Full article
As lifelong Democrats, we agree with Sen. Ted Cruz on virtually nothing. But Mr. Cruz was brave to decry antisemitism in the Republican Party. Mr. Cruz also named a big name, calling Tucker Carlson “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country.” Too few Democrats have followed Mr. Cruz’s lead by calling out the rising antisemitism on the far left. That must change.
The antisemitism spewed by Mr. Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and other far-right bigots is well-documented and widely condemned. But the far left has antisemites, too. No left-wing agitator is more influential and extreme than Twitch streamer Hasan Piker. Mr. Piker is often called “progressive,” but that does violence to the term. A self-identified Marxist, he has referred to ultra-Orthodox Jews as “inbred,” employed antisemitic dog whistles (“bloodthirsty, violent pig-dog”) against an anti-Hamas viewer of his stream, compared liberal Zionists to “liberal Nazis,” and said “Hamas is a thousand times better” than the Israeli state.
Mr. Piker’s depravity doesn’t stop there. His misogyny is indistinguishable from that of far-right influencers. He believes “America deserved 9/11.” He praised the Chinese Communist Party, saying “in terms of good governance, there’s a lot that we can learn from the way they perform out there.”
Mr. Piker is anti-American, antiwomen, anti-Western and antisemitic. No Democrat should engage with him. All should seek to push him to the fringe, where he belongs.
This isn’t happening. The Pod Save America team put him onstage at CrookedCon. Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate for Senate in Michigan, tweeted a picture of himself celebrating Piker with a supporter. California Rep. Ro Khanna, a possible presidential hopeful, pushed back on X against concerns we raised about antisemitism on the far left by declaring his pride in going on Mr. Piker’s feed. Mr. Piker chimed in to support him.
Handing Mr. Piker a microphone isn’t magnanimous or respectful of views that test your priors. Going on his show isn’t a sign of bravery, of willingness to talk to the other side, or to show up in challenging places. All these things do is support a bigot.
But few dare speak that truth. The only prominent Democrat to call out Mr. Piker’s bigotry directly so far is New York Rep. Ritchie Torres. Mr. Torres sent a letter to Twitch in October 2024 detailing Mr. Piker’s antisemitism. Other Democrats must follow suit.
Left-wing antisemites are savvier than the Nazi-endorsers on the right, who marched in Charlottesville, Va., and sat for dinner with the president. The antisemites of the left cloak their attacks in critiques of the present Israeli leadership. Many American Jews, including us, abhor Israel’s current leaders. Criticism of Israeli policy isn’t antisemitic. The Israel-Hamas War was a humanitarian catastrophe for Gazans. Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is appalling.
But the Jew-haters on the left go much further. They use loaded words taught in social justice seminars (“apartheid,” “genocide,” “settler colonialism”). They push age-old tropes about Jewish wealth and influence (“Epstein class,” turning “tax the rich” into “tax the Jews”). And they replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist.”
This language is more than offensive. It can beget violence. Last year, an alleged murderer seemingly inspired by left-wing rhetoric killed two people for the crime of being at the Capital Jewish Museum. Democrats must understand that accepting antisemitic figures like Mr. Piker into the mainstream puts Jewish Americans’ lives in danger.
There’s no excuse for putting political tribalism before Jewish safety. Or for overlooking hatred to generate likes online. Or for failing to act against the surge of antisemitism, spread by the Hasan Pikers of the world and normalized by too many on the Democratic side.
We’re all for a big tent. But the Democratic Party needs to draw a line in the sand. Hasan Piker and his fellow Jew-haters belong on the other side.
Mr. Cowan is a co-founder and president of Third Way, where Ms. Cohen is a press adviser.
and said “Hamas is a thousand times better” than the Israeli state.
Basic fact.
Hamas has committed zero genocides and operates zero apartheid states. It’s a low bar to clear but it seems pretty obvious to me.
I wonder what WSJs problem is with Hasan insulting Hamas there.
deleted by creator
Technically untrue cause that would be multiplying by zero
Mr. Piker’s depravity doesn’t stop there. His misogyny is indistinguishable from that of far-right influencers. He believes “America deserved 9/11.” He praised the Chinese Communist Party, saying “in terms of good governance, there’s a lot that we can learn from the way they perform out there.”
Neither of these quotes have anything to do with misogyny at all. Professional writer
JESUS CHRIST I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BIT
That threw me for a loop too, I thought they were actually going to try to back up that claim somehow.
I mean the brothel thing was not good but they don’t consider sex workers people I guess.
There are certainly discussions we can have about some of his bro-ey tendencies and such. The Wall Street Journal is absolutely not invited to have input that conversation. Uncritical opposition to whatever point they are trying to make, I don’t really care.
Call it cope, but Hasan’s more bro-y stuff I am hoping is him just trying to meet normies where they’re at. IIRC he even said himself something along the lines of “I want people to see a leftist and just see a guy.”
i can’t imagine how intentionally alienating half the people in the world helps the movement
Oh so he’s just putting on a show for 8 hours a day every single day for almost a decade? Cool, very cool lol
I mean… yes, that’s what performers and entertainers and streamers and actors all do.
That’s absurd cope and would be tailism regardless.
I generally agree, I don’t think it’s cope. IMO There needs to be a set of litmus tests, but purity testing, especially for people with no formal power, weakens your own movement with no effort by you’re enemies.
Brothel bad, bro tips was disgusting (I know it’s satire), neither in the article
At least Hasan himself says bro tips was terrible and has said that for many years, unlike the brothel thing
Legalizing brothels in Europe was apart of feminism tho
I’m in favor of decriminalizing prostitution. I still think it’s sexual exploitation and I’m not really on board with that.
Different feminist factions have different views on the liberalisation of prostitution and legalization of prostitution being a feminist matter is certainly not true in all European countries. In some cases it’s a police matter.
Anyway my intention wasn’t really to paint Hasan as a terrible misogynists but to provide context what might be meant by the article calling Hasan a misogynist.
I’m in favor of decriminalizing prostitution. I still think it’s sexual exploitation and I’m not really on board with that.
Very eloquent summation of my own thoughts.
And as we know, anything done in the name of feminism can’t be bad
This is theological reasoning. A broadly progressive movement can be incorrect, it needs to be judged on the merits and not the color of the flag.
He praised the Chinese Communist Party, saying “in terms of good governance, there’s a lot that we can learn from the way they perform out there.”
Ok, do they think even your average American doesn’t think the average Chinese administrator is running fucking RINGS around their American counterpart in terms of performance.
Like, you think this is ‘good governance’? You’d give this dogshit an A?
He believes “America deserved 9/11.”
I’m not sure about “deserved it” but the USA definitely earned it.
Likewise I would say the US “had it coming”. We hate to see senseless violence and destruction, but it is blowback from the US doing 100x the same violence over decades.
Idk, the buildings they hit don’t seem very senseless to me.
I’m not sure about “deserved it” but the USA definitely earned it.
Many of the individuals killed or otherwise hurt in the event didn’t deserve it (I’m sure at least a few did though). But America as a nation, an entity (not to be confused with the entity), or as a superstructure, yes America absolutely deserved 9/11. It deserved a lot worse and still does.
I was going to say America as a state deserved it, but honestly 9/11 was a boon to the American state. It gave them carte blanche to do whatever they wanted even more so than they already could, both domestically and internationally. So actually no, the American state didnt deserve it because they didn’t deserve anything good to happen to them, let alone such a perfect gift like 9/11, a gift that kept giving and never really stopped.
I still can’t believe they were able to get Americans to feel bad about Wall St. getting bombed.
They use loaded words taught in social justice seminars (“apartheid,” “genocide,” “settler colonialism”).
It’s inconceivable that people might hate us organically, therefore it must be the fault of social justice seminars
Mr. Cowan is a co-founder and president of Third Way
Third Way
Third Reich
Third Position https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position
Not to be confused with Third Way
Oh, sure. Sure.
Mr. Piker’s depravity doesn’t stop there. His misogyny is indistinguishable from that of far-right influencers. He believes “America deserved 9/11.” He praised the Chinese Communist Party, saying “in terms of good governance, there’s a lot that we can learn from the way they perform out there.”
i like that they just slip the accusation of mysogyny in there without example.
But the Jew-haters on the left go much further. They use loaded words taught in social justice seminars (“apartheid,” “genocide,” “settler colonialism”). They push age-old tropes about Jewish wealth and influence (“Epstein class,” turning “tax the rich” into “tax the Jews”). And they replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist.”
lmao jesus christ. "This thing you said with this well agreed upon meaning ACTUALLY just means “jews”! that makes you an antisemite!
This isn’t dogwhistle shit, these terms have meanings and are used outside of the discussion of Israel and it’s crimes, and importantly NONE of them implicate the entire Jewish community, just the state of Israel and/or wealthy oligarchs.
Lmao literally who has ever said “Tax the Jews”
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/sf-mayors-account-of-tax-the-jews-chant-draws-pushback/
There was a strange incident in SF recently that was spun as DSA chanting that, which was not what happened. Maybe a random crank in the neighborhood or a false flag op. Either way the zionists are very concerned.
However, the Democratic Socialists of San Francisco pushed back on the mayor’s account that it was a “group of individuals.” According to the DSA, that antisemitic remarks came from one woman who was not a member of the group.
“During today’s protest of the Prop 1 repeal, a non-member joined the crowd and spouted disgusting antisemitic remarks,” said the DSA in a statement. “DSA members and other protesters asked her to stop, but she refused.”
100% zionist false flag
Blacks rule!
hadith scholars?
But the Jew-haters on the left go much further. They use loaded words taught in social justice seminars (“apartheid,” “genocide,” “settler colonialism”).
I didn’t learn this from some blue haired college barista (who are infinitely more valuable than any crybaby zionist at the same college). I didn’t learn about Israeli genocide in school at all. But I did learn about the original Apartheid, and anyone with an attention span of >5 seconds would be able to connect the dots of what happened in Africa is what’s happening in Palestine. In fact, survivors and victims of Apartheid, the Holocaust, and various ex-colonies have stood up and said the same thing. But no, it’s just actually some SJW yelling buzzwords and no one is capable of critical thought apparently.
They push age-old tropes about Jewish wealth and influence (“Epstein class,” turning “tax the rich” into “tax the Jews”). And they replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist.”
Interesting that they never talk about the Jews who are outraged over the genocide and call it as such. Funny how they don’t write a screed about antisemitism when Jews are endangered by Israelis funding and platforming far right, fascistic politicians and media pundits who hate Jews in the west.
Israelis can apparently try to use everything up to including violence in order to bully Jews into supporting Israel and I can’t, as an American, tell these Israeli fuckers to leave my Jewish American comrades alone.
i like that they just slip the accusation of mysogyny in there without example.
specifically, indistinguishable from right-wingers (?)
really just a bunch of useless words not worth engaging over because they’re trying to trick you into arguing with them and conceding something.
No it’s worth engaging with, just ask them for a bunch of definitions up front then drop a Marxists.org link on them no matter what they come back with.
lol
I think both the writer meant misanthropy and the editor just presumed they were making shit up in bad faith like most of the article.
- Every acusation is a confession.
Zionists conflate themselves and
with all Jews and Judaism. We don’t replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist”, THEY’RE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS, THAT’S THE POINT!
They push age-old tropes about Jewish wealth and influence (“Epstein class,” turning “tax the rich” into “tax the Jews”). And they replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist.”
lol, hold up who is being anti-Semitic again?
They say things like, ‘From the river to the sea, [no Jewish man, woman, or child in] Palestine shall be free’
no Jewish man, woman, or child in
Finally, it’ll be the promised child-free enby utopia we all needed.
Democrats decrying the antisemitism and misogyny of the ‘far left’ in the WSJ
The Israel-Hamas War was a humanitarian catastrophe for Gazans. Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is appalling.
But the Jew-haters on the left go much further. They use loaded words taught in social justice seminars (“apartheid,” “genocide,” “settler colonialism”).
Rhetorical self own
They should hire an editor for their newspaper.
Editor? Nah, AI can do that job. See the above case in point.
If that isnt the case and there isnt a human doing the editing, they arent making a good case for their job. Someone else in this thread noticed another obvious writing error as well, in general this is first draft at best. If a human was involved they were paying so much less attention than most people need to in order to get paid
Actual Murder < Loaded Words
My favorite sentence in the article that is related to your quip:
Mr. Piker is often called “progressive,” but that does violence to the term.
I can accept being called a settler but i draw the line at colonizer
Last year, an alleged murderer seemingly inspired by left-wing rhetoric killed two people for the crime of being at the Capital Jewish Museum
Last I checked, he shot them for being cogs of the Zionist genocide machine, but what do I know?
Goddamn if the crime was being at the museum, why didn’t he go beast mode and do a mass killing? The propaganda is ever changing
Really? Someone would do that?
Go on the internet and lie?
Achkshually…. Diplomats don’t represent our country’s views
we’re all for big tent
these people literally had a conference last month to strategize about kicking progressives out of the tent lmao, but ok WSJ. zionist nazis get to publish their opinions in a christofascist and zionist nazi rag.
Mr. Piker’s depravity doesn’t stop there. His misogyny is indistinguishable from that of far-right influencers. He believes “America deserved 9/11.” He praised the Chinese Communist Party, saying “in terms of good governance, there’s a lot that we can learn from the way they perform out there.”
Women hold up half of the planes
Babe wake up, 9/11 is misogynist now
None of the hijackers were heckin girlbosses
Very problematic
Is it possible this is LLM-written?
Oh 100%
Half the sky was an inside job
Democrats are too cozy with Hasan Piker
Funny, I think it’s the other way around actually
i agree, hasan should long abandon genocidal party and highlight third parties, rent strikes and history of ww2 sabotage by partisans, but alas we live in treatler world
WSJ should platforms Marxist to call Hasan a social fascist, since they’re so dedicated to the marketplace of ideas
Mr. Piker’s depravity doesn’t stop there. His misogyny is indistinguishable from that of far-right influencers.
actually i was thinking this is more of a broken clock moment
Hasan can be kind of gross and it’s worth criticizing, but I absolutely would not equivocate between that and what far-right types say about women needing to submit to their husbands and bear children to not have meaningless lives, etc.
fair enough. i debated saying this but i thought it wouldn’t matter. but when you put it like that it makes me wonder why i thought that
Ah the Americans. Somehow proud neo-Nazis and want Hitler 2.0, but they will also screech about how Israel is the heckin’est most wholesome place in existence and you’re the antisemite actually!
You have ruined my scroll during my meeting.
California Rep. Ro Khanna, a possible presidential hopeful, pushed back on X against concerns we raised about antisemitism on the far left by declaring his pride in going on Mr. Piker’s feed. Mr. Piker chimed in to support him.
Lol they out here broadcasting getting clowned on as if it were a badge of honor.
