Hasan buying a Porsche Taycan, a house in LA, and high line clothing doesn’t mean he’s a grifter. Hell, it doesn’t even contradict his being a socialist.

Yes, it does. He is a colossal hypocrite. He doesn't live by any of the shit he preaches to people. He selling one set of ideas to people while living by the complete opposite. He's not being honest to his audience, that's the textbook definition of deception. He's also doing it for financial gain, which makes him a textbook grifter.

He isn’t invested in real estate or any other industry aside from the one he obviously gets most of his funding from: political commentary.

You literally prove yourself wrong in this very same comment. He owns a for profit clothing brand. I even brought this up in my previous comment. Did you even read it?

He doesn’t rug pull his followers by introducing cryptocurrency or NFTs, which many if not most grifters have done, including Trump

This isn't even a valid argument. You're just arguing that he isn't a grifter because he doesn't fit your myopic preconceived stereotypes of what you personally think a grifter is. It has nothing do with the objectivity of his actions fitting the confines of the actual definition. Just because he doesn't "feel" like a grifter to you that doesn't mean that he isn't one. Are you honestly so out of ideas that this is the best you can come up with?

Hasan doesn’t acquire capital in any way a “normal” capitalist would.

Of course he doesn't, he's a grifter. Most capitalists aren't grifters. With that being said, again, he does own a for profit company.

His getting funding from his fans actually allows him to stay independent as a political commentator and be free from corporate main stream media and the US State Department pushing American-first propaganda.

Maybe you should go back and read what the term "grifter" even means, because you're clearly demonstrating that you have no idea what you're talking about. A grifter is not a shill or a capitalist or a right winger. It's not a pejorative to describe anyone you don't like. The word has an actual meaning.

He just has so many fans that people mistake that for his being a millionaire.

Like I said in my previous comment, I don't have a problem with him being a millionaire. I specifically said that my issue with him has to do with how he became a millionaire. Again, reading is very important here. If you're not willing to do the bare minimum then we can't have a conversation.

then criticize all of West Hollywood and California in general for making housjng that expensive.

Who said that I don't? You're grasping at straws here. You're making up assumptions and attacking them because you're in denial that your favorite content creator is in fact a grifter. It's as simple as that.

You choosing not to shows your bias.

Are you slow? This is a completely separate topic, why would I criticize California's rich NIMBYs and housing crises in a conversation about Hasan Piker being a grifter? Of course I wouldn't bring it up because it's irrelevant.

just so happens to be union owned and operated.

Idk if you have issues with reading comprehension skills or not, but I very clearly addressed this very point in my previous comment. The business only using union labor is a GIMMICK. There are tens of thousands of businesses across the country use union labor, it doesn't mean anything. This is not something that's new or unique. If you want to praise him for using union labor, then that's fine, but that still doesn't justify the absurd prices that he's charging for his clothing brand.

I’m sorry, but what the Union does and doesn’t do is none of your concern BECAUSE THEY STILL OPERATE IN A CAPITALIST HELLHOLE OF A COUNTRY.

This is THE dumbest argument you've come up thus far. The company isn't run by a union, it's run by Hasan. The union just negotiates on the behalf of the employees as a bloc, that's it. How the company is run is literally the entire point of this conversation you dolt. Hasan is intentionally, consciously choosing to sell at ridiculous prices solely for profit.

You’re ignoring the cost of living in California, and instead of wanting to fix that, you’re belief is that people should just move away or stop what they’re trying to do although

Again, stop making up assumption in your head. This bad faith argumentation just shows that you're incapable of defending Hasan on his own merits. I explained very clearly in my last comment that the crazy high prices that Hasan is charging has nothing to do with cost of living or union wages or anything like that. Why? Because he constantly runs promotions and sales events. If he has that much margin to do this then that proves that he's not selling at the minimum price necessary to run the operation, he's intentionally selling at a massive profit.

Hasan bought the LA house at that price because West Hollywood is really that expensive.

Not that expensive. This is something that you can easily verify right now by going to Zillow and looking up the houses in West Hollywood, you'll see that the vast majority of them are way less than $3 million. That price will fetch you the absolutely biggest and most luxurious mansions in the area. Keep in mind, this is 2026 prices, he bought his mansion back in 2021. Hasan didn't buy a normal house in an expensive area, he bought a mansion in an expensive area. That's a big difference

You failing to mention these things shows your bias

What bias? You keep repeating this like a broken record, but I have no biases towards Hasan. I'm just telling you the cold, hard objective truth as it is. He's a grifter as per the definition of the word, and I provided examples that prove just that.

Hasan has these things, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still a socialist.

It doesn't by definition. This is like saying participating in environmental destruction are still environmentalists because they have an online persona where they care about the environment even though they're doing the opposite in their personal lives. It's a nonsensical stance.

living like a socialist in the US is a quick strategy to poverty

I feel like a broken record at this point. I, again, specifically said that I'm not one of those people who thinks that Hasan needs to live in poverty in order to be considered a socialist. It's reasonable to want a comfortable life. However, there's a difference between a comfortable life as an average person and a highly luxurious life as an ultra wealthy capitalist. When you choose the latter, then there is no longer any room for doubt. Hasan is not a socialist, he's capitalist. You could make the argument that someone like Bernie or AOC are socialists, but not Hasan.

you don’t see capitalist grifters arguing for this, they are keen to use fascist ideas to continually fuel capitalism;

You probably thought that this was a zinger, but the very fact that your "gotcha" statement here is directly comparing Hasan to "capitalist grifters" proves my point that Hasan is in fact a grifter himself.

Karl Marx said that socialism is “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”

My whole point is that Hasan does NOT live by this principle whatsoever.

socialism doesn’t prohibit the possibility of millionaires and rich people if those people earned their fortunes in socialist ways

What in hell are you even talking about? I don't think you understand what socialism is. There's no such thing as millionaires and rich people in a socialist system because a socialist system is a planned economy. That means all the wealth and resources are directly owned, managed, redistributed by the state. How can you even argue for something that you don't understand?

what socialism does prohibit is the outsourcing of the means of production where ownership and operation of the economy are divorced

That is not what socialism is.

just look to China where this version of “market socialism” is allowed to exist and evolve.

Lmao what? China's economic rise literally happened because they adopted a version of capitalism. After Mao nearly collapsed the country, his successor, Deng Xiaoping, decided to liberalize the economy by allowing private ownership, "special economic zones" where capitalism runs free, foreign investment, and so on. Since the reforms in the 80s, China economy finally started booming. They've kept the same model ever since. The CCP calls it "market socialism with Chinese characteristics" but in reality its just state capitalism.

So since you provided evidence that doesn’t really make your argument. I’ll bring some of my own:

Every sentence that I read from you, the more I am inclined to believe that you're a 14 year old kid who's just starting to get into politics. I have a hard time imagining an adult arguing in such a childish way. My evidence directly supports my argument, so much so, that I've basically proven my point. You haven't even addressed what I said. I have yet to actually come across a single valid point from you that made think about the merits of what you said.

Regardless, looking at your list, none of them contradict what I said... like at all. In fact some of them, like his clothing brand support my point, not yours. I even made a point in this very thread about how he even donates like a rich capitalist where he's only doing it for PR. His lifestyle and his persona are contradictory, which makes him a grifter.

I’m not going to change your mind. But I will change someone else’s on Lemmy

This is the weakest cop out ever. I'm very clearly objectively correct here. You can't argue against it, but you're also not honest enough to admit it. Therefore, instead of addressing what I actually said, you just grasped at a bunch of straws, got mad at me for calling out the crappy content creator you idolize, and then tried to exist with a source dump that doesn't even support your point. It's just so dishonest.