Why are left-wing commentators like HasanAbi and Vaush gaining so much traction on Twitch & YT?

[Woody]

Not so long ago you would have thought that Hasan Piker would be dead career-wise after his Crenshaw comments. However, after his uptick last year, everyone seemed to just forget, and he is now one of the biggest content creators on Twitch. Other people who seem to have the same format like him are also becoming big, and they are exclusively far-left.

Why is that?

[PSOL]

Constantly being rewarded by the algorithm through playing video games and consistent uploads multiple times a day. They also try to attract a young, chronically online audience who would gladly eat whatever garbage they put out.

[Holmes]

The demographics of Twitch align with their content.

[Nightcore Nationalist]

Constantly being rewarded by the algorithm through playing video games and consistent uploads multiple times a day. They also try to attract a young, chronically online audience who would gladly eat whatever garbage they put out.

[Anti-Trump Truth Socialite JD Vance Enjoying Juror]

Because certain sections of the internet, despite having potentially millions of users around the world, are echo chambers that attract the same types of people. It is indicative of little outside of these sites. >95% of Americans don’t know who HasanAbi or Vaush are.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Young people need an identity and a way to stand out.  Having sensible, normal, mainstream political views ain't gonna do it.  So when you're offered an ideology that's radical, aggressive, counter-culture, and gives you the opportunity to go "ackshually" in a lot of conversations, that's pretty nice.  And having it delivered by a confident, entertaining asshole is all the better.

I had my Ron Paul phase for about six weeks in 2007 and it was basically the same thing.  I particularly loved telling the other kids in APUSH that ackshually Lincoln was the worst president because he suspended civil liberties.

[DaleCooper]

Extremist political ideologies come and go in phases on the internet. There are a ton of people that went from being radical anti-theists to alt-righters and now to socialists over the last decade. All of these ideologies give people a reason to feel superior to everyone else. Being a fringe lunatic simultaneously gives sad saps an online community and an explanation for why they don't fit in in real life. As for the demagogues, people tend to throw money and attention towards the loudest voices that tell them exactly what they want to hear.

[PSOL]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

[Crumpets]

I've never heard of these people.

[Agonized-Statism]

It's a backlash. The pendulum swung back after that 2014-2018 "anti-SJW" era got discredited by Charlottesville, general disillusionment with the Trump presidency, and eventually the conservative meltdown over masks and Trump's loss got the stragglers- a period which itself followed a 2006-2014 era reacting to the Bush presidency from the left with things like New Atheism, but got discredited by disillusionment with Obama. And so on and so on. None of the online faces of the zeitgeist are all that authentic and will switch sides depending on the atmosphere (see TJ Kirk).

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Young people need an identity and a way to stand out.  Having sensible, normal, mainstream political views ain't gonna do it.  So when you're offered an ideology that's radical, aggressive, counter-culture, and gives you the opportunity to go "ackshually" in a lot of conversations, that's pretty nice.  And having it delivered by a confident, entertaining asshole is all the better.

I had my Ron Paul phase for about six weeks in 2007 and it was basically the same thing.  I particularly loved telling the other kids in APUSH that ackshually Lincoln was the worst president because he suspended civil liberties.

Defended slavery in APUSH as well, can confirm.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

[PSOL]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

And yet he acts as if has never read a book in his life, especially by Anarchist or Marxist writers he misquotes all the time.

[If my soul was made of stone]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

And yet he acts as if has never read a book in his life, especially by Anarchist or Marxist writers he misquotes all the time.

He genuinely prides himself on not caring enough about theory and just completely bullsh-ts a delusional vision that appeals to young people who have been radicalized by the state of the world but aren't intellectually curious enough to learn about the history of left-wing thought for themselves. Him and his sphere of influence represents radicalism succumbing to Internet-age affluenza and becoming an identity marker rather than a movement.

https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1294353642753908736

[SWE]

Mainstream liberal political youtuber has been a market that's been pretty much wide open for a while, shouldn't be surprising some people figured out how to best use the algorithm to reach that audience. If anything it's surprising it took this long to get to this point because that's probably the most common ideology on the internet

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

Who

[Agonized-Statism]

He genuinely prides himself on not caring enough about theory and just completely bullsh-ts a delusional vision that appeals to young people who have been radicalized by the state of the world but aren't intellectually curious enough to learn about the history of left-wing thought for themselves.

Agreed, although I would caution against attacking a certain amount of collaboration. There's two extremes the western left tends to gravitate to- waiting to pounce on whichever of the five people in their tiny cadre slightly deviates from the word of their favorite obscure theoretician and becoming a complete "lesser evil" sellout to the Democrats who gets milked for votes then tossed aside and kicked around by Biden Bros. Vaush is the latter, as most influencers will inevitably get pressured into being, but the alternative isn't forsaking democratic socialists who choose to work within the party like Sanders and AOC. I was calling the DSA revisionist for the longest time but realized that gets you nowhere. An ounce of organizing is worth a pound of theory today. I can see his case up until he says historical socialists would support Biden- even Mao started out working in the big-tent KMT, for instance.

On the thread topic, the current iteration of the right has really embarrassed themselves with all the chaos of the Trump presidency, and it'll take them some time to find something that captivates youth and the apolitical again. They tried "cancel culture" on for size, no one cared, now they're trying "muh critical race theory" and it's not really working. And no "triggered leftist" video will ever top the biggest temper tantrum in US history- the storming of the capitol.

[PSOL]

He genuinely prides himself on not caring enough about theory and just completely bullsh-ts a delusional vision that appeals to young people who have been radicalized by the state of the world but aren't intellectually curious enough to learn about the history of left-wing thought for themselves.

Agreed, although I would caution against attacking a certain amount of collaboration. There's two extremes the western left tends to gravitate to- waiting to pounce on whichever of the five people in their tiny cadre slightly deviates from the word of their favorite obscure theoretician and becoming a complete "lesser evil" sellout to the Democrats who gets milked for votes then tossed aside and kicked around by Biden Bros. Vaush is the latter, as most influencers will inevitably get pressured into being, but the alternative isn't forsaking democratic socialists who choose to work within the party like Sanders and AOC. I was calling the DSA revisionist for the longest time but realized that gets you nowhere. An ounce of organizing is worth a pound of theory today. I can see his case up until he says historical socialists would support Biden- even Mao started out working in the big-tent KMT, for instance.

On the thread topic, the current iteration of the right has really embarrassed themselves with all the chaos of the Trump presidency, and it'll take them some time to find something that captivates youth and the apolitical again. They tried "cancel culture" on for size, no one cared, now they're trying "muh critical race theory" and it's not really working.

Well the KMT was at the time a revolutionary movement against the current Qing elite and the liberal dynasty set up by Yuan Shikai, I don’t think calling joining up and voting blue fits really. In fact, the times where this strategy of latching on to the Democratic Party in particular was tried—the Readjusters in post-Antebellum Virginia, the populists in the Gilded Age who took their candidate to Democratic nomination, the Maoists who failed in getting Jesse Jackson to the presidency, the different group of Maoists trying to shift the Democratic Party Left—all failed spectacularly and got co-opted or and the people they helped campaign for close the door on them. Outside of the Democratic Party, Socialist Alternative was part of the mass movement of the 1990s Labor Party only to get subsequently purged because they were against fusionism with, you guessed it, the Democratic Party. And then the purgers got squat.

Contrast this with the old SPA and pre-Popular Front era CPUSA, now they got much more done working independently from the duopoly, with *occasional* endorsements of people outside their party. Entryism does not work, and becoming disorganized members of one of the other major capitalist party  or at times, third parties, does not work because they never will accept you. I dunno, seems like I prefer the approach of either running calculated campaigns for the purpose of exposure and engagement when the organization is weak—which PCUSA and FTP do—not vote at all and focus on building dual power, or joining a wider autonomous movement as SPUSA and some Black Panthers and reformists did within the Green Party.

Of course, this conversation goes above the heads of the dumb sellouts mentioned in this thread, who are liberals to the core with not one ounce of social democracy in their bones. The (former?) Destiny Clique have previously made fun of and endorsed violence against socialists in Iraq and Turkey, not even bothering to hide their hawkishness. Vaush is a confirmed and open sex pest who goes after his young, impressionable fans—as has been previously and vocally confirmed by Vaush, showing just how spoiled a degenerate he is.
On this, at least the egomaniac Jimmy Dore is actually good at entertaining a more mature audience and at least is part of the People’s Party lol.

[Woody]

Who

[DaleCooper]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

Undergraduate degrees are meaningless when determining how informed someone is these days. Most college-educated people on average are intelligent and informed, but the standards have been lowered so much that any fool can pass humanities classes with flying colors if they write well and speak the proper lingo, and if they can't do either of those things, they'll still earn their degree easily enough. Point being, you can't presume someone is informed simply because they have a degree.

[PSOL]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

*snip*

I’m not even sure Vaush did any of these. He just knows so little of anything and doesn’t strike me as someone who would try. Given his Father’s wealth and position, two things are possible, his father either bought his way to a degree from college or he did jack s••• and paid someone else to do the work.

[DaleCooper]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

*snip*

I’m not even sure Vaush did any of these. He just knows so little of anything and doesn’t strike me as someone who would try. Given his Father’s wealth and position, two things are possible, his father either bought his way to a degree from college or he did jack s••• and paid someone else to do the work.

Pretty much all I know about him is that he thinks Mao's Wikipedia page indicates he would've been a Bernie campaign staffer and that he made a "joke" about annihilating the population of Israel so I'm willing to bet that he's terribly uninformed. I love education, but after having gone to college myself I've learned not to be impressed by anyone's degrees, lol. I've seen plenty of fools that graduated with honors. 

[PSOL]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

*snip*

I’m not even sure Vaush did any of these. He just knows so little of anything and doesn’t strike me as someone who would try. Given his Father’s wealth and position, two things are possible, his father either bought his way to a degree from college or he did jack s••• and paid someone else to do the work.

Pretty much all I know about him is that he thinks Mao's Wikipedia page indicates he would've been a Bernie campaign staffer and that he made a "joke" about annihilating the population of Israel so I'm willing to bet that he's terribly uninformed. I love education, but after having gone to college myself I've learned not to be impressed by anyone's degrees, lol. I've seen plenty of fools that graduated with honors. 

He also said Lenin would tactically vote for Joe Biden. Vaush is such an incredible virtue signaler, worse than any champagne socialists here, that it could be mistaken for parody. At least Hasan and Destiny don’t hide the rats they are.

The difference between people like you and these trust fund babies is that one actually goes to sustain oneself and knows that they don’t have a shield of wealth to get chances. You actually know not to f••• up.

[DaleCooper]

Vaush and HasanAbi aren’t really leftwingers online, they are both to the right of Hank Green, hardly radical and mostly partisans are all that is of the Destiny crowd.

Can I just say it’s sad seeing a Beverly Hills NEET who was spoonfed his entire life and a rich descendant of Expatriates be the “official” face of the left now.

Hasan is a NEET but in fairness Vaush has a BA in Sociology.

*snip*

I’m not even sure Vaush did any of these. He just knows so little of anything and doesn’t strike me as someone who would try. Given his Father’s wealth and position, two things are possible, his father either bought his way to a degree from college or he did jack s••• and paid someone else to do the work.

Pretty much all I know about him is that he thinks Mao's Wikipedia page indicates he would've been a Bernie campaign staffer and that he made a "joke" about annihilating the population of Israel so I'm willing to bet that he's terribly uninformed. I love education, but after having gone to college myself I've learned not to be impressed by anyone's degrees, lol. I've seen plenty of fools that graduated with honors. 

He also said Lenin would tactically vote for Joe Biden. Vaush is such an incredible virtue signaler, worse than any champagne socialists here, that it could be mistaken for parody. At least Hasan and Destiny don’t hide the rats they are.

The difference between people like you and these trust fund babies is that one actually goes to sustain oneself and knows that they don’t have a shield of wealth to get chances. You actually know not to f••• up.

I'm actually familiar with Destiny because he's a Nebraskan and was active in Omaha recently campaigning for some mayoral candidate. I tend to agree and I have a much easier time accepting a rat if he's not trying to delude the world into believing he's the next Jesus Christ. Ultimately, everyone should avoid all these demagogues but the more moralistic they are, the more insufferable they are in my opinion.

[vitoNova]

"HasanAbi & Vaush"

Sounds like an awesome name for a 1970s prog-rock/AOR band.