Dems Obsess Over Hasan Piker, Give Trump and Rogers a Pass (zeteo.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by supersquirrel@lemmy.ca to c/usa@midwest.social

94 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Donald Trump is leading a deeply corrupt, fascist administration that seeks to punish and imprison his enemies – big and small, real and perceived. The unpopular president and his team are laying the groundwork to try to steal the 2026 midterms, and they’re not even trying to hide it.

Democrats in Washington, meanwhile, are hyper-focused on… condemning a left-wing podcaster, Hasan Piker, and distorting his comments criticizing Zionists as a way to marginalize and block the rise of anti-Israel voices on the left.

With less than 10 weeks to go before the election, the opposition party is using this crucial time to demonstrate their continued fealty to Israel – despite its deep and growing political unpopularity in the U.S., its horrifying genocide in Gaza, and the ruinous Iran war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dragged America’s idiot president into.

It makes me livid that the danger Hasan is pointing to is real and yet centrist Dems can't even handle the subject being brought up without having performative meltdowns.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top new old

[-] Chulk@lemmy.ml 28 points 2 days ago

It's insane that multiple sitting senators are going after Hasan using a made up, right-wing smear. El Sayed's opponent is a Trump loyalist and a monster. It shows where the priorities are. Hasan isn't even the one running for fucking office. Meanwhile, the future speaker of the house is meeting with Trump's fucking son-in-law to find "common ground." They also gave a Zionist a spot on the foreign affairs committee, signaling that the party is still pro-genocide.

The midterm elections are months away and democratic leadership is demonstrating, once again, that they'd rather cooperate with fascists than fight them. I don't know how many signs there have to be for people to realize that the people who accept millions from the same far-right donors are, in fact, working against us. It's so clear that Schumer and Jeffries are throwing this thing and HAVE been throwing it for years now. They do not give a fuck if they fail in November. But yeah, the twitch streamer who is canvassing for candidates and galvanizing the youth vote is the problem lmao.

The icing on the cake is that what Hasan said is true, no matter how uncomfortable of a fact it is. The conflation of Judaism with the ongoing atrocities committed in the name of Zionism is dangerous for all Jews. And all the people condemning Hasan over that statement are perpetuating that danger. Jews are not a monolith and Israel does not speak on their behalf.

[-] SoupBrick@pawb.social 32 points 2 days ago

Israel First Democrats are making themselves very identifiable this midterm.

[-] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

I'm glad to see some of them lose. That crazy Michigan lady was so fucking cringe all of the time.

[-] ceenote@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

The movement Hasan has come to represent is a threat to establishment dems' donors. Donald Trump and Mike Rogers aren't. They're pretty silly to think that "knocking down" Hasan will change much of anything, though.

That being said, I think calling El-Sayed's statement a "condemnation" is an exaggeration. It seems to me more like he condemned a caricature of what Hasan said.

[-] supersquirrel@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I mean, Hasan is right, trying to flatten Israel and Judaism into one concept does place Jews in the US at far greater danger as it forces them into a story they weren't necessarily a part of and if anything US Jews are very likely experiencing their soul recoil in horror from what is happening in the Palestinian Genocide same as anyone else with a heart.

The amount of immaturity the media has with grappling with Hasan's point is stunning.

load more comments (3 replies)

[-] SlippiHUD@piefed.social 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

If America is a bus, Democrats are a driver trying to "safely" deliver us to Death Valley. Republicans are a bunch of crazy passengers trying get us there by driving the bus off a cliff. And despite the fact the Republicans haven't been restrained, the Democrats keep driving the bus on a cliffside road and wont let anyone off or listen to anyone trying to change the destination of the bus.

Yes, I know this is a tortured metaphor.

[-] supersquirrel@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

Yes, I know this is a tortured metaphor.

Waterboarded at most, don't be too harsh on yourself.

[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 5 points 1 day ago

They probably think ICE won’t be turned on them as long as they work for the Zionist lobby, but MAGA’s alliance with Israel is much more transactional and subject to change at the Leader’s whim. What happens when he doesn’t actually get that beachfront property?

[-] supersquirrel@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

What happens when the Palestinian Genocide becomes undeniable in the deluge of international media about how much more unimaginably worse it was than we even thought and politicians in the US desperately start running around looking for excuses for why they weren't complicit and to rationalize why they didn't do anything to stop it?

What happens when antisemitism is sitting there, the comfortable old reliable spectacle of attractively hateful simplicity to distract from a much more uncomfortable conversation and self-reflection?

I am not jewish and those questions scare me, they should scare everyone, this leads nowhere good and the current alliance between Israel and the rightwing of the US (and elsewhere) is not just a fickle relationship by nature of how unreliable rightwing groups are at refraining from turning on their allies for insane reasons.. it is clearly much worse, it is the set up to a betrayal narrative.

Meanwhile centrist Democrats sit there having a tantrum about Hasan Piker being a popular streamer and DNC leadership openly condescends people who see the Palestinian Genocide as an existential issue.

Every single bit of energy centrists and rightwing people have put into policing leftists on their criticisms of Israel and trying to censor it from popular media discourse is effort done to increase the antisemitic blowback rightwing ideologies will inevitably adopt in order to not acknowledge how baby like and reductive their world views are... whether people realize that or not, that is the obvious reality.

Call me Cassandra, I don't give a fuck, I want to be wrong here, I just don't see how the chips fall any other way given the current trajectory, and it is one of the primary reasons I am so passionate about this issue. If we don't loudly criticize Israel and ourselves (the US) with actual nuanced, rational criticisms than it leaves a cavernous void for people like Tucker Carlson to start something terrifying that will not only silence more nuanced conversation but worse.. likely grow out of control....

I am not really making any great leap of logic here, when discourse about a phenomena is silenced with reductive shouting down as if any criticism is an endorsement of hateful ideologies... it creates the ideal space for dangerous conspiracy theories to spread like wildfire.

[-] davetortoise@reddthat.com 2 points 1 day ago

I dont get why corporate media and establishment dems have decided that hasan piker is relevant. The guy is a twitch streamer. Not that many people have actually heard of him. Big deal.

[-] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago

They're using his stage appearances at progressive campaign events to attack progressive candidates, but in order for those attacks to work they have to make him more well known among no-brain moderates who don't know anything but what they're spoonfed.

load more comments