Decoding The Gurus patreon

Hasan Piker: A swashbuckling Bromance

🕑 Added 2024-03-11 07:53:18 +0000 UTC

Comments

JustMe

This was the first time I've had to mute the guru during the excerpts. What young woman would have anything to do with someone consuming this sh**.

Sonje Finnestad

There was a young Canadian I followed on Discord during the 'trucker' occupation of Ottawa. He was some species of marxist and, I thought, pretty good. I can't remember his name now.

Anonymous ethicist, not a serial killer at all, just asking questions.

He's as vapid as the red scale girls, with less to say honestly.

Daniel

This was the dumbest content you've covered.

Christopher Kavanagh

Yeah that’s all fair. I just am hesitant to give streamers a pass for being obnoxious given that many seem to be extremely successful without engaging in manipulative behaviour and throwing tantrums.

Ben Godek

Absolutely, there are popular streamers that don't behave like Hasan, and they attract audiences that like them for that reason. My point was that Hasan is far from the only streamer to yell a lot, and that's a feature not a bug for much of his audience. As to how much of it is his personality, and how much is a skill/character he's cultivated? I'm sure it's a combination of the two.

Ryan Nesselrodt

Enjoyed myself, but- as far as I know there’s no evidence the kid was involved in the hijacking right? He could have just taken a boat out to see the ship after the fact? Feel like that’s probably what happened

Exai

This is... wow. Couldn't but laugh in abject horror. Not so sure whether this is a pathology of "leftism" so much as American exceptionalism and vapid celebrity culture. It's still interesting that this male model influencer brand of anti-imperialism reproduces a caricature of the colonial mindset it supposedly opposes. And consumerism... don't get me started! Not that different from the previous supplementary material's bit on performative irony in advertising: a safe performance of rebellion is fully included and contained in the production of what is being rebelled against. Along these lines, there's something to be said for how Amazon's service, of all places, wouldn't main stage thoughtful political opposition over a clown. The media form itself guarantees an industrial production of ignorant producers and consumers. The revolution comes in a six-month subscription. That's something like a leftist response to Hasan: he's not even a believable forgery of a real person.

Sean Doody

Yeah, you’re probably right! My perhaps narrow impression has been the show and its audience bends slightly left while rooting itself in the center.

Sonje Finnestad

I'm sure there are a few of us here on the 'far left'.

Roland Weber

I made it to the end. If this effing guy should effing decide to exercise his effing right to reply, I'm gonna effing skip the effing episode you'll effing have to do with him to live up to your own effing standards! It's sad to think that he's not playing a role. He really trained his brain into being that person he appears to be.

Linda Sears

This episode made me pretty sad because the pirate kid seemed very naive and clueless about the real danger he is in. Hasan trivialized the situation with his inane questions all the while boosting his own ego and giving him the opportunity to play soldier from the safety of his mansion. I know the kid is technically an adult, but his actions could very well get him killed. Hasan could have counseled him as an older male to consider what he is doing. I realize the kid wouldn’t change and probably can’t do anything at this point, but it would have been more responsible of Hasan than exploiting him for his own fame.

Shifty Comfort

Twitch is used by musicians for live or prerecorded sets.

Sean Doody

Yes! I’d love to see you guys cover Ben Burgis!

Christopher Kavanagh

Leftists deserve and I believe have much better representatives!

Sean Doody

As perhaps your farthest left listener, I really appreciated this episode. Please continue to explore the tankie sphere in the “Breadtube” space and beyond. It really is a dehydrated worldview that can hardly do more than vilify the West. I was aware of Hasan, but not an avid listener. The invectives and abuse he spews at dissenting opinions in his chat is unreal and extremely reactionary.

SHOUNAK SARKAR

I’m cancelling Matt for that. Unforgivable comment lol!

SHOUNAK SARKAR

Love you guys but gosh 30 minutes in and I can’t take it anymore lol 😂! What a cocky, profane, vulgar, despicable, low IQ tankie nitwit. He really is like a Rush Limbaugh of the far-left! I will even take the Red Scare Hosts’ stoned way of speaking over this shouty, annoying little prick haha!! Forget his politics, his vocal delivery and presentation alone is like nails on a chalkboard. Btw as another poster said above, this guy is an indictment on the streaming world rather than leftist politics at large. So many thoughtful and intelligent leftists out there like the late Michael Brooks, Richard Wolf, Amartya Sen & Ben Burgiss etc, even though I may disagree with their policy prescriptions.

Christopher Kavanagh

TBF it is not a part of the more reasonable streamers content. Imagine someone like CDawgVA behaving like Hasan... they both stream for long periods, both are young guys, play frustrating games, have big personalities, so why are there no comparable compilations of someone like Connor freaking out?

Ben Godek

I've watched some other Twitch streamers, and aggressive engagement with chat is a pretty common part of that culture. It's very common for video game streamers to yell if someone criticizes how they're playing for example. I'd assume it's sort of "character" that people put on when streaming to at least fill time and keep energy up when they're streaming for hours on end.

James Huth

Like many here… bailing (first time ever) after 49 minutes. Love the podcast and hosts. But my god - I why am I giving space to Hassan WhateverHisName in my mind.

Said Polat

God! This gave me such a whiplash after the Sean Carrol episode. I find it amusing how Piker keeps failing at framing this kid through the lens of his terminally online American influencer politics. It's so irresponsible. I think his followers want to reimagine all the complex and vastly different geopolitical conflicts as a variation of their Twitch subscription-themed "struggle" without noticing how everything is getting distorted through that myopic narrow lens. Imagine sitting in front of a screen all day, looking at Houthi rebels, and thinking "They're just like me FR"

Ben Childs

I know it's the wrong podcast, but you don't have to give it to the Yemeni pirates...

Linda Sears

That is depressing.

Roland Weber

I'm at 35 minutes and wishing for the Red Scare...

Floatgoat.

Somehow Matt has the worst take out of all that fucking crazy talk. That was a rough listen but loved it. Mr. Bean not very good. Boo this man😂!!!

Matt

What I'm saying is hopefully not everyone on the 'left' is as mental as Hasan and his fanboys

Ben Godek

To be clear, I said that flippantly, but it looks like somehow 30% of his audience is over 30 (based on a story from Business Insider). So that’s a bit depressing.

Matt

Are you familiar with Shaun? He's not really in the streamer crowd, cause he's not a complete sycophant, and tends to separate his game streaming from his more oblique political essays on youtube. I actually like Shaun, and think (think?) he might be a good pundit on the whole. But, he's definitely leftist, could be described as a guru in relation to his fanbase, and has been banned from twitter (for Queen-death related posts). Not dissimilar to Contrapoints really, so maybe you've covered that base already.

Ben Godek

Yes, it’s politics for 14 year olds

Trees

Do you think it's reflective of younger leftists though? I have no idea what the relative influence of streamers is for people under 30.

Linda Sears

I sure hope so. I’m a leftist, and I want nothing to do with his ideas.

Christopher Kavanagh

Spot on Paul!

Paul Bowman

God that was horrific. Just when I thought my opinion of Americans couldn't get any lower... (I'm talking about the size of Hasan's audience) His utter ignorance for anyone or anything outside of his narcissistic, ignorant bubble is breath-taking. I really don't know if anyone this ignorant or incurious could be said to have any real politics. Like, as an anarchist I have no love for tankies. But I see a difference between the ones I come across in trade union and community organising who, despite their shit politics on international affairs and reality-defying historical revisionism, still have to interact with ordinary workers and tenants, and have some interpersonal skills and ability to understand other life-experiences and outlooks. But these online tankies, like Hasan, only take on the performative anti-Americanism as a contrarian stance, with zero knowledge or empathy for the ordinary people who live in the same city as them, never mind halfway across the planet. Hasan got mad at a guy in the comments suggesting he needed to make more effort to understand the perspective of people "overseas" (iirc?), at which he responded with a "FU, I am from overseas" (or something). No Hasan. No you're not. I've probably spent more time in Turkey than you, and certainly with poorer people than your family there. Understanding the kind of tribal-patriarchal culture the Zaidis/Houthis come from (and many Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen, etc in the region) requires leaving your very specific cultural bubble and being able to interact with, and learn from, people from a very different lifeworld. Something Piker will never do, AFAICS

Matt

That would be 'pikey', a slur against Irish travellers, but also used against Roma.

Christopher Kavanagh

Keffals was a tankie... and seems like someone prone to feuds and drama. The streaming platforms don't seem like good places for political insight.

Lys

Wow, he's gone more down hill than I thought. I guess less quality makes more money.

Dee the Lobsterdancing Bananaland Dinosaur Monster

Oh my 😬🫣😑! I am only 12 or 15 mins into this episode and I’m trying to listen attentively, learn, not cringe or make “omg Alex jones is too loud” faces….shheeesssshhhhh

Marcin Junczys-Dowmunt

I want an AI that just cuts him out of the episode.

Ben Godek

To be fair, I think Hasan being the most popular leftist streamer is more of an indictment of streaming than actual leftism.

Trees

Educational but awful. Makes me miss the lolcows like Peterson.

TheSoilWillSaveUs

Will still be better than the theoretical Destiny episode. Since that fanbase has more overlap, and you know he’s going to want to come on the show.

elcid

I think the translator said it best; “I think this is just not interesting.” Short of being vulgar and downright nasty, words fail when it comes to describing Hasan. Amoral perhaps? Don’t know how you do it guys?!?

Amy S

This guy is definately difficult to listen to!

aneladgam_varelse

Keffals is reasonable and not a tankie, however she doesn’t stream that much as others. Her yt videos are clickbaits tho, I prefer full streams

aneladgam_varelse

What I like about Hasan, despite being a hater: hogwatch. These are comedic segments in which Hasan watches right-wing tiktoks/youtubes and mimics Alex Jones voice and pattern of speech to make fun of them. Hasan dumbness makes this work.

aneladgam_varelse

I enjoyed this decoding, however for my taste it’s missing summary/synthesis at the end of ep. Pointing out cultishness or abusiveness of parasocial relationship with Hasan was good tho, it needs to be said. I find it interesting that you chose to decode this piece of content, not his solo segment of stream or more serious talk with Ethan Klein. It encompasses what’s wrong with Hassan’s politics and insights, but on the other hand Hasan has different - not more mature imo, rather more sinister and gaslighting - way of interacting with big players.

Josh Stuart

Oh shit! Yep. You guys started with the Ukraine / Russia clips! Those are some good ones. Ugh. Why can't there be reasonable lefty streamers that dont fuck horses or are Tankies?

Marcin Junczys-Dowmunt

Second episode I had to stop listening to. First one was the obnoxious guru who replied, but this is worse. Man, Pearl is like a nice person in comparison.

Rod Hodges

Mr. Beast,Been,Bean etc. I don’t know,I’m so confused. Plus isn’t a “piker” some kind of British slur?

Josh Stuart

Looking forward to this Ep! I came across Hasan a couple years back and enjoyed hearing him shit on Elon and Rogan. I must admit I've never watched a whole stream, but did like the little youtube clips. But I stopped watching anything of his after hearing his takes on the Russian invasion; you can't claim to be a leftist and also obfuscate actual imperialism. And by the looks of things, he has completely jumped the shark since Oct 7th.

Kit McLean

I had to give up. I just can't listen to that dude. The nature of the Twitch stream (I've never listened or seen it before....) not quite asynchronous, like a terrible combo of a monologue with live youtube comments section. He doesn't ever need to research anything he wants to talk about because he can rely on something coming in the comments that he can get angry about. The Red Scare duo at least had a childish idea of irony and maybe some tiny self awareness of how little they knew (it's not cool to research). I can even listen to Alex Jones occasionally as there's comedy in his bonkers stories. But this is just nihilistic anger with no coherence - and heaven help us there seems to be a huge audience for it!

Hayden Setlik

It's so crazy to me how reflexively he just screams profane insults as soon as he sees or hears something he disagrees with. Is that a skill he's cultivated for some specific reason or is he actually just that unpleasant a person? Fascinating.

Minotaurus Rex

This guy.. quite something

Minotaurus Rex

Oof

john statham

When this goes public, the flames of the Reddit thread will be seen from distant galaxies.

Jennifer Nelson

Pirates, they’re just like us!

Heather Elaine

I was surprised he never said “but enough about me what do you think about me??” I felt so sad when Matt said “I wonder if he wants to go home” about the captain. It’s dark. Like if Idiocracy were a horror.

Donkey kong

I am rubber, you are glue!

Mike Nelson

Why didn't he ask the hard hitting questions about the pirate adventures of Guybrush Threepwood? This clown should be shot into the sun.

Adam Sher

I just keep thinking incel

Andreas Haukenes

I'm only 15 minutes into the episode, but this guy is already more obnoxious than Scott Adams and the Red Scare duo combined.

Tim Tripp

Holy name calling. Tough to listen to. Is this a typical Piker interview?

Linda Sears

It’s almost like some of these streamers see the world as a video game they play, where people can die and come back to life no problem. This guy is a nightmare.

Christy Kilgore

“Does he know who Mr. Beast is?” I want to die.

Christy Kilgore

It’s so embarrassing I got goosebumps!

Chomagerider

The poor volcano! How about a Houthi militia run prison where he can hang with his buddies and watch SpongeBob and Mr beast...or Bean...or whatever.

Chomagerider

Wow... I think I'd take weinsteinian pseudo profound BS over this absolute drivel any day of the week. Is all his content this stupid? I hope this interview landed him on some Houthi hitlist. No, I don't wish him harm but come ON...this really was unbearable!

Donkey kong

Goddess, the cringe is phenomenal. The all interview have a “do you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Yemen” vibes.

lun

Chris the first day AP reported that the hospital attack was carried out by IDF (they quoted Palestinian officials) and a lot of other major news organisations went with it.

Ymirsdreams

Well, circumlocution is the 8th leading cause of death.

Jasza Dobrzanski

I'm only at the 15 min mark, but I already want to throw that Hasan guy into a volcano. He sounds just as vile as the far right guys DTG has analysed.

Empty_Cognizance

Just having listened to the very beginning… Matt naturally and spontaneously shortening his well-worn intro a single syllable (“what they TALK about”) as he ran out of of oxygen, and having picked up “Weinstein thought generation patterns” through osmosis from just following you guys at all, got me thinking: might I propose a galaxy-brained Weinstein-ian evolutionary take and thoroughly HYPOTHESIZE that “slang” and natural word shortening (eg. contractions in English, etc.) evolved so that we could harness more oxygen to something something out of the savanna something something however many millions of years ago 🤔 The fact that I could even pose the question is stunning, quite frankly.