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
Just letting everybody know that ethan is obsessed with comments so if you criticize him on his subreddit he will see it. Hope he doesn't reach is goal of getting hasan banned, this whole drama really made me realize the value of Hasan as a leftist celebrity that leftpills a ton of people by living an enviable lifestyle and being to the left of progressive democrats
You cannot criticize him on his subreddit. You will get banned. It’s why the h3snark subreddit has grown so much.
Ethan's brain is melting because he can't come to terms with the fact that his wife who he has 3 kids with is a fucking nazi. So he has to make it everyone else's problem. Sucks for Hasan, he seems genuinely hurt by all this.
Hasan says Rashid is not a terrorist
Common Hasan W
just like Hila is not a terrorist
Rare Hasan L, though I suppose he's trying to be diplomatic
- Show
Mods never added this emoji I made for exactly this sort of situation
I'll never get why people are so personally invested in these streamers. I remember there was some massive struggle session here over BadEmpanada vs another streamer (Hasan? Vaush? or some other rando) as the stans of their respective streamers duke it out in some terminally online parody of a turf war. These stans are very cringey and very transparent about their parasocial relationship.
At the end of the day, Hasan, Contra, Vaush, BadEmpanada, et al are just entertainers. They're not organizers. They're not theorists. At best, they'll occasionally release decent video essays and occasionally get their stans to donate to some worthy cause through some charity stream. We should always be open to getting people on our side, but the stans trying to compare Hasan to Engels or Che or Hampton need to get a fucking grip. Hasan's not even on Parenti's level, who himself is nowhere close to a Hampton or a Newton or a Che. Hasan is more like a George Carlin, an entertainer with progressive values who's able to plant seeds that will occasionally bear fruit but still just an entertainer in the end.
People idolise random famous people all the time. If you watch hasan’s streams everyday you will develop some sort of parasocial relationship with him and get defensive when people criticise him unfairly. That’s why people get personally invested. I haven’t seen anyone claim he’s some kind of revolutionary, he’s just an entertainer who has some good takes and who radicalises some libs.
you're right, but i have a box labelled Good E-Celebs and another labelled Bad E-Celebs, and I know which one each of those people goes in, and this is very important
Hasan attended the anti-DNC protests. Dozens of people approached him to say that he inspired them to attend the pro-palestinian protests and to become an activist. Besides a few destiny fan stream snipers, there was only one person at the protest who had a disagreement with Hasan. Hasan said while he doesn't agree with that person for disliking him, he respects the person for attending the pro-Palestinian protest. You don't have to like Hasan. You don't have to like streamers. The point is that you should do the right things. Hasan inspires people to do the right things.
This post isn't even just about Hasan. It's about zionists trying to silence every pro-Palestinian voice on the internet. There was even a segment aired on banning pro-Palestinian voices from twitch on Israel state-owned television.
Thank you for telling me this lore. Is there a fan wiki where I could learn more Hasan facts?
" 'thoughts on this guy being a tankie?' I hope he drives a tank over your house
He said america deserved 9/11 a few years back
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
While I'm sure you could learn about Hasan and his community on their discord server or their subreddit, I don't think that is important. I think it is more important to adopt the same principle that Hasan has applied to other people. It would be a much better use of your time to go attend an anti-Zionism demonstration, than it is to complain about streamers or to learn factoids about Hasan. The principle is that you shouldn't obsess over purity testing. To have an actual political movement, you have to be charitable to people who may only agree with you 90% of the time or you may not even like them on a personal level. Constant purity testing is the fastest way to destroy a movement.
The genocidal state of Israel wants to have Hasan and every other anti-Zionist person kicked off of the internet. There was an actual news segment on Israel state-owned media (in hebrew), 2 days ago, accusing Twitch of being antisemitic for allowing Pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist accounts on the website. The TV host said that he was big fan of Destiny on air on public television. This seems like evidence to me that the Israeli state is trying to pressure Twitch into doing censorship of anti-Zionism. If you see Israel trying to silence anti-Zionist streamers and your response is "yeah I hate streamers too", then you're taking the side of Israel.
I may not agree with you on everything but if Israel, but if Israel was trying to kick you or any other user of Hexbear off of the internet, then I would put differences aside. Opposition to a genocidal apartheid state is more important than personal grievances or smaller disagreements. You don't have to like or 100% agree with every person that you have solidarity with.
The streamer I hate here is Ethan Klein, so I really don't know why you're telling me all this stuff. Hasan seems fine ig, for a streamer, except of course he had a show with the open fascist he's now feuding with
The streamer I hate here is Ethan Klein, so I really don't know why you're telling me all this stuff.
In your other post you wrote "All streamers are bad, sorry friends. The demands of the attention economy and monetization are directly in conflict with having principles and good takes." I wrote what I wrote to explain that Hasan has had enough influence on the growing of the anti-Zionism movement, convincing people to be anti-Zionist, that the state of Israel is trying to have him kicked off the internet.
Ethan is a scratched liberal. While Hasan was making a podcast with Ethan, Hasan knew that Ethan was a liberal. The point of the podcast was to talk to Ethan about Marxism and Leftism as a way to convince Ethan's audience to not be liberals and to teach them about socialism. I actually met a guy who had been a fan of Ethan and told me that he had been turned on to the ideas of socialism from listening to that podcast. So in the sense that their podcast convinced some of the audience to having socialist principles, I think it was a success.
I see. I was a bit confused, since apparently you were responding to my other comment in the thread.
If you want to know why I think streamers are bad generally, you can look no further than the way that an ideological conflict over Palestine instantly becomes subsumed into personal drama, fandom, and is ultimately monetized by all sides as attention is drawn to it. Not only by the primary participants but by the entire ecosystem of drama recappers and other bottom feeders. So that instead of talking about Palestine we are talking about whether Hasan is good or not. And believe me when I say that I don't care in the slightest. The structural incentives of his line of work will limit his effectiveness and ideological range in the long term. He will ultimately have to choose between material success and ideological rectitude. And this conversation will feel as embarrassing in hindsight as people who were ride or die for AOC in 2017
Also I don't believe for a second that this Zionist freak was cool before October 7th of last year lol. They saw there was money to be made
When did I say that you have to like Hasan or that you have to believe Hasan is good? Please reread my posts. I said you don't have to like him. I said you don't have to learn about him. You are the one who is making it about personal drama. You are making this about hating streamers. I am trying to explain to you that Israel has a larger project of silencing every anti-Zionist person on the internet, including on twitch. You are the one changing the subject from Israel trying to hide it's crimes to your own personal grievances.
// Twitch 30-day banned 5 prominent channels this week for being expressing anti-Zionist views. Two of the 5 banned streamers have family living in Lebanon right now being bombed by Israel.
I posted an emoji lol, not an invitation for you to start a lengthy conversation with me about Hasan. Please examine your parasocial attachment to the streamer you appear have an encyclopedic knowledge about
Destiny fans are trying to get him and Dan Clancy to speak before congress by mass-calling their representatives. I can’t imagine being this devoted to a streamer and most of these people are gen X adults lol
Like a year ago my imprssion of hasan was "don't really know him but all the worst people on the internet are incredibly mad at him all the time so he's probablly pretty good"
The more ive seen and heard from him, the more that's been confirmed.
Literally the other day fucking asmongold made a post in his own subreddit (lmao, setting aside how pathetic that is) saying that he would not apologize for his "we should kill all muslims because they are an inferuor culture" comment unless twitch bans hasan for saying people shouldn't vote for kamala.
This fucking doughy loser being maybe more upset than I've seen anybody about anything for quiet a while continues to prove that.
R/Livestreamfail, a subreddit that is 100% in agreement that pewdiepie screaming rhe n word was absolutely not racist, are in a near constant state of malding at him for the last several weeks.
Asmongold got a two week ban for saying Muslims have an inferior culture. These Arab streamers got a whole month ban for a tier list about who can say Habbibi.
Ethan needs to get a job and grow the fuck up. man is a grown-ass child
Reading through the synopsis made me realize I am past the point in life where I find interest in this type of drama.
2 unemployed rich dudes calling each other the bigger hitler is wildly unhinged to me.
I appreciate Hasan’s stances and views and enjoyed his streams a lot earlier in the pandemic. Recently tho I’m getting hung up on the feeling that he is part of the grifter class to some extent. Ethan on the other hand seems to be 100% ingrained in the grifter class and I never really liked him. Hasan is at least still likable.
The way things work he can come off as a grifter. But that's part of living under capitalism. We are at the end of the day, all capitalist subjects. All of us in the West in some way contribute to the worst elements of capitalism (for example how were the materials for your tech items mined? Not humanely most likely and definitely not at fair compensation to the workers or country of origin). This applies to Hasan as well.
Lastly the reason I give Hasan a pass is that while he will take a moderate approach when he can without sacrificing his ideals he will. For example raising money for Ukraine. We all know Ukraine is being used by the US but raising money for Ukrainians is not a ethically objectionable thing but will get moron centrists to stfu about you being wrong (not even justifying ) the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand Hasan might have torched his career by being 100% clear about the
genocide. He even got booted out of the DNC for this. But he continues to call the genocide a genocide and the Jeremy Corbin style antisemitism smear campaign has begun.Agreed, that’s why I really take no issue with him, I just don’t give his brand much of a thought. I appreciate him for what he is, but don’t invest much into him or other politic streamers at that. Their universe annoys me and this is just new age tabloid shit.
All streamers are bad, sorry friends. The demands of the attention economy and monetization are directly in conflict with having principles and good takes.
Exactly this. I too wonder how the thinkers we often cite would react to modern material conditions. Probably would make an addendum or two about the attention economy, maybe even a whole book.
The problem is that with his whole 2.5M house shit, is that whilst he technically didn't exploit anyone to ultimately get that money, he doesn't exactly seem to use it on anything relating to his principles either. He makes the money off criticizing western capitalism and imperialism, only to buy house and fashion which ultimately reinforces that same capitalism and imperialism. It isn't technically wrong, but it's just a bad look. Basically the same way that you would know, if you follow bball, how having the last possession in a game in which you beat your opponent handily and are still trying to score is bad and disrespectful thing. It's not against the rules, but it is something called an "unwritten" rule, and people will get mad that you didn't respect that.
My problem with Fidel Castro is that hes a well of lawyer, and while he technically isn't exploiting anyone to get that money he doesn't exactly do anything relating to his principals with it either. What, a failed electoral campaign is all he has to show for it? He's not even a real socialist.
My problem with Mao Zedong is that hes the son of an affluent grain merchant...
Wait hold on...
My problem with... Che is that hes a well paid... Doctor... Uuuhhh,..
My problem with Lenin... Is has... A middle class lawyer
MY PROBLEM WITH ENGELS IS THAT HES A WEALTHY FACTORY OWNER
Show
Fidel had two Rolex watches at the same time!?!
Listen. This is mostly a goof, but you're literally making the same reactionary argument chuds make about all kinds of socialists.
The guy donates, he fundraises, he takes the stream to rallies and strikes, he talks to protesters, he uses union shops for his stupid merch, he houses his brother, father, and mother in his home, , paid for his brothers student loans, all his business ventures are organized as cooperatives, he doesn't enforce IP law on fan channels clipping and shipping his content. He's no Castro, but like I said, Castro had two Rolex watches 😱.
A Reddit link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.
he doesn't exactly seem to use it on anything relating to his principles either
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.
disappointing that nobody is really willing to give up their comforts of everyday life to actually do something.
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. ;)
and considering some of the fucking people that have power in it, I would seriously fucking love to have Hasan take their place lmao.
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?
He's donated hundreds of thousands of his own money to the charity drives he's organized.
And that's great and all, but someone donating isn't exactly the end all be all of things a person can do. Bill gates donates a lot to certain health organizations in Africa, yet I don't think he is exactly much concerned about them really succeeding in doing anything substantial. Sure, it's a pretty big difference between the two of them, but still.
It's obvious you didn't watch his content, I dont really care though cause his content isn't super important anyway.
He literally made T-Pain’s jaw drop and go speechless when he told him what neighborhood his mansion full of Gucci and gold was in
I truly understand Hasan’s role he claims to have. I hope this isn’t taken as argument bait, overall I’d rather have his voice and takes in the twitch cesspool than not. And you know what, he should absolutely be paid for it.
I like nice things too, comrades. I just can’t reconcile that amount of lavish excess and spending. A nice house is one thing, a celebrity mansion is quite another.
Like the other poster said "celebrity mansion" is kind of a stretch. It's a valid criticism but it's not particularly compelling.
i hate that i already conceded and googled "hasanabi house", but absolutely nothing indicates it is a celebrity mansion. the price per square foot (PPSF) was like ~$750, and that was in the average range for West Hollywood. In fact, the PPSF of his house is hundreds of dollars below the average in other North American cities, like San Francisco (~1100), Vancouver (~1000) and New York (>1600).
it's been 3 years since he bought a house for his and his family's personal use. let it the fuck go, LOL
If I had all that money I'd be doing a shelter for homeless trans people
Exactly, he may not be a bad person, but he is just capitalizing off of the anti-capitalism sentiment that drums up the chat hogs.
I've been online for a while and seen or been involved in hundreds of arguments/struggle sessions. Ethan's crybaby antics during this ordeal have been some of the most embarrassing I've seen. He's trying to thread the needle between making this whole thing about himself but still keeping the moral high ground. The disclaimers and the few words condemning Israel speak for nothing when he's clearly 400x more invested in centering himself in this story and attacking Arab streamers. Embarrassing stuff.
Stop being antisemitic. He is not Adolf Hitler. He opposes Netanyahu. He is simply saying that if you wish to not be exterminated by a fascist regime, you better do it in a way that doesn't hurt their feelings. Otherwise, he cannot support you, and in fact, will oppose the people who support you. But he is not against you.
Also, bringing up the fact that his wife worked for the military that is exterminating you is antisemitic. Don't do that. And yes, he will deny all atrocities attributed to that military when they are brought up, unless you provide concrete, irrefutable proof that will withstand a court trial. But he will definitely spread any information from the military and news about you and your struggle without requiring any proof whatsoever. Bringing that up is also antisemitic.
I found YouTube links in your post. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
Link 3:
