“Being an academic” requires you to have a doctorate or at least be teaching on your way to a doctorate. Quite literally having a doctorate means that you are qualified to teach your subject within academia, thus rendering you an academic. Mind, this is not academic shit, this is pedantic nerd shit.
I’m not a huge fan of either academics or Hasan, but him not calling himself an academic despite having gone to an elite institution is absolutely the correct take. Which is the problem with Hasan, where most of his takes are good despite his nepotism, overwhelming wealth and completely useless job.
If the choice for ‘Marxism’ is between Hasan and whatever person wrote this essay, I’m sorry but I am choosing Hasan because at least Hasan isn’t doing stupid misrepresentation of arguments (most of the time, his clip on TJ was pretty cringe). Fortunately, this isn’t some sort of binary and there can be nuance where both of Hasan and articles ranting about Hasan are cringe.
