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Twitch streamer Hasan Piker defended using controversial terms like “inbred” and “Zionist pig” against opponents in a lengthy interview with NPR Thursday.
NPR host Leila Fadel asked Piker about the backlash and controversy he has faced and whether they were related to his inflammatory comments or the fact that his “name is Hasan.” Piker acknowledged his incendiary rhetoric but said he believed that most of the backlash against him was due to his background.
“Of course, I, you know, say incendiary things, but it’s not reflected on in the same way when someone who’s White, Christian, born and raised in America is saying incendiary things,” Piker said.
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Twitch streamer Hasan Piker was previously suspended from the site after using the term “Zionist pig.” (Florencia Tan Jun/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Fadel then asked why someone who has felt “dehumanized” like him would choose to use dehumanizing language, particularly against Jewish opponents.
“When you hear people say, ‘Why would you use dehumanizing language like inbred for some ultra-Orththodox Jews or Zionist pig?’ What do you say to them as somebody who has felt that as well?” Fadel asked.
“So, great question. I have a policy to be ruthless to those who are bullying others, to be ruthless to those who abide by certain ideologies that are conducting great harm,” Piker said.
“As far as the language that I deploy that is considered dehumanizing like ‘inbred,’ it’s one that I use quite commonly as a pejorative towards right-wing reactionary ideology, ethno-supremacist ideology, neo-Nazi ideology, because I find it to be an apt pejorative to deploy considering that these supremacist ideologies oftentimes revolve around ethnic purity, racial purity. It’s not, of course, meant to be taken seriously,” he continued.
Piker added that he applies the same principle to the term “pig” and argued that he used similar language “across the board” for different targets regardless of their background.
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Piker stood by his comments in an NPR interview, arguing they aren’t meant to be taken seriously. (Sam Barnes/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images)
“It gets heated at times,” he said. “I’m a passionate guy. I get angry. I have to, you know, explain my frustration, communicate my frustration somehow. Very different format than we have here, obviously.”
“But, you know, I think that a lot of people feel this way,” Piker added. “A lot of people get very frustrated. It’s never directed at someone for their actual background. It’s usually their actions or their belief system. And almost all the time, it’s their reactionary belief system that causes me to call them a pig or inbred or something like that.”
The Israeli-American Council (IAC) condemned Piker’s comments in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The Jewish people know what happens when hatred becomes acceptable,” the group said. “Throughout history, pogroms and persecution were fueled by lies that portrayed Jews as less than human. The Holocaust showed the world where the systematic dehumanization of Jews can lead.”
“On October 7, 2023, Hamas perpetrated mass murder, mass rape, mass torture, and mass hostage taking in the deadliest massacre of our people since the Holocaust,” the IAC statement added. “For us, the consequences of antisemitic hatred are not an abstract debate.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Piker for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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The Israeli-American Council (IAC) attacked Hasan Piker for defending dehumanizing language. (Getty Images)
In January, Piker was banned from Twitch for seven days for using the phrase “Zionist pig” and has repeatedly attacked Zionism and Israel.
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Though he has campaigned with several Democratic candidates, some Democrats distanced themselves from Piker in August after he warned American Jews that they could face violence if they continued to support Israel.