Annoying narcissist sellout hates the left? Say it isn’t so.
He hates the western left, but is also a part of it (I mean, you can’t escape it living in a western country). Literally everyone on here would say they hate the western left…
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I mean, I would argue he is. He’s obviously not perfect but he does a decent job at improving class conciousness in the west (mainly America)
I don’t know who this man is and I don’t care really, but I do wonder: are you saying that a millionaire “improving class consciousness” is somehow doing something for people?
Like, I think we can all agree that comments on the Internet is not praxis. But a millionaire (who by the way, is not working class, and thus does not have the same class interests as the working class) is somehow helping the working class just by virtue of being angry online?
Does he do any organizing? Mutual aid? Or does he just profit off the working class while masquerading as one of them (the MO of pretty much every Internet “celebrity”)
Not defending Hasan or suggesting that being angry online is doing anything, and now I’m struggling to find the name of the guy, but I did want to point out the CPUSA was backed by a millionaire early on in its history. Same with Engels backing Marx. Focusing on his money as the crux of the argument is a little less substantive than just the lack of contribution and poor analysis he has, which others have been pointing out in greater detail.
The ability to amass such wealth is of course disgusting, but it also speaks to me a lot less that it happened (as we are under capitalism) and moreso how it happened and what he chose to do with it. I am, for instance, not going to fault LeBron James for being wealthy, and I will in fact toss a little recognition toward the fact that he wields his platform for decent uses at times. Is it ideal? No, but we are not idealists. Charity and individuals with conflicting class interests should not be leading the way, but I’m not going to shit on someone being less evil as much as I am going to shit on the system and the more evil actors within.
In Hasan’s case, he made the money streaming. I don’t find streaming politics to be conducive to much of anything. He just says the words and makes the baby leftists laugh and feel kindred. One could ascribe some entryism to him I guess, but he’s not funnelling to much of anything other than his own pockets. He has some incredibly shit takes on such important issues that I cannot give my support, but he does still exist in a unique spot that is nonetheless self-serving. I’d be interested if anyone was truly inspired by this man to do something useful, because that’s the nuance that might make this a little clearer to me. I doubt he’s managed this with anyone personally.
Still, it’s not the fact of having the money to me, it’s the how and the what-is-done-after.
EDIT: I think a great way to frame what I’m saying is to keep in mind what is influential to the average person. Hasan has an audience. Hasan himself deserves critique, but he has still managed to reach said audience. I draw the parallel with LeBron James because shitting on either without nuance is a great way to alienate said people. The focus on the money I think is detrimental moreso than just stating why he’s bad. People can and will engage that sort of thing better.
Maybe it’s just me too, but if Hasan could be persuaded to he more useful, then I don’t think many of us would mind the money at all and would welcome a petty bourg class traitor.
I generally agree with you, and didn’t say that I believe he is bad for having money. I specifically asked whether someone with millions of dollars (and thus an ability to effect real change in the lives of the community around him) can be considered “doing something for the working class,” and I think we both agree that Hasan does not (on first glance, maybe someone will be able to surprise me here) do anything for the working class.
I also think it is important to focus a little bit on the money, because (especially in North America) a lot of working class people look to celebrities for moral guidance, often forgetting that someone with access to so much wealth does not, in fact, have the same class interests.
You did bring up the rare but valued bourgeois class traitors, which of course, can be invaluable tools. But they are not the norm, it should not be expected that the wealthy will join us in our struggle, and so I think a clear reminder that spending our time examining the values and actions of people who inherently do not share our class interests is generally futile. Millionaires (as a group) are not on our side, and do not benefit from our advancement, so rather than looking for reasons to disavow them, we should default to not considering them allies until and unless they actually act on behalf of furthering proletarian power.
Is Hasan bourgeois? I don’t think he owns his means of productions? Most of the money he earns goes to Twitch, he doesn’t run a shop or have an enterprise for brand deals, he employs the services of an editor for his YouTube vids, but I don’t think that makes him bourgeois. I think he is like labor ultra aristocracy.
Plus he also allows free use of all his streaming, allowing others to make YouTube videos on his content and make money off it (idk what you’d call this theory wise lol)
Generally individuals as wealthy as him (he makes literally millions from twitch, and that is only taking into account his take home from that platform, not including any money on other platforms, donations, and merch sales) do become capitalists, as they almost invariably invest that wealth into capital.
However, without looking into him (and I already have looked into him far more than I would otherwise have just so I could answer this in good faith), I couldn’t say whether or not he has purchased capital. What I can say is that arguments could easily be made that his access to wealth puts him in the petit bourgeois camp.
Regardless, just based off Twitch streaming as like, a job, I would say that he could be considered intelligentsia. I wasn’t specifically calling him bourgeois, was just replying to a point about bourgeois class traitors. The main thrust of my contention is that we shouldn’t spend time poking into every rich person’s thoughts and feelings, because, ultimately, nearly every one of them will side with capitalism as a system because that is the system that gives them access to their wealth.
Rather, we should just assume the wealthy are not on our side, and focus our efforts on thinking about more important things than what this actor or that popstar have to say. Unless and until they are actually willing to use their wealth to betray their class interests in support of the good of the people, I just don’t see how them generally sucking or not matters.
Yea, we do agree for the most part then. I also do still think a disproportionate amount of time is spent on folks who are generally nobodies such as Hasan, as opposed to actors with some actual influence. I’d wager to say Hasan is negligible in the grand scheme of things. He is not actually in the bourgeoisie. That’s mainly why I bother to suggest he could still be useful as opposed to Warren Buffett, who is quite clearly never going to be.
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Why do I associate this guys name with being a dickhead? What controversy did he do?
He admitted to using a brothel, and he’s a shit-tier socdem who games all day and does no organizing. Basically a slightly less worse vaush.
🤮
Hasan always confused me
He’s a social democrat who is anti imperialist (aka a democratic socialist) who is biased by his own upbringing (he worked at the young turks for his uncle) and material wealth (biggest twitch streamer) so he ends up making incorrect takes on many issues like China or Taiwan.
Might be being pressured from the feds because he’s a big name on breadtube, but I also suspect he hasn’t read very much theory on China anyway.
I’ll copy something I posted previously about him here since this is a good opportunity. EDIT here it is:
Warning: long, brutal takedown of twitch streamers stance on Xinjiang. I hate breadtube stuff and never pay attention to it but this particular instance caught my eye so I decided to make a post about it.
I was frustrated at HasanAbis takes on China and he sounds like he’s barely read anything about China. Basically equating China to the US therefore everyone bad. Very convenient position to take as a democratic socialist. He was ranting about the state of surveillance and how they have lost their culture.
If you are really a socialist, isn’t raising the material conditions of everyone the most important thing? Because that’s what China does. I have a soft spot for groups of people who do not have self determination (as a Pacific islander myself), but really what is the alternative to Chinese control of Xinjiang? It’s American control/influence and the unspeakable horrors that come with that like what happened to every other Middle Eastern nation.
So you bring the people into the fold in your country (China) by raising the material conditions of those people. Nothing’s going to be perfect, and IT TAKES TIME but you can’t leave them out to die - socialism can only succeed by increasing people’s quality of life. How do you weigh better living conditions for everybody against increased security/surveillance? You don’t! Food and housing, education and employment are more important! And remember, raising the material conditions of a minority does count as progress towards positive treatment of a minority! In fact it is one of the most important things!
To be so overly concerned with surveillance is to apply western thought where surveillance is used to oppress minorities AS THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES. In this view, you’d be claiming that a government was somehow oppressing a minority AND actively improving their material conditions at the same time! Completely stupid. Not only that, even if it was true that they were being oppressed culturally to the same degree Native Americans were in the US, then Chinas treatment of minorities is still superior BECAUSE their living standards are improving!
Here in the west as a twitch streamer your food and housing is taken care of, while you have no idea of the poverty that existed in that region. That is the only way you could ever make that take - to ignore the historical materialist situation of that region of the world. Nobody is saying the situation is a perfect place, that there are no conflicts/violence/tensions between China, Han Chinese, and Uyghurs. There are plenty. But you are affording your own country America the chance to improve its people’s lives a timespan of election years whilst when you look at China you snap to pass judgment instantly within the present. Why can’t China improve when it has done so consistently, almost like clockwork, at basically every facet of its society? To suggest it can’t ignores history and applies your own experience (and the ignorances that come with it) to a country with its own special conditions and history.
Hate him but this seems to be a joke of sorts.
It’s okay, we hate you too.
Imagine having to buy sex.
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Edit: this is a doctored tweet I think?
Marxists should use all tools in the tool belt. For me at least he sheer amount of people HasanAbi has helped deradicalized from the right wing internet pipeline gives him a pass for most stupid shite he does in my book. Plus this post is like when your a teen and you say “I hate my parents”, sometimes the left really fucking sucks, we in fight and squander opportunities constantly all over the world because ego and purity politics. Also, the man is dumb, but he is an anticapitalist and a socialist, not a socdem.
Also, can we get over the: “Things on the internet aren’t real and don’t matter” mentality. Please. The internet is the public forum in the modern age and is where 70-80% of the world learns and socializes at least semi-regularly. Hence why China is doing a big push for a strong and civilised internet space in China.
He admitted and defends going to brothels, he’s a sex-pest. You can’t be a communist and pay to rape women.
And he’s also a breadtube socdem who just games / streams all day long, and does no organizing. Yet another worthless youtuber.
Impressive, thank you for being ‘‘so brave’’ and sharing such a ‘‘controversial opinion’’ Now may you turn your face against the wall:
I watched him for quite a while, as I became more and more principled I took issue with more of his takes. He’s also kinda opportunistic/self-centered. When AOC went to MET gala(🤮) someone had said “Bernie wouldn’t be caught dead there” and he replied “dude who wouldn’t wanna be there, if I was invited I’d definitely go”. Idk I liked watching Hasan but he used to always stop promptly at DemSoc while appropriating a lot of Left Aesthetic (Raising a Red Flag, Soviet-esque designs, Russian Ushanka). I think he did one video about Marxian Economics and Theories of Labor Extraction that bored everyone in the chat and I think they never visited it again(but I do recall him at least mentioning that this type of proof of exploitation is important, and it is) overall he’s far from the worst political YT has to offer, not even the worst that the US Left has to offer, but he’s unwatchable now(which is unfortunate bc I used to show my friends his vids and they took to him and never evolved past Hasan’s positions)
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Alright I’m an occasional viewer of his YT vids . Y’all are wildly misrepresting this guy. I’m not going to sit here and pretend he’s some principled ML - he’s not, but he’s certainly not a sexpest socdem either. I agree his takes on China are fairly uneducated and poor, but literally everything else that’s been said in these comments (and the op) is also fairly uneducated and poor. Maybe as Marxists we should do some investigating and try to understand someone before going buck wild on the timeline.
Yugopnik said he liked Hasan, so I took that to heart and gave Hasan a chance, the guy is a shit lord irony king who absolutely pushes people to the left and challenges popular liberal and reactionary messaging. I now appreciate him for what he does, tho far from perfect, he is absolutely an asset to the left. Plus, the Libs hate him.
I also hate the left.
A fan account made a Twitter circle with only him in it and then wrote a poll “Do you support the LGBT+ movement” and he answered no lmao
I can’t find the pic anymore I had it yesterday.
Please understand, this was both not real (a doctored tweet) and also a joke.
Scum behaviour. Hasanabi gets the wall.
Is that a Jesus pfp?
