Bonus points for implying Parenti is one too.
Another one:
Summarises it better than I could. I used to watch him, along with other content creators, but it's been a while so don't remember exact examples. The above hits the nail on the head when it comes to the overarching issue.
The fact Hakim promotes Parenti, if I remember correctly, is one sign of his liberalism. The fact he runs a sub like r/TheDeprogram which is one in a long line of western petit bourgeois leftist meme subs (succeeding MoreTankieChapo and GenZedong) and the fact many of his podcast's followers there are Dengists is another sign of his liberalism.
The fact he has a (fairly successful) YouTube channel where he makes relatively short, relatively shallow, "snappy" videos, as well as a podcast, is a clear sign of the petit bourgeois nature of the commodity production ("content creation") he's engaged in. And I think the fact he has a fairly successful Patreon from which he funds his own survival + the continuation of his petit bourgeois commodity production pretty much by definition makes him a fairly successful petit bourgeois. And the fact it is his political propaganda which directly affords him this class status is problematic to say the least.
E: Please keep in mind that me as well as many others are deriving this stuff from personal as well as collectively experiences and observations. I'm not just randomly thinking oh he's petit bourgeois so fuck him. I personally spent years consuming leftist content on YouTube and the like and did not learn shit about the philosophy and theory of Marxism or the history of communism. I had a very superficial understanding of things despite spending years watching this stuff and it showed when I started engaging with the sub we're on right now since people here actually have a more in depth understanding of Marxism. I've basically had to start over which is what I'm doing now, I've tried to put away all I think I know and started studying Marxist texts, starting from the basics, a few months ago. This is my own personal experience but if you talk to other people here you'll find it's not unique at all. Leftist content is legitimately not a good way to learn Marxism, at best if it somehow manages to be devoid of liberalism it's just an entertaining thing to do in your free time, but even then there's so little leftist content that is actually revolutionary, exactly for the reasons I described above, that leftist content creators work within the framework and by the rules of petit bourgeois production in the industry of content creation. They are by default driven to produce content that will appeal to western petit bourgeoisie and labor aristocrats since those are the people who consume things like YouTube and podcasts the most. If your concern is to just consume leftist whatever then okay, keep watching it. But if you want to become a Marxist and an actual communist, i.e. the vanguard of the global proletariat, you'll have to do better than that.
To an extent the poster is right that the communism that will come in the future will be one of nesscity and survival, they are wrong that the working class really benefits thats much from the imperial plunder of the machine so much as labor aristocracy really does. You can see proof of this when you look at places like the south and midwest really places outside of newyork and LA you notice not only a core and peirfery with countries but with in countries and this is key to understand why workers hate other workers indifferent sectors why you have to make diffenet appeals to these workers when you talk to them about problems in there area.
To the people screeching like monkeys calling for people to touch grass and go outside makeing claims of armchair politics. Listen I don't like the smug energy either but you already have failed as a communist you need to be able to work with people that don't think exactly like you. Really think about this when the climate leviathan comes and the usa military or what ever decides to have a faction struggle and they abandoned your area your living for what ever reason, your gonna have to work with people other workers with additudes you don't like to survive, you need to be able to present a vision that is more then a critique on what to do in that moment and that means convincing people you don't like, working with people who don't share your common goal, and showing them your right with action in the real world or evidence and argumentation in the digital as long as that keeps existing which is a big if.
Politics cant just be a self identity because that means you where never serious, your signing up for a project you will not see the completion of or likey benefits of much like soviet workers in the 1930 during break neck industrialization living on 1300 calories a day who will likely die in a world War in just a couple years. YOU HAVE TO HAVE DEEPER reasons then belief or methological individal self identity to build the strength of character nessarry to deal with the moment.
Touching grass is a cop out, defending thought leaders on YouTube is also a cop out.
Its starting to look like we are gonna get power until the whole planet is in various climate devastation, deeply think about what that means for the left right now, is defending a thought leader YouTuber on reddit a good use of your time? Is me posting this shit a good use of my time (self crit) no probley not.
I’ve never been a fan of this mentality that debating topics like this is a waste of time. People act like others posting about this stuff takes up hours upon hours of their time lol