Whilst I’m a fan of the show (ads and all) the decision to uncritically fanboy for Hasan as a mature, critical news podcast is bizarre. I appreciate to some young Americans online he is socially important so interviewing him is relevant - but uncritically doing so is not a neutral decision.
This is an internet commentator who, whilst parroting typical leftie takes, is also explicitly a genocide denialist (Uighyr genocide) and ““ironically”” pro-CCP. It’s totally ironic of course - it’s just a joke. No similarities to be drawn to the right-wing Pepe irony here.
His anti imperialism inverts into hypocrisy when his perceptions of “East” and “West” collide; that Palestinians are oppressed but Uighyrs are not. That Trump is a dictator who must be removed, but that Xi Jinping is omg so based. Let’s not discuss Taiwan, Tibet (apparently, they “benefitted” therefore it was not true colonisation - is this a view reflected by the show?), the South China Sea, the abuse of Uighyr women, the vanishing of women who came forward with SA claims on party members. That’s not imperialism. And besides who are the decadent west to judge? Although he quite fairly asks we judge Netanyahu, and that it is right to judge without experience of Israel because the politics is genocidal on its face - our active judgement must have a very distinct border.
To be critical of Xi Jinping is to fall for the red scare and be a shill of American imperialism - but this rests entirely on assuming that every single person engaged in anti-authoritarian work and international human rights work are as a group, all morally bankrupt liars or that they all have less critical thinking capacity than one man - Hasan, an otherwise unemployed Twitch streamer.
Much like RFK Jr, he plays polite and upfront and quite agreeable in a way on one platform/podcast and utterly batsh* on another: likening Houthi Pirates who kidnap and kill people, working class people of East and Western nations, to Luffy, a beloved anime pacifist pirate who loves adventure and friendship - ?.
So, although Hasan may make salient takes he’s also is just another unserious angry man on the internet with a lot of incongruous and weird political opinions - why do we give “righteously” angry men such leeway and not question why it’s always men’s takes, in spite of their very weird ones, that are legitimised, and popularised — left and right?
That is the kind of reflection I’ve seen and come to expect from the show: guys, its absence is noticeable.
