There’s something missing from the Hasan Piker discourse. Hasan’s fans and critics often overlook the most troubling fact about him.

The core problem with Hasan Piker is that, on a fundamental level, he doesn’t believe in liberal democracy.

I don’t really want to spend tons of time talking about Hasan. So I’m going to make this one long thread and then, god willing, hopefully not have to talk about it for a while.

But it is plainly obvious to anyone with eyes that Piker is an ideological authoritarian.

Hasan spends an astonishing amount of time defending authoritarian regimes, apologizing for them, running cover for them, promoting them, parroting their propaganda, and more. There are dozens of examples of this.

Let’s start with what Piker has to say about China.

Hasan, earlier this year, went on a trip to China and did nothing but glaze the authoritarian government there.

Given that Hasan is a full time political commentator, you might think he’d have something to say about their lack of basic rights, the brutal repression of Tibet, the Uyghur genocide, how China crushed Hong Kong’s freedoms, how they threaten Taiwan, etc. But no, nothing. Only praise.

China is a country that has no gay marriage, bans gay dating apps, bans the depiction of ‘sissy men’ in media, and severely represses gay people. When asked about it, Hasan acknowledges none of this and tries to blame it on Apple.

Piker was harassed by secret police in Tiananmen Square for recording there, and his response was immediately “Well America is still worse” and to lie that you can’t be arrested for memes.

Mind you, China is a country that has mobile execution vans and disappears students for holding up blank sheets of paper. Having the wrong opinions in public can be a death sentence. But the important thing is that America is bad.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/may/01/chinas-authorities-erase-memory-white-paper-protests-in-tightening-of-censorship-press-freedom

The more you hear him talk, it’s clear he just doesn’t care that China kills dissidents. He likes the Chinese way of doing things.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Asked directly which country’s socialism he would emulate, he doesn’t say Sweden or Norway. He says “China is who we should follow and learn lessons from”

Every time China comes up, he somehow takes the CCP’s side. Every time. Here’s an example where he basically says that China’s colonialism in Tibet and the eradication of Tibetan culture was justified because the Tibetans were savages:

Another one - in reaction to Hong Kong protests a few years ago, Piker defends the CCP saying that the existence of separate systems of government for Hong Kong and mainland China is ‘ridiculous’ and that for ‘convenience’ they should just have one system

Hasan spouts CCP talking points about how the United States is what’s really standing in the way of ‘peaceful reunification’, ignoring that Taiwanese people don’t want to be part of mainland China. This line would not be out of place in literal Chinese state media.

None of this is an accident. None of this is cherry picking. Hasan authentically likes dictators. His words - “I never would and never will make fun of Mao Zedong, one of the great leaders of this world”

Mao is responsible for killing tens of millions of people.

He consistently downplays the Uyghur genocide, falsely claiming that the concentration camps - which he corrects to calling ‘re-education camps’ - are closed. He’ll also deflect when asked and start talking about Israel being worse.

If you corner him, he’ll evade the human rights problems with a generic statement and say “but I don’t pretend to know how to govern a billion people”

I think we can say that genociding Uyghurs and killing political dissidents is wrong no matter how big the country.

Speaking of ‘re-education’, btw, Hasan is explicitly in favor. When asked “Under socialism, what if a movement of people decided they wanted capitalism or social democracy?” his answer was that those people should be ‘re-educated’ by the socialist state.

It’s not just the CCP that Hasan loves to praise. He’ll cape for virtually any authoritarian state. He wishes that the USSR had won the cold war over the United States.

Hasan has said that he “has no issues” with Hezbollah and compares them to Nelson Mandela.

He’s platformed literal Houthi terrorists and asked them hardball questions about which animes they like to watch.

He’s defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying

“What do you call Crimea? I call it a part of Russian territory, bitch. That’s what I call Crimea. I call it cry me a river. A Russian river.”

Hasan has said that America deserved 9/11. He later apologized, but it’s pretty clear that in context, he actually believes that and apologized to cover his ass.

Hasan recently took a trip to Cuba that was similar to his China trip. He endlessly praised an authoritarian government that has impoverished its own people immensely. He offered absolutely zero criticism of their authoritarian system, because he too is an authoritarian.

Later, he described Cuba as maybe the most moral country in the world. Cuba regularly jails and kills political dissidents.

He’s got a busy schedule, but somehow he also finds time to glaze North Korea of all places:

In addition to being an ideological authoritarian, Hasan routinely calls for political violence. Here he is calling for the murder of landlords, practically screaming “Let the streets soak in their red capitalist blood”

That’s not an isolated incident. He’s called for violence against multiple US Senators. He jokes about how SA isn’t really as bad if it happens to rich girls.

I could keep showing clips where Hasan sucks up to authoritarian governments and promotes political violence, but hopefully you get the idea at this point.

Hasan simply does not value liberal democracy or human rights, as long as the boot crushing your face is a socialist boot.

That’s what bothers me about recent discourse. @ezraklein 's recent column on Hasan was almost entirely focused on the question of antisemitism.

I suspect this is because groups like @ThirdWayTweet focused their attacks on Piker from that angle, which was stupid. All Hasan has to do is denounce antisemitism, point out that he likes Bernie Sanders and other Jewish politicians, and it’s easily dismissed.

And you’ll note that nothing in this thread is related to Israel whatsoever. I don’t think Hasan is bad because he protests Israel. I think he’s bad because he’s a bootlicker for murderous totalitarian regimes.

That’s why it’s baffling that @ezraklein barely mentions any of this. He’s either unaware of it, or choosing to ignore it. Either way I’d usually expect more from a careful thinker like Klein.

Klein also makes the argument that we should be more willing to talk to people who we strongly disagree with. He talked about this when Charlie Kirk was killed, and he’s consistent with the same principle for Piker

But the problem is that Democrats aren’t inviting Hasan to have tough debates about his love of authoritarian regimes. They’re inviting him to hugfest podcasts, to campaign rallies, to do puff pieces.

Klein’s idea falls apart because most podcasts today are 99% agreeing and nodding, and then asking the guest to be your bff. Nobody profiling Piker is grilling him. They’re lusting over him:

And look: I believe in a big tent Democratic party. Donald Trump is uniquely dangerous, and the MAGA movement is actively lighting the country on fire.

In theory, if Piker wanted to push in the same direction as me, I’d shut up and bury my complaints.

The problem is that Piker doesn’t work to help Democrats.

He promotes far-left Dems in primaries against center-left Dems. But for the mainstream party, he won’t support them. He’s already talking about how he might not vote Dem in 2028.

He spends so much of his time screaming about how Democrats and Republicans are the same. He went to Minnesota during the ICE raids and immediately started talking about how Democrats were just as bad.

He screams at his viewers that Kamala Harris would be doing ‘the exact same things’ as Trump. It’s deranged.

Piker goes on @jonfavs’ show and acts like a Smol Bean Who Just Wants Healthcare. He says he just wants to be treated like a Never Trumper.

The thing about the Never Trumpers is they committed to vote for Democrats despite their personal differences!

Piker acts conciliatory on these large shows, then goes back to his own viewers to slobber up authoritarians and scream about how Democrats are evil.

Still - I would welcome the news that Piker was voting blue, and telling his followers to do the same.

But he should not be a leader, he should not be coddled on friendly interview shows, and his views show not be glossed over.