203
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

For months, pundits have decried the absence of a “Joe Rogan of the left” — an online media figure who can galvanize young men to support Democrats in the way that popular right-wing creators like Rogan, Adin Ross, and the NELK Boys have done for President Donald Trump. Now, it appears that Democratic operatives have a $20 million plan to build such a figure.

Nina Smith, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Stacey Abrams, said instead of propping up a creator who checks the perfect ideological boxes, Democrats should embrace the online spaces for young men that already exist.

For example, creators like Hasan Piker, a left-leaning creator with over 5.5 million subscribers on Twitch and broad popularity among young men, has largely been ignored by the Democratic establishment. Piker’s political content leans farther left, sharing a populist economic message paired with strong criticism of U.S. foreign policy in Israel.

“There is a tendency to shy away from those spaces because our favorite thing to do in the Democratic Party is to, pardon my language, shit on the left,” said Smith.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 50 points 5 days ago

The Democrats are never going to be able to build a liberal Joe Rogan because a liberal is going to have to stay extremely Centrist to appease the Democrats. So they're not going to appeal to the left and they're not going to appeal to the right, so they'll start veering right more because that's where the money is going to be. I mean hell people say Joe Rogan used to be left. I don't agree with that I think he was just a fan of weed and got swept up in Bernie Sanders enthusiasm, I don't think he was actually ever a leftist. However he chased the bag. Because it was a big fucking bag. That's why he's where he is now.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

All this...All of it. ☝️

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

I think this misses that a lot of people "are Democrats" simple because the only other choice is Republican in our 2 sided system.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Which is why those voters will always be stuck in the uni-party hell. Throwing any vote at these neo-lib/neo-con parties is literally voting against your own self interest, because they are working for the elites/oligarchs. I would classify this 'vote for XXX no matter what' mentality as a 'user error.'

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah but can you blame people, really?

There's one party that wants to actively destroy the county and everyone in it, with a mob voting for them.

Then you have the other party that will sit back and watch it happen, but not actively help it quite as much.

I mean fuck. I don't like the second option but I want to prevent the first one because it seems worse.

this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
203 points (95.1% liked)

Progressive Politics

2704 readers
1325 users here now

Welcome to Progressive Politics! A place for news updates and political discussion from a left perspective. Conservatives and centrists are welcome just try and keep it civil :)

(Sidebar still a work in progress post recommendations if you have them such as reading lists)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS