this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024

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Can anyone help me understand why Hasan Piker is so popular in leftist political spaces despite his immense privilege? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This guy's dad is the former VP of a multibillion dollar Turkish conglomerate, as well as the secretary of a government department. Mom and Dad were able to fly to their other home in NJ to give birth so he'd get US citizenship. His uncle is the founder and owner of TYT Media and gave him his media career. He went to Rutgers. He lives in a multimillion dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills. This is by definition not the kind of person who can be a voice of the People. Saying "I recognize my privilege" over and over, while living his lifestyle, doesn't negate his privilege and complete lack of real-life experience outside of the curated garden of the wealthy. He gets paid obscene amounts of cash to sit in his bedroom and word-vomit for 9 hours a day. Why are his unending opinions taken so seriously? He gives me strong controlled opposition vibes.

Edit: Thank you all for this discussion. I learned a lot.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

What's your cut off? At what financial point is someone allowed to take part in trying to fix a broken system?

If it's only people who don't benefit from the system who are allowed to fight against it, should white people not try to fight the system? Cis? Straight? Able bodied? Able minded? Are only poor trans lesbians with two types of disabilities allowed to try to fight the system?

I don't know the guy from Adam and I'm not gonna say he's not well off, and I get that it seems sketch, but he's at least doing something with his money other than sitting on it trying to get richer.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Semi off-topic but genuinely curious: did going to Rutgers become something that is fancy/seen akin to Ivy league? Or was mention of the school just a mention that he went to college?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Rutgers and Princeton have an intertwined history, but that's pretty much it. Rutgers is seen as a good state school and to many it's mostly because it sounds like a private school.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So what? A class traitor is a class traitor, and we only have to win with this. What's next, you gonna say Engels wasn't a communist because he was a part of the bourgeoisie?

You do not need some sort of vow of poverty to be a true leftist.

[+] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The more stable, self-sufficient, and financially solvent I became, the more I found myself ostracized by the left

I'm also in the tech sector and I've been part of local leftist organization. From direct mutual aid to anarchist crust punks to soup kitchens to PSL, I've literally never had a problem. Not to turn this into Blind dot com, but my net worth is ~3x the US median.

The difference between Hasan and I, is that Hasan is a poster boy for the left that is making money off of being a poster boy for the left. Nobody is "pocket watching" you as a rando online or in person. Nobody is putting you on trial for your success. That argument is literally the same argument that Elon Musk and other Billionaires make about being punished for their success.

If you're attempting to show your class traitor bona fides and defending Hasan as one at the same time, but it's sounding a lot more like solidarity with the moneyed class. Your resentment is showing.

Wearing decent clothes would get me side-eyed by those who insist on black bloc.

Also wtf does this even mean? People don't dress black bloc for every day dude.

If you want to be lauded for your material success in a capitalist system perhaps you should just be a capitalist?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I have no idea who this guy is but Fidel was the child of a plantation owner.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

I'll state this: I know of this person in name only.

He's a hypocrite. It's as simple as that. His popularity is probably derived from the novelty of a member of the upper class agreeing with the lower classes and his ability to entertain them. It gives those that belong to the lower class hope of change being enacted by those with capital. The Wikipedia page states he brought a $2.7 million USD mansion. He has access to capital, and what does he do? Asks others to donate to 'worthy' causes whilst accruing more capital for his own vested, personal vanity projects?

From what I've read he is not an ally. He's an entertainer. The capitalist system is able to create products that espouse anti-capitalist ideas. This is just another such product. It's not controlled opposition. It's just an individual who's found himself the owner of a sought after product. Just another capitalist.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Addition: his father is a founding member of a right wing party in Turkey

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Haven't seen/heard much of his videos.
And some gamers going RW is an issue, right? Maybe he'll be good there?

So what is to be done?
Are there other people you'd recommend?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

You will struggle to get serious answers here. But many leftists crave validation more than they crave good ideas. Not all of them, mind you, but on places like ML anyone outside the orthodoxy inevitably just gets shouted down.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Obsessing over "privilege" smells like jealousy

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