As the U.S. midterm elections approach, the political rivalry between Democrats and Republicans is not limited to the corridors of Congress but is also transforming into a war of words waged in the digital media ecosystem. In this new media landscape, Hasan Piker, who has surpassed traditional commentators and reached millions of voters, has recently become central to the debates.
Naughty child of post-liberal left
Who is Piker? Piker, born in 1991 in New Jersey to a Turkish family, studied political science and communication at Rutgers University, then worked as a producer and presenter for The Young Turks, a progressive online news program founded by his uncle Cenk Uygur. Piker began streaming on Twitch in 2018 and left The Young Turks in 2020 to become an independent content creator. Today, he has 3.1 million followers on Twitch, and 14 million watch his live streams monthly.
Piker is a self-described socialist and long-time associate of the Democratic Socialists of America. However, what distinguishes him from the classical left is his proposal of a "post-liberal" vision. In an interview with The New York Times, he said: "Liberal capitalist democracies offered a great evolution for a long time, but the bloodshed created by this system continues. Liberalism is failing, and we see the illiberals benefiting from this. I define myself not as an illiberal, but as a post-liberal."
