Being the prominent voice of the American political right is a tough job, but someone has to do it, and Joe Rogan has taken up the mantle. Now it seems he could have a Democrat counterpart in the form of Hasan Piker, whom many are already calling the ‘Joe Rogan of the Left.’
Indeed, Hasan Piker perfectly embodies the left, in what Business Insider described as a “unique and surprisingly popular mix of Gamer Guy and Alpha Bro and AOC-style lefty,” referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent leader in the Democratic Party, in a recent piece.
As for his background, The New Yorker’s Andrew Marantz said that he was a “Rutgers frat bro [and] a Miami club promoter” in his early twenties. The now thirty-three-year-old Turkish-American seems to be trying to fix the problem that the Democratic Party has – failure to appeal to young men.
But is he really on his way to becoming the ‘Joe Rogan of the Left’?
Hasan Piker vs. Joe Rogan
Much like Joe Rogan, Piker is outspoken and very present in the online sphere. However, unlike Rogan, he mostly takes to Twitch to host long, daily stream-of-consciousness talks that range from video games to rivalry with other Twitch stars to democratic socialism.
As Marantz described one of his typical hours-long streaming sessions, behind Piker there were “walls of framed fan art, a cardboard cutout of Bernie Sanders sitting in the cold, and Piker’s huge puppy, Kaya, taking a nap.” Furthermore, he added:
“Also within view, though, were three towers of Zyn cannisters, and a ‘Make America Great Again,’ hat, which he sometimes wears ironically.”
The host himself was wearing his “cozy-ass fit” and discussing his experience at the recent Streamer Awards. Btw, he begins all of his streams with a “Folks, we’re live and alive, and I hope all the boys, girls, and enbies are having a fantastic one,” with ‘enbies’ being the slang for nonbinary people, which practically screams ‘progressive.’
Other than being outspoken and digital, Piker also appeals to young men who have really taken to him and devote hours of their day to watching his streams. Now that the Democrats have finally started to notice that they had a problem with non-appealing to young men, they are looking for the ‘Joe Rogan of the Left,’ and his name is increasingly popping up.
Fixing the Democrats’ young men problem
As some of them have opined, “Howard Stern has been the ‘Joe Rogan’ of the Left for decades,” but now seems to be the time for the new powers to join the scene and give it a shot.
Interestingly, as journalist and content creator Taylor Lorenz pointed out in a podcast right after the presidential election that saw Republican candidate Donald Trump win the White House seat, the left used to have its Joe Rogan – and it was Joe Rogan – but they lost him. In fact:
“Joe Rogan famously endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2020. He has expressed support for leftist policies, so if they don’t have Joe Rogan, it’s because they lost him.”
But according to her, the left doesn’t really need a Joe Rogan as the two sides of the American political spectrum are very different when it comes to approaching the public and their audience. The right, she explained, had its own media ecosystem and poured a lot of money into it.
Case in point: Trump’s presence on the internet, primarily on his own social media platform Truth Social, but also on X (formerly Twitter), the social networking site owned by his good friend Elon Musk. On the other hand, his opponent in the election, Kamala Harris, had very little communication with the public other than the short-form, transactional content that didn’t give much room to develop a bond with her.
All things considered, we’ll be looking forward to seeing whether Piker truly assumes the role of the ‘Joe Rogan of the Left’ or remain in his own sphere, happy with not receiving the same amount of attention and fame as the controversial podcaster and former television host.
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