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.
If the context was “America kidnapped civilians” and someone said “I think what the Americans are doing is a good thing”, then yes, that would paint a bad picture. And it was vague at first but after Hasan explained himself in the debate, it became clear that he was excusing the kidnappings.
Do you not think what they did was terrorism? Do you want to explain to the hostages that they were just overreacting and that their kidnappers actually aren’t that bad, and it’s just some dogma?
I think you are framing the argument in an incomplete perspective. I don’t think the context is just that houthis are kidnapping people, moreso that they are standing up to what he believes is western powers projecting power and supplying weapons and resources to a nation commiting genocide. The kidnappings did not occur in a vacuum, and is secondary to their actual objective.
I think terrorism is a word people utilize to stop people from intellectually engaging in a complex problem. I personally don’t think it’s terrorism, as you described… it’s kidnapping. Which isn’t great, but states do terrible things all the time. ICE is currently engaging in kidnapping people off the streets without due process, would you also consider that terrorism?
My whole point is that labeling something as terrorism is mostly used to disuade people from applying nuance to a topic, and it seems that’s really your only argument.
It would actually read something more like “US Navy detains cargo crew in violation of blockaid”
I don’t think most Americans know just how much they’re propagandized, even through mundane things like headline word choices.
Operating a shipping blockaid is a boilerplate armed conflict strategy. No, this doesn’t qualify as terrorism IMO.
Do you think Americans are doing a good thing?
Of course, that’s what the American TV tells him.