The radical left is already thrilled: The new star inciting against Israel
Hasan Piker grew up on the line between Turkey and New Jersey, turning from a shy boy into one of the most prominent voices of the radical left in the USA. Today he preaches his doctrine to about 3 million followers online, and when it comes to Israel, his messages are particularly sharp.
When the interviewer for Rolling Stone magazine first met Hasan Piker, he was supposed to be thousands of miles away. Piker, a political commentator from the American radical left and a magnet for scandals, was sitting in his home in Los Angeles instead of the capital of England.
Months earlier, he had planned a busy trip to the UK, which included a panel at the SXSW London conference and a speech at the prestigious Oxford Union. But 48 hours before the flight, he received a message from his uncle who was at the airport at the time - his visa had been cancelled. Piker rushed to check his email and discovered that he had suffered a similar blow. "Your presence in the UK is not considered conducive to the public good," read the official message, which he rushed to read live to his 30,000 stunned viewers. Thus, all at once, he became a persona non grata in the United Kingdom.
35-year-old Piker is no stranger to scandals and media storms. He defines himself as a Marxist and became famous as a dealer of particularly inflammatory opinions. "America deserved 9/11" and "there is a lot to learn from the Chinese Communist Party" are just some of the pearls he has provided in the past. Although he has been suspended from the popular streaming platform Twitch more times than he can count, he continues to broadcast his doctrine eight hours a day, seven days a week, for his three million followers, most of them young people from Gen Z who drink his words thirstily.
Between Istanbul and New Jersey
To understand the phenomenon called Hasan Piker, one must return to his roots. He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1991, but his family returned immediately to Turkey and he grew up in Ankara and Istanbul as a shy child who suffered from bullying and spent his time playing computer games. His mother, an architectural historian, and his father, a former senior official and economist, made sure to maintain his connection to the United States through regular summer vacations with his grandparents in New Jersey.
This dual education gave Piker a complex view of the United States. On one hand, he was exposed firsthand to the consequences of American foreign policy and what he calls "senseless bloodshed" around the world.
On the other hand, he fell in love to the depths of his soul with American consumer culture. "When you grow up in another country, American consumerism is amazing," he said. "Free refills, thirty different flavors of Oreo cookies. These are stupid things that I still love about America. People love the culture and the promise of America, but they hate the government."
After studying at the University of Miami where he spent his first year partying and showed low grades, his mother forced him to move to Rutgers University. "I think he still blames me for that," she said, "but I told myself, 'This can't lead anywhere good.'"
Today, as he rolls in millions from his news broadcasts, it seems she is mostly satisfied with the sartorial image change he recently underwent in his broadcasts: "I'm happy we moved from nude photos to suits," she concludes with a smile. Upon graduating, Piker settled in Los Angeles and began working at his uncle Cenk Uygur's media venture, the anti-Israel network "The Young Turks." What started as advertising sales work quickly turned into a presence in front of the camera, until in 2018 he opened his own channel on Twitch, which grew to huge dimensions during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
"Proud anti-Zionist": The attitude towards Jews
Since the events of October 7, the most central and burning topic in Piker's broadcasts is undoubtedly Israel and Gaza. He is a sharp and tireless critic of the State of Israel, and has already made headlines with outrageous statements that angered many, such as the declaration that "Hamas is a thousand times better than Israel." These statements naturally led to harsh accusations of antisemitism from Jewish organizations, accusations that Piker rejects outright.
"I've spent my whole life fighting antisemitism," he claims in an interview with Rolling Stone, referring to his history in online struggles against neo-Nazi movements. Instead, he defines himself as a "proud anti-Zionist," and argues that "unfortunately, the way many Zionist institutions defend Israel is by labeling their opposition as antisemitic."
As for his extraordinary statement about Hamas, Piker admits it is "intentionally provocative." According to him, his goal is not to justify the war crimes of the terrorist organization, which he says he has condemned in the past, but to force his audience to understand from a Palestinian perspective why people turn to violence after 75 years of occupation.
The British boycott against him, in his view, is directly related to his positions towards Israel and the pressure exerted by those same Jewish organizations. In the weeks leading up to his planned trip, several groups in the kingdom came out openly against him and called him a terrorist supporter. "If you criticize Israel, your movement will be restricted," Piker ruled on the matter. "It's pure fascism."
Capitalist with a Marxist heart
Ironically, for a person who defines himself as a radical Marxist, Piker's business model is pure capitalism. He controls the means of production and his profits are based entirely on the market. With about 50,000 subscribers paying $6 a month, and after the platform's cut, he brings in over two million dollars a year, and this is without advertisements or commercial collaborations that he rejects outright ("I tell them to f*** off," he declares regarding advertisers who approach him). His brand has become strong enough to allow him to refuse outright offers from traditional media networks that want to recruit him.
However, his growing influence online is starting to spill over into local politics, and also into trouble with the authorities. Recently, Piker began publicly supporting candidates from the Democratic left in campaigns across the United States, while trying to convert his "angry and frustrated young people" into field activists. This step led to the cancellation of political events in which he was supposed to participate in Colorado, due to what was defined by venue owners as "pressure from the community."
At the same time, the US Treasury Department recently began investigating a trip Piker took to Cuba last May - a trip that was defined as a humanitarian mission, but potentially constitutes a serious violation of US sanctions punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
For the US Department of Justice, a socialist millionaire from California with a big mouth is a quite tempting target. But Piker, for his part, ignores the noise around him. He continues to sit every morning in front of the split screen, equipped with his new suits, and strike with his radical hammer in an attempt to pull the Democratic Party and the next generation of America as far left as possible. Whatever the criticism against him, it seems that Piker intends to stay with us for a long time - if only to continue to annoy the establishment.
