No, I think the problem is that the people dominating mainstream political discourse don't actually know anything about politics. This is why populism and emotion driven action is on the rise. This is what happens when we lack expertise.
In a sense, yes — it is still the same reality. The problem begins when society no longer trusts the shared methods used to describe and interpret it. At that point, emotions start replacing understanding, and politics gradually becomes less a debate about facts and more a competition between narratives.
That’s exactly the point — when a society stops trusting shared methods of recognizing reality, politics gradually turns from a debate about solutions into a conflict of competing narratives.
I would love to live in the world where I do not know the names Candace Owens and Hasan Piker. I am very troubled if the Dems think Piker can be exploited to help secure the lefty votes.
Because he has a cult of personality not dissimilar to Trump and the communist dictators that he so admires from his cushy LA manor. I have my problems with mainstream liberalism (I agree with criticisms that liberals have dragged their feet on issues, and I believe that Social Democracy does a better job at achieving "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."), but I am far more distrustful of leftists who openly embrace illiberalism. 50% of Americans fear of socialism comes from McCarthyist bullshit, but the other 50% comes self-identified socialists defending autocrats that vaguely align with their economic policy.
Hasan Piker, noted dog shocker and fan of Diddy parties, and the rest of Blue MAGA has no place in the liberal Democratic Party. That was cemented long ago and reaffirmed by his recent defense of Maureen Galindo, the Democratic primary candidate who wants to put “Zionists” into camps. He said Democrats should ignore her and tried shifting the blame for wanting to recreate the Holocaust off her onto Israel.
That some libs won't criticize him relates to my thesis that liberals tend to think everyone is a liberal deep down, and so it's fine to embrace anyone who seems to be on their side, no matter how illiberal, because it's all an act.
It's also shown up a few trolls, abusive and otherwise, using their bags of tricks to distract from the indefensible.
"Trolls deploy false equivalence to flatten serious issues into meaningless comparisons and employ diversion to shift focus away from evidence. They construct straw man arguments that distort original positions and wield sarcasm to belittle rather than enlighten. They nitpick grammar or wording to dodge the core argument, feign confusion to stall progress, and move the goalposts once their questions receive answers. They thrive on demanding endless “gotcha” questions that exhaust, bombard discussions with irrelevant questions designed to sideline inconvenient facts, project their own behaviors onto opponents, cherry-pick fragments out of context, misquote sources to suit their narrative, recycle debunked claims as though they were fresh, and abruptly shift subjects entirely when pressed."
"Internet trolling has become more sinister in recent years. In particular, investigators revealed it to have played a role in influence operations around both the 2016 US election and Brexit. The Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) used tactics such as meme warfare to create identity groups then set them against one another."
If you bothered to take the Piker quotes in context, you would come up with entirely different meanings; his statement about the USSR was not about their politics or authoritarianism, but the fact their demise allowed capitalist hegemony to take over the world, with disastrous consequences.. Piker is basically a Democratic Socialist, like Bernie. Piker's remark about 9/11 only meant that US foreign policy in the Middle East, such as arming one terrorist group to attack another terrorist group, made the US vulnerable, much like previous decades when the US meddled in Latin America; granted, the verb "deserved" was a poor choice ("allowed" would have been better), but Piker streams almost continually, and "misspeaking" is bound to happen. And OF COURSE he critiques liberalism! However, he is more than willing to defend his views, unlike Owens. Piker doesn't DEFEND Hamas for the violence; he simply understands what Gaza has been through, especially now. He is making an argument, Owens is just creating conspiracies.
The “context” you provide here doesn’t vindicate Piker, it underlines the problem. Take your first claim about the USSR, for instance.
Piker believes the existence of the Soviet Union, the largest authoritarian security apparatus in human history, was good for the world. It was not. It was a suffocating tyranny clamped down upon Eastern Europe. It crushed civil society and strangled democracy. It imposed a corrupt and devastatingly inefficient economic system upon millions of people, thwarting their aspirations for healthy, self-determined, flourishing lives. That’s why 1989 was the greatest migration from authoritarianism to democracy ever recorded. It’s why East German soldiers gunned down people who wanted to cross into West Berlin—to keep millions of human beings in captivity.
You’re welcome to outline the “disastrous consequences” of the destruction of this horrific system of oppression and life-reaping economic backwardness. You’re welcome to explain why it is that the countries of Eastern Europe lined up to join the Western political, economic, and security architecture for which you and Piker have so much contempt. Even many democratic socialists recognized that continuing to celebrate the USSR was a political dead end after the Cold War. But historically illiterate dead-enders like Piker have made defending Soviet totalitarianism cool again. What a horrible legacy.
As for the rest of your “context,” I’d like you to consider the ideology of the terrorists who slaughtered 3,000 human beings on 9/11 by turning civilian aircraft into missiles. Those people are the most viciously reactionary imperialists on the face of the planet. Why do you think Osama bin Laden celebrated the mass murder of Australian tourists in Bali in 2002? Because Australia helped to supervise the liberation of East Timor from the Indonesian dictatorship. George W. Bush is constantly mocked for observing that theocratic fascists hate freedom and democracy. Well, they do. To argue that civilians “deserved” to be massacred by these fascists because U.S. foreign policy has an ugly history in the Middle East is morally repugnant. Stop apologizing for it. I assure you I could stream every hour of every day for the rest of my life, as could many others, without saying anything so appalling.
Piker said he would vote for Hamas over Israel. Hamas is an explicitly genocidal organization that uses human shields to wage a pointless war of extermination against Israel. Of course he defends Hamas. He does so constantly. Be honest about it.
I’m not surprised that Piker attacks liberals: he’s deeply illiberal. He rationalizes gruesome terrorist atrocities. He pines for the days of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. He’s a perfect distillation of left-wing illiberalism, and liberals should say so.
So now we're just flat out lying? Not a good look. Let's take some of this apart:
> "As for the rest of your “context,” I’d like you to consider the ideology of the terrorists who slaughtered 3,000 human beings on 9/11 by turning civilian aircraft into missiles. Those people are the most viciously reactionary imperialists on the face of the planet."
Al Qaeda? The US "intelligence community" *creation*? The entity created specifically to thwart the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan, during the Cold War? Then turned loose on any other enemies of the US Empire like a moveable feast, until the chickens came home to roost, and then suddenly we're supposed to forget history and abandon all critical thinking? Pray tell, what *was* their ideology, who funded its creation and spread, and what countries were involved? Were they allies of the USA or not?
> "Why do you think Osama bin Laden celebrated the mass murder of Australian tourists in Bali in 2002?"
Well, for one thing he didn't. You're literally making that up. Show us a source for this claim, or admit you're lying. Besides, what does this have to do with Hasan Piker or Mary Adeline's point? Absolutely nothing; that's what. It's a cheap straw man and distraction from the fact that you don't have any direct arguments to make in response to her comment.
>"To argue that civilians “deserved” to be massacred by these fascists because U.S. foreign policy has an ugly history in the Middle East is morally repugnant."
Show us the precise quote. Tell me where he said "civilians deserved" to be killed. But hey, let's assume he did (he didn't) - Do US civilians deserve NOT to be killed by a terrorist group that was in large part founded, funded and trained *by* US civilians using US civilians' tax money more than any random West Asian civilians (or anyone else) deserve NOT to be killed by US bombs, sanctions, US-sponsored terror groups, and Hellfire missiles? And who's more "fascist" in this equation? Al Qaeda or the US government? That's a subject for an entire debate.
>"Piker said he would vote for Hamas over Israel. Hamas is an explicitly genocidal organization that uses human shields to wage a pointless war of extermination against Israel."
More nasty lies. Hamas has never been "explicitly genocidal" even before they changed their "charter" - Not any moreso than "Israel" has always been, anyway. And "human shields"? Show us proof and not IDF or right-wing "Israeli" talking points. What do you call it when a warlike belligerent nation intentionally builds its military and intelligence command and control center underneath civilian apartment buildings and shopping centers? NOT the use of "human shields"? Or what about the common IDF practice of forcing unarmed non-Hamas affiliated civilians to walk into structures, at gunpoint, as....wait for it.....HUMAN SHIELDS?
How much money does the "Israel" lobby pay you, anyway? I haven't seen this many hasbara talking points at a "liberal" Substack in quite a long time.
I’m right there with you, bro! I hate any authoritarian government! And yes, the USSR was an authoritarian government that required, not only how their citizens behaved but how they thought (and voted)! Unfortunately, all people have committed atrocities on each other since the dawn of time; and I condemn all of them!!!! But let’s start with the US; the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed a minimum of >whether it saved American lives in the long run, but it did kill over 250,000 non-combatants. Do you have a problem with that? And that’s the point here!!! Hasan is making a point about foreign policy, not morality.
The left-wing *is* illiberal. The whole issue today is that conservatives have become the worst left-wing we've ever seen.
Right-wing ideas, like individual rights, rights-protecting government and capitalism, don't have any advocates in the mainstream, and as a result have no voters.
The Sept 11th attack is so often explained by blaming US foreign policy that no one ever even bothers to challenge it. But there are people who actually study the Middle East and listen to what their leaders say. Bernard Lewis explains in the introduction to his book “The Crisis of Islam” that Osama bin Laden’s video, released on October 7, 2001, mentions “the humiliation and disgrace” that Islam has suffered “for more than 80 years.” He’s referring to the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 and the subsequent taking over of its territories by colonial European powers. One of the clever propaganda tricks these guys use is they reset the clock so they can blame you. And it works with Americans because they typically don’t study history. They definitely don’t live obsessed with it. When the jihadist tries to blame you for what he did - don’t help him. He’s lying.
“If you bothered to take the Trump quotes in context, you would come up with entirely different meanings…” Nobody misspeaks like that - he chose those words. Free markets have helped more people than communism ever has or ever will. There is no appropriate context for excusing or hand waving rape and terrorism. He’s another example of why the progressive left seems allergic to winning elections - the right wing is much better at comms and they will tie Piker to every Dem if he’s not kicked from the tent. Remember the “they them” campaign ad? Trump took a years old comment from a dumb left wing purity test and turned it into a national issue.
According to The UnPopulist, Hasan “CELEBRATED the Soviet Union;” he did no such thing. His point was that after the Soviet Union fell there was nothing standing in the way of capitalism as the FINAL AND ONLY economic theory/philosophy as to how the world works. Remember The End of History? He is making an argument; feel free to disagree with him, but don’t put words in his mouth that he didn’t say!!! As we have come to find out, a lot of citizens of the USSR were happy with the Communist version of authoritarianism, and missed it, Putin being one of them. One main difference between 1991and 2026 is that now the Russian elite have access to luxury “things;” Marx has been replaced by the Russian Orthodox Church, otherwise the population is as repressed and controlled as it was back then. In 1991, Socialism, as in democratic socialism, as a viable economic model, was much more prevalent than it is today and could have been an alternative way forward for the USSR.
What complete and utter bullshit. The Baltics, Poland, many Balkan countries have all flourished and in fact are social democracies today. Instead of defending them from Russian revanchism Hasan is puffing up China's dictatorship. Just adding exclamation points doesn't make your points any less inane.
Oh give me a break!!!! I agree, what complete and utter bullshit on your part! Yeah, the Baltics, et all are doing well, because they escaped, so far, from Putin's spider web. China?? The UnPopulist accused Hasan Piker of something that he never said or advocated, and I just pointed that out. I'm not sure where you are going with your accusations, but if you want to argue (or rant) about anything, tell me what it is so I can reply.
Why does anybody even give Hasan Piker the time of day? He's a garden-variety tankie who has gained currency in social media because 1) he's a Twitch streamer, and 2) he's unusually good-looking. He has zero intellectual chops, and knows nothing about politics. He's just absorbed some crap from tankies at Rutgers. We'd all be better off if people just ignored him.
Tankies and fascists seem determined to prove the horseshoe analogy apt, even as their actions keep benefiting the revanchist imperialists in the Kremlin.
Neither are allies to liberalism.
"In today’s Vatnik Soup and May Day special, we introduce Hasan Piker, a Turkish-American streamer and millionaire. He’s best known for his champagne socialism, his rabid criticism of the US and Israel, his support for the Soviet Union and for Chinese and Russian invasions, and for mistreating his dog."
"The group has a long history of publishing deepfakes and fake whistleblower videos, and the false sexual abuse claim of Tim Walz came from them. Storm-1516 was also behind the fake hit-and-run story about Kamala Harris. Trump’s allies have also spread these claims online,…
"including people like the Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec & far-right podcaster Candace Owens. Another large X account, “Black Insurrectionist” (who’s actually a white dude named Jason G. Palmer) also spread fake e-mails about this story, eventually nuking their account."
I hope you realize the only reason you can call liberalism a “diabolical lie and failed experiment” is because liberalism protects pluralism and your right to free speech. Saying stuff like that in Russia or China would get you harassed by police or even arrested.
Liberalism promises to protect that stuff and promises means tested benefits only to those who desperately need them, and promises opportunity, and what it delivers is ruinously expensive health care, unimaginable riches for four men and wage/debt slavery to everyone else. It promises tranquility and delivers war after war after war. It leaves us and our children to the tender mercies of insurance company CEO’s. When we complain we get a woman whose pockets are bulging with Goldman Sachs speaking fees telling us “this is as good as it gets. Now hush.”
When disaster strikes it bails out those who caused the disaster and locks the rest of us below decks, abandoning us to our fates.
Inevitably, predictably, with certainty the eventual result is 50% of the country explicitly wanting fascism and a dictator. And oh, those four men who are life’s winners? They write a manifesto calling for the end of democracy and establishment of an unchallengeable CEO-Emperor and themselves as his board of directors.
To paraphrase the late great Anton Chigurth; ‘if the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?’
That’s a lot of emotionally driven rambles but the most egregious thing to me was “the late great Anton Chirgurth”. First of all, neither the character nor the actor are dead. Second of all, the character is a psychopathic hitman, not anyone great to be admired. And third, his name is Chigurh, not Chigurth.
You’re like those guys who quotes Heath Ledger’s Joker while never having seen The Dark Knight lmao
Yeah liberalism failing in the exact way leftists always predict it will, condemning the country and its people to fascism … if that’s not something to be emotional about then I don’t know what is.
It’s tragic because its failure was predictable and predicted and it failed exactly as such.
Scream “late stage capitalism” for 125 years and eventually capitalism will have issues that need fixing, yes. The main advantage of liberalism is that it can correct itself like with the Gilded Age/Great Depression or 70s stagflation while leftist countries like the USSR and Maoist China either collapse or let their population starve lol
Pretty weird that this publication is trying so hard to dampen enthusiasm to fight the right. So far Piker seems to have been on the right side of just about every issue, and The UnPopulist stirring infighting when momentum is most important is pretty telling. Feeding into the ecosystem of Liberals punching harder left than right helps no one, and just stagnates the party and continues to fail. Candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, Chris Rabb, Cori Bush, and Zohran Mamdani should give anyone left of center hope that there is a shift happening and the stagnant old guard, the ones who have played nice and been walked all over since the Reagan era, need to go. This article is exactly why so many liberals have such a poor opinion of the Democratic party. If Soc Dems and Dem Socs have to take the lead to get anything done then so be it. Their policies aren't failing, and they are proving popular. The time of the old guard is behind us and we need real fighters.
“The right side of every issue.” Like when he supports re-education camps, the imperialist invasion of Taiwan, or defends the Russian occupation of Crimea? Hasan is not interested in defending our democracy. He’s only interested in fighting authoritarianism from right to create a left-wing authoritarian government.
Russian "occupation of" Crimea? I thought you people were champions of democracy. Did you forget that Crimeans overwhelmingly voted to leave Ukraine and join the RF? And that multiple western polling and journalism outlets have conducted follow-up surveys in which the number who support that referendum and appreciate the results only got higher?
Besides, why do you care so much about Crimea? You don't have to answer: You've been brainwashed by western propaganda and hating Putler is a core element of your identity.
Let us guess: the strong opinions of an American Democrat/liberal are more educated, important and should carry more weight about how Crimeans live than the opinions of the Crimeans themselves. Yeah you really LOVE "democracy" don't you - so long as the results of any democratic election align with your preconcevied desires and opinions. Soooo typical of a hypocritical American or western sh*tlib.
If what you say is the case, then there was no need for Russian to invade Crimea in 2014. But in fact the votes and referenda you reference were directed by Russia. Russia, a county that agreed in writing in 1996 to respect Ukraine's borders.
I call it an agreed upon military presence due to the port at Sevastopol. In addition to members of the already present Russian contingent at Sevastopol and "intelligence" assets, the "little green men" who secured Crimea for Russia after the coup were mainly about 20,000 local UKR soldiers sympathetic to Russia who switched sides and removed the insignia from their green uniforms and vehicles – not infiltrated RU soldiers as many media sources claimed. Literally every Evil Vlad interview or statement about the re-integration of Crimea referenced by US liberals and neocons has been mistranslated.
Based on history, Ukraine’s claim to Crimea as part of its ancestral territorial sovereignty is tenuous at best – and certainly not an issue worth spending tens of billions of dollars and starting World War III to resolve. As former Texas Rep. Ron Paul said in March 2014, "Why does the U.S. care which flag will be hoisted on a small piece of land thousands of miles away?"
And given the overwhelming sentiments of the actual citizens of Crimea, I have to ask - why do you care so much and what do YOU call it?
The Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas, and the lies they tell about it, are not well understood by enough westerners. Western media is usually soft on Kremlin aggression.
"While Yanukovych's pro-Russian regime was killing protesters in central Kyiv, around 30,000 Russian troops crossed into Crimea, taking hold of the 27,000-square-kilometer (10,400-square-mile) peninsula by early March.
"This event effectively began Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. The Russian military has continued to occupy Crimea ever since.
"In March 2014, 100 member states in the United Nations General Assembly voted on a resolution stating that the annexation of Crimea was illegal and any staged voting on the peninsula conducted by Russia was null and void."
"4. “The 2014 war was a US-instigated coup against a democratically elected president.”
"False. The 2014 Euromaidan revolution was a popular uprising against Viktor Yanukovych’s corruption and authoritarian turnaround from an EU trade deal. The claim that it was a “US-orchestrated coup” is a Kremlin false talking point, not a fact. The fact is there was no coup in Kyiv in 2014, but there were coups in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014 attempted and achieved by the Russian military, FSB, proxies and and mercenaries. They also tried to do it in 8 more cities of Ukraine then, but failed mostly due to the poor logistics of what Moscow organised and conducted."
"The funniest thing is that this myth exists solely in the West. There’s is a huge difference between “export” and “domestic” versions of Russian propaganda.
When they write about the war in Donbas (2014-2022), they don’t try to hide that actually there was no local rebellion. They describe it as an action of paramilitary group, led by Igor Girkin - a man who has no personal connection with Ukraine or Donbas (he lives in Moscow, where he was probably born).
Girkin was sent to Ukraine by the Russian secret services, with a bunch of thugs. He attacked the government buildings in Slavyansk, took the employees as hostages and proclaimed the separatist republic. He was subsequently forced out of the city, but as his gang received help from Russia, they managed to establish a line of contact that pretty much prevailed until 2022 (and actually in the vicinity of Donyetsk, it didn’t change that much).
So where are the local separatists in this narrative? Nowhere. They just never existed (as a political movement, not as a joke, such as American students proclaiming their campus an independent state)."
"You should also bear in mind that the Russian naval base in Sevastopol was de facto extraterritorial in independent Ukraine (it was guaranteed by bilateral treaties). People working for the Russian Navy usually had no Ukrainian passports. That’s why it was so easy for Girkin’s thugs to seize power in 2014 - they arrived from Moscow without border controls and changed to combat gear in the extraterritorial base."
They voted after russia was already occupying them and the only options on the referendum were “become part of Russia” or “become an independent state (beholden to Russia” you literal NPC.
Read the documents and polls I provided. The people of Crimea *continue* to disagree with you hate spewing shitlibs. Does Putler have "little green men" inside every household?
And they weren't "occupied" - There was a memorandum that Russia could use their naval base in Crimea for a given period of time. The people of Crimea - INCLUDING members of the Ukrainian military stationed there - volunteered to assist with providing security during the referendum because of threats from the coup regime and Azov types up north. There were mass protests after the 2014 US-assisted coup in both Crimea and the eastern oblasts. Crimeans and those in the Donbass region were strongly against the unconstitutional usurpation in Kyiv because they supported Yanukovych. I'm sorry that your echo chamber doesn't allow for the inclusion of important context like that, but that doesn't negate the reality or the history.
And as noted, apparently American neocons and shitlibs should have more say in the destiny of Crimeans than Crimeans themselves. That's your distorted version of "freedom and democracy" - When you don't like the results of an election/referendum, it's automatically corrupt or invalid. Especially if it involves a foreign nation on the official baddies list.
I'm sorry that you have such an emotional investment in hating Evil Putler, but maybe you should spend your time reading rather than engaging in ad hominem on the Internet. Or just keep screaming into your pillow.
Today's political mainstream consists of big-government leftists that think Israel is the villain in the Middle East vs big-government leftists that think Israel is the villain in the Middle East and also ended the peaceful transition of power in the US.
Who exactly is "the right?'
We don't need "real fighters," whatever that means. What we urgently need are professionals who actually understand the subject of politics to start making headway in the mainstream before it's too late.
What a lousy exercise of sophistication ! What a sad hill to go die on !
Your attempt to present Mr Piker as an equivalent of Mr Fuentes, Miss Owens and Mr Carlson is as wobbly as it is disengenuous.
It also seems you don’t understand some basic science principles such as causality or relativity. America (not American) deserved 9/11 because of its government’s inflamming foreign policies. And no, the alleged rape of civilians on october 7 cannot justify the murder of 70 000 + civilians.
THIS is were your poor chatgptesque reasonning and the actions of Israeli government are leading us nowadays : to stupid numbers comparisons. A battle you couldn’t win if you were to be simply honest, empathetic and most of all intelligent.
Because this is the fatal flaw of democrats and liberals. They make calculations. They’re not politicians, they are numbers’ slaves. Instead of listening to people and engineering new policies resulting in the improvement of their well being, they let numbers do the thinking instead. And numbers have this thing for them is that not only they make cowards but in complexe systems, numbers don’t guarantee anything.
Piker or whoever left flank influencer you can find aren’t THE problem. The problem is that democrats and liberals in general are incompetents and it’s starting to show.
Mr Hawkey, you are beside the point by not participating in the debate about Mr Piker but I'll answer in kind nonetheless.
What you are doing here is just highlighting the asymmetry of the situation in Gaza. Rapes, exactions, humiliations, murders of Palestinians at the hand of Israelis (IDF soldiers and Israelis settlers) are not "well documented and substantiated as it gets" and when they are for some reason, they don’t provoke the same outrage as the fate of Israelis citizen. Do you happen to know why ?
The treatment received by the members of the recent humanitarian flotillas during their captivity shows the appetite of IDF for rape and unnecessary violence though. Now, it caused some outrage in the West because the victims were westerners. However there have been reports of much more horrific treatment for the Palestinians for ages. Where was that energy for outrage then ? Do you happen to know ? Do you think those crimes commited by the IDF are going to be properly "documented and substantiated" so the perpetrators get punished ? Do you think Palestinians can document their plight, get heard on CNN, or the Knesset and obtain justice ? Hell, do you actually believe the number of victims given by the Gaza Health Ministry ? Don’t you think 70 000 + victims is a bit exagerated ? I'm asking you because you seem to be knowledgeable on the subject. Well, to be honest you don’t seem to know much so I'm going to teach you something that should stimulate a reflection within.
There is a saying in former colonial countries that "the powerful get to write history as he sees fit". Now, it seems to me that you are blindly contributing to the writing of history by Israel and its allies. Seems to me that you are not advocating for a just world, but rather for a world where might is right.
Mr Hawkey, I suspect you replied to the part that felt easier to attack.
Even then you need a report, you need the "democratic" aura of Israel to help you defend... Defend what in fact ? Justice ? Humanist values ? That's obviously not what you're defending. Like the author of this article you don't like these things, you just like the image of it. Your own words speak for themselves !
"Whatever Israel's crimes". You simply just don't care.
"they are the exception". You're not looking hard enough. After 70 000 plus civilian victims (more than the Ukrainian war by the way) you're still willing to deny that this is systemic violence.
Since you're talking about accountability, and not transparency unfortunately, I suggest you read this article from B'Tselem published in 2017 to clear up your eyes if you dare to open them :
It hasn't been produced by CEOs or founding members of prestigious organizations, it hasn't been approved by ambasadors or ex-first ladies thus I can assure you its role is not to silence the opposition but to open the dialogue and stimulate questionnement.
That is what Mr Piker defends, that is what Mr Ezra Klein suggests as well, that is what democracy is.
I'm not "muddying the waters" whatever that means. I'm staying on point. The author is making a not so veiled comparison between Mr Piker and Ms Owens and use it to conclude that he should be expelled from the democrats' tent in order to save their liberal values. I gave my opinion about that and I reaffirmed it when adressing your comment. That is undemocratic, disengenuous and it most of all begs the question about who exactly that is supposed to serve.
Now, you come with a shiny 290 pages report that brings nothing to the conversation, you throw nonsense after nonsense and suggest I should follow allong with your GI Joe logic.
Gaza is occupied by the state of Israël. A war suggests two opposing sovereign states. This is not a war.
Because Israel prevents Palestinians from meeting their basic needs and rights, which is described in the B'Tselem article I linked you and many more, this is indeed systemic violence. I'll go further. It's an apartheid that turned into a genocide.
There is no way around it. You either don't want to see it or you can't understand it, which in both cases is suspicious. Either way at that level there's not much I can do for you.
Are we going to pretend that Tucker is more offensive than Douglas Murray? The only difference is the identity group being criticized. Is Candace different than Matt Walsh? Matt is still platformed by Ben.
Is there anyone more inflammatory than Trump? From his attacks on migrants to rob reiner?
The USSR wasn't "the largest authoritarian security apparatus in human history" - the USA is and it's just getting worse. Regardless, it did serve as a check of sorts on the otherwise completely unbound finance capitalism and deadly neo-colonial adventurism of the USA. If you still think all the unconstitutional wars fought during Cold War 1.0 were about "containing communism" you have no clue WTF you're talking about; they were about crushing liberal socialism abroad so that a "good example" couldn't inspire Americans. But, again, the existence of the USSR is a primary reason that the New Deal happened and that a vibrant middle class was *allowed* to grow and prosper. Simply compare the situation then to the situation now.
Hamas is not an "explicitly genocidal" organization. Zionist "Israel" is.
There wasn't a single provable rape allegation from October 7 and the stuff about "mass rapes" fell apart almost immediately.
He didn't say AmericanS deserved the results of 9/11, he said that AmericA deserved the end results of its decades of foreign policy which entailed creating, arming and aiding various terror groups, of which one allegedly carried out the 9/11 attacks (God knows they had plenty of "help" from the inside, and of course you'll never talk to the families of 9/11 victims to learn who *they* think is really to blame).
In any case, Piker isn't running for office, and all you've got to beat him over the head with is "But he said______! and CANDACE OWENS!" all while pretending to acknowledge, but in reality downplaying the dangerous context of his being under formal investigation by the fascist Trump Regime for simply visiting Cuba and documenting the situation there for those who cared to watch and listen.
You're doing far more harm to liberal and leftist causes than anyone you criticize.
Hamas is explicitly genocidal. Their founding charter cements them as such and they’ve never renounced it. I know that must be very inconvenient for your narrative, 🤖
A society that loses a shared reality eventually begins rewarding the people who can generate the strongest emotions, not the deepest understanding.
But then that *is* the shared reality.
No, I think the problem is that the people dominating mainstream political discourse don't actually know anything about politics. This is why populism and emotion driven action is on the rise. This is what happens when we lack expertise.
In a sense, yes — it is still the same reality. The problem begins when society no longer trusts the shared methods used to describe and interpret it. At that point, emotions start replacing understanding, and politics gradually becomes less a debate about facts and more a competition between narratives.
But the issue is whether the shared methods are correct or not. Without this, it just becomes a competition of narratives.
We have an issue of expertise in politics, not an issue of agreement.
That’s exactly the point — when a society stops trusting shared methods of recognizing reality, politics gradually turns from a debate about solutions into a conflict of competing narratives.
I would love to live in the world where I do not know the names Candace Owens and Hasan Piker. I am very troubled if the Dems think Piker can be exploited to help secure the lefty votes.
There’s people defending him here in comments.
Those comments were brought to you by Piker, Inc.
Because he has a cult of personality not dissimilar to Trump and the communist dictators that he so admires from his cushy LA manor. I have my problems with mainstream liberalism (I agree with criticisms that liberals have dragged their feet on issues, and I believe that Social Democracy does a better job at achieving "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."), but I am far more distrustful of leftists who openly embrace illiberalism. 50% of Americans fear of socialism comes from McCarthyist bullshit, but the other 50% comes self-identified socialists defending autocrats that vaguely align with their economic policy.
The difference here is that Piker has already sailed over that line several times. He’s basically a left wing Trump.
There is no such thing as a "left-wing" Trump.
Piker is a misogynist and racist.
No he's not; give me an example why you think that!
Guess we're not going to have a civil conversation!!! Hasan has NEVER said rape is OK.
Hasan Piker, noted dog shocker and fan of Diddy parties, and the rest of Blue MAGA has no place in the liberal Democratic Party. That was cemented long ago and reaffirmed by his recent defense of Maureen Galindo, the Democratic primary candidate who wants to put “Zionists” into camps. He said Democrats should ignore her and tried shifting the blame for wanting to recreate the Holocaust off her onto Israel.
That some libs won't criticize him relates to my thesis that liberals tend to think everyone is a liberal deep down, and so it's fine to embrace anyone who seems to be on their side, no matter how illiberal, because it's all an act.
The article seems to have gotten some illiberals to unsubscribe. A good if unintended effect.
It's also shown up a few trolls, abusive and otherwise, using their bags of tricks to distract from the indefensible.
"Trolls deploy false equivalence to flatten serious issues into meaningless comparisons and employ diversion to shift focus away from evidence. They construct straw man arguments that distort original positions and wield sarcasm to belittle rather than enlighten. They nitpick grammar or wording to dodge the core argument, feign confusion to stall progress, and move the goalposts once their questions receive answers. They thrive on demanding endless “gotcha” questions that exhaust, bombard discussions with irrelevant questions designed to sideline inconvenient facts, project their own behaviors onto opponents, cherry-pick fragments out of context, misquote sources to suit their narrative, recycle debunked claims as though they were fresh, and abruptly shift subjects entirely when pressed."
https://wendy664.substack.com/p/exposed-the-29-moves-every-troll
"Internet trolling has become more sinister in recent years. In particular, investigators revealed it to have played a role in influence operations around both the 2016 US election and Brexit. The Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) used tactics such as meme warfare to create identity groups then set them against one another."
https://samanthanorth.com/internet-trolling-tactics
If you bothered to take the Piker quotes in context, you would come up with entirely different meanings; his statement about the USSR was not about their politics or authoritarianism, but the fact their demise allowed capitalist hegemony to take over the world, with disastrous consequences.. Piker is basically a Democratic Socialist, like Bernie. Piker's remark about 9/11 only meant that US foreign policy in the Middle East, such as arming one terrorist group to attack another terrorist group, made the US vulnerable, much like previous decades when the US meddled in Latin America; granted, the verb "deserved" was a poor choice ("allowed" would have been better), but Piker streams almost continually, and "misspeaking" is bound to happen. And OF COURSE he critiques liberalism! However, he is more than willing to defend his views, unlike Owens. Piker doesn't DEFEND Hamas for the violence; he simply understands what Gaza has been through, especially now. He is making an argument, Owens is just creating conspiracies.
The “context” you provide here doesn’t vindicate Piker, it underlines the problem. Take your first claim about the USSR, for instance.
Piker believes the existence of the Soviet Union, the largest authoritarian security apparatus in human history, was good for the world. It was not. It was a suffocating tyranny clamped down upon Eastern Europe. It crushed civil society and strangled democracy. It imposed a corrupt and devastatingly inefficient economic system upon millions of people, thwarting their aspirations for healthy, self-determined, flourishing lives. That’s why 1989 was the greatest migration from authoritarianism to democracy ever recorded. It’s why East German soldiers gunned down people who wanted to cross into West Berlin—to keep millions of human beings in captivity.
You’re welcome to outline the “disastrous consequences” of the destruction of this horrific system of oppression and life-reaping economic backwardness. You’re welcome to explain why it is that the countries of Eastern Europe lined up to join the Western political, economic, and security architecture for which you and Piker have so much contempt. Even many democratic socialists recognized that continuing to celebrate the USSR was a political dead end after the Cold War. But historically illiterate dead-enders like Piker have made defending Soviet totalitarianism cool again. What a horrible legacy.
As for the rest of your “context,” I’d like you to consider the ideology of the terrorists who slaughtered 3,000 human beings on 9/11 by turning civilian aircraft into missiles. Those people are the most viciously reactionary imperialists on the face of the planet. Why do you think Osama bin Laden celebrated the mass murder of Australian tourists in Bali in 2002? Because Australia helped to supervise the liberation of East Timor from the Indonesian dictatorship. George W. Bush is constantly mocked for observing that theocratic fascists hate freedom and democracy. Well, they do. To argue that civilians “deserved” to be massacred by these fascists because U.S. foreign policy has an ugly history in the Middle East is morally repugnant. Stop apologizing for it. I assure you I could stream every hour of every day for the rest of my life, as could many others, without saying anything so appalling.
Piker said he would vote for Hamas over Israel. Hamas is an explicitly genocidal organization that uses human shields to wage a pointless war of extermination against Israel. Of course he defends Hamas. He does so constantly. Be honest about it.
I’m not surprised that Piker attacks liberals: he’s deeply illiberal. He rationalizes gruesome terrorist atrocities. He pines for the days of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. He’s a perfect distillation of left-wing illiberalism, and liberals should say so.
So now we're just flat out lying? Not a good look. Let's take some of this apart:
> "As for the rest of your “context,” I’d like you to consider the ideology of the terrorists who slaughtered 3,000 human beings on 9/11 by turning civilian aircraft into missiles. Those people are the most viciously reactionary imperialists on the face of the planet."
Al Qaeda? The US "intelligence community" *creation*? The entity created specifically to thwart the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan, during the Cold War? Then turned loose on any other enemies of the US Empire like a moveable feast, until the chickens came home to roost, and then suddenly we're supposed to forget history and abandon all critical thinking? Pray tell, what *was* their ideology, who funded its creation and spread, and what countries were involved? Were they allies of the USA or not?
> "Why do you think Osama bin Laden celebrated the mass murder of Australian tourists in Bali in 2002?"
Well, for one thing he didn't. You're literally making that up. Show us a source for this claim, or admit you're lying. Besides, what does this have to do with Hasan Piker or Mary Adeline's point? Absolutely nothing; that's what. It's a cheap straw man and distraction from the fact that you don't have any direct arguments to make in response to her comment.
>"To argue that civilians “deserved” to be massacred by these fascists because U.S. foreign policy has an ugly history in the Middle East is morally repugnant."
Show us the precise quote. Tell me where he said "civilians deserved" to be killed. But hey, let's assume he did (he didn't) - Do US civilians deserve NOT to be killed by a terrorist group that was in large part founded, funded and trained *by* US civilians using US civilians' tax money more than any random West Asian civilians (or anyone else) deserve NOT to be killed by US bombs, sanctions, US-sponsored terror groups, and Hellfire missiles? And who's more "fascist" in this equation? Al Qaeda or the US government? That's a subject for an entire debate.
>"Piker said he would vote for Hamas over Israel. Hamas is an explicitly genocidal organization that uses human shields to wage a pointless war of extermination against Israel."
More nasty lies. Hamas has never been "explicitly genocidal" even before they changed their "charter" - Not any moreso than "Israel" has always been, anyway. And "human shields"? Show us proof and not IDF or right-wing "Israeli" talking points. What do you call it when a warlike belligerent nation intentionally builds its military and intelligence command and control center underneath civilian apartment buildings and shopping centers? NOT the use of "human shields"? Or what about the common IDF practice of forcing unarmed non-Hamas affiliated civilians to walk into structures, at gunpoint, as....wait for it.....HUMAN SHIELDS?
How much money does the "Israel" lobby pay you, anyway? I haven't seen this many hasbara talking points at a "liberal" Substack in quite a long time.
I’m right there with you, bro! I hate any authoritarian government! And yes, the USSR was an authoritarian government that required, not only how their citizens behaved but how they thought (and voted)! Unfortunately, all people have committed atrocities on each other since the dawn of time; and I condemn all of them!!!! But let’s start with the US; the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed a minimum of >whether it saved American lives in the long run, but it did kill over 250,000 non-combatants. Do you have a problem with that? And that’s the point here!!! Hasan is making a point about foreign policy, not morality.
Whataboutism
The left-wing *is* illiberal. The whole issue today is that conservatives have become the worst left-wing we've ever seen.
Right-wing ideas, like individual rights, rights-protecting government and capitalism, don't have any advocates in the mainstream, and as a result have no voters.
The Sept 11th attack is so often explained by blaming US foreign policy that no one ever even bothers to challenge it. But there are people who actually study the Middle East and listen to what their leaders say. Bernard Lewis explains in the introduction to his book “The Crisis of Islam” that Osama bin Laden’s video, released on October 7, 2001, mentions “the humiliation and disgrace” that Islam has suffered “for more than 80 years.” He’s referring to the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 and the subsequent taking over of its territories by colonial European powers. One of the clever propaganda tricks these guys use is they reset the clock so they can blame you. And it works with Americans because they typically don’t study history. They definitely don’t live obsessed with it. When the jihadist tries to blame you for what he did - don’t help him. He’s lying.
“If you bothered to take the Trump quotes in context, you would come up with entirely different meanings…” Nobody misspeaks like that - he chose those words. Free markets have helped more people than communism ever has or ever will. There is no appropriate context for excusing or hand waving rape and terrorism. He’s another example of why the progressive left seems allergic to winning elections - the right wing is much better at comms and they will tie Piker to every Dem if he’s not kicked from the tent. Remember the “they them” campaign ad? Trump took a years old comment from a dumb left wing purity test and turned it into a national issue.
"Demise allowed capitalist hegemony to take over the world, with disastrous consequences." Oh so the victims of communism were just expendable?
According to The UnPopulist, Hasan “CELEBRATED the Soviet Union;” he did no such thing. His point was that after the Soviet Union fell there was nothing standing in the way of capitalism as the FINAL AND ONLY economic theory/philosophy as to how the world works. Remember The End of History? He is making an argument; feel free to disagree with him, but don’t put words in his mouth that he didn’t say!!! As we have come to find out, a lot of citizens of the USSR were happy with the Communist version of authoritarianism, and missed it, Putin being one of them. One main difference between 1991and 2026 is that now the Russian elite have access to luxury “things;” Marx has been replaced by the Russian Orthodox Church, otherwise the population is as repressed and controlled as it was back then. In 1991, Socialism, as in democratic socialism, as a viable economic model, was much more prevalent than it is today and could have been an alternative way forward for the USSR.
What complete and utter bullshit. The Baltics, Poland, many Balkan countries have all flourished and in fact are social democracies today. Instead of defending them from Russian revanchism Hasan is puffing up China's dictatorship. Just adding exclamation points doesn't make your points any less inane.
Oh give me a break!!!! I agree, what complete and utter bullshit on your part! Yeah, the Baltics, et all are doing well, because they escaped, so far, from Putin's spider web. China?? The UnPopulist accused Hasan Piker of something that he never said or advocated, and I just pointed that out. I'm not sure where you are going with your accusations, but if you want to argue (or rant) about anything, tell me what it is so I can reply.
He's not a "democratic socialist." He's an unthinking tankie.
Why does anybody even give Hasan Piker the time of day? He's a garden-variety tankie who has gained currency in social media because 1) he's a Twitch streamer, and 2) he's unusually good-looking. He has zero intellectual chops, and knows nothing about politics. He's just absorbed some crap from tankies at Rutgers. We'd all be better off if people just ignored him.
thank you for helping me remove a newsletter from my reading list 💚
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! I’m always glad to see Blue MAGA leaving liberal spaces
Good riddance.
Tankies and fascists seem determined to prove the horseshoe analogy apt, even as their actions keep benefiting the revanchist imperialists in the Kremlin.
Neither are allies to liberalism.
"In today’s Vatnik Soup and May Day special, we introduce Hasan Piker, a Turkish-American streamer and millionaire. He’s best known for his champagne socialism, his rabid criticism of the US and Israel, his support for the Soviet Union and for Chinese and Russian invasions, and for mistreating his dog."
https://vatniksoup.com/en/soups/387/
"The group has a long history of publishing deepfakes and fake whistleblower videos, and the false sexual abuse claim of Tim Walz came from them. Storm-1516 was also behind the fake hit-and-run story about Kamala Harris. Trump’s allies have also spread these claims online,…
"including people like the Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec & far-right podcaster Candace Owens. Another large X account, “Black Insurrectionist” (who’s actually a white dude named Jason G. Palmer) also spread fake e-mails about this story, eventually nuking their account."
https://vatniksoup.com/en/soups/313/
I am not a podcaster or polemicist and I wouldn’t say some of the things Piker has for sure.
But liberalism is a diabolical lie and failed experiment that led us to no health care, endless war and Donald Trump.
I held my nose and voted Harris and would do so again if the alternative is Trump. But I don’t believe in Obama/Biden/Clinton horse doo doo.
I hope you realize the only reason you can call liberalism a “diabolical lie and failed experiment” is because liberalism protects pluralism and your right to free speech. Saying stuff like that in Russia or China would get you harassed by police or even arrested.
Liberalism promises to protect that stuff and promises means tested benefits only to those who desperately need them, and promises opportunity, and what it delivers is ruinously expensive health care, unimaginable riches for four men and wage/debt slavery to everyone else. It promises tranquility and delivers war after war after war. It leaves us and our children to the tender mercies of insurance company CEO’s. When we complain we get a woman whose pockets are bulging with Goldman Sachs speaking fees telling us “this is as good as it gets. Now hush.”
When disaster strikes it bails out those who caused the disaster and locks the rest of us below decks, abandoning us to our fates.
Inevitably, predictably, with certainty the eventual result is 50% of the country explicitly wanting fascism and a dictator. And oh, those four men who are life’s winners? They write a manifesto calling for the end of democracy and establishment of an unchallengeable CEO-Emperor and themselves as his board of directors.
To paraphrase the late great Anton Chigurth; ‘if the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?’
That’s a lot of emotionally driven rambles but the most egregious thing to me was “the late great Anton Chirgurth”. First of all, neither the character nor the actor are dead. Second of all, the character is a psychopathic hitman, not anyone great to be admired. And third, his name is Chigurh, not Chigurth.
You’re like those guys who quotes Heath Ledger’s Joker while never having seen The Dark Knight lmao
Yeah liberalism failing in the exact way leftists always predict it will, condemning the country and its people to fascism … if that’s not something to be emotional about then I don’t know what is.
It’s tragic because its failure was predictable and predicted and it failed exactly as such.
Scream “late stage capitalism” for 125 years and eventually capitalism will have issues that need fixing, yes. The main advantage of liberalism is that it can correct itself like with the Gilded Age/Great Depression or 70s stagflation while leftist countries like the USSR and Maoist China either collapse or let their population starve lol
I wouldn't even describe it as "capitalism will have issues." It's leftist policies causing all the issues which are then being blamed on capitalism.
Ok. How’s that liberalism project working out for you?
Pretty weird that this publication is trying so hard to dampen enthusiasm to fight the right. So far Piker seems to have been on the right side of just about every issue, and The UnPopulist stirring infighting when momentum is most important is pretty telling. Feeding into the ecosystem of Liberals punching harder left than right helps no one, and just stagnates the party and continues to fail. Candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, Chris Rabb, Cori Bush, and Zohran Mamdani should give anyone left of center hope that there is a shift happening and the stagnant old guard, the ones who have played nice and been walked all over since the Reagan era, need to go. This article is exactly why so many liberals have such a poor opinion of the Democratic party. If Soc Dems and Dem Socs have to take the lead to get anything done then so be it. Their policies aren't failing, and they are proving popular. The time of the old guard is behind us and we need real fighters.
“The right side of every issue.” Like when he supports re-education camps, the imperialist invasion of Taiwan, or defends the Russian occupation of Crimea? Hasan is not interested in defending our democracy. He’s only interested in fighting authoritarianism from right to create a left-wing authoritarian government.
Russian "occupation of" Crimea? I thought you people were champions of democracy. Did you forget that Crimeans overwhelmingly voted to leave Ukraine and join the RF? And that multiple western polling and journalism outlets have conducted follow-up surveys in which the number who support that referendum and appreciate the results only got higher?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crimeans-vote-overwhelmingly-to-secede-from-ukraine-join-russia/
https://www.usagm.gov/wp-content/media/2014/06/Ukraine-slide-deck.pdf
https://www.iri.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy/iri.org/2013%20October%207%20Survey%20of%20Crimean%20Public%20Opinion,%20May%2016-30,%202013.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/03/20/one-year-after-russia-annexed-crimea-locals-prefer-moscow-to-kiev/
Besides, why do you care so much about Crimea? You don't have to answer: You've been brainwashed by western propaganda and hating Putler is a core element of your identity.
Let us guess: the strong opinions of an American Democrat/liberal are more educated, important and should carry more weight about how Crimeans live than the opinions of the Crimeans themselves. Yeah you really LOVE "democracy" don't you - so long as the results of any democratic election align with your preconcevied desires and opinions. Soooo typical of a hypocritical American or western sh*tlib.
If what you say is the case, then there was no need for Russian to invade Crimea in 2014. But in fact the votes and referenda you reference were directed by Russia. Russia, a county that agreed in writing in 1996 to respect Ukraine's borders.
How democratic is "Israel"?
Or how about the US invasion of Venezuela? How strong is your opinion on that?
They didn't invade. Read some actual history and then maybe we can debate as equals.
What do YOU call it? (And I already have a PhD.)
I call it an agreed upon military presence due to the port at Sevastopol. In addition to members of the already present Russian contingent at Sevastopol and "intelligence" assets, the "little green men" who secured Crimea for Russia after the coup were mainly about 20,000 local UKR soldiers sympathetic to Russia who switched sides and removed the insignia from their green uniforms and vehicles – not infiltrated RU soldiers as many media sources claimed. Literally every Evil Vlad interview or statement about the re-integration of Crimea referenced by US liberals and neocons has been mistranslated.
Based on history, Ukraine’s claim to Crimea as part of its ancestral territorial sovereignty is tenuous at best – and certainly not an issue worth spending tens of billions of dollars and starting World War III to resolve. As former Texas Rep. Ron Paul said in March 2014, "Why does the U.S. care which flag will be hoisted on a small piece of land thousands of miles away?"
And given the overwhelming sentiments of the actual citizens of Crimea, I have to ask - why do you care so much and what do YOU call it?
🇷🇺🤖 Slava Ukraini
The Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas, and the lies they tell about it, are not well understood by enough westerners. Western media is usually soft on Kremlin aggression.
"While Yanukovych's pro-Russian regime was killing protesters in central Kyiv, around 30,000 Russian troops crossed into Crimea, taking hold of the 27,000-square-kilometer (10,400-square-mile) peninsula by early March.
"This event effectively began Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. The Russian military has continued to occupy Crimea ever since.
"In March 2014, 100 member states in the United Nations General Assembly voted on a resolution stating that the annexation of Crimea was illegal and any staged voting on the peninsula conducted by Russia was null and void."
https://kyivindependent.com/russias-annexation-of-crimea/
"4. “The 2014 war was a US-instigated coup against a democratically elected president.”
"False. The 2014 Euromaidan revolution was a popular uprising against Viktor Yanukovych’s corruption and authoritarian turnaround from an EU trade deal. The claim that it was a “US-orchestrated coup” is a Kremlin false talking point, not a fact. The fact is there was no coup in Kyiv in 2014, but there were coups in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014 attempted and achieved by the Russian military, FSB, proxies and and mercenaries. They also tried to do it in 8 more cities of Ukraine then, but failed mostly due to the poor logistics of what Moscow organised and conducted."
"The funniest thing is that this myth exists solely in the West. There’s is a huge difference between “export” and “domestic” versions of Russian propaganda.
When they write about the war in Donbas (2014-2022), they don’t try to hide that actually there was no local rebellion. They describe it as an action of paramilitary group, led by Igor Girkin - a man who has no personal connection with Ukraine or Donbas (he lives in Moscow, where he was probably born).
Girkin was sent to Ukraine by the Russian secret services, with a bunch of thugs. He attacked the government buildings in Slavyansk, took the employees as hostages and proclaimed the separatist republic. He was subsequently forced out of the city, but as his gang received help from Russia, they managed to establish a line of contact that pretty much prevailed until 2022 (and actually in the vicinity of Donyetsk, it didn’t change that much).
So where are the local separatists in this narrative? Nowhere. They just never existed (as a political movement, not as a joke, such as American students proclaiming their campus an independent state)."
https://eastsplaining.substack.com/p/the-myth-of-the-donbas-separatism
"You should also bear in mind that the Russian naval base in Sevastopol was de facto extraterritorial in independent Ukraine (it was guaranteed by bilateral treaties). People working for the Russian Navy usually had no Ukrainian passports. That’s why it was so easy for Girkin’s thugs to seize power in 2014 - they arrived from Moscow without border controls and changed to combat gear in the extraterritorial base."
https://eastsplaining.substack.com/p/whose-crimea
They voted after russia was already occupying them and the only options on the referendum were “become part of Russia” or “become an independent state (beholden to Russia” you literal NPC.
Read the documents and polls I provided. The people of Crimea *continue* to disagree with you hate spewing shitlibs. Does Putler have "little green men" inside every household?
And they weren't "occupied" - There was a memorandum that Russia could use their naval base in Crimea for a given period of time. The people of Crimea - INCLUDING members of the Ukrainian military stationed there - volunteered to assist with providing security during the referendum because of threats from the coup regime and Azov types up north. There were mass protests after the 2014 US-assisted coup in both Crimea and the eastern oblasts. Crimeans and those in the Donbass region were strongly against the unconstitutional usurpation in Kyiv because they supported Yanukovych. I'm sorry that your echo chamber doesn't allow for the inclusion of important context like that, but that doesn't negate the reality or the history.
And as noted, apparently American neocons and shitlibs should have more say in the destiny of Crimeans than Crimeans themselves. That's your distorted version of "freedom and democracy" - When you don't like the results of an election/referendum, it's automatically corrupt or invalid. Especially if it involves a foreign nation on the official baddies list.
I'm sorry that you have such an emotional investment in hating Evil Putler, but maybe you should spend your time reading rather than engaging in ad hominem on the Internet. Or just keep screaming into your pillow.
Today's political mainstream consists of big-government leftists that think Israel is the villain in the Middle East vs big-government leftists that think Israel is the villain in the Middle East and also ended the peaceful transition of power in the US.
Who exactly is "the right?'
We don't need "real fighters," whatever that means. What we urgently need are professionals who actually understand the subject of politics to start making headway in the mainstream before it's too late.
Totally agree . . . .
What a lousy exercise of sophistication ! What a sad hill to go die on !
Your attempt to present Mr Piker as an equivalent of Mr Fuentes, Miss Owens and Mr Carlson is as wobbly as it is disengenuous.
It also seems you don’t understand some basic science principles such as causality or relativity. America (not American) deserved 9/11 because of its government’s inflamming foreign policies. And no, the alleged rape of civilians on october 7 cannot justify the murder of 70 000 + civilians.
THIS is were your poor chatgptesque reasonning and the actions of Israeli government are leading us nowadays : to stupid numbers comparisons. A battle you couldn’t win if you were to be simply honest, empathetic and most of all intelligent.
Because this is the fatal flaw of democrats and liberals. They make calculations. They’re not politicians, they are numbers’ slaves. Instead of listening to people and engineering new policies resulting in the improvement of their well being, they let numbers do the thinking instead. And numbers have this thing for them is that not only they make cowards but in complexe systems, numbers don’t guarantee anything.
Piker or whoever left flank influencer you can find aren’t THE problem. The problem is that democrats and liberals in general are incompetents and it’s starting to show.
October 7 rapes are not "alleged," they are as well documented and substantiated as it gets: https://www.civilc.org/silenced-no-more
Mr Hawkey, you are beside the point by not participating in the debate about Mr Piker but I'll answer in kind nonetheless.
What you are doing here is just highlighting the asymmetry of the situation in Gaza. Rapes, exactions, humiliations, murders of Palestinians at the hand of Israelis (IDF soldiers and Israelis settlers) are not "well documented and substantiated as it gets" and when they are for some reason, they don’t provoke the same outrage as the fate of Israelis citizen. Do you happen to know why ?
The treatment received by the members of the recent humanitarian flotillas during their captivity shows the appetite of IDF for rape and unnecessary violence though. Now, it caused some outrage in the West because the victims were westerners. However there have been reports of much more horrific treatment for the Palestinians for ages. Where was that energy for outrage then ? Do you happen to know ? Do you think those crimes commited by the IDF are going to be properly "documented and substantiated" so the perpetrators get punished ? Do you think Palestinians can document their plight, get heard on CNN, or the Knesset and obtain justice ? Hell, do you actually believe the number of victims given by the Gaza Health Ministry ? Don’t you think 70 000 + victims is a bit exagerated ? I'm asking you because you seem to be knowledgeable on the subject. Well, to be honest you don’t seem to know much so I'm going to teach you something that should stimulate a reflection within.
There is a saying in former colonial countries that "the powerful get to write history as he sees fit". Now, it seems to me that you are blindly contributing to the writing of history by Israel and its allies. Seems to me that you are not advocating for a just world, but rather for a world where might is right.
I participated in the part that mattered to me, in no way were those crimes alleged.
"Alleged" is more applicable to the litany of IDF wrongdoings you've just laid out.
Nobody seriously believes that some in the IDF have not committed war crimes.
The difference is, Israel is a democratic society and individuals who commit them will go on trial.
Meanwhile, the crimes of Hamas are celebrated. Including by Hasan Piker.
Whatever Israel's crimes, they are the exception. Among Hamas, they are not exceptions, they are norms.
Sharing the report underlines this.
There were mechanisms for holding Israel accountable. What are the mechanisms for holding Hamas responsible?
No, instead they are celebrated. That is where the asymmetry is.
Mr Hawkey, I suspect you replied to the part that felt easier to attack.
Even then you need a report, you need the "democratic" aura of Israel to help you defend... Defend what in fact ? Justice ? Humanist values ? That's obviously not what you're defending. Like the author of this article you don't like these things, you just like the image of it. Your own words speak for themselves !
"Whatever Israel's crimes". You simply just don't care.
"they are the exception". You're not looking hard enough. After 70 000 plus civilian victims (more than the Ukrainian war by the way) you're still willing to deny that this is systemic violence.
Since you're talking about accountability, and not transparency unfortunately, I suggest you read this article from B'Tselem published in 2017 to clear up your eyes if you dare to open them :
https://www.btselem.org/accountability?hl=fr-FR
It hasn't been produced by CEOs or founding members of prestigious organizations, it hasn't been approved by ambasadors or ex-first ladies thus I can assure you its role is not to silence the opposition but to open the dialogue and stimulate questionnement.
That is what Mr Piker defends, that is what Mr Ezra Klein suggests as well, that is what democracy is.
You're muddying the waters.
"Systemic violence" is not what's happening.
What is happening is a war.
We can quibble about when that war started, but we'll miss what's important.
Where is the Palestinian peace plan? The ones Israel have offered have apparently been so offensive, the response has been violence every time.
Okay, what's the counter proposal?
I'm glad you care about dead civilians, can you explain what democratic institution was supposed to step in to hold Hamas account able for October 7?
Or Houthis for dead civilians in Yemen?
Or Hezbollah for dead civilians in Syria?
Or sectarians in Nigeria?
Point to the democratic institution responsible for holding these groups accountable.
Anyone can say "oh I wish there wasn't violence." I agree with that as much as you do.
There is no accountability for these terrorist groups in the Middle East. None. And you know it.
That's why there is war.
First things first.
I'm not "muddying the waters" whatever that means. I'm staying on point. The author is making a not so veiled comparison between Mr Piker and Ms Owens and use it to conclude that he should be expelled from the democrats' tent in order to save their liberal values. I gave my opinion about that and I reaffirmed it when adressing your comment. That is undemocratic, disengenuous and it most of all begs the question about who exactly that is supposed to serve.
Now, you come with a shiny 290 pages report that brings nothing to the conversation, you throw nonsense after nonsense and suggest I should follow allong with your GI Joe logic.
Gaza is occupied by the state of Israël. A war suggests two opposing sovereign states. This is not a war.
Because Israel prevents Palestinians from meeting their basic needs and rights, which is described in the B'Tselem article I linked you and many more, this is indeed systemic violence. I'll go further. It's an apartheid that turned into a genocide.
There is no way around it. You either don't want to see it or you can't understand it, which in both cases is suspicious. Either way at that level there's not much I can do for you.
Are we going to pretend that Tucker is more offensive than Douglas Murray? The only difference is the identity group being criticized. Is Candace different than Matt Walsh? Matt is still platformed by Ben.
Is there anyone more inflammatory than Trump? From his attacks on migrants to rob reiner?
but Hasan Piker?
Matt Walsh is definitely an extremist in my book. Not as crazy as Fuentes and Owens but not good.
Hasan Piker is a racist and misogynist.
The USSR wasn't "the largest authoritarian security apparatus in human history" - the USA is and it's just getting worse. Regardless, it did serve as a check of sorts on the otherwise completely unbound finance capitalism and deadly neo-colonial adventurism of the USA. If you still think all the unconstitutional wars fought during Cold War 1.0 were about "containing communism" you have no clue WTF you're talking about; they were about crushing liberal socialism abroad so that a "good example" couldn't inspire Americans. But, again, the existence of the USSR is a primary reason that the New Deal happened and that a vibrant middle class was *allowed* to grow and prosper. Simply compare the situation then to the situation now.
Hamas is not an "explicitly genocidal" organization. Zionist "Israel" is.
There wasn't a single provable rape allegation from October 7 and the stuff about "mass rapes" fell apart almost immediately.
He didn't say AmericanS deserved the results of 9/11, he said that AmericA deserved the end results of its decades of foreign policy which entailed creating, arming and aiding various terror groups, of which one allegedly carried out the 9/11 attacks (God knows they had plenty of "help" from the inside, and of course you'll never talk to the families of 9/11 victims to learn who *they* think is really to blame).
In any case, Piker isn't running for office, and all you've got to beat him over the head with is "But he said______! and CANDACE OWENS!" all while pretending to acknowledge, but in reality downplaying the dangerous context of his being under formal investigation by the fascist Trump Regime for simply visiting Cuba and documenting the situation there for those who cared to watch and listen.
You're doing far more harm to liberal and leftist causes than anyone you criticize.
Hamas is explicitly genocidal. Their founding charter cements them as such and they’ve never renounced it. I know that must be very inconvenient for your narrative, 🤖
Would you like him if his name was Braydon Piker?
No, he’d be the same anti-Liberal propagandist
Absolutely not.
Don’t follow leaders. Watch the parking meters.