I think everyone who has been paying attention saw this coming. Now so-called “socialist” Hasan Piker is putting out CNN level liberal propaganda. Even western polling had to admit that Putin enjoyed an approval rating above 80% just prior to the election, but of course when you have demonized Russia to this degree you have to resort to reality denial to explain what you see.
We need to start using the term “red liberal” to describe these “leftist” political streamers and YouTubers who mimick the aesthetics and language of leftism while feeding into imperialist dogma and liberal assumptions about the world. Hasan also continues to deny the Donbass genocide that had been taking place since 2014 before Russia finally intervened, refuses to accept that Russia had legitimate reason to take action to stop NATO eastward expansion, and downplays the Nazi nature of the Kiev regime.
Now after he made fun of all the dumbass chuds who insisted in 2020 that the US election was stolen and made up all kinds of conspiracy theories to try and justify it, Hasan himself engages in the same kind of behavior when it comes to Russian elections. This is the kind of “socialist” who will act like they are not Democrat shills by superficially criticizing Genocide Joe yet continue to advocate that you vote for Democrats as the “lesser evil”.
It is good though that since 2022 all of these sheepdogs for liberal imperialism have been exposing themselves. Now we know where the lines are drawn. Once again Lenin’s words ring true:
“We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don’t clutch at us and don’t besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are “free” to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!”
meh, he is not a thinker he is a reactor. He prolly did get those votes and simultaneously enjoyed more loyal media apparatus than typical in the west. But the west media wants russia to suicide again like in the 90s, so no loss there
more loyal media apparatus than typical in the west
I’m sorry, have you watched/read western mainstream media recently? When i look at German media it’s like Gleichschaltung has happened all over again. And in the Anglo countries the media are thoroughly infiltrated by the intelligence agencies, this is a well known fact.
You see way more liberal critics of the Kremlin and of the Ukraine war on Russian media than you will see critics of NATO or of the pro-Ukraine policy in western media. And when it does happen the latter comes almost exclusively in the form of Trumpist conservatives who are obsessed with going after China instead.
I can count on one hand the number of people who are allowed on western mainstream media to voice any kind of rational, reality-based critique of the failure of the anti-Russia crusade and the collective insanity that has gripped the West in regards to Russia. It’s gotten so bad that Mr. Neoliberal Shock Therapy himself Jeffery Sachs has somehow become the voice of reason while the “left” has lost its goddamn mind.
kinda, but russia doesn’t have something like the intercept (semy acceptable but critical newspaper), they have either fully tilted western copycats, or current party-line loyalists (well and myriads of telegram channels,i believe). Anyways, from leftist point of view, more interesting liberal-adjacent point is about bonapartism and how it’s not good long term or that cprf seems hell bent on self destroying.
do not follow internet personalities, the internet is basically TV 2; you wouldnt trust people on the capitalist controlled television, you shouldnt trust people on capitalist controlled websites.
Hasan doesn’t recognise that his main source of income, REACT CONTENT, is a form of exploitation. No original content or ideas and a very fucking high ego, I don’t like him.
Why the fuck is he popular, I have no clue.
How is it exploitation?
He explicitly reaches out to and requests permission for everything he reacts to beforehand, unless it is some conservative drivel. Further, for those that agree, many note that their videos and channels skyrocket with engagement after their videos are watched by him. He even watches their ad and sponsor reads fully.
I would highly recommend watching DarkViperAU’s playlist about React Content: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnJ4ZuTYaeGv4WIexP9C5LAuMEnMkG-Q
But if you want a shorter explanation, basically, it doesn’t matter if you have consent of the original creator. We don’t look for consent from workers when they sell their labour, whether they like it or not, it is exploitation.
Reaction content harms not only the original creator, but other creators too just because of how the YouTube algorithm works.
To make a 30 min video the original creator needs to spend a day, two, a week, a month to finish the project and in the end hope that his video will be picked up in algorithm and get a lot of views. Hasan needs to spend the duration of the original video plus his commentary to, essentially, make the exact same content. Why? Because information didn’t change. No matter how much commentary you add, the original video in its entirety is on Hasan’s channel.
How is this bad? Well, because how much less time the reactor needs to make a reaction, no matter what, the original creators on the platform lose because not the most exceptional creator wins the lottery of the algorithm, but the one who gets a lot of watch time constantly. No matter what, Hasan will be faster, more efficient in making videos because he just steals what another person did, talks about it a little, and then reuploads it on the YouTube channel.
So, after the person watches Hasan’s commentary on the stream or on YouTube and even if it so just happens that the original video will be recommended to him on the home page, will he click and watch it? He already saw it, what’s the point.
Yes, sometimes reaction gives a boost to the original creator, but it doesn’t matter. Because not only him is harmed in the process.
Because Hasan made a reaction and it was reuploaded to the YouTube channel, he now competes in the algorithm with thousands and thousands of other videos on the platform, original videos from original creators. Eventually, because Hasan is so popular and because he steals interesting videos and puts them on his channel, he will be recommended to other people.
How is this bad? Because a video with Hasan’s face showed up on the home page means that someone else’s video didn’t. Not necessarily the original one Hasan reacted to, but some other original content. But they lost this chance to show up on the home page because, to the algorithm, Hasan’s channel is much more attractive, this guy spams awesome content almost every day, he is no match to other people who spend time making their videos.
When reaction gives a lot of views to the original video, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things because many thousands of people were harmed in the process.
Again, I highly recommend watching DarkViperAU’s playlist because I can’t explain it better than him, but if you want to know specifically about Hasan, here’s the link: https://youtu.be/va1zPshj5f0
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
🌎 👨🚀 🔫 👩🚀
Also that quote is so much better in Russian! Lenin’s biting humour often gets lost in translation. In Russian “go into the swamp” is an insult akin to English “bugger off”, so Lenin starts with this poetic description of comrades advancing under enemy fire, but by the end of the passage turns it into the most polite “go fuck yourselves” possible: “you’re free to go into the swamp and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there, only let go of our hands”
Yes, Putin is popular because he is a crucial part of the state. After the shitshow that was the 90s, his name is synonymous with stability. You quite literally have to be an extremist to want to put that stability on the line. Even if you’re not fond of him, you have to recognise there’s no safe, viable alternative. There’s no way that the people most invested in the Russian state would let anyone else take the presidency without Putin’s consent.
In that sense the elections are fake: they’re not letting anyone else near the Kremlin no matter what. As opposed to the US where you’ll have two fake options.
Personally I think it’s weird to reject electoralism in the US/West and then to start defending Russian election results as ‘real’ because Putin is popular. You’re still playing the liberal game of electoralism.
In that sense the elections are fake
I don’t see how that makes elections fake, having only one realistically viable option. You can’t say an election isn’t real just because one candidate is massively more popular than everyone else.
What makes bourgeois elections illegitimate is that they are actually really decided by the bourgeois class through their control over the media apparatus which indoctrinates and manipulates the people into voting how the bourgeois class wants.
Also, conditions for electoralism are not the same in Russia as they are in the US. The US for instance has no politically viable communist party that could ever win any significant elections. Russia does.
At the end of the day I’m not saying that Russia’s bourgeois elections are legitimate, but that they are really not that different from those in the West, apart from the results. Also it’s not hard to understand why Putin is so popular:
Mind you this is essentially propaganda, it lies by omission of the more inconvenient social and economic indicators while focusing too much on averages instead of the median. But otherwise it is pretty accurate as far as the numbers that it cites.
People in Russia can feel the improvement in their material conditions. With the exception of those already ideologically predisposed to dislike Putin (either communists like us, or on the other side, pro-Western liberals) i think most people cannot help but admire him for what he has seemingly (“seemingly” because he or course didn’t do it alone) achieved these past 20 years in Russia.
