Hasan Piker, the biggest progressive political streamer in America, was detained by Customs and Border Protection for hours of questioning upon returning to the U.S. from a trip to France this weekend. Piker posted about the incident on X and later talked about it on stream.
He was detained in Chiago and questioned for two hours about protected journalistic activities like who he’s interviewed and his political beliefs. He was asked whether or not he’d interviewed Hamas, Houthis, or Hezbollah members. He was questioned about his opinions on Trump and Israel and asked about his history of bans on Twitch. His phone and laptop were not confiscated.
Would you go off yourself to stop the machine? Would you go to jail to fight for the cause? Would you sacrifice your family if it meant it would nudge anti capitalism movement?
Maybe read “Those who walk away from Omelas” and realize there’s many more productive ways to work against an oppressive nation, ranging from damaging its function to not participating in the systems which you don’t approve of.
There’s also the concept of ‘activation’, which is the slow process of learning to oppose authority in increments. It takes time to unlearn the docility the system imposes on us. Most Americans don’t even feel comfortable showing up to protests, let alone violently opposing the state.
If I die from middle eastern retaliation, I’m not gonna act surprised. If our nation was invaded, I’m not exactly gonna be lining up to volunteer defending it. We live in a country that does a vast amount of damage to the world, and I’m sick of pretending like us US citizens aren’t all small parts of the problem, because we’re letting this happen .