Key Takeaways:
- Hasan Piker is a Twitch streamer, popular among Gen-Z and known for his “unfiltered” political commentating, especially his socialist, anti-Israel, and terror sympathizing views.
- Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ) gave him an exclusive spread that painted him as relatable, under siege, and edgy.
- This seems to be a wider issue across the Condé Nast media company’s publications, which engage in politics in addition to culture.
GQ’s admiring profile of “political influencer” Hasan Piker – known for his antisemitic and terror sympathizing comments — underlines Condé Nast’s troubling blend of politics and pop culture once again.
Who is Hasan Piker, and What is Twitch?
Furthermore, why should you care?
Twitch is a popular livestreaming platform, made well-known by video gamers. It allows users and content creators to interact and form a community using live broadcasts of competitions, musical performances, and video gaming content creators playing games while providing commentary, among other commentary-driven content.
Hasan Piker, known as @HasanAbi online, has 2.9 million followers on his Twitch account alone. Although he is often portrayed by mainstream American press as “unfiltered” and someone who pushes the boundaries, his comments are bigoted, hateful, and dangerous.
Here are some of the most vile things he has said, unapologetically:
- He has called Orthodox Jews “inbred.”
- He has said his favorite flag is the Hezbollah flag and openly expresses support for terror groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.
- He compares Zionists to neo-Nazis and says they should be shunned in society.
- He repeatedly justifies and excuses Hamas’ brutal October 7 attacks on Israel.
- He denied mass rapes were committed by Hamas and their followers on October 7 and says “not a single bit of that has been verified.”
- He called the deceased Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah “a pretty brilliant person.”
Piker regularly streams on Twitch, ranting for hours on end to his under-30s audience, at least some of whom are presumably getting their political understanding about Israel and Jewish people mainly from him.
Read More: Hasan Piker: How a Jew-Hating, Hamas-Loving Streamer Seduced The New York Times
GQ Fell For the Terrorist-Loving Millennial Thirst-Trap, Hasan Piker
GQ’s profile on Hasan Piker titled “Hasan Piker Thinks America Might Be Cooked”, published on August 13, is appalling, from the opening paragraph:
Martial law. Canceled elections. The combative leftist streamer Hasan Piker predicts an ominous possible future for the US. He’s fighting back the only way he knows how: by raging against Trump, Israel, Democrats, and the wannabe bad boys of the manosphere—in between beefs with his opps and gym sessions with his boys.
Right off the bat, Israel is portrayed as part of a predicted “ominous possible future for the U.S.,” and in tandem, sandwiched into a punchy introduction of America’s Hamas-loving Twitch prince.
Based on the first two paragraphs, GQ’s Kieran Press-Reynolds was dead-set on sexualizing Piker, the antisemitic terror sympathizer, and either has no idea or doesn’t care about the weight of the content he was about to cover. Alternatively, he may resonate with Piker’s views.
The piece is lightweight, casual, and favorable towards Piker, casting him as relatable and subsequently describing him as “a demigod and a demon, a crusader for good and a parasite on society, an empathetic hero and a so-called terrorist sympathizer” – a denial of the obvious pro-terror rhetoric Piker has repeatedly expressed in the past.
Piker is further portrayed as heroic:
He’s fighting back, one expletive and brain rot–filled livestream at a time.
There was also no context given to “genocide” claims about Gaza, no pushback or criticism on his views of the October 7 attacks, or even his past antisemitic statements. Instead, Piker is just a 34-year-old unfiltered demi-god under siege as he tries to change the world for the better.
While he’s beloved by many leftists, he’s often reviled by liberals—the centrists whose views are largely reflected by the [Democrat] party leadership. This became especially clear after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. “You have a guy like me, name is Hasan, and I’m saying, ‘No, you don’t understand, Israel is still very much the responsible party for October 7, for like 75 years of brutal occupation and apartheid.’ And people were like, ‘Oh, you’re a terrorist.’ And that really hasn’t gone away.
Press-Reynolds glosses over Piker victim-blaming Israelis and lying about Israel committing apartheid.
Then, there is Piker’s extremely troubling call to put Jewish journalist Bret Stephens on trial the same way the Nazis were.
Of course, Piker himself is an edgelord, too, eager to breach taboos—just on behalf of progressivism. For example, he proposes “Nuremberg”-style trials for those in the media who he sees as taking part in a “propaganda apparatus for the state”…. Specifically, he says, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens. Piker may be the product of an often irony-poisoned online space, but his defense of the Palestinians is pure and deeply felt, as it is among large swaths of Gen Z. So he was incensed when Stephens recently wrote that “there is no genocide” being committed by Israel.
How is it possible that GQ’s journalist cannot see the inherent contradiction between progressivism and putting his fellow media workers, such as Bret Stephens, on trial for expressing legitimate opinions? Instead, Piker is portrayed as edgy, and his dangerous rhetoric simply “breaches taboos.”
In a pique of lazy journalism, GQ editors and Press-Reynolds have drunk the Kool-Aid and appear to be blinded by Piker’s “thirsted-after body.”
A Wider Issue Flagged at Condé Nast
This type of coverage, particularly in articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has become a wider problem across Condé Nast publications since October 7. Their anti-Israel bias is a longstanding issue, usually presenting only the Palestinian version of the conflict to their readers, while downplaying problematic anti-Israel or anti-Jewish sentiments. They tend to do this in a relatable way that resonates with their readers.
Just one recent example of an anti-Israel, one-sided narrative is a piece in Teen Vogue from February of this year featuring young Gazan student Esraa Abo Qamar.
Perhaps Condé Nast views its publications as offering lighter, hip content for young people, and it’s obvious that its political leanings sway in a specific direction. Nonetheless, it’s highly disturbing that broaching serious topics has descended to puffpiece interviews with vile antisemitic figures like Hasan Piker.
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Image credit: GQ screenshot
