Hey y’all,
Today I’m digging into the sudden mainstream interest in Hasan Piker—Twitch streamer, political commentator, and, apparently, the internet’s best hope for pulling young men back from the clutches of the far right.
If that sounds dramatic, it’s because it is.
Since the 2024 election, Democratic-aligned strategists and media have been scrambling to understand one thing: why did young men swing so hard toward Donald Trump? In 2020, Trump lost young men by 15 points. In 2024, he won them by 14. That’s a nearly 30-point seismic shift.
Now, suddenly, Hasan is everywhere. He’s been profiled in The New York Times, featured in The New Yorker, collaborating with FD Signifier. He’s tall. He’s hot (I’m sorry! We have to be honest about it!). He’s leftist. And he’s articulating his politics in a language the boys understand. The question is: does it work?
Here’s what I want to explore: Hasan’s moment is about more than just his charisma. It’s about the deep anxiety that the Democratic Party’s messaging and their messengers are no longer culturally legible to young people, especially young men.
The media ecosystem has been in search of a "bro whisperer" who isn’t so…Roganesque. They need someone who can meet disaffected young men where they are, validate their feelings, and then redirect that resentment away from Right Wing’s convenient scapegoats like immigrants or trans kids and toward the actual systems making their lives hard.
That’s what Hasan tries to do. His message is basically: be mad if you want, but your undocumented neighbor is not the reason your life sucks.
I think that’s a sound rhetorical strategy. But I still have questions about who’s actually watching him. Is his audience full of young men? Or are we projecting because he presents as masculine, and we’re desperate? Because if you look at his peers like Adin Ross, the Paul brothers, and the Nelk Boys, their audiences are easily discernible as male. I’d bet (and I have nothing to back this up) Hasan’s is more balanced, if not female-leaning.
Even if he is reaching men, what then? Do we really think one good-looking Twitch streamer is going to reverse a generational shift in gendered political identification?
Let’s zoom out.
The left’s messaging problem is really a relationship problem. Voters who generally support the Democratic Party simply didn’t show up in 2024 like they did in 2020. And that wasn’t just about the candidates. It was about Gaza. About the party’s reputation. About voters not feeling seen or prioritized. You can’t solve that with one viral man in a muscle tank. Or even ten of them.
You have to tend to those relationships in the off-season. Raise consciousness, like the feminists say. Cultivate trust between cycles. That’s long-term work. And yes, maybe Hasan can be part of that, but he’s not the whole plan.
We also need to talk about how these conversations get centered on young white men again and again. When the PRRI post-election survey came out, it wasn’t just young men who abandoned Democrats. It was young people overall. And a huge number or Black voters didn’t show up at all. That’s not just a bro problem.
Now, I’m not saying we should ignore alienated men. I’ve said before: they are a tinderbox. But naming their pain doesn’t mean we have to center it. Can we acknowledge their identity crisis without reinstating patriarchy by default? Can we be honest about how patriarchy hurts them and still maintain a broader feminist lens?
It’s tricky. Especially when the right is out here saying, “Yes, you should be angry—and it’s because of immigrants, or a trans girl playing soccer.” And what’s the left’s answer? “Be joyful.” That doesn’t land when people are broke, lonely, and uncertain.
So, sure, let’s keep experimenting with voices like Hasan’s. Let’s let him be one of many hands on deck. But we have to admit: the problem is bigger than messaging. It’s structural. And it’s spiritual (people are lonely and lost). And if we’re serious about fixing it, we’re going to need more than a six-foot-four Twitch star with a square jaw and a copy of The Communist Manifesto on his nightstand.
💜Kim
W
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