My opinion is that he is maximizing his current position by platforming DSA and PSL openly alongside his coverage of American electoralism. This obviously normalizes these organizations in the eyes of his mainstream audience, and these organizations provide opportunities for those people to interact with actual comrades (and thus "build the vanguard").

The state of the imperial core left necessitates that a lot of lib shit (electoralism, DSA cringe, etc) is going to happen as a precursor to anything cool happening. It is up to us as political operatives to make the best use of the conditions around us. What is important is to be clear about the alternative vision.

I think the key to the alternative vision from within the core is to delegitimize the genocidal, imperial occupation of the North American continent by the United States. This is not to mention the imperialism that occurs overseas, of course. From this perspective Hasan is playing "both sides": legitimizing through his coverage of US electoralism, and delgitimizing through his coverage of US imperialism. One side offers a mainstream platform, the other offers an off-ramp toward something actually useful.

I find this very useful in my political practice. It is much easier to point out "electoralism isn't going to take you very far, we need to be more serious about anti-imperial/decolonial actions" to more and more people, since Hasan's coverage has legitimized much of what I have to say before people hear from me.

This doesn't give him a pass for whatever he says, it is just that I view it as a scoop of bad with a heap of good. That's politics though.

[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Has he been platforming PSL? I don't watch him but hadn't heard about anything like that, I only ever seen him boost dems including some Zionists

[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 21 points 3 days ago

He sings PSl's praises every time it's brought up and had them on stream during the May Day marches

Except PSL doesn't seem to be willing to take advantage of his open door policy, and they weren't particularly assertive or noticeable during the May Day Stream

[–] free_casc@hexbear.net 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yes he has been invited to speak at PSL organized protests, and will name drop them on stream somewhat often. He could do more, and if PSL can get a shot a real win, I feel pretty confident that he will throw his full weight behind them. That will be the true test, becuase he does talk about how he doesn't feel like he can support a third party unless and until it is viable to win something. He does a lot more for DSA right at the moment, more than he does for the Democratic party (ofc there is quite a bit of overlap there), because they have been gaining ground and actually pulling wins and strong challenges.

The essence of my comment is that is not up to Hasan to build PSL/the vanguard/whatever third party, he is just a commentator. That is up to us. If the legitiamcy of such a movement actually depends on the support of media commentator Hasan Piker, then I don't expect it to get very far. It needs to have a robust amount of grassroots political support in the first place before he comes into the conversation.

[–] T34_69@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago

He could do more, and if PSL can get a shot a real win, I feel pretty confident that he will throw his full weight behind them.

Maybe it's time he pushed a little harder on the left side of the scale then