this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2026
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Still no idea who this guy is or why they are so obsessed with him.
He's a political commentary streamer on Twitch. He's generally on the left with some mixed positions on various things that you'd honestly just have to watch to get the sense of.
In the last few years he's gotten more directly involved in political organizing, highlighting certain progressive candidates around the US and even getting a lot of his viewers to donate or volunteer for their campaigns. It's hard to know the full impact of this, but it's one contribution among many to the movement needed to get the left elected.
Because of this more recent round of successes from progressive candidates, including ones Hasan helped with, establishment interests in the Republican and Democratic parties have been targeting him as a proxy for the movement as a whole. In particular pro-Israel groups have been prominent in attacking him since he's against genocide.
He says some dumb shit sometimes, wording things the wrong way, being hyperbolic, etc. That plus the many opportunities for out of context clipping make it easy for these bad faith actors to find things that make him look bad. While some of it is red scare stuff, there's also a lot of Islamophobia mixed in. They then try to tie this to the progressive candidates to hurt their chances.
I probably wouldn't agree with every position he has, but he's overall not a bad guy. The hysteria around him is basically just manufactured outrage for political gain and it's not even working that well for that.
Excellent explanation. thank you.
I hate seeing Hasan become a prominent face of democratic socialism.
He wields nuance like a bludgeon, not a tool for understanding. He doesn't inspire curiosity or invite people to question their assumptions. He tells his audience what to think and delivers it with absolute conviction.
For all their ideological differences, he reminds me of Shapiro and Crowder. The same performative certainty, selective reasoning, and confidence masquerading as intellectual authority.
And that's precisely what makes him such a convenient bogeyman for conservative propaganda. He sounds remarkably similar to the very right-wing influencers whose audiences are being told to despise him.
I don't doubt that much of the outrage surrounding him is manufactured. But that doesn't make every criticism of him illegitimate, nor does it excuse his own intellectual shortcomings.
Attention isn't credibility, and political fandom isn't intellectual discourse.
I despise that style of political commentary, regardless of which side it comes from.
Yeah. It’s definitely legitimate to have criticisms of him and I wouldn’t entirely disagree with your assessment, it’s just worth keeping in mind that the kind of criticisms we might have aren’t even in the same intellectual ballpark as those of the right wing attacks on him.
As far as him being the face of the movement, I think it’s just a sad reality of left organizing, or the lack thereof, in America as well as the issue of organizing primarily around electoral politics. Socialist movements are mass politics. It’s not about specific people, it’s about everyone working together towards a common cause. Elections, and the media that discusses them, end up being more cults of personality. It’s great that we’re getting more leftists/progressives elected, but the way that gets portrayed focuses almost exclusively on the politician themselves as a charismatic figure with the right moral character rather than all of the work done by people to get them there. A similar thing happens with media. I think it’s just easier to follow and make a narrative around some individual than around a large ill defined group.
How do we fix that? Idk. It’s not like we don’t have any media which puts the focus on the broader movement activities, it’s just that they don’t tend to break containment to the broader public who aren’t super nerdy lefties or people directly involved with whatever is being discussed.
Any kind of streamer I give some level of benefit of the doubt because you get anyone talking for 6-12 hours straight without any opportunity to edit out something in post, you're gonna get something questionable every once in a while, even if its purely just a joke that doesn't land or a mispeak, or of course sometimes its the mask slipping for a moment and the real colors showing. It takes a bit of digging sometimes to figure out which it is regarding a given flub, but Hasan is generally a pretty decent guy from what I've seen.
he is the guy conservatives online will bring up whenever I try to tell them that tankies are a small minority and that most of the real left is actually just very reasonable democratic socialists
I am not a fan, really, but he does reach demographics that other leftist have trouble reaching, so I guess he belongs in the tent
He's a hard-left twitch streamer who does reactions on YouTube videos and current events. I find it boring as rain but he's one of the most popular streamers on twitch.
You find the rain boring?
It just been falling for years. Get some new material!
They tried acid rain and you all freaked out.
We liked chocolate rain.
Chocolate rain is still ahead of its time
Bruh purple rain?
Shi man that too
There was LSD rain and I missed it?!
Yeah I'll admit that rain didn't deserve this gratuitous side swipe
As a Midwesterner I've spent whole days watching the rain
They're getting this worked up over some streamer and youtuber? what the hell is even going on anymore.
Champagne socialist occasional dog abuser no idea why he's the poster boy for so many left leaning people
He's got a YT channel, maybe check it out & make up your own mind
Reminds me of Obama's Reverend back in the day. They really went after him.
I think everyone who knows some about him will have an opinion on him - I'd call him divisive. I'll try to give a relatively neutral rundown - I'm not a historian or researcher on this subject so my knowledge is likely to have holes.
I don't have time to treat this like a dissertation or adding citations, but I'll try to present things as neutrally as I can and then you (or anyone else reading) can decide to further research any of the points as you see fit. I am not the final authority on this, just someone who's dug a little more into this than the average person, and who has no strong feelings for or against the person in question.
He is a political twitch streamer. He ties himself to, and uses the language of, the far left and related candidates. He backs and campaigns for progressive candidates which often raises awareness and donation for them, but the effect seems to be limited - some candidates he backs does well and others do not. He also seems to make plenty of statements that directly contradicts the candidates he backs and campaign for, causing some of them to try to distance themselves from him.
He appears to be well-versed in U.S. electoral politics, media framing, and progressive political arguments, which tracks with his bachelor’s degree in political science and communication studies from Rutgers from 2013. Being a streamer he ends up talking about a lot of related subjects, in which he often has to give off-the-cuff opinions and takes, which can often fall well-short of informed or accurate.
He says his end goal is communism. He got his start as a content creator in his uncle's online news channel (The Young Turks), before later splitting off from them and doing his own streaming business. He is from a very affluent family, personally earns a lot of money and he clearly lives an affluent lifestyle. He claims to thrift for designer clothes but when pressed appears to reference outlet stores and similar. Initially he claimed that he doesn't want his regular thrift stores to get raided by fans, although his fans might be less affluent than him and therefore better served by access to these stores. He has done several very successful charity streams that amassed large amounts of money for good causes. He claims to donate great amounts of money to charities, although the amount of donated money that can be tied to him is very low for his level of wealth, somewhere between 77.000 - 80.000 USD total (0,5-1%) of his estimated wealth, which is 8-14 million USD. While he does not appear to put his money where his mouth is, he does spend some of his time on popular fundraising, which drives a lot of attention to both him and the causes he fund-raise for.
He is often abrasive in his communication, although he will excuse that with passion for the subjects he talk about. He has a large audience that aggressively attacks dissenters or people Hassan expresses dislike for or disagreement with. The harassment from his fan base appears to be significantly above and beyond the norm for the space, and while he comments to the contrary it would be hard to believe that he is unaware of the dynamic between him and his fan base. From what I can tell he has taken no steps towards solving this dynamic beyond disavowing some instances of the harassment, while condoning other instances. He does not appear to have a problem with lying about people or broadcasting random people (even known malicious actors, that he himself states to be malicious) on twitter or twitch if it fits his narrative.
He often breaks the rules of his streaming platform (twitch) but receives special treatment, although I am unsure if that is due to personal popularity or personal relationships with the owner of twitch.
He denies using a shock collar on his dog, but looking at the evidence gathered through old videos, still frames from new videos, and from people who personally interacted with the dog would suggest that to be a lie. I do not know if he still uses a shock collar on his dog since the latest controversy.
As said, feel free to research each of these points, but do be critical of the sources of information and try to just find the actual evidence of what was done or said, rather than peoples' conclusions. He is divisive so when people give their take they usually either dismiss all the criticism and focus on the things he does well, or dismiss the things he does well and focus on the criticism.
Find all the evidence you can and make up your own mind.
Tbh this is enough for me to doubt the validity of pretty much everything else you've said. If you're so uncritical as to fall for this, what else will you fall for?
That whole comment is clearly from an llm.
Can you give some substance other than your opinion?
Here's one source that does bring evidence to the table to support the conclusion that Hasan used a shock collar.
It also highlights that Hasan has been borderline, if not actually, abusive to his previous dog.
Probably not intentionally, mind you, as I think he believes he is using actual training tools and training for results that are reasonable, but what he believes does not change the fact that these are abusive (and ineffective) training methods.
A fact very well demonstrated by your comment lmao
I disagree.
I tried to point out both positive and negative actions of his, while also encouraging independent, critical research and thinking.
I don't dismiss the good he does, nor do I overlook the bad.
He's a flawed character, just like the rest of us, and his reach magnifies both his flaws and his virtues, as well as their impacts on the world. Just like any public figure.
Every time you pointed out something negative, it was stated as fact. Every time you pointed out something positive, you used language that leaves room for doubt. Go back and reread your comment. It's not neutral at all dude, it's fraught with negative bias.
Which specific negative (or positive, for that matter) do you believe to be untrue?
I tried to temper some of the negatives and positives both with what I consider relevant counter weight, but I didn't always have one I deemed relevant or that I could find substantiation for.
I would also argue that I treated both the negatives and positives as factual, because I believe they both are. I find that there's a little good in the bad and a little bad in the good, so I try to add that nuance when I believe I can see proof of it.
I'm happy to be corrected if you think any of the statements are untrue.
I'll just go through one by one and give my thoughts and point out where I saw bias.
Right off the bat, instead of directly saying "he's a leftist political commentator on twitch", you instead just say he "ties himself to and uses the language of" leftist candidates. This makes it seem like you're implying that he isn't an actual leftist, or that he's just doing leftism as a performance or something. It's dismissive of reality, not to mention overcomplicating things.
Your acknowledgement of a positive is immediately followed by a "but" statement, dismissing of the positive. It also places blame on him instead of on the candidates for their campaigns, where it actually belongs in most cases. It also mirrors right-wing talking points where they claim that his "radical viewpoints" are actually fracturing the Democratic base, instead of introducing leftist ideology to an audience that no one else on the left has been able to meaningfully reach yet.
Phrasing it like this implies you don't believe him. It's dismissive again.
Again echoing the dismissive right wing talking point of "he can't possibly be a 'Real Socialist', he comes from a rich family and buys expensive things!", on top of sowing doubt about his explanation of shopping secondhand. You also confused "outlet stores" for consignment shops.
Other than the first sentence, this whole paragraph is dismissive of his charity/fundraising efforts, and is colored by your personal negative bias and what you confidently claim his net worth is (I can find estimates that vary widely from the range you claim).
This is your opinion stated as fact.
This is your opinion stated as fact.
This is unfounded speculation.
I catch bits and pieces of his stream here and there, and in my experience he pretty consistently calls down chatters that are being inappropriate. It sounds like your speculation is based on articles about his streams that cherry pick and decontextualize things.
This at minimum deserves some examples. Kinda hard for people to "do their own research" when you give so little to go off of.
Another right wing talking point that Hasan himself has addressed and debunked.
Another talking point that has been debunked so thoroughly not even the right still uses it.
Do you see it now, or do you still think your comment is unbiased?
He’s a “left” Asmomgold/grifter.
I always like the grifter angle because he takes zero sponsorships and is entirely supported by viewers. If he wanted to make more money, he could just pivot to the right, there be gold in them decisions.
What do billionaires want? More right wing streamers, or more left wing streamers?
And unlike many of his contemporaries, he's knowledgeable about the topics he discusses and acts as a teacher, explaining them. Explaining things is hard, dense, and requires time, no streamer with a brain, who was grifting would bother with that. Sincerely teaching people is not what a grifter would do, they'd just simplify and generalize. Like Asmon.
I've never heard asmongold explain anything, well, not correctly anyway. He explains things with the depth of my nine year old nephew. While taking breaks to say how right chat is about their currently held (often bigoted and unfounded) beliefs. Spoiler, he says immigration is the cause of all of your problems. 🫠
I feel like that does Asmongold a disservice in how fucked he is. We are talking about a goblin who used a rotting rat carcas as an alarm clock.
It's somehow insulting to both Asmongold and Hasan
Huh, that's a pretty shit assessment.
Where did you get the other sentences, the xenophobe store?
America deserved 9/11
I can understand the sentiment, and it's one that was echoed by Josh Lyman in the West Wing special Isaac and Ishmael
Essentially, the US has been a real shit worldwide with its military adventurism, especially in Asia, South America and the Middle East. Iran and Israel are notorious hotspots. The US has made a lot of enemies, and it should be no surprise that any of them would want cold revenge.
Bin Laden's plot to attack the US on 9/11 was the equivalent of a Doolittle Raid if we were to look at the Middle East as a theater of the Cold War. The attack on the US was a mere sting compared to the compound death and destruction leveled by the American war machine across multiple Middle Eastern countries, in the name of containment and protecting American interests (usually natural resources wanted by US corporations).
This doesn't speak to whether Americans deserve it. I certainly don't think civilians deserve ever to be casualties of war. But that hasn't ever stopped the high lords from playing their games of thrones.