Full article
As lifelong Democrats, we agree with Sen. Ted Cruz on virtually nothing. But Mr. Cruz was brave to decry antisemitism in the Republican Party. Mr. Cruz also named a big name, calling Tucker Carlson “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country.” Too few Democrats have followed Mr. Cruz’s lead by calling out the rising antisemitism on the far left. That must change.
The antisemitism spewed by Mr. Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and other far-right bigots is well-documented and widely condemned. But the far left has antisemites, too. No left-wing agitator is more influential and extreme than Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. Mr. Piker is often called “progressive,” but that does violence to the term. A self-identified Marxist, he has referred to ultra-Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” employed antisemitic dog whistles (“bloodthirsty, violent pig-dog”) against an anti-Hamas viewer of his stream, compared liberal Zionists to “liberal Nazis,” and said “Hamas is a thousand times better” than the Israeli state.
Mr. Piker’s depravity doesn’t stop there. His misogyny is indistinguishable from that of far-right influencers. He believes “America deserved 9/11.” He praised the Chinese Communist Party, saying “in terms of good governance, there’s a lot that we can learn from the way they perform out there.”
Mr. Piker is anti-American, antiwomen, anti-Western and antisemitic. No Democrat should engage with him. All should seek to push him to the fringe, where he belongs.
This isn’t happening. The Pod Save America team put him onstage at CrookedCon. Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for Senate in Michigan, tweeted a picture of himself celebrating Piker with a supporter. California Rep. Ro Khanna, a possible presidential hopeful, pushed back on X against concerns we raised about antisemitism on the far left by declaring his pride in going on Mr. Piker’s feed. Mr. Piker chimed in to support him.
Handing Mr. Piker a microphone isn’t magnanimous or respectful of views that test your priors. Going on his show isn’t a sign of bravery, of willingness to talk to the other side, or to show up in challenging places. All these things do is support a bigot.
But few dare speak that truth. The only prominent Democrat to call out Mr. Piker’s bigotry directly so far is New York Rep. Ritchie Torres. Mr. Torres sent a letter to Twitch in October 2024 detailing Mr. Piker’s antisemitism. Other Democrats must follow suit.
Left-wing antisemites are savvier than the Nazi-endorsers on the right, who marched in Charlottesville, Va., and sat for dinner with the president. The antisemites of the left cloak their attacks in critiques of the present Israeli leadership. Many American Jews, including us, abhor Israel’s current leaders. Criticism of Israeli policy isn’t antisemitic. The Israel-Hamas War was a humanitarian catastrophe for Gazans. Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is appalling.
But the Jew-haters on the left go much further. They use loaded words taught in social justice seminars (“apartheid,” “genocide,” “settler colonialism”). They push age-old tropes about Jewish wealth and influence (“Epstein class,” turning “tax the rich” into “tax the Jews”). And they replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist.”
This language is more than offensive. It can beget violence. Last year, an alleged murderer seemingly inspired by left-wing rhetoric killed two people for the crime of being at the Capital Jewish Museum. Democrats must understand that accepting antisemitic figures like Mr. Piker into the mainstream puts Jewish Americans’ lives in danger.
There’s no excuse for putting political tribalism before Jewish safety. Or for overlooking hatred to generate likes online. Or for failing to act against the surge of antisemitism, spread by the Hasan Pikers of the world and normalized by too many on the Democratic side.
We’re all for a big tent. But the Democratic Party needs to draw a line in the sand. Hasan Piker and his fellow Jew-haters belong on the other side.
Mr. Cowan is a co-founder and president of Third Way, where Ms. Cohen is a press adviser.
Mr. Piker’s depravity doesn’t stop there. His misogyny is indistinguishable from that of far-right influencers. He believes “America deserved 9/11.” He praised the Chinese Communist Party, saying “in terms of good governance, there’s a lot that we can learn from the way they perform out there.”
Neither of these quotes have anything to do with misogyny at all. Professional writer
JESUS CHRIST I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BIT
Ok, do they think even your average American doesn’t think the average Chinese administrator is running fucking RINGS around their American counterpart in terms of performance.
Like, you think this is ‘good governance’? You’d give this dogshit an A?
That threw me for a loop too, I thought they were actually going to try to back up that claim somehow.
Hasan is totally a misogynist^[
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I mean the brothel thing was not good but they don't consider sex workers people I guess.
There are certainly discussions we can have about some of his bro-ey tendencies and such. The Wall Street Journal is absolutely not invited to have input that conversation. Uncritical opposition to whatever point they are trying to make, I don't really care.
Call it cope, but Hasan’s more bro-y stuff I am hoping is him just trying to meet normies where they’re at. IIRC he even said himself something along the lines of “I want people to see a leftist and just see a guy.”
That's absurd cope and would be tailism regardless.
i can't imagine how intentionally alienating half the people in the world helps the movement
Oh so he's just putting on a show for 8 hours a day every single day for almost a decade? Cool, very cool lol
I mean... yes, that's what performers and entertainers and streamers and actors all do.
I generally agree, I don't think it's cope. IMO There needs to be a set of litmus tests, but purity testing, especially for people with no formal power, weakens your own movement with no effort by you're enemies.
Brothel bad, bro tips was disgusting (I know it’s satire), neither in the article
At least Hasan himself says bro tips was terrible and has said that for many years, unlike the brothel thing
https://dailydot.com/hasan-piker-stream-artemis-brothel-debate
Legalizing brothels in Europe was apart of feminism tho
This is theological reasoning. A broadly progressive movement can be incorrect, it needs to be judged on the merits and not the color of the flag.
And as we know, anything done in the name of feminism can’t be bad
I'm in favor of decriminalizing prostitution. I still think it's sexual exploitation and I'm not really on board with that.
Different feminist factions have different views on the liberalisation of prostitution and legalization of prostitution being a feminist matter is certainly not true in all European countries. In some cases it's a police matter.
Anyway my intention wasn't really to paint Hasan as a terrible misogynists but to provide context what might be meant by the article calling Hasan a misogynist.
Very eloquent summation of my own thoughts.
I'm not sure about "deserved it" but the USA definitely earned it.
Many of the individuals killed or otherwise hurt in the event didn't deserve it (I'm sure at least a few did though). But America as a nation, an entity (not to be confused with the entity), or as a superstructure, yes America absolutely deserved 9/11. It deserved a lot worse and still does.
I was going to say America as a state deserved it, but honestly 9/11 was a boon to the American state. It gave them carte blanche to do whatever they wanted even more so than they already could, both domestically and internationally. So actually no, the American state didnt deserve it because they didn't deserve anything good to happen to them, let alone such a perfect gift like 9/11, a gift that kept giving and never really stopped.
I still can't believe they were able to get Americans to feel bad about Wall St. getting bombed.
Likewise I would say the US "had it coming". We hate to see senseless violence and destruction, but it is blowback from the US doing 100x the same violence over decades.
Idk, the buildings they hit don't seem very senseless to me.