Hasan Piker concluded his address at Cornell University on Thursday by participating in an antisemitic chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Antics like this are par for the course with the 35-year-old radical, who boasts more than three million followers on the video streaming platform, Twitch.
Piker is many things — virulent antisemite, revolutionary communist and self-avowed America-hater among them. But he has also emerged as one of the most influential figures shaping the politics and worldviews of young people, particularly young men.
His violent, backward ideas are only becoming more normalized as Piker makes inroads into mainstream politics.
A New Jersey native raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Piker streams live political and cultural commentary on Twitch eight hours a day, six days a week. His followers, the majority of whom (75%) are men between 18 and 34 years old, can communicate with the 35-year-old streamer in real time through an endless on-screen chat.
It’s almost like a conversation — an unfailingly vulgar, profane, disturbing conversation.
Piker is perhaps most infamous for declaring, “America deserved 9/11,” in 2019. Though he later acknowledged he should have used “more precise and better language” to express his thoughts, Piker told Axios just last week:
That’s just the tip of a horrifying iceberg. Piker, at various times, has:
- Said the terrorist group Hamas “is a thousand times better than the fascist settler colonial state of Israel” — a statement he defended when pressed in an April episode of Pod Save America.
- Repeatedly denied the terrorist group Hamas committed sexual atrocities in its October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, despite bipartisan and international acknowledgement such violence occurred.
- Said he uses the United States’ Constitution, in so many words, as toilet paper.
- Implied slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson deserved to be murdered because he first committed “social murder,” a concept pioneered by Frederich Engels, one of the fathers of Marxism.
- Said, “I love Lenin, I love Fidel Castro and I love Che Guevara. They are genuinely f—ing heroes.”
- Streamed a Houthi propaganda video of members of the Islamic terror group marching over burning American and Israeli flags and chanting, “God is Great! Death to America! Death to Israel! Damn the Jews! Victory to Islam!” Piker subsequently described the Houthis as a “very musical people.”
In one of his most recent blunders, Piker implied something violent would happen to Jewish-American people who continued to support Israel.
“People don’t f— with Israel any longer,” he said in a Twitch stream on August 20.
“If Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone is going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.”
Piker’s statements drew criticism from politicians on both sides of the aisle. That political figures as powerful as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries felt the need to condemn Piker’s statements speaks to his growing presence in mainstream politics — a feat other radical online streamers have largely failed to achieve.
Some Democrat politicians initially sought to partner with Piker because of his powerful sway with young men — a demographic which voted heavily Republican in the 2024 elections.
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, whom Piker campaigned with earlier this year, told Stephen A. Smith transparently:
El-Sayed has since distanced himself from Piker over the streamer’s frightening ideology. He’s not the only one who regrets making nice. Brianna Wu, a Democrat strategist who initially supported partnering with Piker, told The Free Press, “The more you understand about what he’s actually saying, you realize he’s actually terrible for the country.”
Wu warned parents:
Indeed, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continue to embrace Piker. The political membership organization, which supports some candidates running on the Democrat ticket, described Piker as “our Twitch streamer” in an August 31 X post.
Piker campaigned with multiple DSA candidates who won their primaries this summer, including Darializa Avila Chevalier (NY), Melat Kiros (CO) and Donavan McKinney (MI).
Earlier this month, Piker moderated the DSA’s panel at the Socialism Conference in Chicago. He streamed the panel on Twitch.
He likewise streamed his Cornell address, which 450 students reportedly attended.
Piker’s longevity as a mainstream political figure doesn’t matter. His successful association with traditional political candidates, no matter how short, confers a deceptive layer of legitimacy on him and his ideas.
It communicates to voters — and his millions of followers — that blatant antisemitism, revolutionary communism and support for political violence are not just acceptable, but normal.
Nothing about Hasan Piker is normal. Parents should take care their children do not stumble on his content, on Twitch or any other social media platforms, and take him for a model.
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