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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 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by extremeboredom@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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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[+] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] AnneVolin@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 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?

[–] KrasMazov@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 3 weeks ago

I totally get your frustration. Any leftist person, group or organization that ostracize people for being a little bit better materially than other people is completely wrong and shouldn't be taken seriously. The tech field is full of techbro ancaps, having a leftists there is already a step forward. We can't just confine ourselves to a few spaces and gatekeep who can and who cannot be a part of it.

It's like you said, you're orders of magnitude closer to the homeless than to the rich. You are not the enemy, and even if you were, you're still a leftist and any help is welcomed.

That all being said, I don't think it's right to say that this is the reason the left will always lose. First because the left is not an unified mass that thinks the same. There's a lot of different leftist ideologies and they all clash in some way of another, be it for a disagreement in how to organize or in how to achieve communism. And second, because this type of thing tends to be something you would see more on the imperial core where actual leftist thinking have been thwarted and made into a boogeyman, I don't know where you're from, but I honestly suggest you try looking for Marxist-Leninist groups and organizations.