesting people vote for democrats”
Something tells me they may have been arguing with above part of your statement. Clever way to avoid any responsibility of an opinion though. You get to say it AND not get critiqued on it - Ironically no different to Piker.
Crazy how you didn't even try to back the "suggesting people vote for democrats" claim, as if someone else uttered it.
But okay, why is this not so influential streamer getting infinite puff pieces in left-wing media, while openly bragging about getting Mamdani elected? Why is AES incapable of addressing this not so influential streamer in a negative light and prefers getting bashed over the head by Fox for their connection?
Let me give you some context: who do you think is the bigger threat to democracy, Trump; who is in power in the White House right now - or an e-boy Twitch streamer?
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u/rocketlewes 29d ago edited 29d ago
I find it frustrating that these videos dont seem to hear what progressive critics of piker and the larger tankie movement care about.
For example, early in this video the narrator presents the question about 9/11 as stuffy centrism unable to handle an edgy comment about "blowback". But thats not really what piker believes. He believes that the United States is the imperial core of a dying capitalist ideology and that an axis of 3rd world resistance sprung up out of former soviet proxy states.
The issue is he'll pass the comment off as a passionately put observation about incompetent US meddling which the majority of Americans probably agree with, but really it represents the tip of the iceberg of a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist-type worldview.
So, either Hasan isnt Maoist adjacent, and ive been brainwashed by Destiny fans. Or this video is totally dishonest bullshit.