Hakim continues to knock it out of the park. This time covering the corruption, hypocrisy, and failing of capitalist media.

  • chinawatcherwatcher
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    2 years ago

    one of the claims in that mango press thread was that hakim lies about being an iraqi, or at least living in iraq, for online marxist clout. the argument goes that because he was eligible for US student loans for medical school, he’s probably a US citizen. there were also some examples brought up about euphemisms he used that only a fluent or first-language english speaker would use. no idea how true this is and it’s not a lot to go on, and mango press has some fucking weird opinions sometimes, but i can’t deny that it’s possible.

    hakim having weird, uninformed, or no opinions on present-day events is not totally out of character: i watched a conversation on present-day china between him and paul morrin (anti-china maoist), and was surprised at how lukewarm at best his defense was. no mention of like the NEP, him calling china bad because “state capitalism,” etc. anyone curious should watch it for themselves. let’s be honest, there’s no reason why we should all read theory and study historical trends other than better understanding the present, and consistently having not-great takes on the present makes me question what good his content can be except perhaps as an introduction for people who aren’t marxists or leninists.

    also noticed recently that he’s put ads on his youtube videos. i’m sorry but this does affect the content, because at the very least it affects the purpose why the content was made. it also implies that the content is intitutionally-friendly enough for a company to buy advertising time from them. we should be extremely, extremely skeptical of theory youtubers and especially advertised content. if ben norton or BT news suddenly got sponsored by fuckin surfshark or expressvpn, i think we would all be very surprised. i haven’t unsubscribed yet, but just the title of this most recent video gives me “capitalist brainwashing” vibes, which ultimately gives ground to multiple anticommunist tropes. will perhaps edit after i watch.

    • 小莱卡
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      2 years ago

      lol @ mango press claiming Hakim is american bc he speaks English too fluently.

      • chinawatcherwatcher
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        2 years ago

        just want to clarify that it wasn’t exactly mango press making that specific argument, but someone in telegram comments. and, the argument wasn’t that his english was fluent, but that he used specific idioms that only an american would use. mango press did make the argument that only a US citizen would be eligible for student loans.

        • aworldtowin@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          That’s insanity coming from a place like mango press that focuses so much on other countries. These people do realize how most young people around the world learn English right? It’s 80%+ pop culture and consuming stuff that comes from the US/Britain. My longest relationship was with a girl from Italy who’s parents didn’t even speak a word of English and she was 10x more well versed in American pop culture and popular sayings than I am as an American myself. Even Yugopnik himself has said he basically taught himself English through American movies and video games.

    • kikuos_child
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      2 years ago

      Hakim has come out to be pretty pro-China recently, if u listen to what he says when he mentions China in the pod it’s pretty nuanced and he’s put ads in his videos because he hired an editor.