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
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.