The administrative subpoenas issued for Hasan Piker and Medea Benjamin over their participation in the Cuba caravan are to be opposed—in part because the subpoenas will only give their sinister politics greater cachet among neophyte activists! Piker’s shameless shilling for the dictatorships of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin invisibilizes the victims of their ethno-supremacist detention states—such as the Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the Crimean Tatars. This more critical point is obscured in the endless outrage over his supposed anti-Semitism. And with Xi and Putin joining with Trump to build a fascist world order, Piker’s brand of campist pseudo-opposition (however overheated) is compromised from the start, mirroring what it ostensibly opposes—subpoenas notwithstanding. In Episode 330 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down in his typically unsparing manner.
Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon.
Recommended reading:
“Hasan Piker’s Take on China May Matter More Than His Views on Israel”
by Danny Postel, New Lines
“New Political Litmus Test: Hasan Piker”
by Michael Donnelly, This Small Planet
“The Wrong Stuff: Hasan Piker and the politics of reactionary clickbait”
by Joseph Grosso, Left Critique of the Left
“The real problem with Hasan Piker. Spoiler: It’s not about Israel.”
by Eric Levitz, Vox
Production by Chris Rywalt
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Photo: Xinjiang Judicial Administration via The Diplomat
