Rep Steve King of IA was cut loose and successfully primaried back in 2020 musing abt “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?" Now, he'd get a pass.
Trump's shifted the Overton Window of the politically acceptable down into subterranean levels.
Funny how you didn’t mention that AES refuses to denounce the antisemitic ad you put in “by the way” link that most readers won’t click. Or his history of refusing to denounce antisemitism from his supporters or his outreach to antisemite Hassan Piker or give the full context on the “Hurt people hurt people” comment. El Sayed hates Jews but uses proxies and a wink to express it. Shame on the Democrats for keeping him on the ballot.
It was a parenthetical precisely because it was not the point of the piece. We included it because we wanted to acknowledge that gutter politics isn’t the exclusive province of the right. But this piece was about the extremist rhetoric coming from GOP candidates this midterm season. You may have wanted a piece about El-Sayed or Piker, but that wasn’t this piece.
There was nothing off about our characterization of the facts. On the other hand, your gloss of El-Sayed and the ad is ... tendentious. Someone reading your reply would never have known that the ad wasn't created by him, that it was in fact created by an eclectic contrarian leftist who has burned creditibility with nearly every ideological sector in the game. They would never have known that a spokesperson for El-Sayed's campaign explicitly reiterated that the ad has nothing to do with them (literally said "not affiliated in any way").
Contra your suggestion, the piece does note that Piker campaigned with him, and it calls the “hurt people hurt people” remark a lame rationalization, for which he later apologized.
I think our disagreement is probably here: We think nothing on the left comes close to the volume of bigotry now coming from Republican candidates and the president himself. Do you disagree with that?
Also, El Sayed’s apology was of the I’m-sorry-you -were-offended category: “To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.” He then said “What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context.”
That’s not an apology. He still thinks there is context. He just thinks he should explain why Jewish children should die at a later date.
I think that if you ignore the antisemitism from the left, that is true. Mainstream democrats turn a blind eye towards the Jew hate from their party’s left wing. Are the republicans worse? Sure. I still think it’s reprehensible to give democrats a pass.
The problem isn’t that progressive Jews are distressed about antisemitism. The problem is that other progressives are not and democrats want to beat Trump and MAGA so badly, they are happy to throw Jews under the bus.
Also, taking any support from a group calling themselves “The Young Turks” should be disqualifying. The original Young Turks committed the Armenian Genocide.
https://youtube.com/shorts/DUzowsc0zFo?is=acqO20JPPapHIOC1
Rep Steve King of IA was cut loose and successfully primaried back in 2020 musing abt “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?" Now, he'd get a pass.
Trump's shifted the Overton Window of the politically acceptable down into subterranean levels.
We can condemn Republican racist rhetoric without giving Hasan Piker a pass.
Here's a piece on Piker: https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/hasan-piker-is-following-in-candace
Where does Piker get a pass?
Funny how you didn’t mention that AES refuses to denounce the antisemitic ad you put in “by the way” link that most readers won’t click. Or his history of refusing to denounce antisemitism from his supporters or his outreach to antisemite Hassan Piker or give the full context on the “Hurt people hurt people” comment. El Sayed hates Jews but uses proxies and a wink to express it. Shame on the Democrats for keeping him on the ballot.
It was a parenthetical precisely because it was not the point of the piece. We included it because we wanted to acknowledge that gutter politics isn’t the exclusive province of the right. But this piece was about the extremist rhetoric coming from GOP candidates this midterm season. You may have wanted a piece about El-Sayed or Piker, but that wasn’t this piece.
You might like this other piece on Piker we previously ran: https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/hasan-piker-is-following-in-candace
And this video: https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/the-lefts-authoritarian-apologist
There was nothing off about our characterization of the facts. On the other hand, your gloss of El-Sayed and the ad is ... tendentious. Someone reading your reply would never have known that the ad wasn't created by him, that it was in fact created by an eclectic contrarian leftist who has burned creditibility with nearly every ideological sector in the game. They would never have known that a spokesperson for El-Sayed's campaign explicitly reiterated that the ad has nothing to do with them (literally said "not affiliated in any way").
Contra your suggestion, the piece does note that Piker campaigned with him, and it calls the “hurt people hurt people” remark a lame rationalization, for which he later apologized.
I think our disagreement is probably here: We think nothing on the left comes close to the volume of bigotry now coming from Republican candidates and the president himself. Do you disagree with that?
Also, El Sayed’s apology was of the I’m-sorry-you -were-offended category: “To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry. That was not my intention.” He then said “What I was trying to do was offer context for why it happened, but it wasn’t the time for context.”
That’s not an apology. He still thinks there is context. He just thinks he should explain why Jewish children should die at a later date.
Quotes are from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/30/abdul-el-sayed-apology-michigan-synagogue-attack-comment
I think that if you ignore the antisemitism from the left, that is true. Mainstream democrats turn a blind eye towards the Jew hate from their party’s left wing. Are the republicans worse? Sure. I still think it’s reprehensible to give democrats a pass.
El-Sayed’s primary campaign basically claimed that AIPAC and Israel was standing in the way of universal health care for Americans. https://www.facebook.com/trackaipac/videos/abdul-el-sayed-our-tax-dollarsmp4/1786980979266328/ And he was happy to use antisemitic tropes like “ I’m not willing to take orders from AIPAC.” in a round table : https://arabamericannews.com/2026/10/23/at-dearborn-roundtable-abdul-el-sayed-challenges-corporate-power-and-anti-muslim-attacks-calls-for-a-more-inclusive-america/
I’m not sure how this is much different from the Young Turks ad.
For whatever it’s worth, this *is* a topic we cover: https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/progressive-jews-are-deeply-distressed
The problem isn’t that progressive Jews are distressed about antisemitism. The problem is that other progressives are not and democrats want to beat Trump and MAGA so badly, they are happy to throw Jews under the bus.
I wonder why white guys think they deserve what they want and to hell with everyone else.
We can create our own heaven on earth or live “every man for himself”.
I prefer treat each other as fellow humans….
Also, taking any support from a group calling themselves “The Young Turks” should be disqualifying. The original Young Turks committed the Armenian Genocide.