He’s a social democrat who is anti imperialist (aka a democratic socialist) who is biased by his own upbringing (he worked at the young turks for his uncle) and material wealth (biggest twitch streamer) so he ends up making incorrect takes on many issues like China or Taiwan.
Might be being pressured from the feds because he’s a big name on breadtube, but I also suspect he hasn’t read very much theory on China anyway.
I’ll copy something I posted previously about him here since this is a good opportunity.
EDIT here it is:
Warning: long, brutal takedown of twitch streamers stance on Xinjiang. I hate breadtube stuff and never pay attention to it but this particular instance caught my eye so I decided to make a post about it.
I was frustrated at HasanAbis takes on China and he sounds like he’s barely read anything about China. Basically equating China to the US therefore everyone bad. Very convenient position to take as a democratic socialist. He was ranting about the state of surveillance and how they have lost their culture.
If you are really a socialist, isn’t raising the material conditions of everyone the most important thing? Because that’s what China does. I have a soft spot for groups of people who do not have self determination (as a Pacific islander myself), but really what is the alternative to Chinese control of Xinjiang? It’s American control/influence and the unspeakable horrors that come with that like what happened to every other Middle Eastern nation.
So you bring the people into the fold in your country (China) by raising the material conditions of those people. Nothing’s going to be perfect, and IT TAKES TIME but you can’t leave them out to die - socialism can only succeed by increasing people’s quality of life. How do you weigh better living conditions for everybody against increased security/surveillance? You don’t! Food and housing, education and employment are more important! And remember, raising the material conditions of a minority does count as progress towards positive treatment of a minority! In fact it is one of the most important things!
To be so overly concerned with surveillance is to apply western thought where surveillance is used to oppress minorities AS THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES. In this view, you’d be claiming that a government was somehow oppressing a minority AND actively improving their material conditions at the same time! Completely stupid. Not only that, even if it was true that they were being oppressed culturally to the same degree Native Americans were in the US, then Chinas treatment of minorities is still superior BECAUSE their living standards are improving!
Here in the west as a twitch streamer your food and housing is taken care of, while you have no idea of the poverty that existed in that region. That is the only way you could ever make that take - to ignore the historical materialist situation of that region of the world. Nobody is saying the situation is a perfect place, that there are no conflicts/violence/tensions between China, Han Chinese, and Uyghurs. There are plenty. But you are affording your own country America the chance to improve its people’s lives a timespan of election years whilst when you look at China you snap to pass judgment instantly within the present. Why can’t China improve when it has done so consistently, almost like clockwork, at basically every facet of its society? To suggest it can’t ignores history and applies your own experience (and the ignorances that come with it) to a country with its own special conditions and history.
Hasan always confused me
He’s a social democrat who is anti imperialist (aka a democratic socialist) who is biased by his own upbringing (he worked at the young turks for his uncle) and material wealth (biggest twitch streamer) so he ends up making incorrect takes on many issues like China or Taiwan.
Might be being pressured from the feds because he’s a big name on breadtube, but I also suspect he hasn’t read very much theory on China anyway.
I’ll copy something I posted previously about him here since this is a good opportunity. EDIT here it is:
Warning: long, brutal takedown of twitch streamers stance on Xinjiang. I hate breadtube stuff and never pay attention to it but this particular instance caught my eye so I decided to make a post about it.
I was frustrated at HasanAbis takes on China and he sounds like he’s barely read anything about China. Basically equating China to the US therefore everyone bad. Very convenient position to take as a democratic socialist. He was ranting about the state of surveillance and how they have lost their culture.
If you are really a socialist, isn’t raising the material conditions of everyone the most important thing? Because that’s what China does. I have a soft spot for groups of people who do not have self determination (as a Pacific islander myself), but really what is the alternative to Chinese control of Xinjiang? It’s American control/influence and the unspeakable horrors that come with that like what happened to every other Middle Eastern nation.
So you bring the people into the fold in your country (China) by raising the material conditions of those people. Nothing’s going to be perfect, and IT TAKES TIME but you can’t leave them out to die - socialism can only succeed by increasing people’s quality of life. How do you weigh better living conditions for everybody against increased security/surveillance? You don’t! Food and housing, education and employment are more important! And remember, raising the material conditions of a minority does count as progress towards positive treatment of a minority! In fact it is one of the most important things!
To be so overly concerned with surveillance is to apply western thought where surveillance is used to oppress minorities AS THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES. In this view, you’d be claiming that a government was somehow oppressing a minority AND actively improving their material conditions at the same time! Completely stupid. Not only that, even if it was true that they were being oppressed culturally to the same degree Native Americans were in the US, then Chinas treatment of minorities is still superior BECAUSE their living standards are improving!
Here in the west as a twitch streamer your food and housing is taken care of, while you have no idea of the poverty that existed in that region. That is the only way you could ever make that take - to ignore the historical materialist situation of that region of the world. Nobody is saying the situation is a perfect place, that there are no conflicts/violence/tensions between China, Han Chinese, and Uyghurs. There are plenty. But you are affording your own country America the chance to improve its people’s lives a timespan of election years whilst when you look at China you snap to pass judgment instantly within the present. Why can’t China improve when it has done so consistently, almost like clockwork, at basically every facet of its society? To suggest it can’t ignores history and applies your own experience (and the ignorances that come with it) to a country with its own special conditions and history.