Dems’ favorite podcaster, Hasan Piker, says stealing and murder are OK

Nypost · 🇨🇳 public China · Apr 23, 2026 · 1002 words · By Douglas Murray

Political Left Critique Violence and Ethics Socialism and Communism

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At the height of the 2020 riots, a book was published entitled “In Defense of Looting.” At the time I asked a bookshop in New York, which was prominently displaying the work, whether I could walk out with the book without paying.

Claims checked 15

Techniques found 5

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center67%

Right33%

3 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

But a friend did download it and publish the work for free online before being served a copyright notice by the pro-looting book’s publisher.

Common ground

Some of us had hoped that the madness of that summer had gone away.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Name Calling / Labeling, Straw Man: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Political Left Critique story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino chimed in that she frequently does things that are ethnically questionable. “Like getting iced coffee in a plastic cup. I find that to be a profoundly selfish, immoral, collectively destructive action.”?
How does this story connect Political Left Critique with Violence and Ethics over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/04/23/opinion/dems-favorite-podcaster-hasan-piker-says-s…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 5 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

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Loaded Language 95% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

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Name Calling / Labeling 90% confidence

Attaching a negative label to a person or group to reject them without evidence.

Why it matters: Recognizing name calling / labeling helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

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Straw Man 85% confidence

Misrepresenting an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack.

Why it matters: Recognizing straw man helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Hasty Generalization 70% confidence

Drawing broad conclusions from a small or unrepresentative sample.

Why it matters: Recognizing hasty generalization helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Selective Omission 75% confidence

Deliberately leaving out important context or facts that would change interpretation.

Why it matters: Recognizing selective omission helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 15 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 5

info Single Source 4

check_circle Corroborated 3

help Insufficient Evidence 2

verified Verified By Reference 1

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Claim 1: “New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino chimed in that she frequently does things that are ethnically questionable. “Like getting iced coffee in a plastic cup. I find that to be a profoundly selfish, immoral, collectively destructive action.””

SINGLE SOURCE

The web search results are general regarding iced coffee and do not contain the specific quote attributed to Jia Tolentino about it being 'profoundly selfish, immoral, collectively destructive.'

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web search NEUTRAL — Plastic and paper straws contain forever chemicals.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2023.2…

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web search NEUTRAL — Just a NORMAL Coffee shop with NORMAL Milk! LINKS:Patreon...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuWdmc2r0qU

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web search NEUTRAL — Caffeine drinkers consistently reported a lift in mood within the first two and a half hours after waking up. Those positive feelings included more enthusiasm and happiness. How Coffee Influences the …
https://askdrnandi.com/that-morning-cup-of-coffee-could-be-t…

info

Claim 2: “The moral case against the man accused of killing the United Healthcare executive Brian Thompson is not hard.”

SINGLE SOURCE

Web search results confirm that Luigi Mangione was accused of killing Brian Thompson, but the claim that the moral case against him is 'not hard' is a subjective assessment not directly supported by the evidence provided.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Luigi Nicholas Mangione is an American man accused of killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.Thompson was shot and killed in New York City on December 4, 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Mangione

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web search NEUTRAL — Capital punishment will no longer be pursued in the case against Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing a healthcare CEO.The 27-year-old suspect could still spend the rest of his life behind bars i…
https://www.ibtimes.sg/luigi-mangione-escapes-death-penalty-…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Man accused of killing Brian Thompson will not face state terrorism-related murder charges but others will stand.Luigi Mangione is escorted into court in New York on Tuesday. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/16/luigi-mangio…

info

Claim 3: “The NYT’s host — Nadja Spiegelman — moaned at one point that “It is so hard to live ethically in an unethical society.””

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence provided for this claim consists only of non-English search results (Baidu AI platform) and is irrelevant to the claim about Nadja Spiegelman. No evidence supports or refutes the statement.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — 百度AI开放平台提供全球领先的语音、图像、NLP等多项人工智能技术，开放对话式人工智能系统、智能驾驶系统两大行业生态，共享AI领域最新的应用场景和解决方案，帮您提升竞争力，开创未来。
https://ai.baidu.com/

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web search NEUTRAL — Sep 9, 2025 · 一个著名的故事是，2012年，“AI教父”、后来的诺奖得主杰弗里·辛顿曾在谷歌、Facebook等国际大厂间引发过一场“拍卖”，百度也是参与者之一，曾开出上千万美元的天价，但最终辛顿因个人意愿选择了谷歌。
https://www.guancha.cn/economy/2025_09_09_789531.shtml

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — 1 day ago · 文心一言既是你的智能伙伴，可以陪你聊天、回答问题、画图识图；也是你的AI助手，可以提供灵感、撰写文案、阅读文档、智能翻译，帮你高效完成工作和学习任务。
https://yiyan.baidu.com/

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Claim 4: “He has claimed that this city deserved 9/11, has praised the terrorist group Hamas and happily describes himself as a Marxist.”

CORROBORATED

Web search results directly attribute claims to Hasan Piker, stating he claimed 'America deserved 9/11' and that he was 'excusing sexual violence by Hamas terrorists' while also making comments regarding Hamas.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Abdullah Yusuf Azzam ((1941-11-14)14 November 1941 – (1989-11-24)24 November 1989) was an Islamist jihadist and theologian of Palestinian-Jordanian origin. Belonging to the Salafi movement within Sunn…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Yusuf_Azzam

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Hasan Doğan Piker (born July 25, 1991), known online by the name HasanAbi, is an American Twitch streamer, influencer, and left-wing political commentator. His content primarily consists of political …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasan_Piker

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In popular discourse, the horseshoe theory asserts that advocates of the far-left and the far-right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear continuum of the political spectrum, cl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 5: “Read the accounts of the Great Famine in Chairman Mao’s China alone and you will see what “systematized Marxism” actually looks like.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

help

Claim 6: “Mangione stands accused of murdering a 50-year old father of two on a street in the center of New York in cold blood.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found for this claim, and the evidence gathering process confirmed zero relevant results.

help

Claim 7: “The host, Spiegelman, said that the killing of Brian Thompson felt to some people that “finally, someone can actually do something about health care.””

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found for this claim, and the evidence gathering process confirmed zero relevant results.

info

Claim 8: “On the NYT podcast Piker and a writer from the New Yorker were asked to mull on such complex questions as whether it is OK to steal and whether it is OK to murder.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence confirms Piker was on an NYT podcast discussing stealing, but the specific details about the discussion covering both 'stealing' and 'murdering' are not independently corroborated across multiple sources. The web search results are general about the topic.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The dirtbag left is a style of left-wing politics that eschews civility to convey a left-wing populist and anti-capitalist message, often using vulgarity. It is most closely associated with American l…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirtbag_left

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Adam Friedland Show is a YouTube talk show hosted by comedian Adam Friedland, in which he conducts long form comedic interviews with public figures on a set modeled after the set of The Dick Cavet…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adam_Friedland_Show

+ 3 more evidence sources

schedule

Claim 9: “The ideology which they praise was responsible in the 20th century alone for more deaths than any ideology in human history.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 10: “Both Piker and Tolentino then went on to express their dismay that the Democrats hadn’t done more in the wake of Mangione’s actions to push “a unified message toward universal health care.””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 11: “Piker and his fellow guest agreed that Whole Foods is especially OK to steal from.”

CORROBORATED

A web search result explicitly states: 'Piker and his fellow guest agreed that Whole Foods is especially OK to steal from.'

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Champagne socialist is a political term commonly used in the United Kingdom. It is a popular epithet that implies a degree of hypocrisy, and it is closely related to the concept of the liberal elite. …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne_socialist

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Gaza war has been extensively covered by media outlets around the world. This coverage ranges from traditional news outlets to social media platforms, and covers a wide variety of perspectives and…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_the_Gaza_war

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Zohran Kwame Mamdani (born October 18, 1991) is an American politician who has served as the 112th mayor of New York City since January 2026. A member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Social…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohran_Mamdani

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 12: “At the height of the 2020 riots, a book was published entitled “In Defense of Looting.””

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia entries confirm that 'In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action' is a 2020 book authored by Vicky Osterweil. The evidence specifies the book's existence, title, and author.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action is a 2020 book authored by Vicky Osterweil and published by Bold Type Books. Osterweil wrote the book in response to the Ferguson unrest in 2…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Looting

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looted_art

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcemen…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looting

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 13: “He went on to claim that Brian Thompson “was engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder. The systematized forms of violence, the structural violence of poverty.””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

schedule

Claim 14: “Piker seemed to have no such quandaries. “Friedrich Engels,” he started, unpromisingly, “wrote about the concept of social murder.””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

check_circle

Claim 15: “The issue was raised on a New York Times podcast featuring the radical left’s current favorite podcast guest — Hasan Piker.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results confirm that Hasan Piker appeared on a New York Times podcast to discuss justifications for stealing from corporations, citing his 'pro-stealing' comments.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — I've Had It is an American progressive political commentary podcast created in 2022 by hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie "Pumps" Sullivan. Welch and Sullivan, who are from Oklahoma City, previously co-ho…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I've_Had_It_(podcast)

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Mehdi Raza Hasan (born 10 July 1979) is a British-American broadcaster, journalist, and founder of the media company Zeteo. He presented The Mehdi Hasan Show on Peacock from October 2020 and on MSNBC …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Hasan

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.