"A RIDICULOUS SLANDEROUS LIE!" Hasan Piker Hits Back at "Complete Fabrication", Russia, FTX, & More
- S'up you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, make sure you hit that like button and let me know you love these big shows and let's just jump into it. Massive political streamer Hasan Piker has found himself on the receiving end of accusations. Accusations that he calls a ridiculous, slanderous lie and in the middle of a controversy.
So as far as any of the specifics here, it all appears to start with a Discord message from a streamer by the name of Lavlune back in September with her saying there, "I think Hasan's outrage about everything is really funny "because he slept with my friend when she was 17 "and he was 24," with a streamer by the name of ChudLogic featuring this message in a stream yesterday, and the clip showing the message gets around, and as of recording, it is over 160,000 views. Now, with this many were pretty skeptical about the allegations because Lavlune apparently has fought with streamers in the past. And then as it started gaining traction, she changed some of the details in her story saying in a since deleted tweet, that the relationship between Hassan and her friend was legal, and saying that her comment was about Hassan allegedly partaking in an adult relationship with a woman five years his junior, with her going on to say on Patreon, "Hassan Piker slept with my very young friend "when he was not so young. "It was legal, but he's denounced men publicly "for doing much less. "I don't care about it "and she's never going to come forward, "but the fact exists nonetheless. "An example of hypocrisy," and adding, "Let me be clear, "she's not coming forward because she doesn't care "because none of this was a big deal.
"It was legal, I barely cared. "Hasan did nothing illegal, "probably nothing immoral either." And so unsurprisingly, all of this makes its way back to Hasan and response to the allegations in a stream and there saying the woman in question was 19 at the time of their relationship. - I think Hasan's outrage at everything is really funny 'cause he slammed my friend when she was like, like 17 and he was 24. What she's basically saying is that I've committed a crime and it is not only a complete fabrication, she knows what the truth is and decided to massage it a little bit so she can (beep) slander me with a crime. This was such a (beep) ridiculous thing to say, such a ridiculous, slanderous lie.
I'll just say it like this, the accusations are insane. But also on top of that, given, hmm, hard for me not to (beep) talk here, but given who the person is, the accusations are so psychotic that it would make mainstream (beep) news and this person would probably, again, get sued for a lot of money, not by me, by the way, for making this (beep) up. This person makes it so that other people have an even harder time believing women when they come out on their own. Okay, that's the thing. When you (beep) weaponize shit like this and lie, and lie, like so transparently (beep) lie, you're literally (beep) it up.
It's already hard enough for women to come out. What the (beep) are you doing? - And so as far as where we are now, Lavlune announced in her Patreon post that she will no longer be streaming and her Twitter also has been private. And so with everything having played out as it has so far, I wanna pass question off to you.
What are your thoughts with this mess? And then the fallout from the collapse of the crypto exchange, FTX, has been far and wide in a way that also affects those not in the crypto space. So there are things like, there was a lot of sponsorship money at play. For example, the Golden State Warriors just suspended their deal with FTX and that coming just after the Miami Heat announced that it's 19 year, $135 million-dollar arena sponsorship deal with FTX is dead, with a fun little thing there, being $2 million a year was supposed to go to the Heat directly, but the other $90 million was meant for Miami-Dade County to help fight poverty and gun violence. So that money just poofed it. But also that's just the tip of the iceberg.
FTX's dealing with Mercedes Formula One teams now on the ropes alongside its MLB deal, which it umpires wearing the company's logo. Top athletes like Tom Brady and Stephen Curry both had individual sponsorships with the company. They're likely gonna be left out to dry. It's also not just traditional sports that have been screwed, eSports has been reeling with a resilient org FURIA, tweeting that it was ending its deal with FTX alongside TSM. Keeping a close eye on what's happening though, even before FTX''s bankruptcy, TSM reportedly had gone on a hiring freeze because of the unstable crypto market.
Well, FTX was one of the largest exchanges. It's hardly the only one to collapse recently. And this all comes at a time where crypto brands have given out more than $130 million in sponsorships this year. Also, turns out there's a political element to all this.
Turns out FTX was the third largest organizational donor, giving out tens of millions of dollars to Republicans, and Democrats, though a lot of money to Democrats, nearly double to Democrats. And FTX's CEO, this trustworthy looking guy was actually the second largest donor to the Democrat party. And all of this is coming as the New York Times reports, "FTX in its related businesses could owe money "to more than one million people in organizations "according to documents filed in bankruptcy court on Monday." And FDX's lawyer saying they're in touch right now with dozens of federal, state and international regulators and law enforcement officials, including the SEC, the Justice Department, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with the SEC and the Justice Department investigating Bankman-Fried's, management of FTX. And honestly, I just have a feeling that there is way, way, way more to come with this story. But also that's not surprising.
This is a collapse of something that at one point reportedly had assets worth $50 billion and then the University of California school system is in big trouble coming to a grinding halt yesterday with over 48,000 academic workers across 10 campuses going on strike indefinitely. We're talking teacher assistants, post-doctoral scholars, graduate student researchers, tutors, fellows, the whole host of laborers who make the whole university run. So not only is this the largest strike in the US this year, it's the largest strike in American higher education ever. And as far as what are their demands, the union representing them wants significant pay increases, child care subsidies, enhanced healthcare for dependents, longer family leave, public transit passes, and lower tuition costs for international scholars and specifically they're aiming for a $54,000 base salary for grad student workers, which is more than double the $24,000 they currently get on average.
And while UC has offered a 7% pay raise for TAs and tutors in the first year and 3% in subsequent years, claiming it's a proposal that's generous compared to other schools, the workers say it is not nearly enough to keep up with the cost of living. With some saying they spend as much as two thirds of their income on rent and others being forced to work multiple jobs, which for many of the people here feels like a slap in the face because of the way they see it, that they're the backbone of the university. - They have a $46 billion-dollar budget and most of that comes from our research and most of their teaching comes from our graduate students. And the university's really shooting themselves in the foot here because we generate all of their revenue. - So until either side gives in, we're looking at canceled classes, empty labs, and also it's really hard to find a tutor right now just weeks before final exams.
And the timing here has brought the negotiations, which have actually been ongoing since spring of last year to a boiling point with the university now calling for a third party mediator to step in and try to help them reach an agreement. But you had a union president countering that and saying, "At this point the priority should be "round-the-clock bargaining in good faith as opposed "to switching to a mediation process," with 33 California lawmakers also signing a letter in support of the workers and calling on the UC president to bargain in good faith. And possibly more importantly, because this goes beyond just the people involved here, depending on the outcome of all this, some believe that it could be a turning point for grad student workers across the country, many who have long complained that they're being exploited by university administrations that they say undervalue their labor.
And so that's why of course I'd love to know everyone's opinion here, but also if you are a student, an employee, or an administrator in higher education, I would absolutely love to know your thoughts on this. And then I wanna take a second to thank a sponsor of the show, Established Titles. Established Titles is based on a historic Scottish custom. Landowners are referred to as Lords and Ladies in English.
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And then extremism and radicalization are growing in the United States. We've been seeing it play out on social media with celebrities and at the US capital. It's scary to watch unfold and to pose a serious threat to our democracy. And I know I'm not alone in saying that, we're talking constantly, but I've also been wanting to talk to and hear from people that are more focused on this topic, to hear from them about how these agendas spread, what they say the hate and the radicalization looks like in 2022, and so we reached out to Dr. Randy Blazak,
a hate crime researcher and sociology professor at the University of Oregon as well as Oren Segal, the Vice President of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League. And in fact, so much was covered and talked about here, I'm gonna be splitting it into two parts, focusing today on how they say people become radicalized and how the door gets open, and then taking the conversation a step further next week where we can really dive into and talk about the consequences of this issue. But as far as where we're gonna start today, it starts with the question many people have of, how does someone go down this dark path? With Dr. Blazak actually saying he doesn't think there are textbook cases of this, but rather there are trends and commonalities among extremists. They're saying they often don't have strong social networks aside of the internet.
They have a fascination with violence and see it as a solution. But also- - The main thing that is really driving the radicalization, which is why we see this skewing older, we're not looking at 15 year old school shooters, we're looking at 50 year old men who wanna storm the capital, is the ability to manage the rapid change of society, that we are going through huge demographic shifts, technological shifts, economic shifts. - Dr. Blazak noting that as the world changes and evolves, there are two ways to respond.
You can embrace it, you can see new opportunities in it, you can be excited about it, or- - I need to push back to go back to the America that I knew, the world that I knew. - And as far as why people choose the second path, Blazak says it's because anger and violence are a lot simpler. - The other side is a more feminine approach.
Love, hope, nurturing, building relationships, it's easier to just tear it, burn it all down to the ground, that has a more immediate, emotional appeal for a lot of men. - And the key thing that Segal hit on is that not everyone gets to the end point the same way, saying radicalization can take many paths both on the internet and in a person's real life with their community or family, with this also saying, it can be the results of an intentional effort. - And I think the reality is there are those who, by design, are spending time in various social media platforms or gaming platforms, et cetera, hoping to find someone they can reach, recruit and radicalize, that they can spread their hateful propaganda to, hopefully win some hearts and minds.
And perhaps they're most effective when people are sort of not looking for it. - Over the last several years we've seen hate normalized in disturbing ways and that can really dull people's ability to recognize it while also empowering those who believe it. I mean, just think about the stuff that we cover that doesn't surprise you in 2022 that probably would have years ago. Things like the absolutely blatant antisemitism we've seen from the likes of Kanye West, who by the way actually has more followers than there are Jewish people in the world. So it's not shocking, if anything, it feels inevitable that hate groups are gonna latch onto someone as big as him, which is also why you saw so many white supremacist groups flying banners saying Kanye is right. - Extremists and hate groups never miss an opportunity to exploit a crisis or pile on to an issue that they view as part of their agenda.
Extremists always appreciate the opportunity to find somebody with such a huge influence to promote the messages that are essentially at the foundation of their hateful beliefs. - And it's not just Kanye, it could probably go without saying, but I mean Donald Trump has had a huge impact on the face of polarization and radicalization. Not a shock that he was immediately embraced by extremist groups and still is today. And that's also something that Dr. Blazak, who actually previously went undercover with extremist groups to study them, caught onto right away saying, Trump's 2016 campaign announcement used the same rhetoric he heard while doing research about Klan rallies. And that rhetoric from Trump brought people into what he called a funnel.
- There are these sort of mainstream issues at the top that pull people into this dark funnel. And a lot of those are anger at the federal government, fear of white jobs disappearing and being replaced. The mainstreaming of that rhetoric has brought more people into that funnel.
It's not just sort of guys in rural Montana who are building bunkers and building automatic weapons in their basements, it's now moms in Michigan. - A lot of the hate ties back to wider conspiracy theories like the great replacement theory and QAnon which can really be intoxicating for those who fall down the rabbit hole. - In a confusing world, a conspiracy theory gives you a sense of certainty. There's a good side and the bad side, there's things at work behind the scenes, and it gives the person who believes that a little bit of power. I know something that you don't know and it certainly doesn't help to have people who have political legitimacy like a president of the United States spreading these conspiracy theories. And so it is, it's like a drug.
- And here's one of the key things. Most of the people who believe these theories are not necessarily part of a hate group. In fact, Segel and the ADL worked to identify January 6th insurrectionists and only 25% of those they found were known to have ties to right wing extremist groups. And that's also another key thing, whether you're a card carrying member or not, anyone can catch wind to these narratives and buy in to the hateful agendas from the sidelines. And that is equally scary.
- These are ideological movements. Most extremists are not part of any actual group. They just borrow the language, the ideology from various spaces and that's how they get radicalized, and we have not done enough as a country, as a society to frankly push back against the normalization of that hatred. - Well, this rhetoric and these agendas have existed and have been growing for a long time, easily the area where we saw heightened growth was during COVID-19 lockdowns. It was a time of isolation, fear, uncertainty, and these groups preyed on those anxieties.
And because it was also a time of stark division, anger, and protest, it was a great recruitment tool. It provided lots of ways for people who were actively a part of extremist groups to merge with others who were just angry about things like business closures, mask mandates, and vaccines. - So we saw around the country when there would be protests against these things, which included many non extremists, that more and more of those extremists would show up. And indeed, when you start seeing the intermingling of extremists and non extremists, it sort of creates a broader movement.
So whenever there is a crisis, there are those who are looking to explain it away. And there's a whole set of people with agendas who are trying to tell them, this is your government that's responsible for this or this particular community. And the higher the fear and anxiety there is, the more that people may be open to believing that. - And as far as you know, who are these people that go through the funnel of these beliefs? Dr. Blazak actually had an interesting bit on this. When asked about the most startling thing that he witnessed while undercover with hate groups in the late eighties and early nineties, he said- - What I saw was a lot of people who looked like me.
I expected to see these monsters, these Neo-Nazi, skinhead troglodytes and I find a lot of people like me, like the same music as me, had the same concerns as me. I first started on a studying a group of skinheads in Orlando, Florida, and a lot of those young, young men had had their parents laid off at the local textile mill and were wondering, what happened to the American dream? That's something a lot of people are experiencing right now. And so I wasn't shocked by how abhorrent they were. I was shocked by how normal they were. - With Blazak adding that in another world, or maybe in another timeline, maybe another group would've found these people, they'd been able to offer a different approach to make sense of the world and their problems, but for them it was the far right that found them and directed them to hate with Blazak also adding- - That was the thing, and part of that realization allowed me to continue to do the work because I knew those people could be reached.
- And while I noted that most of the people that he studied way back have since found their way outta these groups, realized it was all lies, there are obviously still tons of people being sucked in right now. And actually as far as now, that is where this story ends. But next week we're gonna come back to this topic and we're gonna talk about how these people can be brought out, how extremism can be prevented, and talk about these threats, the movements pose to democracy at large.
And then with football, basketball, hockey, and concerts all in full swing. There is an event for everyone and you don't wanna miss out, which is why I wanna thank a sponsor of the PDS, SeatGeek. With over 28 million downloads, SeatGeek is the number one rated ticketing app. With living in LA, I'm always looking for new things to do.
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And SeatGeek is the only site that lets you return your tickets ahead of the events with swaps. Plus, I got the hookup for you. Use code fill for $20 off tickets at SeatGeeks, $20 off your first purchase with promo code PHIL. So make sure you click that link in the description to download the app. And then training for police recruits presents an immediate crisis for police. And that is according to a new report from the Police Executive Research Forum or PERF, with a report showing that, despite the intense scrutiny, criticism, and avowed changes of police departments following the protests in the summer of 2020, the current training system is, quote, "built to train officers quickly and cheaply," also saying that same system then rushes the new officers onto the streets while failing to help them develop essential skills that they need to do their jobs like crisis intervention and communication, the report adding that while officers are presented with new challenges like more powerful guns on the streets and increasing number of people in crisis, they are often trained, quote, "to be warriors, even though their agencies "and communities expect them also to be guardians, "social workers and community partners," with PERF noting that there are a few key things that drive these persistent issues, saying one of the most significant is the fact that the amount of training police receive is much less than that of people in other jobs in the US or police in other countries.
For example, trainees in the US usually spend around 20 weeks in the academy, but recruits in Japan may spend up to 21 months training, and in many European countries people train for two or even three whole years, and that, it connects itself to the argument we often see in the States here. If lawyers are required to go to school for three years and pass the bar to administer the law, why do cops only spend a fraction of that time training to enforce it? But another key thing is that the lack of time spent on training isn't the only issue. The report also finding that there hasn't been enough research into what training actually works, and in many places, training remains stuck in the past and beyond that, while training in many places has improved in some ways, PERF also found that requirements vary quite a bit from place to place, which is why PERF argued that it's imperative for officers to be more specifically taught day-to-day skills, like how to effectively communicate and engage with communities and not just dangerous encounters, also calling for the implementation of national standards as well as for police departments provide more money to training and for recruits to be taught more about the history of police, and quote, "with a special emphasis on racial justice issues." But as far as if there is anything actionable that happens from all this, we're gonna have to wait to see. And then Kari Lake is having a wild week with the election denying conspiracy theorist that was backed by Trump, starting her week, saying- - I'm going to not only be the governor of Arizona for four years, I'm gonna do two terms, I'm gonna be your worst freaking nightmare.
- [Voice Off-Screen] And I oop. - But instead now, Lake appears to be living a nightmare with this incredibly high stakes, insanely closed gubernatorial race going to her opponent Democrat Katie Hobbs, with Hobbs, who will be the first Democrat to serve as Arizona's governor since 2006, beating Kari Lake by 50.39% to 49.61% with more than 95% of the votes counted.
And a key thing, this race was massively significant because it was widely seen as a referendum on Trump's brand of election denialism and a key battleground state where he tried to overturn the results of the election in 2020. And another key thing is that she was going against Hobbs, who has been serving as Arizona's Secretary of State with her gaining prominence in the Democratic party by standing firm against those very same efforts to undermine the election in Arizona. Now Lake, for her part right now, and this is not a shocker as of recording, she has not yet conceded the election, which is very significant because she previously refused to say whether she would accept the results of the election. Her also suggesting with, of course, zero evidence that there was something wrong with the results in a tweet after the race was called last night, writing, "Arizonans know BS when they see it," which, I imagine more than half the state said, yeah, you, or at least that's the deal with more than half the state that voted. But yeah, ultimately Kari Lake ended up being part of the big trend this year, and that is Trump's candidates just being weak and losing.
But also I think this highlights a flaw in denying the results of an election. We've seen so many Republicans sowing doubt about election security and legitimacy. And as David Becker, the Executive Director of the Nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research explained, "If you tell people that voting is hard "or voter fraud is rampant or elections are rigged, "it doesn't make people more likely to participate." Why would you wanna play a game you thought was rigged? So it'd be very interesting to see if the GOP begins to stray away from the election denying narrative.
Though of course that's gonna depend on a number of factors, including if Trump is the nominee in 2024, an aspiration that Trump obviously has that very likely could be impacted by the Georgia runoff that we're about to go into. It's expected that Tuesday night Trump is going to announce, which will more directly chain him to the successes or failures of the Republican party. And this coming at a time where Republicans are already blaming Donald Trump for the shitty midterm results, in part because many of his candidates just plain out lost, as well as the fact that he teased his tease that he was going to run, with many Republicans not wanting the midterms to any degree being a referendum on Trump, but specifically in Georgia, there are a number of things we should talk about, and there have been a ton of discussions, but one thing that's gained a ton of attention and anger in recent days is the fact that the state's restrictive voting laws are making the election a lot more complicated. And that because among other provisions the law Republicans enacted last year gives voters less time to request absentee ballots and poses harsher voter ID requirements and seriously reduces the number of drop boxes. But it's a measure that cuts the Georgia runoff calendar in half, that is especially stirring up trouble because it's also running into another law from 2016 that restricts Saturday early voting if there's a holiday within two days beforehand. Normally that law wasn't an issue when runoffs were held nine weeks after election day, providing tons of of time after Thanksgiving and state holidays, but now with a runoff set for December 6th and early voting banned the weekend before election day, the only viable Saturday for early voting is November 26th.
But that is two days after Thanksgiving and one day after a state holiday that used to commemorate Robert E. Lee's birthday because, you know, the South. So as a result, the mandatory five day early voting period that runs from November 28th through December 2nd is gonna be limited to weekdays. Now, notably here, counties can decide to add three additional early voting days, but because they can't be on the Saturday before the election, many of the same problems would persist. And so unsurprisingly here you have so many condemning this situation as a clear act of voter suppression and the fact that it involves a Confederate holiday's a special extra kick in the teeth, with Gerald Griggs, president of the Georgia NAACP, saying, "A Confederate holiday should not prevent "the protection of democracy, which is called voting.
"That holiday needs to be eliminated. "The Georgia NAACP is very concerned about this tactic "as a form of voter suppression "and will be discussing legal options with our lawyers." But that's a situation where you have to wait and see, and when it comes to legal challenges that can be slow and fucking messy, which is why I wanna say, if you are in Georgia, or you know people in Georgia, make extra super duper sure that all your ducks are in a row and you have a voting plan. Like I always do with situations like this, I'm gonna link down below in the description for resources that you need. Because no matter what you have done in your life, no one deserves Herschel Walker as their senator.
Then President Zelenskyy of Ukraine is talking about peace, with him laying out 10 conditions for peace in a virtual summit to the G20 Summit in Indonesia, where leading heads of state like Joe Biden and Xi Jinping were in attendance. And those conditions included the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, the restoration of Ukraine's territorial sovereignty, the payment of reparation, the return of POWs and deportees, and accountability for war crimes. Also throwing shade on Moscow's legitimacy by repeatedly calling the Summit G19 rather than G20 and defiantly proclaiming- - [Zelenskyy's Interpreter] I'm convinced now is the time when Russia's destructive war must and can be stopped. - Now in response, Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who attended in place of Putin, called Zelenskyy's peace terms unrealistic and Russia phobic, even saying Western leaders need to discipline Zelenskyy. And then just hours after this, Russia launched what Ukraine called the biggest wave of missile strikes since the war began, firing more than 100 at several major cities, including the capital Kyiv and knocking out water and electricity infrastructure.
And notably, this coming just a week after Russia's humiliating retreat from Kherson. Also, that you had Zambia demanding answers after one of his citizens who was supposed to be in a Moscow prison somehow ended up on the front lines in Ukraine where he reportedly died, or the guy's father's just like, "How the hell was he conscripted, by whom, "what the fuck is happening?" But for now, we'll have to wait to see how the rest of Russia's shitshow continues to play out. But that brings us to the end of today's show. Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing, and being a part of my daily dives into the news.
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.
2022-11-19 18:03
