 Hasan Piker is a rising star. The streamer and nephew of Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur is one of America’s most popular political commentators. Piker’s Twitch account boasts over 2.8 million followers. At the time of writing, his YouTube channel has nearly 700 million views. Still, Piker has not peaked. Lately, the online progressive firebrand has gained increasing — perhaps even surprising — acceptance from the mainstream. Piker has received favorable profiles from The Washington Post and New York Times. Business Insider told readers they “should definitely know who he is.” No stranger to controversy, Piker has staked numerous bold positions throughout his career — especially on Israel-Palestine. He fiercely opposes the genocide and rightly identifies Israel’s governance model as apartheid. This honesty landed Piker on the shortlist of StopAntisemitism’s Antisemite of the Year — a badge he should wear with honor. But being pro-Palestine is not what makes Piker unique. Virtually all leftist content creators are. Yet few if any are embraced by the mainstream like Piker is. For most creators of his profile, in fact, mainstream media either ignores or tries to outright bury them. It is worth asking why they treat Piker so differently. Here, the work of Marxist academic Gabriel Rockhill is illustrative. Rockhill has written extensively about the “compatible Left.” Coined by the CIA, the term refers to leftists whose politics cement or at least hardly threaten imperialist hegemony. Historically, the CIA astroturfed this political faction itself — and may still today — by funding anti-communist publications and even musicians. Though some compatible leftists have explicitly supported imperialism, others merely muddied the waters. Piker does not fall into the former category. He is instead the outer bound of the compatible Left — a marker past which the unconscionable supposedly lies. While Piker makes many of the right noises on important issues, his elevation in the mainstream is downright sinister. The powerful use Piker, and figures like him, to channel leftist energy in relatively unthreatening directions. Piker is not necessarily a witting player in this scheme. But that is his impact nonetheless. What makes Piker part of the compatible Left is manifold. For one, he is a frequent critic of Russia. Piker supported the Muller probe on the grounds that “Russia conclusively tried to meddle in” the 2016 presidential election. Despite Piker calling it “a good investigation to conduct,” the probe uncovered little of note. In fact, it became emblematic of ineffectual Democratic resistance to the Trump administration. Nevertheless, Piker used his influential position to fuel the establishment fire and the Russophobic embers it stoked. This did not stop once Trump left office. During Joe Biden’s tenure, he branded Vladimir Putin “a bad person” and called Russia’s special military operation “unjustifiable, immoral, barbaric.” He even went so far as to compare the operation to Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine. At best, Piker’s vociferous criticism of Russia perpetuates a dangerous false equivalency between imperialists and those resisting their tyranny. The special military operation becomes not a measured, justified response to American saber-rattling and encirclement. It is instead somehow comparable to the genocide Israel and its neocolonial backers are inflicting upon Gaza. At worst, Piker’s routine demonization of Russia altogether justifies American imperialism in Eastern Europe. It reinforces the idea that Russia is the bad guy — an enemy the West must, by any means, destroy. Given his indulgence of these narratives, it may be unsurprising that Piker has shown a penchant for punching left. In 2024, he joined forces with CNN to shoot a documentary demonizing communist activist and media personality Jackson Hinkle. During the film, Piker makes many false and downright strange claims. He bizarrely accuses Hinkle’s anti-imperialist political movement of preying on insecure young men by convincing them to detest gays. Piker also refers to that movement as a “rabbit hole” and “propaganda” factory. In retrospect, Piker expressed content that CNN depicted him as “reliable” and “sane.” You can tell a man by his friends. Further underscoring the company he keeps, the documentary shows clips of Piker streaming live from the Democratic National Convention. This is just one example of Piker’s cozy relationship with the Democrats. While Piker pointedly and sometimes resonantly critiques the party, he also frequently validates it. Piker’s recent softball interview of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a case in point. He refused to challenge their spotty records, thereby shepherding his massive following into a party hellbent on shunning progressives. Similarly, when streaming with Ilhan Omar, Piker did not mention her unsubstantiated claims of China inflicting Islamophobic terror in Xinjiang. Whether congeniality or cowardice, Piker’s refusal to ask the tough questions maintains his access to powerful people and institutions. In short, Piker is not nearly as threatening to the status quo as his self-ascribed “socialist” label might suggest. By punching left, reifying the Democratic Party, and parroting imperialist lies, he stultifies the revolutionary spirit that promises eventual liberation. It is no wonder why legacy media are desperate to platform him. Author Youhanna Haddad is a North American Marxist of the Arab diaspora. Through his writing, he seeks to combat the Western liberal dogmas that uphold racial capitalism. You can contact him at [email protected]. Archives May 2025
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