Hasan Piker, the biggest progressive political streamer in America, was detained by Customs and Border Protection for hours of questioning upon returning to the U.S. from a trip to France this weekend. Piker posted about the incident on X and later talked about it on stream.
He was detained in Chiago and questioned for two hours about protected journalistic activities like who he’s interviewed and his political beliefs. He was asked whether or not he’d interviewed Hamas, Houthis, or Hezbollah members. He was questioned about his opinions on Trump and Israel and asked about his history of bans on Twitch. His phone and laptop were not confiscated.
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Yeah, it’s disgusting that people’s first reaction to someone being unjustly detained is that.
Crazy that in his stream with FD a few weeks ago he was adamant that he’d be one of the last people impacted by the immigration/border control nonsense.
I think it just goes to show how, even otherwise well informed people, can underestimate how much fascism will impact them personally. It can be easy to distance yourself until it is in your face, placing you in cuffs, or forcible removing you from your home. I hope he learns a lesson from this experience.
Never heard of this guy but must have hit a nerve if a whole Hasbara brigade is showing up here to trash talk him.
That being said, it’s an interesting turn of events that apparently units around immigration take the role of Gestapo. Makes a lot of sense given what types of people would even want to do such a job but it’s still not what I expected when they said fascism is coming back.
Right wing groups have been targeting him for his support of Palestine and being critical of Israel.
It should be a surprise to no one that government goons are totally on board with fascism. Did anyone think for a second that they would have objections? A person that chose to be in a position of authority is going to complain when an authoritarian leader gives them more power? Yeah right. It’s all about the power trip for those thugs.
The government is full of career public servants who are very serious about their work, and in nearly every case, have made a conscious decision to make less money in order to be able to use their knowledge and expertise to serve the public.
So I think it’s important to make a distinction about who you’re referring to when you say “government goons”
I think my comment and the theme of the post make clear who I was referring to.
progressive
Pretty sure dude is a leftist. Capitalist media has never encountered this before.
Borderline tankie. Remember him being best buds with putin before russia attacked Ukraine? Dude probably still blames NATO for that.
I can’t find any evidence for this? I only found a source of him saying Putin wouldn’t invade Ukraine.
Hasan Piker: I said Russia will never invade Ukraine, because Putin is a bad person, but he’s not a mad person.
Here’s a summary in a meme format.
Oh I knew about Hasan saying Russia wouldn’t attack Ukraine. I mean I don’t know where the being best buds with Putin came from.
The saying “wouldn’t attack” isn’t my main gripe. It’s the constant blaming of NATO for the conflict. Which is word-for-word out of putin’s playbook.
Also, there were plenty of terms of endearment from hasan. It was never “putin bad” before the invasion. It was “putin smart, NATO bad”.
I don’t have any more sources for you, you can believe what you please. I don’t give a rat’s ass about the dickhead, and I’d like to stop talking about him right now.
Even if he is a dickhead, this kind of thought policing by border security is bad for all of us.
100% agree.
I don’t care enough to sift through millions of hasan clips from 3 years ago to provide one person source.
I used to watch him before the invasion. But when he started banning pro-NATO people from his chat, and saying that putin is just being defensive, because of NATO’s imperialistic nature.
Dude’s an american idiot.
Saying Russia’s rationale is supported by evidence like the NATO chief saying that and lots of other “non pro Russia” leaders. Just because it’s a “banned” opinion in mainstream (not political correct) doesn’t make it false, or make one a tankie, or pro-Russia.
The problem is if you do not accept different viewpoints there is no space for negotiations or peace agreements, only questionable and bloody victory. And that little trick is the real 1984 for me, not the shit MAGA is pulling off. The entire mainstream and “left” have swallowed this narrative and attack anyone with different opinions with personal attacks, even if they have clear evidence supporting their opinions.
Ah yes, the good ol’ “stop resisting”. A true classic among you folk.
This is the reason I am extremely cautious with anyone of this ilk. There seems to be too many people who happen to be leftist. Socialist. Whatever. And then out of nowhere… whitewashing of putin/russia/soviets. … because america / nato / West bad.
Which I won’t abide for. Ever
“this ilk” go back to reading the silmarillion like the nerd you are
silmarillion
what the fuck
Wow. Vocabulary shaming. This is pure Anti-intellectualism. Shame.
Authoritarians love anti-intellectualism
The questioning (though harmless) is often a stepping stone to more drastic measures. In the place where I live (not the US), my local religious police does questioning to make sure that activists are not posting their status online. This sort of measure helps them evade accountability and keeps the general public in ignorance.
The questioning (though harmless)
There’s nothing “harmless” about kidnapping people and coercing them into an interrogation.
This sort of measure helps them evade accountability and keeps the general public in ignorance.
Yep, that’s some of the harm.
That is true. Interrogations do harm communities to a larger extent than I initially thought. I recall how my neighborhood had to stop everything (such as art, videos, embroidery, food) just so they could avoid police kidnappings. We had three post-doctoral candidates in our district arrested for insulting the sultan (and his religion) and although they were smart enough to hire defense counsel, their lawyers told us that their clients are “jailed without trial”.
This is what happens when you gut education, the “regular people” observing this no longer have the historical context of what this shit actually means in the scheme of things during an ongoing fascist takeover. “What’s wrong with them just asking questions to make sure he’s not a terrorist?”
So they let it happen, and in many cases, even cheer it on.
In the place where I live (not the US), my local religious police does questioning to make sure that activists are not posting their status online.
Careful. Depending on which not-the-US country you’re in, this could be flagged as anti-semitism.
My guess is Iran, and OP should probably not confirm or deny for good reasons. Which other country have religious police, where it could flagged as anti-semitism though?
Yeah, it’s famously illegal to insult the Sultan of Iran
I’m starting to feel like a lot of the takes against Hasan are in bad faith. I watched a little recap and I felt it was both clear and obvious that YOU (normal person) shouldn’t do what he did.
But being a notable person of interest who was already (questionably?) illegally caught up in a bad system, there’s reason to believe things wouldn’t take a turn for the better just because he asked to lawyer up. So he took a calculated risk and engaged with the situation enough to gather a first hand experience he could report on. Concrete evidence, there’s value in that. It was his decision to make.
To reiterate, obvious YOU don’t do that. Stay silent, lawyer up.
EDIT: Timestamped.
They are in bad faith. If you watch a full argument from Hasan, it’s really difficult to not agree with him. The American centric view of the world is distorting everything. Step back, watch events from a different prospective, many things will be clearer.
Yeah you don’t have to watch Hasan for too long to realize that most objections against him are empty / bad faith. If he’s guilty of anything at all it’s getting distracted by / yelling at his chat too much. But I chalk that up to general Twitch culture. The reality is that he’s politically activating and engaging tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people who wouldn’t be otherwise, or would have been watching slop / right wing pipeline content instead. I wish there were more people like him in streaming, but obviously it’s a difficult niche to exist in.
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It’s too bad they didn’t let him stream it. That would’ve been peak content.
Wow this is bad. Even if you deem questioning necessary, it being done by border protection is a bad sign. There are other mechanisms in place for that.
The US is spiraling fast.
Question
When do who exactly deem that “questioning” journalists is a good idea? Who? Can anyone deem anyone else for “questioning”?
What are the wrong answers? What is the questions about? What do they question about and why?
Hasan is on tape saying his goal is to radicalise his audience. Calling him a journalist mightve sound plausible four years ago.
Sorry, you’re right. He’s an influencer. He will say anything that appeals to his clan. But these types are so incapable of engineering anything that doesn’t funnel into building an audience
If there were legitimate questions about someone’s affiliation with terrorist organisations it does make sense to question them regardless of if they are a journalist or not.
Edit: to clarify I don’t agree with what happened in this case and I would expect a warrant
That’s totalitarian mentality.
But… Is this the case with this guy? He can be investigated by watching and concluding that he says what he thinks is a cool leftist guy would say and don’t hold any beliefs at all to rival his need for an audience that can prove his worth to himself which quickly becomes a desperate way to live
Oh almost certainly not. I’ve clarified my comment
I find it crazy to hear this coming from the US. It was all over the news when Serbia detained a Croatian singer trying to cross the border or trying to deport people with Croatian citizenship, crazy to see the same thing happening in the US.
Completely normal for USA. There are plenty of people who have been hiding from imperial violence. Snowden, Assange, et al. Always has been.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/abdulrahman-al-awlaki-us-drone-strike-10-years
The US is like that now, under Trump, not just led by Trump.
These people get to ask Hasan head-empty questions for hours and get paid. To think his entire fanbase has been doing it for free this entire time
I have a like/dislike perspective on Hasan Piker.
Hes tankie-lite. Critical support for him in this case though, fuck ICE.
Its probably an indicator that I really need to touch grass that I’m primarily curious what Ethan Klein and Lonerbox think of this.
Man, I liked some of Klein’s videos from way back ( idubbbz as well) but when YouTubers shift from whatever content they were making to making content about the platform or others on it I usually check out real quick.
I also can’t do 3 hour podcasts where people talk over each other and yell either so maybe I’m just not the target demo anymore.
Its further an indication that I need to touch grass that when I read your name I think of Vaush’s editor.
They are going after white-passing US citizens now?
If they’re known left-wingers, yes.
Hasan is not a very pale-skin name. If his name was Bob, it might be different.
this isn’t about his skin or name. they knew who he was, and they already had questions for him about his views and even interviews he’s done. this is 100% trying to suppress 1A
Ive been stopped and questioned by border patrol for hours at least 3 times over the last 15 years. Apparently I’m an asshole and this is how they “get their revenge” on you. This guy was only stopped once… amateur.
Like so many other political pundits, Hasan Piker is an asshole but obviously he should have the right to be that without anyone (edit with official authority) questioning him.
This. Being an asshole is totally legal.
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Should he be detained like that, no.
He’s an absolute scumbag though
