This one is for the chronically online
A few days ago, Twitch political commentator Hasan Abi (Hasan Piker) hosted Matt Duss, Bernie Sanders’ former foreign affairs advisor, to talk about the war in Ukraine. The conversation drifted into Palestine, where Duss’ past is harder to gloss over. He has a record of deeply hostile anti-Palestinian comments, yet the interview never confronted them.
Bad Empanada, a much smaller but consistently principled creator, called this out. His critique wasn’t simply that Hasan gave Duss a platform, but that by interviewing him uncritically, Hasan was helping to launder the reputation of someone complicit in normalizing Palestinian disposability. Worse, it showed how easily left spaces can start moderating themselves to fit into the mainstream liberal consensus.
Hasan’s defense that he is “not a journalist,” that people change, that it’s not a big deal, completely missed the point. As bell hooks argued, patriarchy teaches men to see accountability as weakness [1]. What was needed wasn’t a “gotcha moment,” but a recognition that having a platform comes with obligations. Hasan’s refusal to own that responsibility wasn’t just an oversight; it revealed the limits of his politics.
Hasan has been rightly praised as an alternative to toxic masculinity online, a counterweight to the right-wing influencer pipeline. But masculinity without feminist critique quickly becomes another performance. His unwillingness to admit mistakes, his obsession with control over his image even his fixation on a hyper-disciplined body aesthetic, are not neutral. It may be a bit of stretch but it brings to mind what Sara Ahmed might call the non-performativity of accountability: the appearance of progressiveness without the labor of self-critique [2]. She applied it in a different more institutionalized context but it may be very fitting here as well.
And Bad Empanada, while correct in substance, often reproduces the same combative, ego-driven style of male-dominated left spaces. Solidarity fractures when movements become competitions for authority. Watching the two of them clash felt less like a fight over justice and more like patriarchy playing itself out in real time. But this doesn't make it right for him to hold Hasan accountable.
However, it made me think of what I may call feminist subjectivity and why it really matters. Without centering accountability, care, and responsibility, left spaces will reproduce the same hierarchies they claim to oppose. They will be loud, viral, and occasionally righteous, but ultimately fragile. They will fail to build solidarity. And most importantly, they will fail the people, Palestinians in this case, who should be at the center.
Accountability is not “cancellation.” It is the minimum condition of solidarity. As hooks wrote, “love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust” [3]. The left needs more than charismatic men with good politics most of the time. It needs structures that refuse patriarchal performance when things get uncomfortable.
I recommend Catalina Hirean substack about June Jordan. She recommands an article by Marina Magloire that revisits the split between Audre Lorde and June Jordan over Zionism and Palestinian solidarity [4]. Jordan took a clear, consistent stance for Palestine as early as 1982 at great personal cost. She faced threats, marginalization, and the loss of networks, while Lorde’s hesitance allowed her to remain in more comfortable feminist coalitions. Eventually, Lorde shifted her position, but the damage to solidarity had already been done. Magloire shows how even within feminist movements, accountability and responsibility are what sustain collective struggle. Without them, even the most radical spaces are doomed to repeat the failures of patriarchal politics. And that is what we are seeing replayed now, online, live, and in real time.
References
[1] hooks, bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love. Washington Square Press, 2004.
[2] Ahmed, Sara. On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Duke University Press, 2012.
[3] hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. William Morrow, 2000.
[4] Magloire, Marina. “Moving Towards Life.” Los Angeles Review of Books, August 7, 2024. Link
Damn, expected more from Hasan. Love your writing, really eye opening. 🫶