Socialist Streamer Hasan Piker Called Out For Buying $2.7 Million Home — Proving People Don't Understand Socialism
"Socialism is when azan has no house" — Karl Marx
Kris Connor / Getty Former ‘The Young Turks’ broadcast journalist and producer, Hasan Piker now finds himself sitting in a chair broadcasting himself for 8 hours a day on popular streaming service, Twitch.
Well known for his political commentary, his beliefs lean on the socialist end of the communism-capitalism spectrum.
As such, he recently caught fire for ‘hypocrisy’ when he bought him and his family a $2.7 million dollar home.
Hasan Piker received backlash for buying a $2.7 million home.
When Piker got doxxed over a week ago by another popular political commentator on Twitch, Destiny, he was quickly bashed on Twitter by people claiming that he was a ‘fake socialist.’
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Fortunately, Piker isn’t shy about fighting back against the ‘Twitter activists’ who claim to understand how socialism works and feel betrayed by an influencer that isn’t really their friend.
Socialism is all about ‘seizing the means of production’ to achieve the goal of a classless society because capitalism, according to Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, will become unsustainable and obsolete.
Those who participate in the production of a product should have a stake in it, and would share equity.
Labeling Hasan Piker a 'hypocrite' misunderstands socialism.
Piker, who largely makes his money from donations and Twitch subscriptions, as well as his YouTube channel, often talks about how the rich should be taxed more, and how socialism has worked in the past and could work in the United States.
He has accrued a massive following on social media, and currently stands to make over $1.5 million dollars this year.
He is a content creator, an entertainer. People willingly donate to him, subscribe to him, and a lot of the money that he makes, he also donates.
The reason that left-wing socialists despise capitalism is because it relies on the exploitation of workers and laborers who don’t make enough money.
When the rich don’t get taxed enough, the money can’t return into the economy and enter back into the hands of the people.
Piker, who purchased the nearly $3 million dollar home, is increasing the amount of money he will be paying in taxes — due to property tax — as well as helping his family’s living situation and helping his streaming career, where he makes his money.
There is no exploitation, he pays the moderators of his chat as well as the people who edit his YouTube videos, he donates his money, and he advocates for his ideals and beliefs.
Hasan Piker's shut down controversy about his house.
“A lot of people are idiots though,” he says about people who don’t understand the difference between capitalism and socialism, ”and unironically, even leftists, will unironically advocate for the reactionary point of view that you are not supposed to have a single thing to yourself. ‘Socialism is when no toothbrush, and the less toothbrush you have, the more socialist you are.’”
He continues on this rant, which he has repeated on many occasions, and specifies the difference between personal property and private property.
“Personal property is property that you have for yourself. private property is property that you purchase so it can accrue capital. One is landlording, which is inherently parasitic, the other is owning a house and living in it, or owning a car and driving it.”
When people decide that they’re going to give their money to Piker to support him and the content he creates, they’re not being exploited.
They are not working/performing labor to make him money, but they are willingly giving it to him because they like what he does.
When he purchases a home for his family to live in and as a place for him to stream and continue creating content, that is his own personal decision he made, with the money that he made because of the labor he put into his career.
He has openly supported the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, a socialist-leaning politician, donating a total of $2,770, according to the Open Secrets database.
He even organized a stream where he played video games with US Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar — two leftist politicians.
He criticizes right-wing conservatives very often and makes takedown videos of politicians who do things he disagrees with.
"You're constantly on," Piker told Insider of how his platform of choice helped him connect with viewers. Twitch "is basically like AM broadcast radio for Zoomers, rather than what Rush Limbaugh was doing to our grandparents," he added.
Socialism is when you make equity for the labor you put into a product, which is something that Piker does, and advocates for, not when you give away all of your money and don’t buy anything with whatever you have left.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice and politics.