E567 Hasan Piker

Summary

Podcast Summary: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von – Episode E567 Featuring Hasan Piker

Introduction

In Episode E567 of This Past Weekend with Theo Von, released on March 7, 2025, host Theo Von welcomes Hasan Piker, a prominent streamer and leftist political commentator. The conversation delves deep into various socio-political issues, media biases, and personal experiences, providing listeners with insightful perspectives on contemporary challenges.

1. Fashion and Personal Style (00:00 – 02:28)

The episode begins with light-hearted banter about personal style and fashion choices. Theo compliments Hasan on his attire, sparking a discussion about the influence of brands like Adidas and Y3 Yoji Yamamoto collaborations.

• Theo Von (02:28): “Yeah. Dude, that is style.”

2. Racism and the Evolution of Discrimination (02:28 – 05:40)

Hasan introduces the concept of a USSR race chart, illustrating how racism has become more nuanced and difficult to navigate in modern America. He emphasizes that overt racism has evolved into more covert forms, making it harder to identify and challenge.

• Hasan Piker (05:02): “Racism used to be so easy in America... now it's almost like you have to have a chart.”

3. Media Bias and Mainstream Narratives (05:40 – 16:12)

A significant portion of the conversation centers on media bias, particularly the dominance of right-wing media outlets like Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting. Hasan critiques the uniparty approach to American foreign policy, especially regarding support for Israel and the Iraq War, highlighting how mainstream media often uncritically propagates governmental narratives.

• Hasan Piker (16:15): “Right wing media is incredibly dominant. They dominate the local news with Sinclair Broadcasting and also all the way up to Fox News.”

4. The Challenges of Streaming and Content Creation (16:12 – 29:09)

Theo expresses admiration for Hasan's work ethic as a streamer, likening it to an Olympic endurance race. Hasan discusses the difficulties of streaming, including constant live audience interactions and the susceptibility to having content taken out of context.

• Theo Von (09:06): “I admire the way that you do things, dude. So I appreciate you coming and hanging out.”

5. U.S. Foreign Policy and Complicity (29:09 – 45:12)

The discussion shifts to U.S. foreign policy, with Hasan arguing that America is complicit in various global conflicts. He criticizes bipartisan support for policies that favor corporations over the welfare of citizens, using examples like arms sales to Israel and the treatment of undocumented migrants.

• Hasan Piker (29:33): “I don't think America is like a true democracy by any means... they're offering political cover at the U.N.”

6. Social Media, Misinformation, and Public Perception (45:12 – 67:10)

Hasan addresses the rampant spread of misinformation on social media platforms, citing examples like QAnon conspiracies and the manipulation of public opinion through false narratives. He emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and diverse media consumption to combat these issues.

• Hasan Piker (65:00): “There's no consensus on this stuff anymore... it's very frustrating to see.”

7. Labor Unions, Minimum Wage, and Economic Policies (67:10 – 81:36)

The conversation turns to labor rights, unions, and economic disparities. Hasan advocates for higher minimum wages and stronger union participation to empower workers against corporate exploitation. He contrasts the U.S. labor landscape with other countries like Chile, highlighting the need for systemic change.

• Hasan Piker (75:03): “I think unions... is how you get the most successful business.”

8. Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, and Public Safety (81:36 – 94:38)

Hasan discusses the origins of sanctuary cities, clarifying that they were initially proposed by law enforcement to build trust with immigrant communities for better crime reporting and public safety. He debunks myths propagated by right-wing media, emphasizing the humanitarian aspects of immigration policies.

• Hasan Piker (86:32): “Sanctuary cities were initially advocated by law enforcement to solve crimes by building trust with immigrant communities.”

9. Military, Defense Spending, and Employment (94:38 – 113:48)

The duo delves into the role of the military as a major employer in the U.S., critiquing the government's reliance on defense spending to sustain employment rather than focusing on productive domestic projects. Hasan laments the mismanagement and corruption within defense agencies, advocating for a reimagined approach that prioritizes public welfare over corporate profits.

• Hasan Piker (95:26): “The American military is a jobs program... replace bad systems with good ones.”

10. Personal Reflections and Community Impact (113:48 – End)

Towards the end of the episode, both Theo and Hasan share personal anecdotes and reflections on the importance of community, self-improvement, and utilizing platforms for positive change. Hasan highlights his fundraising efforts for Palestinian aid and labor unions, underscoring the tangible impact of his activism.

• Hasan Piker (119:02): “I feel like there's a lot of stories that don't get told in mainstream media... actively fundraise gives me and a lot of people the opportunity to say we're trying to do something.”

Conclusion

Episode E567 of This Past Weekend with Theo Von offers a comprehensive discussion on pressing socio-political issues, blending personal insights with broader systemic critiques. Hasan Piker's passionate advocacy for labor rights, media transparency, and humanitarian policies provides listeners with a thought-provoking perspective on navigating and addressing the complexities of modern society.

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Notable Quotes:

• Theo Von (02:28): “Yeah. Dude, that is style.”
• Hasan Piker (05:02): “Racism used to be so easy in America... now it's almost like you have to have a chart.”
• Hasan Piker (16:15): “Right wing media is incredibly dominant. They dominate the local news with Sinclair Broadcasting and also all the way up to Fox News.”
• Hasan Piker (29:33): “I don't think America is like a true democracy by any means... they're offering political cover at the U.N.”
• Hasan Piker (65:00): “There's no consensus on this stuff anymore... it's very frustrating to see.”
• Hasan Piker (75:03): “I think unions... is how you get the most successful business.”
• Hasan Piker (86:32): “Sanctuary cities were initially advocated by law enforcement to solve crimes by building trust with immigrant communities.”
• Hasan Piker (95:26): “The American military is a jobs program... replace bad systems with good ones.”
• Hasan Piker (119:02): “I feel like there's a lot of stories that don't get told in mainstream media... actively fundraise gives me and a lot of people the opportunity to say we're trying to do something.”

---

Note: This summary is based on the provided transcript and aims to encapsulate the key discussions and insights shared by Theo Von and Hasan Piker during the episode.

Transcript

[Theo Von]

Hablas espanol spries to Joyce. Come do nosq. If you've heard that sound from Babbel before, I bet you do. Babbel is the science backed language learning app that actually works with quick 10 minute lessons. Handcrafted by over 200 language experts. Babbel gets you on your way to speaking a new language in just a few weeks. With over 16 million subscriptions sold and a 20 day money back guarantee. Just start speaking another language with Babbel right now. Up to 55% off your Babbel subscription. @babbel.com Spotify podcast spelled B a B-B-E-L.com Spotify podcast rules and restrictions may apply. I want to say thank you for the support of our merch. Really, really appreciate it. And we have restocks. Those are in now. We've got gang gang bait and tackle humble upstairs. A lot of items are restocked. You can check that out theovonstore.com and again, thank you so much. Today's guest is one of the most popular streamers. He's a leftist political commentator. You can see countless clips of him debating social issues and political topics. I admire his work ethic and his pursuit of information and communication. I am thankful today for his time and our conversation. Today's guest is Mr. Hassan Piker.

[Hassan Piker]

It look, it feels like I made so many requests where I'm like oh my God, I need to have my dog here. All this.

[Theo Von]

No, dude, I'm just myself style it. You're like probably yeah. Or is that.

[Hassan Piker]

This is just the top is some. I mean both are Japanese I think actually.

[Theo Von]

Oh yeah, that's what it is.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. It's a, it's a Japanese brand called color with a kid. And the pants are Adidas. Y3 Yoji Yamamoto collab.

[Theo Von]

Damn.

[Hassan Piker]

You don't with fashion at all.

[Theo Von]

I, I mean I, I, yeah, I don't.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean you got. You gotta look though.

[Theo Von]

I mean I, I don't like to have a lot of. I don't know.

[Hassan Piker]

Should we save this for the pod? That's, that's normal. Oh, we're rolling. Yeah. Oh, okay. All right. Oh yeah, yeah, my bad. That's why I didn't have it on the. That's why I didn't have it in my mouth because I thought we weren't filming it.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. Dude, that is style.

[Hassan Piker]

That's.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's definitely very stylish. My good friend Aaron, he started a company called John Elliott.

[Hassan Piker]

I feel like I've heard of that.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, they have him like in now and like in Nordstrom. And it's like a. They have like a. It over. Like. I think it was like, right after, like, G Star kind of came out. Like G. I tried. I got into some G Star.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, you got some G Star.

[Theo Von]

That was like, as. Like, let me see what we're doing. Kind of as I got. I would like to have more fashion. Sometimes. I just don't know if I. I don't care.

[Hassan Piker]

Well, you gotta look.

[Theo Von]

I get too overwhelmed. I like knowing, like, there's about 17 or 18 things that I wear that'll be okay.

[Hassan Piker]

Bro, you gotta look. You can't be saying I need to get into fashion. And you're making a deliberate choice to not have a mustache and grow a beard out.

[Theo Von]

Oh, you think so?

[Hassan Piker]

I feel like that's.

[Theo Von]

That's a look maybe that I never thought about that.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I guess you got the flannel.

[Theo Von]

It's that little bit like a sock for your chin kind of, I guess.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. That's brave, by the way, I just got to say.

[Theo Von]

To do just this.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I think it's brave.

[Theo Von]

But do you think that's a culture thing? What culture is your family from?

[Hassan Piker]

I'm Turkish.

[Theo Von]

Okay, so in Turkey, is that a thing? Do you see just this ever in Turkey?

[Hassan Piker]

Sometimes. I mean, we don't got Amish people. Normally the only time you see the beard and the no mustache combo is if they just go with the full one.

[Theo Von]

Oh, yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

And it's just like. I don't know why they do that.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. I saw a guy with a huge beard the other night at a comedy show. I think it was in Ohio. He had a huge beard. And then Edgar, that kind of Mexican kind of Edgar cut in the front.

[Hassan Piker]

I love that.

[Theo Von]

Oh, it was great. This guy was ginger. I mean, probably Amish or recently Amish once removed or whatever. And he had.

[Hassan Piker]

Had that work.

[Theo Von]

I mean, you could tell somebody in his. Somebody at fucking. He probably had nails in his pocket. You know what I'm saying? He definitely. Somebody had somebody. I don't know, man. But no, you're prob. The most sty. I'm trying to think of somebody else more stylish that's. Come in here. Oh, here's some facial hair types right here. This is very important, bro.

[Hassan Piker]

This is like that. That Russian ethnicities photo grid, you know what I'm talking about? Like in the ussr this is crazy.

[Theo Von]

This does look like.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, they're like. They're showing us the different kinds of.

[Theo Von]

Armenians this does look like 40 degree of Uber. That's what it looks like.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. See, look, that's what I'm talking.

[Theo Von]

Oh, I thought this is one of those terror watch fucking. Dude.

[Hassan Piker]

No, no, this is like. Look at. Look at all the different ethnicities in the ussr. It's. It's the. It's to be better at racism. Racism.

[Theo Von]

Well, that's what I did. Racism used to be so easy in America. Like when I was growing up, it was like, easy, easy to do, easy to be racist. Now I've been to this. It's almost like you have to have a chart. You have to have.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, that's what.

[Theo Von]

Calculator. To even be racist now it feels like.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I hate that. God damn it, Rac. Racism used to be so easy.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. What happened to the good old days? You could just point out the window and your stepdad just knew immediately what was going on.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. I think it's just extra difficulty now. That's what it is. So you have to be smarter as a racist.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, we're trying to make the races better. Yeah. Yeah, dude. Because you said there's like a barrier to entry now.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, there's a barrier. Entry to doing racism. It's like, it's unironically a more difficult process now. But what I was going to say is, if you want to go back to the facial hair chart.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. Bring it up again, please, because I want to know what we're doing. Or was it yours? The other one?

[Hassan Piker]

No, no, that was the. That was just a USSR Races. USSR race chart.

[Theo Von]

But yeah, you can also get that USSR chart is easily. A lot of those men, you'll see a meeting with very young girls at Starbucks, trying to get them involved in something. A lot of times it seems like. Yeah, but what is this one?

[Hassan Piker]

What do you got? You got the chin curtain? No, you got the goatee. That's what you have?

[Theo Von]

Yeah, I guess I have the goatee. It's very simple, kind of. It's like I have a big nose, so I try to ma. You know, you do little things to try and, you know, trick a wife or what a trick. You know, you want to have a spouse, so I have that. And then I have a little bit more chin than my brother does. So I have a real chin in here. Some people, it's. It's completely. It's a total mirage. Like, there's a guy that's in that power slap game and they can't even. Like, he has.

[Hassan Piker]

They can't identify where shin begins.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I love that. Especially when, like, dudes have that situation going on, and then they'll just, like, grow out their beard and basically try to, like, line it up so that there's, like a chin there. And it's like, bro, you are not fooling anybody. And I don't even know what to do in that situation. Like, if you got that. If you got that no neck edge, then you're kind of cooked regardless. Yeah. But I mean, good luck. I don't know.

[Theo Von]

There is the one where it's crazy where sometimes. Yeah, they. They cut the hair. Exactly.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Oh, that's no neck. Ed. Yeah. He's doing real estate now, too. He was doing lemonade sale. He was in, like a. He got caught up in big lemon or not big lemonade, but, like, lemonade.

[Hassan Piker]

Big lemonade.

[Theo Von]

He was so. I know he's. He got. I think he was involved with lemonade for a bit. I saw him selling a.

[Hassan Piker]

He was involved with, like, a. Like a child. Like, what do you mean?

[Theo Von]

No, like, he was selling. He got caught up. Ed and Pete's. There it is. Something like that or lemonade.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, he, like, actually had his lemonade brand.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, he was selling. It was like. It was the opposite of. You know, they have, like, long neck body. That was the whole play on it. Oh.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, that's weird.

[Theo Von]

I know.

[Hassan Piker]

That's such an odd thing that he was so. He made like, like a short and stubby one.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. Who wants that baby lemonade out of Ed? Oh, he's definitely looked like the kind of guy that you would just. That you want to fucking crack open. He looks like that fancy syrup. You ever see the fancy bottle of syrup and it doesn't have. Bring it up if you can. It's kind of light brown. As a brown top on it. It's maple syrup, but it's wide.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, like the. Like the maple version? Like.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, the 365. The Whole Foods that matte finish one.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. The one that looks like a liquor bottle.

[Theo Von]

Yes.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. Yeah, that one. Yeah.

[Theo Von]

I always. He kind of had that. Anyway, I feel bad we're making fun of the guy now.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, he wasn't. I don't know. I remember watching 90 Day Fiance and he didn't seem like a good dude.

[Theo Von]

Oh, really?

[Hassan Piker]

He didn't seem. He didn't strike me as, like, a very nice guy, but, I mean, who knows?

[Theo Von]

Oh, I'll jump on a hate wagon in a heartbeat, dude. Bro. Yeah. No, but I saw the other day. He's doing real estate, man. Hassan Piker thanks for coming in, dude.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, thanks for having me.

[Theo Von]

I know you're super busy, man. I admire. I admire, first of all, how streamers, how the effort it is. It almost seems like it's like, one of those races in the Olympics that it's like. Like an endurance game, but also, just, like, your openness to, like, thinking about things. You don't seem like just like, one type of person or. Or like, you could pigeonhole you.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I do. I do a little bit of everything. I mean, but even just in your.

[Theo Von]

Own beliefs, like, in, you know, when you talk about political stuff, it's like, you seem very poignant, but also, like, aggressively open to things, you know, which I think. And that's a judgment, and maybe I shouldn't have said something like that. But anyway, I just admire the way that you do things, dude. So I appreciate you coming and hanging out. That's all I should have said.

[Hassan Piker]

Thanks for. Thanks for having me. I think streamers are basically, like, the bottom of the totem pole as far as content creators goes. Like, it's definitely laborious, but I wouldn't say that it's, like, super difficult. Cause, like, overall, a Hollywood production, if that is, like, the highest stage of, like, content creation, and you have, you know, hundreds of people working all around the world working around the clock to put, like, two and a half hours of content together where everyone's gonna sit there and watch Twitch. Streaming is, like, the lowest of the low, where it's just, like, a dude like me half the time, you know, picking at his crotch, watching YouTube videos, picking his nose. And it's. You know, it's. You have to be on for eight hours at a time, and it's, like, usually one person doing that, and that's annoying, and you got to be, like, constantly listening to people chirp at you, and that part sucks. But overall, I would say it's like the, you know, lowest tier of content, lowest effort of content.

[Theo Von]

Would you say that it's the purest of content, though, in a weird way? Like, because it's.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, what I do is hide. Yeah. What I do is AM radio, but what I do is. Is basically AM radio, but for zoomers, you know? Like, that's the way I describe myself. Like, do you know, like, I'm sure you know Rush Limbaugh? Yeah, like, that's. That's the way that I describe what I do to older people in general, where, like, I'm like Rush Limbaugh, but without the brain. Without the brain rot. Yeah, Quite literally. And Figuratively, I mean, he did die of brain cancer.

[Theo Von]

Did he? He had addiction. I know.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, he also had a. Yeah, he had a hole, I think in his brain from all the perks. He was perked up. He was a perked up shouty.

[Theo Von]

Well, he was definitely my mind and yeah, I think he definitely was one of the early. He was almost like a rapper in a way. Like with the pills. I think he had the women bring up Rush Limbaugh's wife. Let's even get a.

[Hassan Piker]

No. I don't, I don't know. I feel like those guys don't fuck. I don't know why. Like, unless they're. Unless they're gay. The gay conservatives, like the ones in the closet, like they fucking. Okay, nevermind. She's kind of. She's kind of a looker, huh?

[Theo Von]

I mean, she's better looking than him.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, that's not saying much. That's true.

[Theo Von]

But still, I've seen. Yeah, sometimes you get a. Yeah, she has a very. Who does she look like? A little bit. I've never seen his wife or someone's widow, Catherine.

[Hassan Piker]

She kind of looks like in that photo where they're kissing. She kind of looks like Walter White's wife, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, from Breaking Bad.

[Theo Von]

The blonde haired lady.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah, but like hotter.

[Theo Von]

And torey Spelling a little bit too. She looked like. If you go back one, Tori Spelling was probably for your time, but oh yeah, she does. Yeah, I never looked at his wife or. Yeah, I never seen a picture of her before.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I mean it'd be weird if you were just like out there googling Rush Limbaugh's life. I do that all the time. I look at all the, all my favorite conservative commentators, wives.

[Theo Von]

You just think like, yeah, I guess. What do people. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I guess it's good that I'm not doing that. What's one of the toughest things about streaming that people don't understand though?

[Hassan Piker]

I'll say it like this. Back in the day, Joe Rogan used to always talk about how when you do a three hour podcast, like there are so much that people can just like clip out of that and then take out of context. Like rob it of its nuance and rob it of its context. And it was funny because like at the time when he was saying this, like podcasting was a relatively new medium. I'm talking like 2014, 2015, when Joe Rogan, when he first was building out the Joe Rogan experience.

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

Every other week, seemingly the media would yell at him over some shit that he said on his podcast. And he was like, we're having an honest discussion. It's three hours. It's back and forth. It's gonna happen. Like, things are gonna get taken out of context. I think for Twitch streaming that's tuned up to 11, where not only am I live, I'm talking about politics, which are, you know, I mean, I'm talking about some really crazy issues, hot button topics. And also I'm doing that with a live audience who's constantly chirping at me in real time, trying to, you know, trying to constantly piss me off. And then when they do successfully piss me off, they'll clip that shit and post it on Twitter, post it on Reddit, Be like, call out, post, call out, post. This guy's bad. Look at what he said. And you know when you got like, crazy dedicated haters too, especially. Cause you're doing politics in general, you're gonna have a lot of crazy dedicated haters. They. They just do. You know, they just compile all of that to be like, this is a bad person over and over and over again. Like, you'll see it in the. In the comments section of this video. There will be a ton of people who are gonna come in and be like, this guy is a bad dude. Like, he said this, he said that. Cause, like, the major reason obviously, for that is because I'm anti Israel. Like, I'm. I'm. I'm pro Palestine. I've been pro Palestine for quite a while. And that really brings out the crazies.

[Theo Von]

Does it really?

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You haven't encountered this. I mean, you had Gabor Mate on.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, we had Gabor Mate. We had a rabbi, we had Bassem Youssef. And we definitely have tried to, like, learn something about it. I think in the end, for me, it just became like my feelings just tell me that it's just messed up what's happening to those people. It's like. And that a lot of it was covered up by the media or they didn't want you to share certain information or you weren't allowed to.

[Hassan Piker]

No, for sure. I mean, that's how it's always been, though. It's not just for Israel. It's just in general. Like, when it comes to American foreign policy, the American media is fairly one note. Our politicians are one note on it too. They're bipartisan on that.

[Theo Von]

Right?

[Hassan Piker]

That's like.

[Theo Von]

So when you say that, you mean that they're all in on the same it's all kind of the same ruse, do you mean?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah. They all agree it's always uniparty when it comes to American foreign policy, when it comes to giving money to Israel, when it comes to a lot of that stuff like going to war with Iraq. Right. You got the media also presenting that lie that they have, you know, chemical weapons, they have weapons of mass destruction, and uncritically reporting on that to justify going to war with Iraq. Going and invading a foreign nation that we had no business invading.

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

So that is. That happens all the time.

[Theo Von]

Do you think that that's starting to get upset even by like podcasting, streaming? Do you think that that apple cart starting to change? It feels like.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, for sure. I think that people have a voice. Yeah. The independent media sphere definitely is like dominating partially because of that reason. Sometimes for bad reasons, people have lost confidence in media when they just don't like what they're reporting, even if they're reporting the truth. And then there are plenty of major reasons, like Jeffrey Epstein's death. Like, you go to any outlet, most of them are going to rule it a suicide. No critical, no critical reporting on it whatsoever. Just unconditionally saying like, no, no, no, it was definitely a suicide. Like, the average American doesn't feel that way. And also there's very valid reasons as to why they don't feel that way. Israel is another great example of this where, like, it was like 80% of Americans wanted a ceasefire. And yet if you look at all the way from CNN to Fox News, every single outlet was just like, no, no, no, you don't understand. Israel has to kill these children. Like, please, no, you don't understand. Like, can you imagine, you got, imagine a role reversal in that situation where like you got, you got Osama bin Laden's best lads on CNN immediately after 9, 11 being like, listen, like, we, we had to blow up the Twin towers. Like, you, you don't. The World Trade center, it was, it was right there, it was asking for it.

[Theo Von]

One of them was a little askew.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah, we had to fix it.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, well, yeah, I think it's crazy. Well, there's that famous video that got shared a few years ago, like during COVID when it was like every channel was reporting the same exact. It was just the same script.

[Hassan Piker]

It was almost just Sinclair Broadcasting. Yeah, so that's actually, that's ironically, a lot of right wingers spread that one.

[Theo Von]

Is that true or not?

[Hassan Piker]

No, it is, but that, but that's right wing. That's Sinclair Broadcasting. It's like a right wing media company that basically bought out all the remaining local news broadcasters. Wow. So it's like an umbrella. Right wing media is all over the place actually. And a lot of people don't realize it. Like when whenever Fox News talks about like mainstream media lies, I'm like, bro, you are the most popular news network in the country. What do you mean mainstream media? Like you're dominating everybody else.

[Theo Von]

So you're saying that a lot of times mainstream media is also right wing media.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, right wing media is so dominant. And the independent side, right wing media is dominant as hell too. But like on the mainstream side, right wing media is incredibly dominant. They dominate the local news with Sinclair Broadcasting and also all the way up to Fox News, which is the most famous, which is the most like, successful network news broadcaster in the country.

[Theo Von]

Is Fox News the most watched news.

[Hassan Piker]

Network by widest margins.

[Theo Von]

Really? I didn't know that.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, it's not even close. CNN and msnbc, Trump always talks about how cnn, NBC are, you know, in the pooper. Their ratings are awful. These guys love presenting themselves as vulnerable victims. And I, and I really always get annoyed by that. Like they say that about, they used to always say that about like Facebook too. They're like, oh, they're banning stuff and I'm sure they banned like vaccine denial or whatever. Right. Because Facebook wanted to be woke and liberal until Mark Zuckerberg got hit with the Dominican Ray.

[Theo Von]

But so then when people say mainstream media, then I guess what then what did it. Because it always felt to me like, yeah, that every outlet was just always super liberal. That's what it felt like.

[Hassan Piker]

They are. No, no, for sure. Like a lot of like the New York Times, you got cnn, abc, cbs, like NBC. These outlets are liberal now, obviously. I'm a little bit of a radical, I guess so I'm definitely not fond of the Democratic Party either. Even though my criticisms of the Democrats are because of their closeness to the Republicans in general. But yeah, they are. I would say that they're definitely liberal, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're like on the side of the people or anything like that or on even the progressive side of many of these issues. And that's why I said there's this uni party attitude. Like liberals and Republicans, they basically come together and agree when it comes to giving more money to Israel.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

Not, not the voters. I'm talking like institutions. I'm talking politicians.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, well, that's. Yeah, that seems to be, I think it feels so far away from being represented. Like, the per. The people feel so far away from being represented. And I feel like that seems like it's gotten further and further in my lifetime. I can't tell if it's just because I'm getting old so you hear about more stuff like that or if it's actually true, but I think people just feel like, you know, like, why are we having to audit our own government? You know, whether or not the means that they're going about it are good or not. But it's like. It's like the fact that people are cheering to have our own government audited. The fact that it's like, yeah, that 80% of the people would. Would say they don't support what's happened in Gaza, but yet we would still send money to Israel.

[Hassan Piker]

Like, I think Trump has done that. Trump. The other day, Trump was like, yo, we gotta. We can't give any more money to Ukraine. Right? You're done. He's like, zeldisney, you're out. And then he turns around and he's like, Also, we're sending $3 billion of weapons and bulldozers to Israel, pronto.

[Theo Von]

Did they really?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Bring that up.

[Hassan Piker]

3.4 billion, I believe. On the same day. Yep. Rubio bypasses Congress to send Israel $4 billion in arms. They were like, oh, we have to expeditiously send this out to Israel.

[Theo Von]

Arms for what?

[Hassan Piker]

What do you mean? To. To continue killing Palestinians.

[Theo Von]

Is there anybody left there?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, there's still. There's still a million plus Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They're basically just, like, living in the rubble, trying to rebuild. I mean, these are some of the most resilient people on the planet. Like, they just. They've been through hell a million times over.

[Theo Von]

You know, you still see a lot of great. Like, there was a beautiful video, I'm not sure if it was AI or not, of them trying to celebrate Ramadan the other night in the.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, the long table.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. I think that was real, though. I don't think that was AI, because I saw people take. I saw people taking photos of that. Yeah. I mean, also, the other side of this is like, the Gaza Strip is. Is like overwhelmingly children. Like, we're talking.

[Theo Von]

I know.

[Hassan Piker]

Like, the. The Average age is 14. People are un. Like 50 plus percent are. Are minors.

[Theo Von]

Well, that's. I think that.

[Hassan Piker]

And that's before October 7th, but like.

[Theo Von]

A year ago, people would be afraid to have. I think this. Converse to people. Be afraid.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, for sure.

[Theo Von]

Including us. Like, I'd be afraid I'd be afraid that.

[Hassan Piker]

No, I mean, look, I've been. I've been actively been openly pro Palestinian emancipation for the past decade, and I've seen a major attitude shift.

[Theo Von]

You're the Turkish Macklemore dude.

[Hassan Piker]

What do you mean?

[Theo Von]

Because he. Yeah, he's.

[Hassan Piker]

When I went. When I was in third. Third grade, I thought I was gay.

[Theo Von]

Did he do that?

[Hassan Piker]

That's what his song.

[Theo Von]

Oh, well, dude, you got to be pretty. You have to have an open attitude, even think that way in third grade. But no, he's just been. He's been unabashedly afraid to share about Palestine, you know?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, no, he's. He's had his heart changed. I think his heart's in the right place. Like, I think he's. He's doing great.

[Theo Von]

He was from the beginning about it. I mean, he was early on it. Not like 10. He hasn't been. But since it became like a hot. More of a hot button issue in the past three or four years, for sure.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. I mean, look, I'll never. I'll never discard allies, you know, that's an amazing thing to look at the situation with clarity, with moral clarity, and just be like, listen, I didn't know enough about this, and now I recognize the cruelty of. Of what we are doing. Like, because that's the other thing. Like, America, whether we agree to it or not or whether we recognize it or not is like participating in this in a pretty meaningful way. They're offering political cover at the U.N. they. You got the basically war crime cops out there at the ICC and icj, the International Court of Justice, which prosecutes state on state prosecutions. You have the International Criminal Court, which is a court that prosecutes war criminals. Right.

[Theo Von]

And both of them have issued for Netanyahu to be arrested. Right.

[Hassan Piker]

So South Africa has a case against Israel for genocide that's ongoing at the icj. And at the icc, the International Criminal Court has a prosecutor that has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for the crime of, you know, doing a genocide for being war criminals. Intentional starvation of a civilian captive. Civilian population. It's a pretty obvious war crime. So.

[Theo Von]

Well, I just think it's. Honestly, bro. Some of it, I think is kind of pussy. Like. And I hate to say that because some people don't have pussies. I don't believe in them or whatever, but it's like, I think if you're all. If your military is so great, send in snipers and get the bad guys that's how I feel. Do some covert op shit.

[Hassan Piker]

But just to be like their military's ass, though, that's the problem. They just have, like, they just have overwhelming firepower and air superiority. That's it.

[Theo Von]

But, and, but, but that's the part. To me, it's like, send in some, you know, if those are the bad guys, send in and get the, like, do some. It just felt like this. I don't know, it just started to feel gross. And then the great thing was it feels like you couldn't hide it from a nation, you could not hide from the world that what they were doing was wrong. But going back to what you're saying, how much are we complicit in so many of these, I mean, types of things that happen in different countries and do we need to be.

[Hassan Piker]

No, I think we are complicit. I mean, that's how I feel about it at least. But that's why I actively urge people to protest and do everything in their power to try to put an end to this. Because I think we have a lot of power in this, in this regard in the United States of America. I don't think that America is like a true democracy by any means. And this kind of stuff basically puts that on display for everyone to recognize or, you know, whenever people go, hey, can we get health care? And the government's like, fuck you. Then you're like, what? Like, this would be nice to have, you know, socialized medicine. But, but you still, you still got to keep trying.

[Theo Von]

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[Hassan Piker]

I wouldn't say it's like complicity in terms of like your hands are bloody individually, but the least you can do is not actively champion America doing this stuff and, and also go out and protest like, and try to, try to give a voice to voiceless people that are just being massacred for no reason.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. Why is there such a strong bond between America and Israel? I've heard Candace Owens saying that she thought it was blackmail, but what do you. Why do you think there's really such strong.

[Hassan Piker]

Candace Owens got a lot of thoughts on that stuff, I think. I think there's like two different camps here. You got people who critically analyze the relationship with Israel and then you got people who are like, it's the Jews. You know, I am in the critically analyzing the situation camp rather than just being like, oh it's Jews because they got mind control powers. Whatever the fuck people say, it's because it is an unsinkable aircraft carrier in a resource rich region and it has its own espionage facilities. And that is the reason like we basically carried over from the British this settler colony in the region that we can just kind of use or have a collaborative relationship with. And it's incredibly valuable for us. So valuable that like, I mean Israel's blown up USS Liberty like a, like an American navy ship.

[Theo Von]

And basically that was in the 50s, I think.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. In that process, like it was an incredibly valuable Cold War ally because we were terrified of Israel going and like collaborating with the ussr. You got pan Arabic nationalism happening all around the region. All these countries that are developing nation states are doing so on the boundaries of, you know, defeating their colonial occupiers, whether it be French Colonialism or British colonialism. And simultaneously they're looking to the ussr, right? And they're like, you know, maybe you guys will help us out. This seems like a cool thing that you guys got going on over there. The socialism stuff ain't too bad. America goes, fuck that. And they basically hit the Israel button as hard as they could, where they were just like, you guys are going to be our. You guys are going to be our. Our extension.

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

It's like some of my friends say there are favored client states and then there are client states that America just discards. Ukraine is obviously a non favored client state. And that's what happens when you're done with Ukraine, where you're like, I'm done with this. You know, pack it up. Give me all your minerals, even if you have any. Who knows? I don't care. You know, know your place. America does this to the Kurds all the time as well, where they'll just like, arm them and be like, yeah, you guys need to get. You guys need to develop a nation state. It'd be nice. Kurds are ethnic minority in the region. Okay. 35 million people in what region? In the Middle East, 35 million people don't have a nation state. A lot of them live in Turkey.

[Theo Von]

So kind of homeless.

[Hassan Piker]

Iraq? Well, yeah. Yes and no. And there's like varying degrees of cruelty that they're subjected to in these countries as like an ethnic minority, my country included, in Turkey.

[Theo Von]

Wow.

[Hassan Piker]

And they want to. They want to build a nation state. They got an autonomous region in Iraq now they're in Syria as well. They're in Iran as well. And then they're trying to figure it out. Turkey. Yeah. So America will go up to them and be like, we're going to arm you guys. We're going to train you guys. Go fuck shit up. And then as soon as they're done, they. They just discard them. And they're like, okay, go. You can. They'll tell Turkey, you can go and, you know, bomb these villages that they're in. Who cares? It doesn't matter anymore.

[Theo Von]

So what you're saying, I think it's like that. That's one of the things that makes it tougher. The more information you learn. I think in the world, it's like.

[Hassan Piker]

The shittier things seem.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. In some ways. But the reality of things, you just see the reality. It's like, yeah, you need. And if you were playing a game of Risk and you were these dictate, you were these powerful people, how would you operate? And yeah, it just gets to, it gets to be tough to find out. Okay, well then what is being an American still mean to me? And then also that things are so conflicting and dangerous out there amongst these, like, leaders and powers that you have to, you have to like kind of put a flag in something for yourself, you know, just to kind of get to. Because otherwise you'll just be sort of aimless. It feels like.

[Hassan Piker]

Well, I mean, I think.

[Theo Von]

I don't know if I'm even explaining that fully.

[Hassan Piker]

Right, but you got to stand for some. Is that what you're saying? If you don't stand for something, you fall for everything?

[Theo Von]

Yeah. So here's what I think. It's like, the more we learn about history, the more we learn about just like the, the like, well, America did these things and some of it, 9, 11, could have been the result of some of that. Just as more as you start to learn that America hasn't always been this perfect partner and this, that it just starts to test like, okay, well, what does it mean to be an American to me? But then. And at the same time, you need to be an American because you live in a country that's safe and you're able to operate here within the country. So it's. I don't know, it just makes it kind of interesting. Does that make sense?

[Hassan Piker]

No, I get it. What you're exhibiting is a very normal contradiction that a lot of Americans, when faced with the reality of American foreign policy, they come to terms with this. Like, they try to resolve this contradiction where on the one hand you're saying, well, I'm an American, I like the security blanket that I exist under. Right? But also simultaneously. Simultaneously you're like, but damn, we're doing a lot of fucked up shit around the world. I mean, look, I'm a, I'm a. People always yell at me and say, oh, Hasan, you only say America bad. But I don't just stop at that. Like, I want America to be good. I think America has incredible potential. It's the wealthiest nation on the planet. It should be doing so much more to help its own citizens and so much more to lead the way, pave the way for a new evolution of the way that we look at international relations than the way that we engage with conflict. But the reason why America is the way it is is because I see it as basically, you know, 50 corporations in a trench suit. Like, it's just, it's. It's a holdover to extract tax revenue from everyday Americans and then give it directly back to corporations in the form of subsidies without ever regulating them and, you know, demanding anything in return. I think one of the best examples of this was when, you know, Russia invaded Ukraine. And then Russia is also part of OPEC plus, so they went back to Saudi Arabia.

[Theo Von]

Take us back our listeners. If we get too much information, a.

[Hassan Piker]

Lot of them don't, they're going to tune it out.

[Theo Von]

Well, they just, I think it's. If it's new information for me, I shouldn't say them. If it's new information for me, it's hard for me to go along. So opec.

[Hassan Piker]

Why are you throwing him under the bus?

[Theo Von]

I know I am. My bad guys. I am the problem. So. But OPEC is the oil.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

So OPEC is like an oil NATO.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, right. Yeah, basically. Exactly. It's a cartel.

[Theo Von]

Okay.

[Hassan Piker]

That's what it is. It's a group of countries that have oil reserves that basically set the price of oil barrels. And Saudi Arabia is pretty dominant because they have, you know, I mean, they are the oil company, they're the big.

[Theo Von]

Basically they're damp.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. And yeah, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. And Russia basically went back to OPEC.

[Theo Von]

And was like, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

Okay. At the time, Russia had a lot to, you know, a lot to gain from. And all these other countries had a lot to also gain from basically limiting the price of or limiting the supply of oil. You know, we're in the post Covid era too. And that like they're also, they were also making a lot of money in. Or they had lost a lot of revenue. So they wanted to recoup because nobody was like flying around or using oil because everyone was like stuck at home. So they, they were recouping on those losses by just basically saying, demand is on an all time high. We're not gonna produce, you know, we're not gonna keep up with that demand to make sure that we stabilize the prices.

[Theo Von]

Right. So they're saying, oh, there's only so much oil. Even though there's as much as they, they kind of want their.

[Hassan Piker]

They could have produced way more.

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

So the point I was gonna make is Brandon went back to Saudi Arabia. You know, he shook hands with MBS and was like, Brandon, Brandon. Joe. Brandon. Joe Biden.

[Theo Von]

Oh, Joe Biden.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. He went to, he, he went to Saudi Arabia. He was like, come on, Jack, you know, produce more oil. Come on, don't do it. And, and they were like, nope. The reason why I'm telling this convoluted story is Is because then we have American oil and gas industry providers, right? Like we have our own oil. Everybody always talks about how we have independence, like energy independence in America. So he went back to the American oil and gas industry and was like, all right, you guys have to produce more oil because you have to offset what like OPEC is doing. And you know what they said? Fuck you. That's what they said. They get, they rely the oil and gas producers in this country. The fossil fuel industry gets 80% of our energy subsidies. It's like billions of dollars that they get.

[Theo Von]

They get kickbacks from the government.

[Hassan Piker]

Not even a kickback. Like government collects taxes. And then government gives these companies, whether they're in agriculture or whether they're in the oil and gas industry, they give money to these companies to keep prices relatively low, to keep up with the cost of the production, right? They're like, hey, we're gonna give you this money so you keep prices low. But in a time, oh, because the gut.

[Theo Von]

Because that company owns so much of the actual market of whatever that product is, that if they wanted to adjust it, they could do it.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, exactly.

[Theo Von]

I didn't even know.

[Hassan Piker]

And they didn't. They didn't provide. They just didn't supply the federal government with more oil. Like, they just did not. They did not produce more in the time to stabilize prices. And you got like the oil lobby guys going on CNBC and actively being like, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders to maximize profit. We don't care if the, you know, we don't care if the prices are high. You know, sucks to suck because our profits are great. And the reason why I explained all this is because I think that's a perfect demonstration of how America operates. Like the American government operates, rather, where it serves corporations, not the people. And then you got China on the other hand, where like it's, you know, they got billionaires too. They got massive corporations too. But those corporations serve the government. Now that can be bad. But if the government is, you know, interested in uplifting the public good and doing like even development or whatever, then ultimately they just can force corporations hands to do whatever they want.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, I mean, like, like you're saying it's like, yeah, the more you learn, it's. You have to then decide, okay, you almost have to differentiate. Well, what does it mean to be an American to me? You know, because if I stay here and I sleep under this banner of America, where I can make money and I can have. And there's a welfare system and I'll be it. There's, you know, people have ideas of whether they're good or bad and those. But, but that I stay here, I continue to stay here. I keep myself here. This is where I choose to be, you know, in the safety of this place. You know, it's like, well, how complicit am I, or am I just an American? And this is, this is the. I got blessed into this place and this is where I am. And if somebody else weren't born in this place and they were in a place that were, you know, more hostile and scary to live in and sleep in and try to survive in, wouldn't they be praying that they would be here or that they would have some of the same things?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, everyone. Everyone.

[Theo Von]

That make any sense?

[Hassan Piker]

No. It does. Yeah. No, what you're describing, like I said, is, is what leftists, what leftists call like living in the imperial core. Because if you're in the, if you're in the heart of empire, you at the very least don't suffer the repercussions of being the victims. Right, Right. Like, you're not, you're not in Guatemala, so you're not getting destabilized by the American government in many instances, like, or at least throughout your history, so you haven't been kept down. And therefore your situation in comparison to them is going to be a lot better.

[Theo Von]

And then what do I want my life to be like, day to day? Do I want it to be this constant or do I want to not think about those things and think that those are the government's? You know, some of that's the government's responsibility. I do my best to elect and vote in a way that I think is meaningful and vote for the best person. And then I try to enjoy my life and take care of my family and my neighbor. You know, I think it's like, I don't know, that's kind of how I think. Maybe I start to break it down in my head, you know.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. So that ba. That what you were describing right there is basically the heart of. I wouldn't say the problem necessarily, but that is why a lot of people just like, tune out. Cause they feel just powerless at the end of the day. You know, you got. You protest, you vote, and then these guys do whatever the fuck they want to do. What am I supposed to do is like the attitude that the average citizen has in this country and, you know, that's why things slowly but surely seemingly get worse year over year. Maybe not for you. And I Because, like, I mean, we're relatively successful, but for like average people, for everyday people, shit is fucked up and they recognize it, but they don't know who is responsible for it. And they become so malleable and so open to responding to anybody that will look at anybody that will recognize their frustration and say it's actually because of this and that. And I think Trump tapped into that so perfectly and that's why he won. That's why he defeated the Democrats so handily, because he was like, yes, you're angry. I'm angry too. Why are you angry? Because woke libtards. Because DEI cause trans people. Because, you know, undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants aren't your fucking landlord. They're not the one who's raising the price of rent. They don't own the. They don't own the mega corporations. They're not sitting at the board of BlackRock. You know what I mean? It's not a Guatemalan migrant that's sitting at the border of blackrock purchasing all the fucking houses. Or they're not the real estate developers that refuse to, you know, add to the like, much needed supply of housing.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. And instead put a fucking rag and bone in every town.

[Hassan Piker]

I fucking hate ragging.

[Theo Von]

Well, it's just like, dude, don't tear down cool areas and just put up a rag and bone, dude. It's not fucking cool. But no, I. Man, it's interesting. I never really heard it put like that. Like. And then of course, the other things. You say these other things to people that doesn't feel. You gotta point. You have to approach people with something they can point a finger at, and it's. Whatever they're pointing at is close enough where they feel like it can be reached.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Like, those are things that it's like. But also those are things like you, you, you label like. And Trump talked about him last night on some of the congressional address. I think it was the party address last night.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, he did a. He did like a fake State of the Union. It was a joint congressional address.

[Theo Von]

Joint congressional address.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Because he talked about some of those things like dei.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, bro, they. They cut DEI now. Planes are fucking falling out of the sky, man. We need to bring Pete Buttigieg back as the transportation Secretary. He needs to fix the problem.

[Theo Von]

Was he a dog in there?

[Hassan Piker]

No.

[Theo Von]

We need black pilots, dude. First of all, black people can jump better. So are you not gonna have a fucking black dude in a plane, bro? I don't know.

[Hassan Piker]

I don't know about the jumping I don't know. I don't know how they factor into the, to the, to the pilot program.

[Theo Von]

But still, dude, you. If I see, if I saw Michael Jordan in the cockpit, that we're gonna stay up, that's how I'm, oh, 100% like, that's where I feel.

[Hassan Piker]

Now I, now, now I, I think, you know, now we. If I get on a plane and I see a white man, that dude better be in a polyamorous relationship, okay? I need that dude sucking dick, ok? I need, I need something. I need. If he's straight and he's a, he's a straight white male, that plane is falling, dude. That's what's going on. Trump came in, he killed dei. Every day there's another fucking plane crash.

[Theo Von]

But is it white dudes doing it? Here's the thing.

[Hassan Piker]

I'm fucking around. I'm not being serious. Even though, even though Republicans do think that that is real, where they're like, oh, if there's a black woman pilot, that's why planes are falling. It's like, no, dumbass, it's because of fucking capitalism. Like, they've literally undercut every aspect of production to make more money. They constantly outsource. They constantly send certain aspects of manufacturing to other countries where there's like less regulation and less restrictions that makes them more money. And that's why fucking planes are, you know, the doors are exploding and shit while they're flying. And then.

[Theo Von]

Is that one of the, Is that one of the real reasons you think it's going?

[Hassan Piker]

That's 100% the reason why it's going on?

[Theo Von]

Bring it up. See if we can. That's a good question. Why are. What. Because there seems to be these little times in history where it's like, okay, for this year, it's almost like they press a plane trouble button and it's like, oh, now there's plane trouble?

[Hassan Piker]

Well, that's also because, you know, minor incidents happen all the time, but the media hyper focuses on them when it becomes like a hot button topic. That's what it is. And there are obviously freak accidents as well. Like they all freak accidents happen. But I think there's never really like a, like a perfect example, like a perfect demonstration of why these things are happening more frequently.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, let me see what this even says. No, there were actually more plane crashes between January 1, 2024 and February 1, 2024. When you compare the same time period this year to last year. So there were more crashes.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, but the difference is the, the, the severity of like one big crash and then people hyper focus on it. This happened with Palestine, Ohio. Remember when the train derailment happened and everybody was like, why aren't they covering this? Well, you know, I'm a little bit of a foamer. I love trains. Maybe it's because of the autism, but like, you know, how many train derailments happening every year? Every single year? A thousand. Some of them are minor, some of them are major. Right. So every single person hyper focused on this, understandably because like they try to do a shitty ass cover up for it and be like, oh no, everything is fine.

[Theo Von]

And there was gas leaking. Yeah, there was definitely.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, you just feel itchy. It's normal, just keep drinking the water, it's fine that it's green, you know, shut up. But because of that then everybody started focusing on all these derailments and they were like, what the hell's going on? And it's like, there's a lot of that that happens all the time. It's just the media doesn't pay attention to it because if you paid attention to it all the time, you go crazy. It's like crime, right? Crime in big cities. It's a constant. Oh yeah, you know that is a buddy of mine was staying with me and he's from like the suburbs of Portland, right? Just like a very white neighborhood. And I'm living, I live in the middle of West Hollywood. And you know, LA is not like New York or whatever, but it's still a city, right? Every time he heard firecrackers or whatever, like fireworks or whatever, he would freak out. He's like, is that gunshots? I'm like, no man, that's just fireworks. Like what are you talking about? And then he would hear like, you know, ambulances or police sirens and he'd freak out. Cause like if you live in a suburb and you hear police sirens, yeah, something crazy happened, right? But if you live in a city, you hear it all the time as background noise. Cause you know, there's always shit happening. There's, you know, tens of millions of people around.

[Theo Von]

So how are you saying that relates to this?

[Hassan Piker]

What I mean by that is if you pay attention to it with apps like Nextdoor and Citizen and Ring and all this stuff, you start realizing that it's happening all the time and it makes you go crazy. Same with train derailments, same with plane crashes and whatnot. They're a normal part of this process and you gotta look at the data and try to figure out if this is like truly unique. Or not. And in terms of the plane crashes, the. The deadly nature of some of them is unique. There. There have been some big ones. Right. Like with the Ronald Reagan Airport 1. But outside of that, like, you know, minor bumps at the Seattle airport or whatever. Like, that's normal.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. And a couple of them where it's like these planes almost hit each other. They would show you a video and I watched one of them two times. I'm like, I didn't that even look close to me? Like. But they just label it that way. It's definitely kind of fascinating. Then once something happens, you start to hyper focus on it more. This episode is sponsored by Better Help. I've benefited from therapy. You know that. Jeepers, gosh. Oh, I still. And I need more. I can't even wait to get online with my therapist later this week. It's become a regular thing in my life having somebody to talk to, especially as our world gets more disconnected at times. Think about your favorite leaders, mentors and idols. They don't have all the answers, but they do know when to ask questions or seek support from their community. In a society that glorifies hyper independence, it's easy to forget that we're all better when we have a support system behind us. Better Help is there. Betterhelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide. You can build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.comtheo to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. Betterhelp.com Theo, would you consider yourself a Democrat? What do you consider yourself?

[Hassan Piker]

No, I'm a leftist. That's what I say. Where I'm very critical of both parties in general. I don't think that either party really represents my interest. Like the Democrats sometimes will point to things that I care about. And they are, I guess, a little bit closer to the way I see the world and the Republicans are. But, you know, I'm actively critical of both parties.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

Cause I don't care. I don't care about party affiliation. I care about, like, doing right by people. I care about, you know, helping. Putting the interests of people over the interest of profits for corporations.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. You know, I don't. I hate it when somebody tries to leave, like, oh, you're Mag or you're this type of thing. It's like that. I've never wanted to be put in a box my whole life. I don't feel like there's enough parties really to represent the people. And I think the more information you get and learn. I think a lot of people start to feel that way. Like, I don't. This party really represents me, you know, but then there's such conglomerates of so many different little pieces that they almost. You're like, well, I like this person in this one. I like this person on the chess team, so. Or this rook. So I'm gonna. They will get my vote because they have that player. Right? Yeah. But, yeah, I think that that's. I think as more people get more information and able to look into things more, that that kind of evolves.

[Hassan Piker]

I think that there's one thing that transcends party boundaries and I feel like you exhibit that tendency as well, and that is dissatisfaction with the government and the two party system anyway. And I think Trump also captured the attention of a lot of people by making it seem like he was totally outside of this dynamic where he was like, I'm an independent, I'm a billionaire, I'm rich, I don't give a fuck about either of these parties. You know, vote for me. And that's why you have a lot of people who love Bernie Sanders, because he's earnest, he's honest, and it's obvious that he's not like, you know, a Democratic party dick writer. And he has a long track record of like constantly doing right by others, constantly advocating for things that like, you know, help people, even if he doesn't have much success. That Earnesty has, I think, created this, this unique phenomena of people that like Bernie and also Trump, people like yourself who, who think, well, these guys are anti establishment.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, I think. Well, I think one thing about Trump was like. And I, I like, fuck, it made you believe. Cuz people, most people knew him like from rap songs, probably from being like a rich white guy having rich guy hair and then from being on the Apprentice. Right?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. Which was a very. You wanna know something pretty monumental, how.

[Theo Von]

That all shaped out.

[Hassan Piker]

You wanna know something crazy about the Apprentice? It was one of the most diverse shows on network television at the time. It literally was one of the first shows that like prominently featured a bunch of black and brown people in it, bunch of gay people in it too. He was woke as hell. That motherfucker was doing DEI before anybody else. Now he switched up. You see this? He switched up.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. I remember he gave flavor. Flavor. Job working, doing it. Working at a ice cream shop or something one day. I remember seeing that episode. So yeah, I mean, he was like, I, I just thought there was a moment where it was like, oh, anybody? Because you're Right. He didn't seem like a political insider. He seemed like, you know, I think he's always been this. Or notoriously has. It seemed like he's just been this kind of like, real estate, shady real estate executive guy, which I think at a certain point, some people were like, oh, I'll take that. I'll take a ruthless business guy as our president, because politics has become a ruthless business. But I think, yeah, I think there was a thing like, oh, anybody could be president. Right. So that, in a way, felt a little bit like the American dreamer. At least a little piece of, like, anybody. There was a feeling like, oh, he got it, there's. Because nobody thought he would win.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, that's true.

[Theo Von]

So I think there was that comeback piece to him, right?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. But then he was president for four years and people were like, oh, okay, maybe this wasn't so good. And then what did the Democrats do? Who did the Democrats put forth? They put forth a cadaver who was like, no, we're going back to business as usual, baby. And Americans were so fatigued by Donald Trump, but they were just like, I don't want to. I don't want to pay attention to the television anymore. Like, sure, I'll vote for this guy instead. And then Brandon wins. And then everyone's like, oh, my God, things are awful. Wars all over the place.

[Theo Von]

Biden, you mean cost.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Biden. I just keep saying, Brandon, I'm sorry. I'm so used to. I'm so used to calling him Brandon.

[Theo Von]

Well, people say, let's go, Brandon is like a Trump thing.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah.

[Theo Von]

But then I just don't want people to get confused.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, my bad. So Biden comes in and, you know, wars everywhere, cost of living, crisis. Like, a lot of the resentment and anger that people felt in 2016 towards Hillary Clinton because their situation wasn't so great, that caused them to vote for Donald Trump. Never. It was left unexamined. Like, it was never recognized. It was never fixed. Right. So when all the stuff piles on, people are resentful again. And lo and behold, they want to put that mallet. They want to bring the mallet back in to just, like, hammer the federal government. Because they're just like, we fucking hate this. We hate the way things are going, so we'll give this guy a shot again. And that's how you arrive at Trump, too. And now he is doing the mallet. He's ripping over the administrative state. He's doing mass layoffs of the federal regulatory agencies. And it's crazy. To me that people don't understand that these are the same problems that have persisted that he's basically worsening by also removing tens of thousands of people that work for the federal government with like decent paying jobs. I'm a big advocate for more government employees. I think we should have millions more, not less. Give everybody a fucking job.

[Theo Von]

Oh, well, I think that we should have. I think women should get paid so that they can be at home with their children and that, that way. Or, or a man, if one of them wants to work.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah.

[Theo Von]

And then the other one can be at home to be a parent. You know, I wish that that was something that we did with our money.

[Hassan Piker]

They would never do that though. That's the problem they hate.

[Theo Von]

There was a case for it at one point.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I know, but I'm saying like Republicans, especially Democrats won't do either because like both parties kind of like the austerity stuff. Like they.

[Theo Von]

What does austerity mean?

[Hassan Piker]

Austerity's belt tightening, like fiscal belt tightening, as in, you know, lowering expenditures and cutting social safety nets, basically.

[Theo Von]

Well, I think people are getting to their wits and where it's like nobody believes that either one of these parties is doing any right. I think you've had the same problems, you've had. The same things happen time over time and maybe some of it, at a certain point you realize, well, that's just the cost of business. It's just like, it's just become so bloated. It's become more about them. Like you're saying more about corporations and less about everyday people. Yeah, I mean, that's never what it is.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, it's never been about people. In my opinion. It's like New Deal with a lot of like socialist communist pressure at the time.

[Theo Von]

FDR's new deal.

[Hassan Piker]

FDR's new deal, what was it?

[Theo Von]

Bring it up.

[Hassan Piker]

FDR's new deal definitely brought forth a lot of prosperity to America. Like got us out of the muck of the Great Depression.

[Theo Von]

The New Deal was a series of domestic programs. Sorry to interrupt you, I just wanna. Was a series of domestic programs, public works projects and financial reforms and regulations enacted by President FDR in US between 33 and 38 in the 1900s with the aim of addressing the Great Depression which began in 1929. Wow. Dude. So he had to be right on the back of the Great Depression. Yeah, because people always, they always, like, they'll quote him all the time, you know.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, he did a lot. Look, he dealt with the pressing bank crisis through the Emergency Banking Act, 1933 Banking act, federal Emergency Relief Administration. We set up Social Security. I mean there's so much, there's so much that they did in that era because like Americans were, I mean they were experiencing tremendous, tremendous hardship.

[Theo Von]

So you're saying a lot of this felt like it was done for the people?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, it was done for the people because it was a necessary, it was basically necessary for them to do this at the time because of all of the deregulation in the banking side with oil barons and all these robber barons basically picking apart and dominating everyday American existence and the economic collapse that came with that. And then someone had to come in and fix this shit. And I think Donald Trump is basically not doing the FDR thing, but the reverse. He's fucking it up and taking it back to like a pre New Deal.

[Theo Von]

Era where and giving it more towards corporations. You think?

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, 100%. I mean he got Elon Musk right there. He's the richest guy on the planet. He's just putting his dick through his weird ugly egg shaped penis through every single regulatory agency.

[Theo Von]

Have people seen his penis? I haven't seen that.

[Hassan Piker]

I don't know.

[Theo Von]

That's what, I don't see that kind of stuff.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, they were, they were saying, they were saying he's got a weird dick. Really?

[Theo Von]

I believe, first of all, yeah, if, if, dude, if I'm Elon Musk, I'm definitely getting a crazy dick. I'm getting a designer dick. I'm getting.

[Hassan Piker]

No, that's the, that's what they're seater.

[Theo Von]

I'll get a damn three seater cop. Yeah, they're saying I'll put suicide doors on my. If I'm Elon Musk. But here's what I would say is to, to count, to counter the thing about Elon is like. Or just to discuss it really. I think people are like, we don't give a fuck who's auditing this thing. And finally there's like, oh, this is the person to audit. This is the person that's going to audit. This is somebody we can blame if something fucks up. This is somebody that at least they're saying that they're going to audit the government. Like why, why do we even have to audit our own government?

[Hassan Piker]

But we, we have. See, that's the problem. We already have an auditing agency. So these guys unironically created an additional agency which is redundant to eliminate redundancy. And that's interesting. The unfortunate side of this is that they don't know what the fuck they're doing. So they go in and they just, like, pull data, and they basically make these public declarations about, you know, a billion dollars is going to this or that.

[Theo Von]

Oh, yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

Like, they. They straight up lied. They were like, oh, yeah, we already cut, like, $200 billion of funds. And then, like, the New York Times and all these other, like, actual investigative reporters went in, looked at the data, and they were like, dude, that's a lot. Like, there's one instance where they claimed that they cut $8 billion, and they actually cut $8 million. Like, how do you carry over so many goddamn zeros? They're just like, ah, fuck it. Who cares? No one will fact check it. No one will look it up.

[Theo Von]

Well, the crazy thing is, though, now you have. You have whoever our. Our. Our original auditing system was, and then you have this second. And now we have this second auditing system. But, dude, it goes to, like. It's so like, I'll have a. I'll have a financial. Like an investment banker, right? But I s. There's times, and I probably should. I want to hire somebody to audit my financial advisor because I'm like, is this guy stealing money from me? You know, because you hear so many stories of people getting stolen from just, like, entertainment, different industries, whatever. But it starts to be like, I don't even know who to trust anymore. And I think that's where most people feel like it is. It's like, I don't know if most people necessarily feel like that Elon or Doge is the best, but it's like, now it feels like, okay, well, there's a government system that's supposed to be doing this, and then there's a privatized system that's supposed to be doing this. Now who's the crook? Who knows? But then I think people look to Elon and they say, well, at least he came when he bought Twitter, which was a brave thing to do. It felt like opened up more opportunity for free speech. Like, things you couldn't share on there six years ago, you could share on there.

[Hassan Piker]

Now.

[Theo Von]

I'm not saying all that's true.

[Hassan Piker]

I think it sucks now. I used to love Twitter.

[Theo Von]

Twitter's got. It was.

[Hassan Piker]

It was already, like, kind of lame because, like, yeah, when it was owned by liberals, it was like, also. It also wasn't, you know, the most fun platform, I will say. But at least there was, like, some semblance of regulation where it didn't feel like, you know, it didn't feel like the madhouse that it is. Now where. I mean, I know that it's like my algorithm as well, I'm sure, because I'm in politics, so I see a lot of political shit. But, bro, there's like. I mean, here. I saw this this morning. There's a guy who straight up said Adam Schiff raped a minor at Chateau Marmont. And it has 70,000 likes. And I'm like, what the fuck? It's like a QAnon thing.

[Theo Von]

I know. I saw that.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. There's so many. No, it's not even this. There was a dude who like.

[Theo Von]

No, this is. That's not even Adam. That is. That's fucking.

[Hassan Piker]

If you look at. No, no, that's Anthony Bourdain. They're saying Anthony Bourdain saw him rape the minor and that's why they actually killed Anthony bourdain. That's their QAnon loves talking about how Anthony Bourdain saw, like, Hillary Clinton chop babies up or whatever, and he was right about to come out against them. But if you look up Truanon. Truanon. Actually, no. No Truanon on Twitter.

[Theo Von]

What is true Anon. Is it a cool source?

[Hassan Piker]

Truanon is my. My friend's podcast. It's the number one anti pedophilia podcast out there. Here.

[Theo Von]

No way.

[Hassan Piker]

And then keep scrolling. They posted it. Oh, here it is. Here it is. Awakened Outlaw. That's the one.

[Theo Von]

The witnesses anonymously.

[Hassan Piker]

One of the most persistent QAnon believes is a huge number of people think that, you know, some of us remember when you raped a dead child. 76,000 likes. Damn, bro. That's crazy. Like, I fucking hate Adam Schiff. Ok, yeah. Trump's funniest thing is when he calls him Adam. Shit. Ok? I hate him. He's my. He's my fucking congressperson. He sucks. All right. Massive pro Israel guy. That's an insane thing. You are a fucking schizo. Like, what the fuck?

[Theo Von]

But that's the crazy thing now. People will just. You see things and then you start to believe it. Oh, dude. I realize Twitter's starts to like. It'll start to rot my mind. I'll start to get. And then it feeds you something. It's like, that's a scary. And that's another scary thing. Just about social media. It's about where we're at. Things just feel so you don't know what to. You'll open it up, you'll close it. Now you're furious. All you were doing was looking for something in your phone.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

You're bored for 10 seconds you opened it up. Now you got two links to some. Now you're furious. Now you close it. Now you're back in the grocery store where you were a minute ago. You're on the food aisle. But now you are.

[Hassan Piker]

You're angry.

[Theo Von]

Your ape shit insane that a kid, a deceased kid somewhere, hypothetically got molested by a.

[Hassan Piker]

By a sitting American representative. Like American congressperson. Get.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, yeah. And then it's like you want to buy a pussy fart coin or whatever and you're like. And then you don't even know what to do.

[Hassan Piker]

Retardio.

[Theo Von]

Yes. It's like, oh, retardio is going to the moon. And you have all these clan members or whatever trying to sell like just. It just. It's gotten.

[Hassan Piker]

It's crazy, but that's what I mean. Like, they. It was like. It was different crazy, but it was. It was definitely not whatever the fuck this is. And there's so much bottom of the barrel shit too, because of the monetization stuff. Like, people. One of my favorite, funniest things that I experience all the time on Twitter is like, you got like, you know, Genoa Radio or like saving the white race or we gotta save the west accounts, right? Like they have all these fucking accounts. Every single motherfucker on those accounts is from India. Every single motherfucker that does the. We must preserve the white race. Every single one of them is. Is operating those accounts out of India.

[Theo Von]

Because why, I wonder.

[Hassan Piker]

What do you mean? Because you make like 10, $15. That goes a long way in India as opposed to, as opposed to like, like a real racist in America.

[Theo Von]

It's DEI at another level there, if you think about it.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, they're using all of those accounts. Like there's all of those big prominent, like, you know, white culture accounts.

[Theo Von]

Honkies. Honkies do it better or whatever.

[Hassan Piker]

Well, I don't know about the honkies one, but. Because honky seems like, you know, I don't think a dude in India knows what a honky is. But I'm talking like the culture critique, save the white race accounts and all those like, Defend Europa accounts. Like, every single one of them is like. It's like a Malaysian dude. You know what I mean? And he's just like, yeah, I'm gonna make 15 this month. That's a big, you know, that's good.

[Theo Von]

Save that white race. Yeah, he's just in there.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. And. And you know, they post like the, the shittiest videos as well.

[Theo Von]

It's unbelievable. It's addictive. It's too much porn. It's too much porn because I'll be strong. I'll be trying to take care of myself, doing decently. I'll just see something. An edge of a tit or something flies by. It's just. And then it just is like you get. You can just get stuck pretty easy. Jerking off or whatever gets. And then I get sad, and then I get ashamed of myself, and then I just. And then I don't even sleep in my bed on nose. I. Dude, on nights like that, I will sleep on the couch. It's almost like I don't. It's like, damn. I know. It's like I'm. It's like I'm divorced in my own fucking. And I just live alone. It's like, oh, there's like. It's almost like I'm a husband that got caught jerking off. So now you're sleeping out on the couch.

[Hassan Piker]

You got to resolve them. And there's nothing wrong with jerking off, especially before you go to sleep, you know? It's like a nightcap.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, kind of. But if you had so many nightcaps over, like, 20, 30 years, you're like, I'm fucking. I'm an alcoholic at this point. You know?

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, I've never. I feel like. I feel like there's a time and place for that in my. In my regimen. You know what I mean? It's like right before I go to sleep, it's the perfect time to do it. There's never been a moment where I, like, in the middle of the day.

[Theo Von]

I'm like, yeah, I've never been that guy.

[Hassan Piker]

Shit, I gotta crank it. But I feel like a lot of those, like, porn addiction guys are like that. So I'm like, yeah, it's not. It's not for me, but maybe you should stop porn. That's how I feel when I. When I hear about some of their stories.

[Theo Von]

Oh, yeah. I had a buddy who had curtains put inside of his car, and he would go and just close them up so he could sit in his car and masturbate without feeling like, you know, like people were going to point at him or whatever.

[Hassan Piker]

What the. Yo, that dude needs to be institutionalized. What do you mean? No, Put a fucking straight jacket on that motherfucker. Stop. He. He's got a. He's got to be put in a room. Like, like train spotting. Like, he's got to quit cold turkey. Like, he's quitting heroin in Soho.

[Theo Von]

That's considered off Broadway.

[Hassan Piker]

No. No way. Dude, no. Render him immobile for like a week. Week. And oh, my God, the amount of. The amount of energy that he probably has in there, trapped in there. If he doesn't jerk off for a week, he's gonna start levitating. He's gonna come out of there like. Like a God.

[Theo Von]

His. Carl. To start running on his own. On his own semen or whatever. I shouldn't have said that part, but you had Bernie Sanders on your show.

[Hassan Piker]

I did, yeah.

[Theo Von]

Pretty cool, man. How awesome was that?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, he's. He's the man. I love Bernie.

[Theo Von]

Did you find it interesting that people cheered so much against him when they said that he also took money during, like, R.E.M. a couple of months ago? Not a. Not a judgment against him. I think all these people. I think when you get into politics, right. It's almost like being in a big family, and if you want something done, it feels like you have to. There's. It's almost just like.

[Hassan Piker]

Money from what, though?

[Theo Von]

Well, what do they say? That he took money from who?

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, RFK said that was during his.

[Theo Von]

During that. During. When he was interviewing RFK during RFK's.

[Hassan Piker]

Hearing that Bernie was taking money. Yeah, that's. That's not. Yeah, that's not correct. He never got money from the pharmaceutical industry, like, from the. From the big corporate lobbies. Is. He probably got. So the way this works on Open Secrets is like.

[Theo Von]

Let me just read it, so.

[Hassan Piker]

Just so I can read it.

[Theo Von]

The figure cited by Kennedy referred to the industry in which individual donors were employed.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Okay. Oh, because Kennedy said that he. Of that Bernie Sanders got a certain amount of money.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

And this is just a clip. This is. This is actually goes. Perfect example of what we've been talking about. We see a clip of something, right. In 2020, this was the claim. Senator Bernie Sanders was the single largest receiver of pharmaceutical money in Congress. And the context was this figure cited by RFK Jr referred to the industry in which individual donors were employed. It did not refer to funds originating from or directed by pharmaceutical companies.

[Hassan Piker]

So what that is is the way that they. The way that when you make a donation to a politician as an individual, it gets filed with the fec. Right. And in that filing, you write what your job is. Right. And if you work in the pharmaceutical industry, if you work for Johnson and Johnson as a janitor, that basically gets tracked as, like, Johnson and Johnson in the. In the section of, like, whichever sector you're a part of. So like, a lot of nurses gave donations to Bernie Sanders. So that's like, technically still lobbed under, like, health care. And it was not. Yeah. It was never, it was never from, like, the executives. It wasn't like executives giving him millions of dollars. It's like the janitor works there or like, you know, like an accountant that works for this company, but it gets filed. Yeah.

[Theo Von]

So that it looks like that in some sort of.

[Hassan Piker]

Well, they just.

[Theo Von]

It's good to have, like, knowing what sectors are donating.

[Hassan Piker]

Knowing what sectors are donating. But yeah, there is room for nuance, of course, there. And. And RFK was falsely claiming that he was getting money from, like, CEOs and, like, the industry, industry packs or whatever. When that wasn't the case. It was just like random people that work for these companies, you know?

[Theo Von]

Yeah. I think it makes. I mean, it totally makes sense to me that that's the way that it could happen, you know?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

But it's so funny. RFK probably saw a clip or has heard. You know, it's just like, it's so.

[Hassan Piker]

It's like, I think RFK knows better. I. I don't, I don't trust any of these guys. I'll be honest with you. Like, whether it's rfk, Trump or any number of these people or, you know, Democrats as well, like Kamala Harris, like, I think RFK definitely knows better. He's just saying that because it's a good line and people will believe him.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

And I mean, look, that's how it works. I know, because, like, Joe Rogan talked about it too, where they were talking about, like, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders getting money from, like, these, you know, big pharmaceutical corporations. That wasn't the case, but it got a lot of mileage on that side of the Internet. That's the other thing that I am frustrated by, where there's like, no consensus on this stuff anymore.

[Theo Von]

Like, what does a consensus mean? Like, we all agree on one thing.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. And you don't have to agree on one. Like, not everybody has to get together and agree on the same thing. But, like, there's no, there's no established truth anymore. Where everybody's just like, operating on whatever the. They think is the. Is the truth and, and heavily leaning into their biases. And I feel like the Internet has become way more echo chambered in that regard. And it's very frustrating to see, you.

[Theo Von]

Know, there's no, there's no. What do you say? Con.

[Hassan Piker]

Consensus.

[Theo Von]

Consensus. So there's no, like, regional place you can go to except now almost your own gut or if you're influenced by clips or whatever, right?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, but we're dumb asses. You know what I mean? Like, we're. We're fucking stupid. I'm stupid. Like, I can't. I can't gut check everything.

[Theo Von]

Like, I can't even fucking keep up with you, dude. I can feel you. But what I'm saying is, is that better than us all being under the influence of some consensus. I'm not. I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just looking at it, right?

[Hassan Piker]

I think it's. It's good to have a healthy diet of both, right? Like, you still need to have trusted resources that you can go to and rely on that will every now and then be like, that's wrong. You know what I mean? And I try to urge people to not get their media diet exclusively for me either, for that reason. And even my media diet itself is incredibly diverse. I probably watch more Fox News than I watch, like, CNN and shit, partially because they're more entertaining. But, you know, I look at everything so that I can develop a better understanding of, like, what people are saying and what people are believing in general.

[Theo Von]

I need to do a better job of that. I think of finding my information diet, you know, and just where does it come from? It's not. I just don't get enough of it. A lot of times. A lot of times I operate mostly just like on my own feelings, kind of, which is, in the end, kind of your instincts or whatever. But then I start to notice that things that I get influenced by and, like, my own algorithm and things I was like, oh, I'm getting influenced. You know, I'm up last night in the middle of the night, and it's like, have I reposted too many TikToks about Gaza? You know, and I'm up for 40 minutes last night laying in my bed, and my brain's calculating, but like that, you know, it's like. But it's just because I'll get to my. You know, it's like, none of it's bad stuff, really, but it's. I'll notice if I get on my Twitter thing especially, I'll get angry. I get. And then I'm like, if I'm at least aware of this is happening, people that aren't aware, that aren't even thinking, like, oh, this is affecting me. They're just being affected.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Then it's like, man, my, My.

[Hassan Piker]

The way I see my goal, like, the way I see my job is to basically get people to understand why they're angry and then get Angry at the appropriate vectors like where who's actually causing harm in their immediate lives. That's why I actively urge people to unionize and work to organize in their communities and organize in their, in their workplaces in general so they have a network of support with like, not necessarily even like minded people, but like people that have the same interests. Right. You don't have to like your coworkers all that much, but no matter what, your boss is still fucking you over in the exact same way. Right. He wants you to work the most amount of hours for the least amount of pay. You want to work the least amount of hours for the most amount of pay. This is a contradiction, right? So how do you resolve that? The only way to overcome the unlimited amount of power that your boss has over you is by getting together and being like, hey man, you got to give us a better contract. Right? Like, those are the things that I advocate for so that people develop a better understanding of who's actually harming them and maybe improve their, improve their lives immediately in the short term and then build on that momentum.

[Theo Von]

With that said, do you think we should have like a higher minimum wage? You feel like.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, I think that's one part of this story, but I've thought about it a lot.

[Theo Von]

I've listened to people talk about it.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, I think it's good, but that's still a band aid solution, I think. I think like, there needs to be more labor backed control in general.

[Theo Von]

Like unions and stuff.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, labor unions. Yeah. We have 10% union participation rate in this country is lower than other countries that we fucked up. Like Chile. Like we fucked up Chile, we did a coup there. We set up a dictatorship and they.

[Theo Von]

Still are able to unionize more than they.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. And we wrote, we rewrote their constitution and they still have a higher union participation rate than we do. They have 15% in Chile. We have 10%.

[Theo Von]

Do you? Because we had the Teamsters president of one of the Teamsters union presidents on.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh yeah, you're Sean O'Brien.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, he was interesting guy.

[Hassan Piker]

I've interviewed him before. I've like some combos on him. He has a podcast now.

[Theo Von]

Oh, he does?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

I didn't know that. I saw him at the inauguration. It's just interesting that I'd never talked to a Teamsters union president. I've heard of the Teamsters, you know, I watched Newsies or whatever, like when I was a kid, a bunch, but. But it was just interesting to see that, you know, to learn about unions and see how they work. And then some people are like, well, once you get unionized, it's hard to, you don't have as much individuality. So if I'm super hard working, I'm self motivated, then maybe I don't want to be a part of a union, you know?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

But I could see that as a safety net for people to have a union against corporations. Like. Yeah, to me it makes perfect sense. Like.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. Otherwise they're going to clean out your pockets. They're going to, that's. Look, every union, every union member will tell you, like the motto for unions is united we bargain, divided we beg. Right. You can either go and be like, I'm such a good guy, please. Like, look at how hard I'm working. And then in the off chance, maybe get recognized by your boss and maybe get a little bit extra money on the side, or you can get together with your, you know, you can get together and engage in the act of collective bargaining and force the company's hand into offering you better benefits and basically claw back the profits that you're generating for them. Because without the workforce you got nothing. Right. What do you think the fucking CEO is going to build the table? No. You know what I mean? He doesn't know the first thing about building tables. Right. It's just going to all, all it's going to be is a bunch of wood on the factory floor without you. Right. Workers are the ones who add the value, who generate the value.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. Bernie has a good, Bernie had a good thing about that. He said that, well, if we're going to shorten people's work weeks, right. He, he was talking about having a shorter work week.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

And then that since companies profits are going up.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Then the employees, the amount that they should make should go up. It's like, yeah. It shouldn't just be the company at the top that has the increase.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. So I mean, AI is a perfect example of this. Right. Like it's very disruptive to the, to the environment. I don't like that. But more importantly, also on top of that, it's used as a way to displace the existing labor force. Right. Because now you can just get the machine to do the job of the person that was doing the job beforehand. I'm an advocate that no, you should still keep that person employed, pay them the same amount of money, make them work less. Why, I mean, why are you firing this person now? Because AI is a tool. Right?

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

But the way that we, the way that companies work under capitalism is whenever there's a technological advancement like this, right? This has allowed us to be on 247 now. You can have so much more output as a worker, right? You can be you, you can be online at all times. Productivity rises in that process.

[Theo Von]

Your boss can get ahold of you at all times.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, your boss can get a hold of you at all times. You're more tapped in, you're more. You're more aware of what's going on in the world. And you can be a better worker because of that. But in that process, bosses look at that and go, okay, now I can make one guy do the work of five. I'm going to fire four fucking people and I'm going to make the one guy do the work of the other four people. And that is how that is under capitalism. That's how it works where they use technological advancements that increase productivity to displace the existing labor force to just basically fire them. And instead of lowering the hours that the existing workforce worked and maybe even increasing their pay in the process because they're still doing the same work, you know what I mean?

[Theo Von]

And. Cause they're fucking human beings. Like that's why at a certain point it has to tip towards an actual revolution where people pick up and I don't know if we can say this or not, but I'm.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean I say it all the time. People call me radical for that.

[Theo Von]

Really. I'm a big revolution guy. I've always had little dreams of like semi revolutions or like regional or whatever. At least I hope, at least I can make it to the regional revolution. Like I understand if I don't make it to the national, but I want to be on a horseback or at least on a fucking standing next to a counter. One of the. One of our like bosses or whatever. Like I want. Why See that's because that is fucking overthrowing the system.

[Hassan Piker]

I know, but think about the way you presented that you want to count or a boss to, to be the leader of the revolution, somebody have to.

[Theo Von]

Have some sort of.

[Hassan Piker]

I agree, but it should be people back revolution. That's what.

[Theo Von]

Oh yeah, people. But one of us gets mildly elected or something.

[Hassan Piker]

But not a boss or a fucking politician. Those guys or account is going to be. Is going to be a. An organizer, an activist, someone with a. Someone with a background, someone who understands the needs of the people.

[Theo Von]

It's going to be somebody also who works at a Renaissance fair full time, who can be on a horseback who can handle the type of. You think about. I'm not Even joking, it's not. And it's kind of crazy, but you will need a dude who is fucking. I mean, I am willing to ride through here with a spear, but yeah, I. At a certain point, if you let so many people go just to appease a company, to appease corporations, you're just gonna have more. Those people have to. At some point, there has to be a revolution. Isn't that how revolutions happen? Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, when. When conditions worsen to a certain degree. Yeah. People go, all right, enough is enough. We're backed into a corner. And they start recognizing that, like, they're being fucked over. But that can also lead to a dangerous path. Where. Tell me about that. Well, the dangerous part about that is, like, if they're. If the people are not steered in the right direction to recognize who's actually doing the harm to them, they can be deluded by misinformation and think it's the Jews or think it's fucking Anthony Bourdain or. Yeah, I think it's Adam Schiff who's apparently having sex with dead children in their minds. Or think it's like. Like the Guatemalan immigrant. You know what I mean? That motherfucker is not controlling your life. He is worse off than you, and he has the exact same interest as you. He just wants to put food in his belly and to have a roof over his head.

[Theo Von]

Are you talking about Guatemalans that came over the border and stuff?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. Like, a Guatemalan immigrant or a Honduran immigrant is not like, he's not dominating your life at all. They're not here to do evil. They're not here to do bad. They're here to just, like, work. They fucking pick strawberries all goddamn day so our asses can eat those strawberries cheap as hell. You know what I mean? And then we turn around and we're like, yeah, they're all rapists, drug dealer, murderers. We gotta purge the country of these people. And it's like, it's really up.

[Theo Von]

How would you. How do you successfully do something like that then? Because I think a lot of people's concern. Well, I think here's what happens is you're like, I'm not safe anymore. Right? And you start to feel, right, there's people that get that. That were raped or killed. There was a couple instances where they. That they put them on the news, right? They were on the Congressional. You know, they had some of the.

[Hassan Piker]

Trump had them. Trump had them at the. At the victims, at the Congressional Joint congressional hearing, right?

[Theo Von]

So I think you hear about those things and you're like, well, yeah, you start to, you'll start to apply them to everyone, I think, which is crazy.

[Hassan Piker]

Think about that. We say there's 20 million undocumented migrants in this country. They come from every part of the. And they're all. And to think that they're all one collective hive mind that's here to do like evil rapes and shit is psychotic. I'm like, like, bro, like they don't even speak each other's language. Like, what are you talking about? Like, they have no unified hive mind here. But you, you basically learn to think that way. You learn to hate in that regard. And I think the media plays a big role in this, like right wing media specifically.

[Theo Von]

Is it hate though, you think? Because it's like, I, I just fear, okay? So I, because to me it's like, have a fucking organized system. If I go to a dude, I go to. I went to Canada a couple days ago. It was heck. It was heck getting in and out of there. It's heck getting out of there. It's super organized. You know, it's like. But we should it just. Because here's the thing, if you don't know who's in your country, then you can't do a correct census. You can't allocate things correctly to people. You can't know who needs what in certain areas.

[Hassan Piker]

That's why they also factor undocumented migrants into the census as well. But if they're fearful of the federal government, if they're fearful of the federal government, they're not going to open the door for a census guy. That's part of the reason why sanctuary cities began to begin with. It was actually advocated for. This is something that, this is old lore. People don't even know this at this point because everybody thinks like, oh, sanctuary cities is woke libtard bullshit, bro. It was the fucking cops and the FBI that was advocating for sanctuary cities. Why? Because whenever a murder or some kind of like violence happened in an undocumented neighborhood, cops would come in and nobody would talk to them.

[Theo Von]

So they were like, one more time so we can hear it. That's important.

[Hassan Piker]

I never knew that sanctuary cities initially were proposed by law enforcement because they realized that whenever there was violence or like, you know, drug dealing or a murder that took place in an area where the witnesses were undocumented migrants, they wouldn't talk to the cops because they were fearful that if they talked to the cops, they were gonna get Fucking deported. So in order to open up more collaboration and actually solve crimes like rape, murder and all these other like, violent crimes, they were like, we have to tell every undocumented migrant, like, we're not going to arrest you. We're not going to collaborate with ICE or INS at the time before ICE existed. We're just here to serve you as public servants. And that was the reason why it was law enforcement that initially suggested sanctuary cities. It wasn't like WOKE activists or whatever. And it's so interesting that like now Republicans say, use that as a catch all term to be like, oh, bring, you're letting, you're letting criminals go. Basically. That's what they, that's what they make it seem like. That's what they imply.

[Theo Von]

Bring that up. How did sanctuary cities get started? That's fascinating, man.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Sanctuary city policies were not originally proposed by law enforcement, but they were, they've.

[Hassan Piker]

Come to support them for public safety reasons.

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

In the 1980s, when churches in the United States provided refuge for individuals escaping civil unrest in El Salvador, sanctuary cities specifically emerged from protests against federal immigration policies that denied asylum to refugees. However, many law enforcement officials, including police chiefs, have advocated for sanctuary policies. They argue it. They argue that these policies build the.

[Theo Von]

Trust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement. This trust is crucial for encouraging immigrants to report crimes and cooperate with police investigations. Sanctuary policies allow police to focus on local priorities and prevent crimes. Wow, that's interesting, man. I wonder though, what's that? I'm sorry, what is the AI search.

[Hassan Piker]

Engine or some shit? What is this? Yeah, this is perplexing city. But they have all the sources cited. All right.

[Theo Von]

I think it's interesting then though, I wonder how many cities then jumped on it as a, on even on the Democratic side to say like, or left side, whatever you want to call it. But like to say, oh, I better be a part of this now if I want my voters to then vote for me. You know, I'm saying like, so sometimes like the political kick, kickball gets created one way, but it also gets used in a field in another way.

[Hassan Piker]

Well, it's not, I'm not saying one is right or wrong anyway. Like I, because I'm, I'm a active amnesty advocate. Like I think if first of all, this is a civil offense, amnesty crossing the border is a civil offense. Right, right. And you have a five year period where if you haven't done any crimes like the statute of limitation is over. Now there's different legal, there are different legal interpretations of this and people go back and forth on it. But like, the way I think about it is like, if a dude is in here and they're working, right, and they're not trying to do a, you know, they're not here to do evil shit. They're here to just simply work. Give him. Fucking, give him documentation. The difference between an undocumented migrant and a documented one is just a piece of paper, is paperwork. Process these people and allow them to contribute to our coffers in, in more meaningful ways. Because they already pay taxes, but they could be paying more taxes as well.

[Theo Von]

Do they pay taxes if they're undocumented?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, because they still, I think they still pay into Social Security because they have to get a Social Security number, some sort of Social Security number. They pay for sales taxes, things of that nature. You know what I mean? Like there's a bunch of different contributions that they make and they can't take advantage of any of the government programs anyway. That's why a lot of Republicans lie. They'll be like, oh, undocumented migrants are like stealing our, you know, our social safety nets. And I'm over, like, I'm over here, like, what the fuck? What social safety nets do we have? What do they. We don't have health care. Like, what are they, Are they taking advantage of health care that we don't have? They don't have health care. The thing is they will. Republicans will literally factor in their natural born US Citizen children into the equation to be like, see, they're sending their children to public schools. It's like, bro, that's an American citizen.

[Theo Von]

Right? The child isn't an American citizen. Yeah, yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

One in 15 households in this country is a mixed status household. One in 15?

[Theo Von]

Oh, yeah, you can't even, I mean, you, Everybody's mixed now.

[Hassan Piker]

It feels like mixed status, like as in one parent is undocumented, like a non citizen.

[Theo Von]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So it's probably Mexican a lot of times, I would bet. And that's just. Even my Mexican friends are always like, you know, my uncle's in the back or whatever. They'll say, you know, and I don't say anything. But it's like I, you know, I think it's interesting. It's interesting like what things get. How things get framed right by the media, how things get used. How things like even programs like Sanctuary City, how does it then get manipulated and used as like a negative thing or is a thing where one party feels like, well, I better declare as this or I'm going to be out of the money. Whatever the next thing is, like, yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, there's definitely an incentive structure among politicians to advocate for certain things, but ultimately, I don't really care what the incentive structure is. If the legislation is good, if it's a good thing. If Trump were to do a good thing, I would advocate for it as well. You know what I mean?

[Theo Von]

Do you think that's true?

[Hassan Piker]

Cause it seems like I have in the past when Trump. When Trump last time he was president, when he basically said, I'm gonna back away from this North Korea, South Korea shit, and I'm gonna let you guys handle it on your own. And in the process, he actually reduced the military campaigns that were taking place around the Korean peninsula to allow these two countries to talk to one another. It's one country, technically, that we fucking cut in half. But that's a long history lesson. I'm not going to get into North.

[Theo Von]

Korea and South Korea.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. And that was an objectively good thing. I said it at the time. I was like. And Rachel Maddow was very mad. He was like, oh, you're doing this because you love Vladimir Putin or whatever the fuck. But no, that was not a bad thing. Let these guys hash it out and let them rebuild their nation. You know, why the fuck are we, like, why do we have, you know, 80,000 to 100,000 troops stationed all the time, you know?

[Theo Von]

Yeah, I mean. Yeah, it feels alarming. It feels like you have to have this military thing. I think one thing that I noticed last night was, like, the military has had a tough time getting recruits, right? Yeah, recruits. Recruitment has been down.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

And so part of me always wonders, well, like, are the. Did the powers it be then want Republicans to be in office? Because they know that eventually, if people are believing more in their country again, it will incite more recruitments? I'm not saying that that's the truth, but you just start to wonder what the is really.

[Hassan Piker]

Tell you what made recruitment number.

[Theo Von]

Does that make sense to you, though?

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, I know where you're coming from, but what made recruitment numbers explode initially was 9, 11. That's it. People joined after 9, 11. And after 20 years of just, like, going out there and guarding, guarding, like Poppy Fields and getting your dick blown off by some fucking dude who's hated you because you invaded his country when he was, like, 14 and probably killed his cousin, you know, after 20 years of doing that, everyone was like, oh, this shit sucks. We kind of lost it here, huh? Like, we did a Vietnam in Afghanistan and we had to pull out. So and that was a good thing, objectively. I think it's good that we pulled out of Afghanistan, but I think that's the real reason why people are like, why the fuck would I join the military? I can't even get a fucking Charger anymore. You know, they, they Dodge Charger, the Dodge Chargers or was it, was it the Camaro?

[Theo Von]

Were they giving those out?

[Hassan Piker]

They were. That's the. As the common military car.

[Theo Von]

That's true. Huh.

[Hassan Piker]

You sign off on one of those. The worst loan of all time.

[Theo Von]

Oh yeah, dude, I would.

[Hassan Piker]

And then your, your high school sweetheart is fucking the neighbor while you're out there.

[Theo Von]

Sometimes.

[Hassan Piker]

I mean, yeah, while you're out there jerking off in a fucking bunker and.

[Theo Von]

Karendal jerking off on you or whatever. And you guys are changing each other's names after 8pm or whatever and shit. I think shit gets pretty melodic out there.

[Hassan Piker]

That's what I mean, like, why the fuck are you doing that? And then you come back and the American government's like like, all right, we'll give you health care. But now you're busted, you need it desperately. And they're like, all right, we'll pay for your college, okay? You go to college, you get a communications degree. Now you're, you know, six years behind the rest of your, your counterparts and you're in the same shit ass job market, working, sucking the man's dick every day, working at a dead end job that you despise.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, Ori, baby.

[Hassan Piker]

And you're fucked up. And now every time you, you know, go to the grocery store to pick out cereal, you're having a crisis like a mental health episode. It's fucked up.

[Theo Von]

Well, or a lot of people will also go into the military, learn some patterns that help them to achieve. Well, my buddy Josh was in for a while, he got out and now he's able to be a good business owner because he learned, you know, he got up in the morning, you know, it just, it helped him have some regimen.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, no, for sure. I don't think that regimen is bad. I'm a very regimented person. I just think that the military's output overall is, you know, you're just sending poor people from different parts of the country overseas to go dominate some other poor people so that rich people in fucking California can make more money so the Raytheon can send more missiles and make more missiles and you gotta use those missiles when you make them. You know, if you don't use it, you lose it.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, your missiles are going. Yeah, there's somebody said there was an email one time that like, oh, your missiles are expiring soon. You should use them. It's like, what the.

[Hassan Piker]

But they do that. They, they any. If you got homies who were active duty, they'll tell you like, you just dump so much money because they know that like it's going to go bad.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

Like you just fucking shoot it out into the sea. If you're in the Navy, you're just letting.

[Theo Von]

Pop that bitch off. Get out there after lunch today. Yeah, we're going to fire a couple of these off at an.

[Hassan Piker]

That's your island.

[Theo Von]

You're like, that's an island. Like nobody's there.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. You're dumping payload into an island that is more than Your salary times 10 because it's gonna go bad. How is that not waste and fraud and abuse? Why the fuck are they not working on that? My argument always is this. The American military is a jobs program. That's what it is. It's the. I think it's the second largest hiring body in the country after Walmart. If I'm not mistaken. It might be the largest. And I think instead of making those guys, you know, making these corn fed boys from Arkansas go out and force them to eat MREs all goddamn day and be constipated for a fucking week, make them build shit. Make them build shit in America. It's a jobs program. Who cares? Make the output be good rather than bad. That is what my argument is.

[Theo Von]

The world's biggest employer is the Ministry of Defense. U.S. department of Defense.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. The Indian Ministry of Defense is the largest. And then the world's second largest employer. I guess the U.S. department of Defense.

[Theo Von]

Is bigger than Walmart, Walmart and Amazon. No man, that's a great point. I think. And maybe, and you know, I wish I knew more of what some of those groups did a lot of times.

[Hassan Piker]

Well, the military.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. But I agree with you. It's like, I agree the fact that why are, why does the voter, why does the gun carrier, the water carrier all. You're always at this. It's a caste system really. In a lot of ways. You're.

[Hassan Piker]

It is.

[Theo Von]

Those are the people having to do the bidding of these elites, you know, of these countries and stuff like that. But then at a certain point it's like, do I decide this is my what, what, what? Integrity? Or what do I want to have inside of myself when I'm doing that? I could be all day like, I don't want to be doing this. This country's a piece of or whatever. Or I can have pride in what I'm doing, no matter what, in the spot that I'm existing in, in this sort of strata, right? And, and I stand up for my country. And it's just, you know, as we get more information, it's just, it's fascinating how things change.

[Hassan Piker]

I just want like I.

[Theo Von]

Or how things. You learn more.

[Hassan Piker]

I don't hate people. I just want them to have better lives. You know what I mean? Even people that I disagree with vehemently, like, I always stress this point where I say, Medicare for all means for everybody, right? Even if you're a fucking Nazi, you're going to get healthcare. Even if you don't want healthcare, I'm going to fucking give you the healthcare. I don't give a shit. Okay? You can cry about it all day, every day. It's just. And I think that's the attitude that other people are supposed to have in this process too. Like there's got to be a universality to these proposals because like, I think we got to do right by others. And we are not doing that right now. The American government is not doing that. And every. At every step of the process. And that's why the military is a great example of this. You know, we're just using and abusing these dudes and making them do a whole lot of awful shit overseas so that some rich asshole can make more money, you know, and then they're broken in that process. They come back. There's no, there's no way of like repairing them. And we basically lie to them too. We're like, oh yeah, you'll get a. You'll get a great job, you'll go to college, you'll be able to uplift yourself. And it's like, that should be available without you having to serve in the military. Yeah, but if that was available, if free college existed, if free health care existed, and no fucking buddy is going to the military, why the fuck would you do that?

[Theo Von]

Unless you had some real gunners. Unless you had some cool call of duty verdansk modern warfare.

[Hassan Piker]

But I mean, yeah, those guys are.

[Theo Von]

But I'm saying you would still have some.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, you would, but. But I agree, it wouldn't be this significantly lower.

[Theo Von]

It wouldn't be this system that gets kind of manipulated and used.

[Hassan Piker]

That's why they don't want to fix it though. That's why they don't want to get free health.

[Theo Von]

But that's why there's. They don't want to fix so many Things like. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. We learn more. As we learn more about it. You start to see some of the clarity or, or some of you learn more, you have more information. But then how do I operate still when I have that more information? Like do what? You know, it's tough because if I become a nihilist or you know, so then I'm miserable. My. My day to day is miserable, you know, And I'm not disagreeing with it with you. I'm just saying it's. How do we manage in those spaces as we learn more?

[Hassan Piker]

I don't know. I'm. I'm fairly tapped into all of the, the shortcomings of the American government and yet I, I enjoy myself. I mean I still, I still jerk off before I go to sleep. I still watch anime, I play basketball, I focus on myself. I think like there are certain things that you have control over and that is your own body, right? Your. Your immediate friends and your family and you should actively work on those things to, to, to basically not lose sight of your own humanity because it's easy to get lost in the sauce in the everyday cruelty that you, that you recognize is happening all around and it makes you go crazy. And in order to combat that, I always urge people to engage in self improvement. Set goals for yourself and try to achieve them. That's at least how I've always managed this stuff. And also being around other people who aren't immediately agreeing to your worldview. Like I love parks for that reason. I love third places. No, not like Parks and Recreation is in like the TV show. I mean like literal public parks.

[Theo Von]

Oh yeah, dude, there's a fucking. There's a band or not a band. There's some homeless guys stole whole, I guess a band's high school equipment during COVID over by the. There's a park behind my apartment and you could hear them sometimes practicing in the like 3 or 4am they'd get some. They get a couple dudes tuned up in a tent or whatever and you could hear them. What song were they playing for a while? Oh, love the way you lie Just gonna stand there and watch you burn. I don't know what instruments they had, but it was pretty cool. You know, they got a hold of the sheet music and everything, you know. But it's like, like. Yeah. Just making the most of where you're at. And also our military is there like you. It keeps us safe if there's flooding, if they do a ton of stuff.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, the Army Corps Engineers, Like, I interviewed a guy.

[Theo Von]

I don't want people to feel like their lives are in vain.

[Hassan Piker]

No, no.

[Theo Von]

I admire people that go and are willing to put their years of lives.

[Hassan Piker]

Trump is firing those guys too, by the way. Right now, like, the Army Corps engineers is like what you just described. When there's a flooding happening, like, they build the levees, they build the bridges. Right? Trump literally is firing those people, too. It's crazy. Why is he doing it? Is it because he hates the Army Corps engineers? No, because he doesn't give a shit. That's my point. He doesn't care. He's like, yeah, go, Elon. Do whatever you need to do. Fire these probationary employees. Nobody knows what probationary means, so they think, like, oh, you know, it's good. It's good that we're, like, downsizing a little bit. It's like, no, dude, you're gonna start slowly but surely five years down the line, notice it. You're gonna start noticing that things are just not working. Like, air traffic control is a great example of this. Since the Reagan era, like, the numbers of air traffic controls controllers. Even though air traffic has increased, the number of air traffic controllers have not kept up with the increase of air traffic. So you got towers where there's like, one dude. There's got to be like, 30 dudes in that tower. I don't want the fucking plane. I don't want planes to crash. You know what I mean?

[Theo Von]

Probably more of them have started to work in. But if that's true, is there less FAA people?

[Hassan Piker]

No, there's probably more FAA people, especially with, like, TSA and whatnot. But I'm saying that it hasn't matched up to the rate of air. Like, there's more planes in the sky is what I'm saying. When there's more planes in the sky, you need more air traffic controls where cut.

[Theo Von]

The FAA helps support it. Air safety union President Donald Trump's administration has said no one at the federal FAA with a critical safety position has been fired as it cuts the federal workforce. Some F jobs were eliminated. Had direct roles in supporting safety inspectors and airport operations, according to their union and foreigner former employees.

[Hassan Piker]

This is another way that they lie, by the way. And Karen Bass did this with the LA wildfires, where she was like, oh, we didn't actually cut the LA FD budget. They did. They cut the support budget. But when you cut the support budget, yeah, sure, you're not cutting the actual firefighters right by. You're not reducing their numbers. But when you cut the Support staff budget. You're cutting mechanics. When you cut the mechanics and your fucking fire engine is busted, you send it over and it just sits in a goddamn yard for months because now there's no fucking mechanics to fix the goddamn car. So all of a sudden you're down one fire engine. It all works together.

[Theo Von]

I'm curious to see cuz Trump's making, you know, and there's so many like executive orders and things right out of the gate and there's so much focus on him by the media too. But I'm curious to see if some of these things turn out to help long term.

[Hassan Piker]

There's no way.

[Theo Von]

I'm hopeful that they are, you know, do you like, I'm hopeful that, you know, if they're gonna cut Medicare or Medicaid, that it's also because they have the, they're gonna make price transparency from hospitals. Right. And, and so then there won't be, the expenses won't be as high. Right. Like, I'm hoping that there's some long term strategy to a lot of his ideas. Like the same thing with Gaz and Israel. I don't know if there is, it seems, I don't like it, but I'm hopeful.

[Hassan Piker]

Trump is a major Israel. Dick Rider, he's not, he's not changing that at all.

[Theo Von]

I think. I don't, I can't. You couldn't find 30 of these people that aren't.

[Hassan Piker]

It feels like, yeah, no, especially in the American government. It's, it's really, really awful. They, yeah, I, I want things to get better and I hope it does. But the reason why I say I'm certain that it won't is because like of what you just mentioned, right, 800 billion, $800 billion of Medicare and Medicaid that they want to cut. Mike Johnson goes on stage, says, I goes on Kaitlan Collins on CNN and says, oh, there's a lot of fraud happening. There's not fraud happening in Medicare and Medicaid on the point of the recipient.

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

It's happening on the point of the providers.

[Theo Von]

Right.

[Hassan Piker]

And that's why I got banned recently on Twitch yesterday, because I saw you.

[Theo Von]

Got banned and I saw you just got back.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. Libs of TikTok was like posting about how I said something and they, they misconstrued it as though it was a call to action to assassinate a, a sitting US Senator. Cuz I said to Mike Johnson, because I was listening to him back and forth, I said like if Mike Johnson actually cared about Medicare fraud, he would tackle Medicare fraud happening at the point of the providers. But he's obvious that he doesn't care about Medicare fraud because if he did care about Medicare fraud, he would kill Rick Scott, who is responsible for the historic $1.7 billion worth of Medicare fraud.

[Theo Von]

And is he still working the bro.

[Hassan Piker]

He's. He. He was a. He was a corporate executive at HCA at the time. In the 90s. The DOJ came after him and. And he basically quit his job. He got a $10 million compensation package after doing $1.7 billion in the private.

[Theo Von]

Sector and then came and worked in the private sector.

[Hassan Piker]

He got $300 million in stock options. Didn't see a fucking moment of jail time for that. Okay. And then now. And then he became Florida governor, and now he's a fucking Florida senator and he's a prominent figure in the Republican Party. I think he was like their head of their fundraising or some shit. I forget what his position in the Trump campaign and the Republican Party is beyond the fact that he's a senator.

[Theo Von]

I don't know if they should allow people to go from one to the other from private to public. You know what I'm saying? Like. Yeah, I just. Because it just be. Obviously there's conflicts of interest when people do that sort of thing, you know.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, for sure. I mean, that's one aspect.

[Theo Von]

But I agree with you. I agree. It's like that guy should be in jail.

[Hassan Piker]

Like, that's what I think.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

I think if you do $1.7 billion in Medicare fraud, you should be in jail. Like, what are we talking about?

[Theo Von]

I don't.

[Hassan Piker]

Shouldn't be a Republican senator from Florida.

[Theo Von]

Yeah. It says right here Rick Scott's role in the Columbia HCA scandal. In 2003, Rick Scott's company, Columbia HCA, the largest private hospital chain in the US was found guilty of defrauding Medicare. The company was forced to pay 1.7 billion a settlement. That was the largest medical fraud fine in US history at the time. Scott, who was the CEO, left the company with a $10 million severance package after this.300 million in stock options, too. Wow. So do you start to wonder. So this was when he was in the private sector, right?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

So it's. Yeah. What's going to be different if a guy comes over from that private sector to the public sector should.

[Hassan Piker]

It's this like, he's the richest congressperson, by the way.

[Theo Von]

Is he really?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Fuck that, man. Give us some fucking money. I think people should only be able to have a certain amount of money?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah. I mean, look, I don't. I don't necessarily care about how much money people have. I care about how they make their money.

[Theo Von]

But, no, I agree. How does this guy. How do you keep.

[Hassan Piker]

Like, LeBron James, right. 50,000 points. He crossed over that boundary. 20 plus years of dominance in the league. He gets paid a wage. He's a. What is known as one of the few people, is like a. Like a wage billionaire, basically. If he makes that kind of money, that means he's making somebody else a fuck ton more money. Right. And I don't mind that he's getting paid these big bucks, partially because he's my goat and I love him and I think he deserves it, but also partially because he's not making that by, like, hiring people and then forcing them to work to the bone. He does have businesses. He's also obviously an owner of capital as well, so he does capital accumulation as well. But ultimately, I just want people to be comfortable. And I think that if you are working a job, like, you should be able to have a house. You should be able to live comfortably.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

And it doesn't matter what job it is. You could be picking up trash. I think that's still obviously valuable. It's worthwhile. Also, I guess sanitation is one of the worst examples because they do have pretty solid unions.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, we had a garbage man on. It was awesome, man. My buddy Wayne, he's got a podcast now called Trash Talk. But yeah, yeah, they do pretty well. But then what about LeBron's companies? If they're buying shirts from another country.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Theo Von]

And that labor there and those people. That guy's sleeping on a triceps bicycle seat at night. He has to be at work again in the morning.

[Hassan Piker]

So that part I. That's what I'm saying. That part I don't agree with. Like. But I'm saying if he was just making, you know, all of his money from just Ballin and he's getting a wage, like, who cares? You know, I don't have an issue with that. Especially if the. If the. Hold on. I got. Open my door. Sorry. I got. I got FedEx at the door, and it's raining. I feel bad.

[Theo Von]

Oh, it's raining out there, huh?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

All right.

[Hassan Piker]

I got it. I did it. I did it. It. We brought him inside.

[Theo Von]

We know who sent the rain in. Probably, too.

[Hassan Piker]

What the. The weather machine. Oh, the Jews.

[Theo Von]

I'm illegal. That's what I say. When the Jews come for me, I'll be like, I'm Illegal.

[Hassan Piker]

So, see, like, this is. This is another example of, like, you know, you could normally, under normal circumstances, you can make this joke. But then, like, like, then there's. Who really believe it.

[Theo Von]

Yeah.

[Hassan Piker]

When there's, like, dudes who are like, no, you're. Marjorie Taylor Greene was talking about how they have a weather machine. She wasn't saying Jews, but she was like, they have a weather machine.

[Theo Von]

But imagine you're rich enough. Say you were rich enough like a Mike. Not Mike Jones or whatever. That's that rapper. But I'm thinking of Bill Gates, right? If you had enough money, bro, you would get it. And some guys like, look, look, for one Bill, I'll get you a weather machine. We'll get you. Like, I'd get that bitch in a heartbeat, dude. Imagine you're sitting at home, you're having your coffee, and you're like, all right, Detroit, you guys, here's seven inches right now. Here's seven white inches. It's really. The only way that freaking. A white guy can give 7 to 10 white inches anymore is by pressing that weather.

[Hassan Piker]

It's Bill Gates pressing the weather button.

[Theo Von]

Is pressing the weather button. But, no, man, I think it's. Would you. Would you have had Trump come on your show? But, yeah, thank. First of all, thankfully, we can still joke around about stuff and we can have a sense of humor. Imagine if we didn't, as individuals, have a sense of humor. If we. That would be.

[Hassan Piker]

I. I agree with you.

[Theo Von]

That would be the saddest.

[Hassan Piker]

I agree with you. I love comedy. You know, I, I. Bill Burr is my. Is my goat. Yeah, dude, I think he is. You know, I mean, you're a comedian as well. I'm obviously very good friends with Stavi as well. I know you always link up with.

[Theo Von]

Him, but he made me some cookies his mother made.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, dude, me too. Yeah, when he was out here.

[Theo Von]

Okay.

[Hassan Piker]

I ate all of it. Oh, you didn't like them?

[Theo Von]

I know. I liked him. I'm just sad that they're bipartisan snacks he's sending out. But no. Damn, no. It was so sweet of him. It was just. Only friend of mine that did that. Very sweet of him.

[Hassan Piker]

He did. He also.

[Theo Von]

He's like, my mother wants to see us, just like, I could.

[Hassan Piker]

He also shill his calendars, his naked calendars. Those mo. Those shits have been sitting on my desk every time. I'll have, like, bro, I'll have, like, you know, prominent figures like activists and shit at my. At my house, and I'm interviewing them. Like, there was Motaz Aziza. I'm interviewing him. He literally survived the genocide. He's a photojournalist from Gaza. And fucking Stavi's naked body is just sitting there on the fucking desk. I'm like, oh my God. Like, it's, it's fucked up. It's fucked up. Being friends with Stavi is fucked up. That's why you can't trust the Greeks. Oh, now look, finally Turkish, man. We were both, let me tell you.

[Theo Von]

Both sided agreement on right there, dude.

[Hassan Piker]

Bipartisanship on that front for sure.

[Theo Von]

Cannot trust these Greeks. Yeah. The third month of his calendar is Gorgon Zola or whatever. I'm like, this seems like it was like January, February, March, April, baklava, June, July. I'm like, that seems.

[Hassan Piker]

That's the other thing. Yeah, Stealing. Stealing my people's food, saying it's his. Oh, that's right, is Turkish.

[Theo Von]

We got to talk about that next time. Would you have Trump on if he can't. If he would podcast?

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Do you feel like you're that far removed from getting to talk to guys like that?

[Hassan Piker]

No, no, I mean, I've talked.

[Theo Von]

Well, I mean, you talked to Sanders. I don't even know why I talked.

[Hassan Piker]

I talked to, I talked to Bradley Martin multiple times after. Like, I mean, he, like, I, I'm not above like going on, you know, right wing podcasts. I'm not above talking to people who talk to Trump because I think like, like I don't care about like the partisanship angle of this at all. I want to be able to communicate to people exactly where the problems are and why. People like Trump, just like people like Kamala are not the perfect solution to any of these issues. And I would talk to Trump, I just don't think he would come on my stream like, cuz he is, at the end of the day, he wants to go on a, he wants to go on a show where they're not gonna like, like, you know, push back too much. Right. He wants to come across as like, he wants to be humanized and he wants to come across as like a personal. A personality that is, is not devoid of charisma and he's very telegenic. I. It was actually my turning point when I listened to him and you talk about cocaine when you were talking about doing coke and he was like genuinely expressing interest in it. I was like, oh, fuck, this motherfucker is going to win. Dude, this podcast shit is working so good. Because first he did the Aiden Ross thing and that was like a bit of A dud.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, because, like, kind of weird, because.

[Hassan Piker]

That just, like, didn't work out at all. Because it wasn't like a normal conversation.

[Theo Von]

Well, it didn't feel. It felt kind of planned.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Like, they wanted to do, like, a video. Like, something like, let's do some social video. And I was like, I don't want to do something like.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, like the whole dancing and stuff in front of the cybertruck with the photo of him.

[Theo Von]

I didn't love that either.

[Hassan Piker]

Like, that stuff. It didn't work at all. But then I saw your podcast, and I was like, oh, my. My God, this motherfucker. This motherfucker is going to win the. The goddamn presidency.

[Theo Von]

But he didn't come. I mean, they didn't ask for any. They didn't ask for any edits. You know, that was the thing. They didn't say, like, we need to see this. They didn't fucking have. You guys have a good day.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, but that's also because, like, you're not.

[Theo Von]

But I'm also not a political guy. Like, yeah, this is a trap I fell into recently because you.

[Hassan Piker]

Because you talked to Bernie Sanders like, a week before. No.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, that's what I mean.

[Hassan Piker]

That's. That's what I mean. So it's like, you're not. Not. You're not gonna, like, hit him on. You're not gonna hit him on, like, stuff that he has no answer for?

[Theo Von]

Well, because I think my goal is to find. It's not a goal, but I just want to get to know people kind of. Right. And I realized I. I fell in this trap recently. I thought that just because I had some political people on last year that I knew about politics. I do not. That was a trap. Even my own ego was like, oh, maybe I know something about politics. I don't know. Now I have some ideas. I know what it feels like to be kind of like, I feel like a. Just a pretty regular person. And then, I don't know, I try to find empathy here and there and figure things out. But. But I'm. And I'm learning a lot. I've learned. Definitely learned a lot more than I knew two years ago, for sure. But. But then to think that I, like, you know, I have to be careful not to, like, smoke my own nuts or whatever it's called, where it's like, you just b. You know, just because I had some politic on, now I'm, you know, Jim Rome or somebody, or, you know, like a. You know, I'm like Malcolm. A. Malcolm X. Malcolm X. Yeah, Malcolm X, dude. So, yeah, but anyway, but no, dude, I like your attitude, I like your charisma. I like that. I, I, I wanted to talk a little bit more about, I know you have a, a program where you like, try to co op and put money back in a, Things that mean something to you.

[Hassan Piker]

My podcast is a cooperative corporation. So like everyone has equal say, equal pay. Yeah. And there are different formations of that. Like you don't have to make it equal pay, but I just thought it would be the best possible way to go about it. But it's most importantly, aside from the equal pay, the equal say part is really important. We get together and you know, if someone has a obligation, they're not showing up, it's fine. You know, we, we, we make do, we figure it out as we go along and I think that's how you get, that's how you get the most successful business. Like for sure. That's, that's something that I stand by. And we still obviously have to hire contractors every now and then too.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, for sure. And we could get together another time and talk about business strategy and things like that. I think it'd be interesting. But yeah, I just wanted to, just.

[Hassan Piker]

Then, yeah, we do a lot of fundraising. Like the other, the other day I had the, the no Other Land, the, the Palestinians who, who made a documentary about like they were on your show. Yeah, I had them.

[Theo Von]

No, we tried to get them.

[Hassan Piker]

I had them on my, I had them on my house. Like, I, they, they, they rolled up deep. They had like 10 people. Like the whole family was there, dude.

[Theo Von]

No other friends. That's what I'd say. We invited two of you guys.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, they, I mean, they also like straight up came from, you know, occupied Palestinian territory. Like they flew into America and, and you know, we were chilling, we were just like talking about, talking about their experiences and I interviewed them and then in the process, like the organization that actually brought them here, who works with, you know, a lot of Palestinians on the ground, like they were like, oh, can you share this link to fundraise? So I did and we, we, in the hour long interview that we did, we fundraised a hundred thousand dollars. Now it's sitting at 135,000. But like, that's the type of stuff that I love being able to do because like, I feel so powerless a lot of times when I see all of this death and destruction and I feel like it's a meaningful way to be able to help, help to, to, you know, actively fundraise gives myself and a lot of people that watch me the opportunity to say, like, you know, at least we're trying to do something, anything. You know what I mean? So I. I try to do that to the best of my ability. We've fundraised for Palestinian aid organizations to the tune of, I think, like, almost more than $3 million at this point since. Since October 7th.

[Theo Von]

Wow.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, dude. Yeah. No, I appreciate even saying that because I think that's something I need to hear more about. It's on my brain and heart a lot. We started a foundation last year, but haven't started to figure out, like, what to do with the money or what exactly to do, you know, Like, I would like to create a business that like. Like, I thought about, like, water. Like, you're selling water, but the money goes towards rehab for people that suffer from opioid addiction, you know, that sort of thing. Just so it's like using something that everybody needs. But finally, the proceeds, it only goes towards this thing. There's not even a profit. You know, it's like, this is what it's for. But I need to be more.

[Hassan Piker]

I've done that in the past, too. Like, my. My. Like, I have merch, and it's us made, union made, and obviously the margins are incredibly slim for that reason.

[Theo Von]

American Giant is that. Dude, does your merch or no? Is it.

[Hassan Piker]

No, it's. Bayside is my garment manufacturer. My garment provider is one of the only union shops that is garment manufacturer in the country that can, like, keep up with the demand that we have, because there's a shit ton of people that are buying the T shirts. And sometimes I'll just like, I will fundraise, like, by. By saying all the proceeds, like, every single point of profit is directly going to a labor union. Like, we. I gave the Amazon Labor Union. I think it was like, $170,000 or something like that off of just that that we fundraise, like, I think Amazon Packaging. The Amazon Labor Union. Yeah, like, the people that work at the distribution facilities. Another thing I did this past year was for. I don't know how to say the name correctly, but raisays is an organization that works with undocumented migrants in. In Texas specifically. And they give them, you know, translators and lawyers and, you know, they pay for lawyer fees and stuff like that. So I'm actively working on fundraising initiatives like that because I feel like there's a lot of stories that don't get told in mainstream media. That's why I interviewed the incarcerated firefighters that were combating the wildfires in la, you know there's prisoners that fight wildfires, right?

[Theo Von]

Oh, they send prisoners out to fight them.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like a training program and stuff I'm working with, with an organization to, to go and actually see them at their prison, their training camp.

[Theo Von]

Yeah, dude.

[Hassan Piker]

Yeah.

[Theo Von]

That's so creative, man. Yeah, that's, yeah, I'm glad you say these things because. Yeah, it's just stuff that I can remember to try to focus more on or. Yeah, because everybody, that's the crazy thing. It's like everybody, at every point of something, most people need, need support, right? Or they need some support. They need an ear, they need a blanket, they need a mouthful of, or they need a friend, you know, every, it's, there's a lot of ways to be a part of the world, you know, and always to try and find a corner where you can express care. Hassan Piker. Thanks so much, dude. I'd love to chat again sometime. I know we didn't get to cover, you know, some stuff we did, but I just appreciate it, man. I think, yeah, I just think it's important too, that, that, that people just get together and talk about stuff, you know, I wish I'd have been able to like, kind of like have probably some stronger political conversations with you. Some of that stuff I don't have as strong of a knowledge base in, but, but I admire you, dude, and I admire the way you operate and, and I really appreciate your time today.

[Hassan Piker]

All right, thanks for having me, man. This was great.

[Theo Von]

I'm sorry. Have to do a stream for so long too, dude.

[Hassan Piker]

No, I love it. I, I, I. The things that I just told you in the last three minutes is exactly why I love what I do. Because I have a giant community with a big heart. And I think that that is what makes everything worth it. Cause like I said, there will be people swearing up and down that I'm the worst person that you've ever met. No matter where I go, it's just noise. It's mostly people that are online that doesn't like, translate to real world experiences at all. But in spite of all of that, in spite of people constantly working to actively smear me to say I'm anti Semitic or I love terrorism or whatever the fuck with clips out of context and all this, at the end of the day, I get to make an impact. And that's how I sleep soundly at night, where I know that all of this is worth it.

[Theo Von]

Why did Jewish Friend recommend you to me who's the Jewish friend podcast? And they said, do not name them.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh, damn.

[Theo Von]

No, they didn't. That part I made up. But I would just protect their own anonymity. But it just, you know, I'm saying, like, just. It's like people. I think, people. I don't know, we're all trying, I think. Yeah. I have a neat community, too, that I feel like, wants to do stuff that's important in the world, and we're all trying to figure out how, you know? But, yeah, I. I just. I see that light in you, man. And I appreciate you coming and sharing your time with us today. I really do.

[Hassan Piker]

All right. Thanks for having me.

[Theo Von]

You bet, man. Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone.

[Hassan Piker]

Oh but.

[Theo Von]

When I reach that ground I'll share this piece of my life I can feel it in my bones but it's gonna take a little.