Listening to a playlist recently and the song Ohio (below) came on from Neil Young. A song indelibly connected with an event in US history, with songs of protest and a new connection with the present from the artist himself, who was recently moved to once more decry the crisis of US authoritarian power and corruption.
From the off, there’s something in that wounded, snarling electric guitar tone and in Young’s voice to the end of the verse with that classic, heinous call ‘4 dead in Ohio’.
Written when Young was part of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, in reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970.
“David Crosby cried when we finished this take,” Young said in his liner notes for the Decade retrospective, adding that the Kent State incident was “probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning”.[9]
Wiki
As someone aware of the micro-politics of being, or the poetry of lucid escape from dead-conformance to the strata (I wrote more about this here) Young has balanced this out with having a voice in the state-level political also. This expression of his feeling for justice was recently bolstered when he released the new song and performance video, recorded during a soundcheck; Big Crime (below).
Crosby once stated that Young keeping Nixon’s name in the lyrics of Ohio was “the bravest thing I ever heard”. The fact that the US and its people (along with the related gobal repercussions) are presently at a point of danger unique in their history, means that voices and actors of resistance need to be engaged from every sector. As such, hearing from Young at this time is a further reminder, if needed – of the US’ reality right now and the potential for further disastrous outcomes.
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In wider terms, the political worlds of the neoliberal capitalist states are at this point of extreme danger from fascistic power as much now as they were a hundred years ago. Young’s return to protest, fifty five years after Ohio is testament to this. While the most financially powerful individuals in the world (and certainly in the US) are benefitting from open fraud and manipulation of the world’s markets. Making more direct and visible – levels of corruption and malfeasance that have not been this evident or on this scale ever before.
The US president selling access to social media posts on the basis that they will affect market performance ($100k per month for the privelege) while crypto scams and money laundering from the same president and his family is rife.
Of course to achieve all of this, a largely subservient or neutered media is required and this is more or less what the United States has arrived at by now. The move to the right of the US media landscape has been decades in the making, the pernicious presence of Rupert Murdoch at its heart, now only further bolstered as the Ellison family’s purchase of CBS (as well as TikTok and soon one presumes; CNN) – has resulted in the firings of numerous seasoned and illustrous journalists, so that the new era under pro-Israel zionist Bari Weiss – can more effectively move into right wing propaganda mode.
Added to which, the vile attacks on press members from the president and his gargoyles have (as referenced in this piece in the Guardian) picked up in their vitriol recently – whenever questions are deemed ‘offensive’ (most recently about the President’s travelling nurse following Senator John Ossof’s remarks).
In truth the rhetoric from Trump and his acolytes, always bellicose, has been getting worse for a while – and people who dare to publicly question Trump’s narrative that he is a successful, popular president, seem to particularly trigger those on the right.
Adam Gabbatt The Guardian
All of which simply further entrenches the interests and narratives of the powerful US tech-oligarchs, others of whom such as Elon Musk – whose purchase of Twitter was an absolute take-down of a platform that had previously facilitated open debate and the decisive elevation of wit and clarity in political discourse. All of which also of course preceded the understood precedence of the dead internet, wherein armies of bots can be used to amplify their chosen narratives – alongside the preferentiality of their policies and algorithms (and more and more one suspects – the output of their AI agents).
This landscape of the virtual is also teeming with brutality around identity politics – the chosen milieu of right wing propagandists in creating vessels for diversionary hate and focus. The message usually amounting to ‘it’s not these improbably wealthy – and increasingly so, capitalists who are making you poorer and more miserable – it’s other poor people!’.
Into which comes focus on the area of greatest contention in terms of the increasing bids for control and domination of information and discourse – independant / leftist content creators and channels. The poisoning of concepts of truth and reliability in the mainstream of the US media has led to an inevitable exodus by those able to have caught the reality at hand – the all-out message manipulation and control narratives being endless peddled. Particularly among the young, this has led to a move towards news and events being covered and portrayed online by smaller, independant content makers and influencers such as Los Angeles-based Hasan Piker.
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Piker Context
Acutely important in this ongoing loss of faith has been the ease with which audiences have seen the hypocrisy and silence of mainstream media in relation to the genocide of Palestinians by the Israeli state. Support for Palestine was made a litmus test for US politicians by Piker in early 2026 – and its popular precedence as a view has simultaneously been the driver for many in moving to online sources for their news and commentary.
As Piker said as part of a recent live stream ‘the fourth estate is no longer predisposed with informing the public on issues that matter’.
For me, Piker came to my awareness through my brother, who made a number of references a few years ago to watching his Twitch stream, or Youtube VODs. My first encounters were not particularly notable, I felt he might appear a bit too hyperbolic or something, possibly too much Californian bro-culture. However I soon found myself returning for his takes and views on a fairly regular basis, enjoying both how entertaining and quick witted he was demonstrating to be, but likewise inspired by a depth of geo- and socio-historical knowledge alongside keen and fast political instincts; a package deal. Occasionally these qualities appear to be spiked for some by brash or vulgar moments or rude outbursts and escalations – likewise during tirades against opponents and enemies, sometimes who have even arrived via his open policy to joining the stream’s slippery and speedy chat, that marches relentlessly up the screen, festooned with its own culture and slang.
Of course, as someone based in the UK I have to be aware that Piker has lampooned European and other ‘Larpers’ who pay close attention to US politics as if they are directly involved, and this is fair comment. At the same time, he also regularly identifies the US as the hegemon, the leader for the socio-political and capital movements of the globe. As such, constituencies of the interested must be understood in expanded terms.
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Wider
Piker is often identified alongside New York-based collaborators Chapo Trap House and Cumtown as having been part of a ‘Dirtbag left’ movement in the 2010’s that offered an immediate and irreverent connection for youth disaffected by monomanic mainstream media and establishment power-figures. In a way there is a natural aspect to this as a response to the debased nature of the political theatre which came to have Trump at its apex, but had been growing steadily since the rise of the Tea Party.
Alongside Piker and Chapo Trap House (and the remnant activities of Cumtown albumni Nick Mullen, Adam Friedland and Stavros Halkias) there are a plethora of motivated and strategically aware commentators and content makers online such as Kyle Kulinski, the I’ve Had it Podcast, The Majority Report, The Vanguard, The Bitchuation Room, Zeteo and many others, although it is also fair to say that none have had quite the same impact as Piker, whom Gen Z content creator Andra Berghoff called ‘Unfortunately, the Elvis Presley of our generation‘ (in this video) a position she looks to be presently elaborating. From watching Piker posts and content as he has travelled the US promoting left wing politicians and politics, it has been clear to me that there is a real reverence for him from swathes of the US’s younger and politically-aware population.
It is easy to see why, just from this post (below) where Piker navigates in real time – a strand of a Republican / right wing propaganda operative, posting endless repetitions of the same social media content; ordinary person from (insert city or state here) lamenting the rise of the left and dutifully propping local right wing candidate. The elaboration of the bot armies and brigades that support and distribute this content, elaborates also the reality of dense and camouflaged political manipulation or ‘slopaganda’ as a real and deceptive influence-peddling operation. This is often then legitimised by other content creators duped over the faux posting, or by mainstream smear tactics in order to paint an enflamed and misleading image of the reality of people’s positions and intent.
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Clarity
In this fascinating conversation (below) from a few months ago, taking place with writer and physician Gabor Maté, I had quite forgotten that during the first part of the video – where Piker takes questions from assembled media – he is asked about helping older generations, as well as those of Gen Z – where he is seen to have had a significant influence. He says his response is basically the same – ‘go out, touch grass’ then organise in the community ‘that’s my solution‘ Piker says a moment later in summary. A little later he re-emphasises organising in the community as being fundamental – entirely understandable from the leftist position and yet I was struck by the first part of the response being the placement of exteriority (and nature) as something emphasising the clarity at work here. As the most dysfunctionally savantist of species, the reality of our connection with life is that this needs to be rooted through nature and the planet, and our consistent contact and presence with it; cognitively, conceptually, physically and spiritually – despite the endless tirade of petty battle and strife with which life confronts us.
Amidst the recent ultra-platforming of Piker as the main target and narrative of right wing hate and foment, it is easy to forget – that alongside the churn of clips of Piker enraged and indignant during his streams – or vulgar and unrepentant, there is a brilliance at work in terms of analytical and strategic understanding. It is abundantly clear that along with the flair that brings with it dramatic and hyperbolic turns, resides a unique capacity to communicate deeper tides of social and heirarchical forces, to evade the traps of agent-intelocutors and to illuminate the intents and motivations of different actions and occurrences.
This in fact, is what I think is Piker’s pre-eminent achievement, his understanding of communicational dynamics, especially in the context of how socio-political tribes’ belief bases are structured and reformulated. As such, remarks from Ashley St. Clare (a former republican influencer whom jumped left and spilt the tea on the behind the scenes of the movement’s online machine) are obvious – when she described Piker as being the one figure on the left that MAGA is truly afraid of.
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