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DPRK skeptic turned appreciator.
(m.youtube.com)
"As revolutionaries, we don't have the right to say that we're tired of explaining. We must never stop explaining. We also know that when the people understand, they cannot but follow us. In any case, we, the people, have no enemies when it comes to peoples. Our only enemies are the imperialist regimes and organizations." Thomas Sankara, 1985
International Anti-Capitalist podcast run by an American, a Slav and an Arab.
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Proud of him, now if he'd just read a little more he could arrive at these conclusions sooner
On a more serious note, I haven't watched the video and probably won't but I'm curious to hear if some of our more learned community members would say that Hasan is guilty of adjusting his stances simply because his audience unconsciously calls for it.
It would seem that Hasan has softened towards China (and perhaps by extension: the DPRK) only because his audience (and perhaps he himself) have become increasingly disillusioned with the chances of success for the "left" in the U.S through electoralism.
I have not watched Hasan in some years, and am not sure if this shift if in opinion of his should even be criticized, but thought I'd share my observation and seek some feedback.
At the end of the day we're all influenced by our material reality surrounding us. Me complaining about Hasan on the internet won't change his positions. I don't know why he has them, could be opportunism, could be lack of education, could be some chess move where he's intentionally putting himself in the most radical position possible, while still appealing to the masses.
His biggest issue and the issue with the pipeline of socialism in the west in general, is that they don't have any material power.
Put yourself in my shoes. I'm a disabled queer person, because of those positions in life I struggle to find employment or even a community to belong to, no matter how much theory I read does anyone honestly expect me to sacrifice my life for them, when fighting for the cause? Like what are people like me supposed to do? I'm not alone there's thousands of us, where am I supposed to direct them? I don't know.
Who approached my mother when she had enough of the beatings? No leftist, a human trafficker and I ended up living a few years in a brothel house, which nobody sincerely gives a shit about, they just talk about these problems because the news said so and it's the new spicy commodity.
I think there's like a black void that sucks up treats inside every westerner.
I watched him almost daily over the past 2 years and I would soft-agree with you. He seems to adjust his tone, especially when it came to AES back in the day, so that he can still show up and interact with liberal spaces without having too bad of a reputation as a malding tankie.
His role is more to push the overtone window to the (socialist) left, utilising his image as a self proclaimed 'Himbo' and 'just a Streamer', but never letting an opportunity go to give actual food for thought and arguments, sugar-coated in liberal speak by preemptively saying "I have my criticism of XYZ, but ABC", never actually getting into the point of his own criticisms, but always staying on dismantling rightists talking points from the left.
My two cents are, that when he really gets something wrong, it is because he has like 10 things going all the time, and doesn't catch up to things as I want him to. That being said, I think he is actually achieving the goal I laid out earlier (just looking at Gaza and Ukraine-Russia alone), and I view him as indispensable for actual leftist movements.
We don't really have someone like him on the German speaking internet, and it really shows.
(We may have Dekarldent being somewhat left-ish ideologically, but that dude was actively AES bashing like crazy, mixed with this immature western-marxist 'everything has to be perfect NOW', and has this chauvinistic tone with everyone that tries to talk to him in the chat. I think he has many years ahead of him if he really wants to change something, but he only started reading theory after gaza, and has been a lib-politics streamer for some time before that.
One of the things I am glad to see is his active solidarity with Palestine, and actively platforming them as almost one of the only ones in fucking germany-media. Man I really hate it here).
The little input I can give on this subject is that Hasan's anti-fandom seems entirely sure that Hasan flips according to his audience, whereas Hasan's fandom is certain his audience is constantly being educated and enlightened by Hasan's takes. As with most things, overly positive and overly negative feelings towards Hasan are parasocial and we should only be analyzing his individual actions and their impact.