Hasan Piker was in a rage. A million tabs were pinched together like sardines at the top of his browser. His jittery cursor bounced between them, summoning network-news chyrons, YouTube rants, viral tweets, and TikTok memes. The day’s trending topic? Piker, who is 30 years old, had purchased a $2.7 million house in West Hollywood. An ordinary Twitch streamer’s housing wouldn’t make headlines, but over the past five years, Piker has become one of the most prominent socialist pundits in America. The controversy about the purchase had made it to Fox News and Breitbart, and Piker was prepared to take on the interlopers who logged on to see the fireworks. (“The only reason my house is expensive is because of the area I live in,” he growled. “Are you guys really that stupid?”)
“As long as you don’t defang your core values, as long as you’re still speaking truth to power, then fuck ’em,” Piker tells me three weeks later, recounting the drama as we sit in the living room of his nearby apartment rather than the five-bedroom, five-bathroom home he refuses to apologize for buying. “I don’t give a shit. I’m doing this in the least exploitative way you functionally fucking can.” The room is littered with bachelors clutter: papers, books, and gaming gear are piled on every surface. “It’s my labor,” he says, throwing up two middle fingers painted with chipped black polish. “I’m the one who’s streaming for ten hours.”
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