Controversial far-left streamer Hasan Piker blamed “hysterical” pro-Israel Jews for legitimizing the scourge of antisemitism — as he described himself as “Rush Limbaugh for Zoomers.”
The New Jersey-born influencer, 35, who is due to attend a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on Thursday, branded Jewish people “ridiculous” and “hysterical” for equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism — and blamed them for the rising hate.
“And perhaps even more dangerously from their perspective, that also legitimizes the antisemites because [they] will point to that and go, ‘See? They’re doing it again,’” Piker said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Piker was responding to a question about his comments on a recent stream in which he said that American Jews who were “singularly invested in Israel” were opening themselves up for attacks.
The socialist provocateur, who got his break in leftist politics from his uncle Cenk Uygur, founder of The Young Turks, has more than three million followers on Twitch, and millions more on social media — reaching a largely young, male audience.
For many of these young men, he is their primary source of news.
But he rejected the idea that he was bolstering a left-wing online “manosphere” as an alternative to Joe Rogan, the right-leaning podcaster credited with galvanizing young, male support for President Trump in the 2024 election.
“A lot of these manosphere guys don’t know what they’re talking about — their level of involvement with politics is super, super basic,” Piker told the Times.
Instead, he described himself as a shock jock of the left, and likened himself to Rush Limbaugh, the late conservative broadcaster who Trump hailed as the “greatest radio host of all time.” Limbaugh died in February 2021 after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 70.
Piker has come out to stump for progressive Democrats on the midterm train, including Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed.
But since espousing radically anti-American views, such as saying the US is worse than al-Qaeda, some in the party have looked to distance themselves from the rabble-rousing influencer.
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