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.
While you scrutinize the finer points of morality relating to the detainment of sailors as part of an economic blockade, Israel is intentionally starving millions of children. Your priorities are so out of whack it’s absurd that you don’t recognize it. You don’t have to support the Houthis to acknowledge that their economic blockade of Israel is justified. If engaging in that level of nuance makes me a terrorist in your eyes, you’ve completely lost the plot.
Besides, the word terrorist has always been used by the US as a propaganda tool to paint specific militant groups that are enemies of US empire as barbaric and inhuman. If the basic definition of terrorism were applied fairly across the board then the IDF and US military would be considered the most prolific terrorists and the US and Israel the largest state sponsors of terror. The standard of violence is set by the oppressors.
WTF has this to do with priorities? Just because i despise the israeli government and the action they take i have to give hasan a pass when he blurts out insane takes on a daily basis?
Yeah, and i agree the US and Israel are in some ways full blown terror regimes which did horrible things. Doesnt take away from the fact that Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis are terror orgs. Yeah, sure the US caused probably more harm over the last century then the three groups together. But that doesnt legitimize anything ffs.
Hasan fans should really start reading books about the matters they are so invested in instead of just parroting some dumbass twitch streamer.
Nobody’s asking you to “give Hasan a pass” but we’re asking you to see the Palestinian issue from the eyes of a neighbour who doesn’t see any recourse from the international community against the heinous acts perpetrated by the Israeli regime and the IDF against civilians in Gaza and other regions nearby. If nobody punishes a bully am I a bully myself if I intervene to defend the bullied person? I personally don’t think so, especially if the teachers and the principal constantly side with the bully against the bullied.
This will never sit well with me, I’ll personally take matters into my own hands anytime I see a situation where someone powerful acts against someone poor, especially when the institutions tasked with defending those who aren’t powerful sit in a corner fiddling their fingers and not acting in line with their declared objectives.
This being said I despise any kind of religious extremism (any religion at all in fact, but I don’t expect everybody to become atheist all of a sudden. I completely expect everybody not to be an extremists tho) so I also despise the founding reasons of Hamas, the houtis, the islamic brotherhood or any other religious organisation. But still I understand and justify their reasons for being in a fight against Israel.
I don’t understand and I don’t justify the stances of international organisations which should be defending the Palestinian people and who are the cause why I have to support religious extremists in this specific context (looking at UN aggressively)