Every day, Hasan Piker turns on his computer and spends hours upon hours commenting on politics to an adoring audience numbering in the tens of thousands.
He’s often described as a Marxist, a radical leftist, and a socialist, with his past statements and controversies such as his infamous on-air outburst that “America deserved 9/11” and his support of Luigi Mangione’s (alleged) murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as propaganda of the deed being seen as confirmation by those touting his radical credentials. However this revolutionary façade is just that, a façade, one that helps maintain the liberal status quo that he so very much enjoys.
The Democratic party is a machine that turns progressives into centrist ghouls, and Piker is one of their best foot soldiers. For all of his use of Marxist jargon such as ‘material conditions’ Hasan’s program, whilst often highly critical of the Democratic Party, ultimately serves to help them. His radical image allows his fans to feel as if they are on the fringes, even when they ultimately end up engaging politically in the same way as any other liberal.
This co-opting of revolutionary aesthetics and terminology to serve a centrist party can be seen explicitly when he recently quoted (and misinterpreted) Lenin’s “Left Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder to justify his support for Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Planter. In Piker’s mind a vote for Platner, a veteran of the illegal Iraq War who got a Nazi SS tattoo to commemorate his time as a machine gunner in Fallujah, is the same as one for the Bolsheviks in 1917.
Piker’s image as a radical allows for him to be seen as the acceptable end of political activity. This is something Chomsky and Hermann noted in Manufacturing Consent, it is actually useful to a right-wing political environment (like that in the United States) for the press to have a liberal bias. This bias sets the acceptable limit of how left-wing you can be and still be taken somewhat seriously. Any position more left-wing than, say, The New York Times, is immediately dismissed as fantastical, un-American, or outright dangerous. Similarly, Piker sets the limit of how left-wing you can be and be treated seriously, if you suggest something further to the left of Piker, e.g. that Americans should create a left-wing party to challenge the Democrats instead of just voting for them every time, you are seen as being completely bonkers. This is coupled with the entertainment that he provides for his fans. He performs their radicalism for them, allowing them to stay at home watching his broadcast, maybe go to the occasional demo, and to vote blue no matter who.
“Hasan Piker 2018” by mo1567 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Revolution for Sale: How ‘Radical’ Politics Serves the Status Quo
Every day, Hasan Piker turns on his computer and spends hours upon hours commenting on politics to an adoring audience numbering in the tens of thousands.
He’s often described as a Marxist, a radical leftist, and a socialist, with his past statements and controversies such as his infamous on-air outburst that “America deserved 9/11” and his support of Luigi Mangione’s (alleged) murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as propaganda of the deed being seen as confirmation by those touting his radical credentials. However this revolutionary façade is just that, a façade, one that helps maintain the liberal status quo that he so very much enjoys.
The Democratic party is a machine that turns progressives into centrist ghouls, and Piker is one of their best foot soldiers. For all of his use of Marxist jargon such as ‘material conditions’ Hasan’s program, whilst often highly critical of the Democratic Party, ultimately serves to help them. His radical image allows his fans to feel as if they are on the fringes, even when they ultimately end up engaging politically in the same way as any other liberal.
This co-opting of revolutionary aesthetics and terminology to serve a centrist party can be seen explicitly when he recently quoted (and misinterpreted) Lenin’s “Left Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder to justify his support for Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Planter. In Piker’s mind a vote for Platner, a veteran of the illegal Iraq War who got a Nazi SS tattoo to commemorate his time as a machine gunner in Fallujah, is the same as one for the Bolsheviks in 1917.
Piker’s image as a radical allows for him to be seen as the acceptable end of political activity. This is something Chomsky and Hermann noted in Manufacturing Consent, it is actually useful to a right-wing political environment (like that in the United States) for the press to have a liberal bias. This bias sets the acceptable limit of how left-wing you can be and still be taken somewhat seriously. Any position more left-wing than, say, The New York Times, is immediately dismissed as fantastical, un-American, or outright dangerous. Similarly, Piker sets the limit of how left-wing you can be and be treated seriously, if you suggest something further to the left of Piker, e.g. that Americans should create a left-wing party to challenge the Democrats instead of just voting for them every time, you are seen as being completely bonkers. This is coupled with the entertainment that he provides for his fans. He performs their radicalism for them, allowing them to stay at home watching his broadcast, maybe go to the occasional demo, and to vote blue no matter who.
“Hasan Piker 2018” by mo1567 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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