First of all, not everyone who views a communist channel is a communist. In fact, I would say that ideally (even if not realistically) there would be more non-communists seeing this stuff, the people who would learn something from it rather than just the choir who already knows. And that’s a big part of the problem: neither I or NoLeftWhereILive wants to send this to other people as a result of that ad.

Also, I would certainly hope he doesn’t have a “passion for the product,” genuine or otherwise. If that were the case, he should be the one watching more communist-101 kind of vids lol. But it’s not about the “sanctity” of his channel… it’s about, like I said, having standards and respect for your audience. It’s not like he’s a starving artist. JT, with whom Hakim also shares a podcast, has said outright that the Patreon money he gets is enough to support him and his family (including the massive US Healthcare bills he had to pay after the birth of his daughter) and Hakim is a doctor on top of that. It’s not that I begrudge him making as much money as he wants, but I think it’s apparent that he is doing so at the cost of his integrity among his viewers, be they communists or not.