this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
48 points (69.7% liked)

Asklemmy

44003 readers
301 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

This guy's dad is the former VP of a multibillion dollar Turkish conglomerate, as well as the secretary of a government department. Mom and Dad were able to fly to their other home in NJ to give birth so he'd get US citizenship. His uncle is the founder and owner of TYT Media and gave him his media career. He went to Rutgers. He lives in a multimillion dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills. This is by definition not the kind of person who can be a voice of the People. Saying "I recognize my privilege" over and over, while living his lifestyle, doesn't negate his privilege and complete lack of real-life experience outside of the curated garden of the wealthy. He gets paid obscene amounts of cash to sit in his bedroom and word-vomit for 9 hours a day. Why are his unending opinions taken so seriously? He gives me strong controlled opposition vibes.

Edit: Thank you all for this discussion. I learned a lot.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 days ago (6 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago

this is hard as fuck holy

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 days ago (13 children)

Is this a "no true Scotsman" thing where only poor people with a blue collar work history are worthy of being listened to?

load more comments (13 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Addition: his father is a founding member of a right wing party in Turkey

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Never heard of him.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'll state this: I know of this person in name only.

He's a hypocrite. It's as simple as that. His popularity is probably derived from the novelty of a member of the upper class agreeing with the lower classes and his ability to entertain them. It gives those that belong to the lower class hope of change being enacted by those with capital. The Wikipedia page states he brought a $2.7 million USD mansion. He has access to capital, and what does he do? Asks others to donate to 'worthy' causes whilst accruing more capital for his own vested, personal vanity projects?

From what I've read he is not an ally. He's an entertainer. The capitalist system is able to create products that espouse anti-capitalist ideas. This is just another such product. It's not controlled opposition. It's just an individual who's found himself the owner of a sought after product. Just another capitalist.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (4 children)

That's not very much for a house in LA

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I understand where you're coming from, honestly. But I think this is a sort of trauma response on our end (myself included) at this point. I'm not trying to pin mental illnesses on you, I'm nowhere near a licensed head doctor of any kind, I'm saying that we've been kicked and abused so much by the rich, that it's only natural for those of us who broke free of the brainwashing to be on high alert, at least for a while. The continued unfolding of things surely can't help this situation, either.

That being said, as long as he acts in good faith and is sincere and logical in his approach, which so far seems to be true, I'd say we should embrace his participation! As I see it, we need all the voices we can get. We're already arguing semantics amongst ourselves all day long, I think it'd be a shame to let mistrust shatter "our side" without concrete proof of malicious intent.

At the end of the day, the greatest weapon the Right has is the fact that they yell united at everyone else. Let our chorus rival theirs!

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don’t know Piker from a hole in the ground. This sure sounds like a red flag, and I think The Young Turks are hacks. Nonetheless, bourgeois class traitors are a thing, Engels & Mao being a prime examples.

Not knowing Piker’s particulars, I can only speak at the 30,000 foot view: Western “leftist” spaces have largely been captured by US imperialism since the end of WWII.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

My partner watches him a lot and while personally dislike Hasans loud yelly bro style I've never heard an opinion from him that I disagreed with.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (4 children)

In case you're actually, seriously asking and not just trolling, having privilege and success under capitalism does not disqualify a person from being a leftist. You can't really criticize a person for participating in a system where if you don't participate, you starve.

He's using his influence to organize the working class and advocate for collective action, which is the one tool workers have in the fight against their own exploitation. Even if you don't like him personally or don't think he's part of the working class, he is a very strong ally and has undeniably strengthened the movement.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

He’s using his influence to organize the working class and advocate for collective action, which is the one tool workers have in the fight against their own exploitation.

Posting and streaming (which is just video posting) is not "organizing the working class and advocating for collective action". The closest he gets to this is fundraisers, but the buck pretty much stops there.

Money is important sure, but that's not what organizing is. If fundraising is organizing than the Democratic Party should be Bolsheviks.

Going on stream to tell the people who decompress from their shitty McDonalds shifts that they should organize as they say hell yeah man and go back to the work the next day without doing anything isn't organizing, it's not advocacy, it's entertainment.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

Embrace petty bourgeouis class traitors and don't fetishize the working class.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Hes good at breaking down media. Gets involved on community organizing. Does good propaganda.

People are free to like who they like and make up their own minds. Why you hating? Who made you thought police?

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Because he's cool to a certain type of person and those people are vaguely leftist (just like Hasan is vaguely leftist).

That cool factor and the parasocial relationships protect him a lot in places like this where some of the more knowledgeable users will actually dunk on his sources like Ettingermentum when they do/say stupid shit. It's incredibly funny to see.

Honestly that's pretty much it.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›