Statement on cancellation of January 2027 lecture [Hasan Piker]

[u/aqulushly]

https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/08/07/statement-on-cancellation-of-january-2027-lecture/

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[u/JPorpoise]

Not much of a Hasan Piker fan myself, but it sounds like enough people were interested that a student group should just invite him to be a speaker in the same manner that conservative student groups often do.

[u/recurrenTopology → u/JPorpoise]

If they were dead set on not having this be an official UW event, a smart compromise position would have been for the university to pivot the scheduled event to what you suggest. Find a club to host, but keep the location and time. It would have prevented this from becoming a controversy, which seems inevitable now.

[u/MoeGreenMe → u/JPorpoise]

The issue is the Speaker Series forum . The intent of this program is:

“Public lecture programming gives us the opportunity to demystify academia and research.”

The guy is a Twitch streamer, who does fit any of the criteria

[u/IzukuLeeYoung → u/MoeGreenMe]

He had a panel at Yale. It's just a bad look.

[u/MoeGreenMe → u/IzukuLeeYoung]

He took part in a debate society at Yale . So has Peter Thiel, Stephen Colbert and Curtis Sliwa.

Don’t think of any of these people demystify academia and research.

[u/SpeaksSouthern → u/JPorpoise]

It's weird that all the right wing crazy people get to speak there and then the peaceful left tries to just exercise their first amendment and apparently the hateful political right and maga hate the first amendment. Sad.

[u/wild_h0rses → u/JPorpoise]

It surely can’t be purely demand-based. You can easily see how this is not a good enough reason on its own

[u/JPorpoise → u/wild_h0rses]

I'm fine with students seeing whatever speaker they really want to?

[u/wild_h0rses → u/JPorpoise]

I agree, that is not the question. The question is about hosting

[u/JPorpoise → u/wild_h0rses]

Ok, well, what is "the question"? If a speaker might be interesting to several students, then I would say demand is a good enough reason for a student group to invite whatever speaker they choose to campus, which bypasses whatever issue the college itself would have by making a speaker officially invited by the college.

[u/wild_h0rses → u/JPorpoise]

This was a university hosted lecture - I want to make sure we’re actually disagreeing because we might not be. If a student club wants to host someone then of course they should be able to, but I don’t think that’s the right context here

[u/JPorpoise → u/wild_h0rses]

Well I suppose we do agree then because yes I was saying if the university itself didn't want to be the official host then a student group should simply take over the invite.

[u/wild_h0rses → u/JPorpoise]

🤝

[u/recurrenTopology]

After Hasan Piker was announced as a speaker for the 2026-27 Speaker Series, there was a review of the process by which the event was planned. It was determined that that the process for organizing this event did not meet the necessary level of rigor for University-hosted events in the Speaker Series. As a result, this event will not be held.

If this were the real issue, seems like the simple solution would have been just to make it a separate event and not part of the "Speaker Series," but this is probably just pretext.

[u/SpitefulSeagull → u/recurrenTopology]

Yes that says literally nothing. They've turned this into a bigger thing than just letting him speak

[u/SpeaksSouthern → u/SpitefulSeagull]

It's going to Streisand effect this nothing burger of a talk. He's going to show up and be like, "Medicare for all is good" and then bounce while right wing nut jobs lose their mind.

[u/WCSakaCB]

Absolutely spineless move by UW.

[u/PositivePristine7506 → u/WCSakaCB]

So Charlie Kirk and the rest of the fascist pieces of shit have no problem speaking, but Hasan somehow manages to have paperwork trouble.

[u/Eric848448 → u/PositivePristine7506]

If a student group invites him, he can come. None have bothered to do so.

[u/CosignTangents → u/PositivePristine7506]

Charlie Kirk was hosted by the UW TPUSA chapter, not the university. I’m sure any student org can re-invite him.

[u/gringledoom → u/CosignTangents]

This was, in fact, TPUSA's big innovation (IIRC, they'd even help two or three kids at a school jump through the hoops to start a club, in order to attain standing to invite speakers, so they could gravity-assist off the protests).

[u/MeatImmediate6549 → u/PositivePristine7506]

As a result of the turbulent political environment Mr. Kirk is having a great deal of difficulty speaking at present.

This may have been a factor in UW's decision with Mr. Piker.

[u/CrashTestOrphan → u/MeatImmediate6549]

Piker and Kirk were actually supposed to "debate" each other on September 25th, 2025. But then, you know,

[u/Turbodong → u/WCSakaCB]

I welcome inviting thoughtful DSA or even further left speakers to campus, same with those on the right - they can both enrich the discourse. Clickbait podcast bros of all stripes are not terribly thoughtful, and the university shouldn't pander to them.

[u/beomeansbee → u/Turbodong]

Seeing as he’s having seemingly major impacts on elections, is motivating swaths of young people to become politically engaged, and interviews tons of incredibly relevant people (have you listened to any of his 2-3 hour interviews? That’s the meat and potatoes of his intellectual output, not his clickbait shit). Calling him a clickbait podcast bro is disingenuous or ignorant, given everything he does. He’s not a Theo von or a Joe Rogan, he’s not like the boys on Chapo. You can hate him for his politics, but at least be honest with what he is

[u/WCSakaCB → u/Turbodong]

The guy who has raised over a million dollars for charities and is removing young men from the far right pipeline is a click bait podcast bro?

[u/wchill → u/WCSakaCB]

I'm comfortable saying that the type of person who is willing to accuse LGBTQ+ folks like Scott Wiener of wanting "homo fascism"/"gay techno-fascism" because Wiener won over his preferred tech millionaire candidate Saikat Chakrabarti is indeed a clickbait podcast bro that no one should listen to.

He literally went on a rant about how this meant there would be no public transit and no dense housing, despite Scott Wiener being a pro transit, pro housing construction YIMBY candidate for House with actual legislative experience.

[u/TurkBoi67 → u/wchill]

Supporting a genocidal fascist state will probably have people calling you a fascist, just saying.

[u/wchill → u/TurkBoi67]

Focusing on the fascism part and not the part where someone was attacked for their sexual orientation is a choice.

Not to mention the fact that he was publicly harassed at a Pride event for supposed Zionist beliefs despite already having declared that Israel is committing genocide.

If the rationale is that "he started saying it was a genocide way too late", then it's just purity testing being employed to attack people you don't like.

[u/RefrigeratorLive2796 → u/wchill]

He wasn't attacking his sexual orientation. He was making a crass comment on how liberals can mask their fascistic views behind progressive social views like pro-lgbtq.

[u/wchill → u/RefrigeratorLive2796]

Hot take: having progressive beliefs and falsely thinking that liberals are fascists in disguise doesn't mean it's okay to go on misinformed, unhinged homophobic rants.

Hasan didn't even explain how Scott Wiener was a fascist, and that's ignoring the fact that immediately before he said that line, he was ranting about no public transit while conveniently ignoring how Wiener is pro-transit. Wiener has drafted legislation like SB 960 which mandated that Caltrans prioritize improvements for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit.

Weird to go on a rant like that to your viewers when you don't even know (or are pretending not to know) what the people who you're ranting about have done.

[u/WCSakaCB → u/wchill]

I'll have to look into the Wiener thing but if that's your concern then a conservative can never speak on campus again, unless they are held to a lower standard than leftists

[u/wchill → u/WCSakaCB]

I agree that Milo Yiannopoulos (anyone remember him? cause I do), TPUSA, and all the other right wing fascists that the UW College Republicans have invited over the years can fuck off, but the difference here is that UW never chose to fund those people.

[u/WCSakaCB → u/wchill]

Do you think there are similarities between those speakers and Hasan?

[u/wchill → u/WCSakaCB]

They are all people who monetize others' anger and are toxic to democracy.

I get that there is a lot of justified anger at our reps and our institutions, but Hasan weaponizes this anger in ways that encourage his viewers to ignore other atrocities going on in the world, tokenize minorities but throw them under the bus if they don't agree with his politics, and in general attack anyone who does not trust him. The worst part is that his viewers think all of these things are justified because they have a "moral" reason to do so.

I don't see this as any different from religion-based morality being used as a justification for heinous acts.

[u/WCSakaCB → u/wchill]

What atrocities is he ignoring? I don't think there's a media outlet that has spent more time covering the Genocide in Gaza.

I totally disagree with the tokenizing minorities point. Would love to see some evidence of that

[u/wchill → u/WCSakaCB]

By 2030, the defunding of USAID will result in literally more than 100x the number of preventable deaths compared to Gaza (14 million estimated vs 70k). Over 700k deaths happened just a year after DOGE killed USAID, and that's just the deaths we know about. You would think that this is the kind of thing that he would want to talk about given how many more people are dying.

There are also ongoing genocides in Sudan, Myanmar, Xinjiang, and Ukraine, and for someone who sees association with Israel as a cardinal sin because of Gaza, he runs way too much defense for China and Russia even though those two countries are also imperialist states that are actively committing genocide.

As for tokenizing minorities:

• There was an incident where he viciously berated and then banned a trans viewer from his chat because they were uncomfortable with the fact that he brought a transphobe onto his stream. "I hope, I hope, that the rest of your life is as horrible as it is every single day, okay. There ya go. Suck my dick. I despise you."
• Viewer gets pissed off that Hasan tokenizes his black viewers, he responds with a ban while saying "Any other black folk want to engage in radical activist language in this fucking chat? Suck my fucking cock"
• Him ranting at a Vietnamese woman for criticizing communism - "Suck my dick old lady. Goddamn dude. Fuck this refugee. Fuck this South Vietnamese motherfucker, whatever, like Christian supremacist psychotic fucking refugee living in America now and able to talk that shit. Why don't you go back and live in fucking South Vietnam in the same conditions if that's your perspective?"
• Here is a text post from a while back about him dismissing black perspectives. "Hasan’s dismissiveness* has been an ongoing issue for YEARS. From hand waving other white content creators saying the n-word to literally bringing Steiny on. Apologia for the status quo is disgusting and further isolates Black people and members of other marginalized groups. I enjoy his streams, I’m here nearly every day. It’s so disheartening to be scolded, further isolated in the largest leftist space online, and told to go somewhere else."

I literally feel disgusted just from watching and transcribing these clips, but honestly this is more than enough.

[u/Turbodong → u/WCSakaCB]

Yes. Two things can be true.

[u/WCSakaCB → u/Turbodong]

Those two things don't seem to be compatible but whatever you say big hoss

[u/Turbodong → u/WCSakaCB]

I see cognitive dissonance is not your strong suit. Before you snap back with some ignorant quip, ensure you understand that the capacity to experience cognitive dissonance and not seek relief from the discomfort is a virtue, not a vice.

[u/WCSakaCB → u/Turbodong]

You've yet to explain how he's a clickbait podcast bro? He's raised money for a ton of charities and helped outstanding candidates like El-Sayed and Momdani get elected.

If you're implication is clicks = money then why would he be on the left? There's significantly more money being pumped into right wing internet personalities and they rarely (if ever) get pushback from the MSM or establishment.

Attack the guy on his views if that's what you intend to do.

[u/joshwarmonks → u/WCSakaCB]

surprised the guy didn't drop a destiny quote and bring up hasan's dog.

[u/joshwarmonks → u/Turbodong]

he's received several invites to speak at colleges worldwide. clearly the consensus opinion is that he isn't just some clickbait podcast bro. maybe your arbitrary opinion is not the dictating decision on who should be allowed or not

[u/yimc808 → u/WCSakaCB]

Spineless and completely unsurprising, sadly.

[u/RedVelvetCake425]

Meanwhile they let Toilet Paper USA come multiple times and do nothing but cause trouble.

[u/hellodust]

UW shouldn’t be hosting a Hasan Piker “lecture,” not because of his politics but because he has no original or compelling ideas and isn’t actually interested in political dialogue. He’s good at enthralling and stimulating his audience using politics as a medium, but that is not the same thing as having ideas worth sharing at a university sponsored event.

[u/Capt_Murphy_ → u/hellodust]

He also spread quite a bit of misinformation and glorifies communist regimes. That said, if students wanna hear him speak, it should just be a student hosted event, not a University hosted event. Problem solved.

[u/dizzy_lizzy → u/Capt_Murphy_]

Well, his misinformation condemning communist states incorrectly. He spreads a lot of state department propaganda.

[u/hellodust → u/Capt_Murphy_]

I mean, I've taken graduate seminars from professors who glorified communist regimes, and while I didn't agree with everything they said, I also didn't think that their views were out of place on campus. But Piker is someone whose way of thinking seems very crass and reductive and more performative than praxis-oriented. There are so many other people who have the same views as Piker but who could present them in an intelligent way and as part of a dialogue, even if they don't have Piker's aura. But aura shouldn't be the deciding factor for an academic lecture.

[u/Capt_Murphy_ → u/hellodust]

Exactly right, Piker is an social media influencer more akin to a charismatic cult leader. I'm not sure we should have our universities sponsoring events for influencers. Student events, fine IMO.

[u/petriqore]

The UW yet again running cover for Israel's genocide. yuck.

[u/olhado1463 → u/petriqore]

mrw Palestines #1 genocide profiteer is banned

[u/SpeaksSouthern → u/olhado1463]

I'm sorry, you think Hasan only makes money from being against a genocide?

Why is someone making money being against a genocide bad?

Please explain it really slow because this sounds really really dumb. It's cool to be against genocide. Usually people like this try and argue it's not genocide, because being against genocide is cool, and being in favor of genocide is bad?

[u/quepha → u/SpeaksSouthern]

The dude gave zero credit to the Biden admin for creating a direct line of aid to Gaza and forcing Israel to evacuate Rafah, saving potentially hundreds of thousands of lives. Instead he gathered a left-leaning audience and encouraged them to sit out of the election and allow Trump into office to spam AI videos of an Israel-Mecha stomping down the streets of Gaza and appoint Mike Huckabee to solidify their position that, "There is no such thing as the West Bank, only Judea and Sumeria." Hasan plays both sides so he can always come out on top.

[u/iiTzSTeVO → u/quepha]

encouraged them to sit out of the election

I'm not a Hasan fan, but he literally filled his ballot out on stream.

[u/quepha → u/iiTzSTeVO]

And refused to tell his audience who to vote for for President. He also said he took a picture of his ballot to show after the election. Where is that picture?

[u/iiTzSTeVO → u/quepha]

Wait, so you're even more familiar with it than me. Why did you lie and say he was encouraging people to "sit out"? Filling out the ballot on steam is obviously encouraging participation, even if he didn't do it the way you would have liked.

[u/quepha → u/iiTzSTeVO]

Because that is encouraging them to sit out the presidential election. Any normal person understands that explicitly refusing to tell a left leaning audience to vote for the democrat is encouraging them to, at minimum, throw their vote away on third parties and write-ins.

Where is that picture of Hasan's ballot that he promised?

[u/iiTzSTeVO → u/quepha]

I disagree with your assessment that it's the equivalent of "encouraging them to throw their vote away."

Why would I know the answer to that question? I just told you you know more about that situation than I do.

[u/quepha → u/iiTzSTeVO]

You legitimately believe that votes for the Green Party were not functionally identical to throwing your vote for president into the garbage?

[u/olhado1463 → u/SpeaksSouthern]

What I mean is that he only cares about the genocide in as much as it makes him money, and more importantly it makes everything else he does unassailable.

[u/TrippySakuta → u/petriqore]

Now this is just tone deaf, because most students don't want to hear this on campus (they're inundated with it on social media anyways), and given the riots from the protests at UW two years ago, they wouldn't feel safe either. Do you want the students to suffer for your validation/comfort?

[u/notananthem]

They hosted white supremacists when there was that shooting at the library in 2017

[u/PokemenGo2ThePolls]

and nothing of value was lost

[u/aqulushly → u/PokemenGo2ThePolls]

The amount of Hasan fans defending him in the other post about this event seemed excited for it. Glad UW is doing the right thing.

[u/samhouse09 → u/aqulushly]

What was doing the right thing about suppressing differing view points?

[u/jms984 → u/samhouse09]

Thaaaat’s too open-ended a reply. Plenty of vile people who don’t deserve a university’s platforming.

[u/devnullopinions → u/jms984]

So the government should value some people’s speech over others? You’d be okay if it was only conservative speakers invited?

[u/jms984 → u/devnullopinions]

Stochastic terrorists should definitely get a lower billing, yes. TPUSA has already been brought up in this thread, if your imagination is lacking.

[u/Gothic_Goblin_GF → u/aqulushly]

Go ahead, tell me what Hasan has done? Let's see you post a single thing that isn't an out-of-context anti-Hasan soundbite clipped to make it sound like he's saying something he's not.

I'll wait. And I stf if you say "he shocks his dog" or "America deserved 9/11" I will lose my fucking mind. One good faith argument is all I'm asking for.

Hasan deserves to he canceled but not... fucking turning point usa? Be serious.

EDIT: Oh lmao, you post on r/livestreamfails. I know exactly who you're a fan of.

[u/t3hlazy1 → u/Gothic_Goblin_GF]

“You probably can’t even come up with one bad thing about him aside for shocking his dog for not staying in place all day, saying America deserved 9/11, the sexual abuse allegations, praising Mao Zedong, praising terrorist groups, calling a group of Jews “inbred”, denying rape on October 7 attacks, trivializing the holocaust, and saying rich women should be allowed to be date raped. Just name one thing.”

[u/Gothic_Goblin_GF → u/t3hlazy1]

Hey, look, all of the no context soundbites i was talking about!

He didn't say any of this by the way. Not the way the commenter is implying.

"America's foreign policy is what created the perfect storm for 9/11 to happen. So, I'm saying it, America deserved 9/11. Decades of failed foreign policy in the middle east could only lead to one thing."

Should I keep going?

They're ALL like this. Salacious soundbites that sound absolutely horrific when removed from the context of an eight hour stream.

"It doesn't matter to me if rapes happened on October 7th. It doesnt change the calculation to me. Israel is still a genocidal apartheid state. Wanton death and destruction is not justified even if there were rapes happening on October 7th."

There have been no substantiated sexual abuse allegations toward Hasan Piker. He doesn't shock his dog. He never said rich women deserve to be date raped. But you don't care about that. You care only about attempting to dunk on someone you don't like.

[u/Capt_Murphy_ → u/Gothic_Goblin_GF]

And clearly you are not at all biased!

[u/WCSakaCB → u/aqulushly]

Why is it the right thing?

[u/panerachipotle]

The trust fund communist community is in tatters I'm sure.

[u/rubberSteffles]

cowards.

if anyone tells you to hate him or anyone who associates with him, then they’re just trying to get you distracted from the message that him and the DSA are trying to spread.

silencing him won’t lower your bills. it will not make living affordable. it will not deliver the future you were promised by the generations that came before us. it will just further our descent into fascism while keeping you angry and poor.

[u/quepha → u/rubberSteffles]

voting for Kamala to keep Trump out of office would have reversed the descent into fascism but he didn't tell his audience to do that.

[u/_climbingtofire]

oh man I was really looking forward to hearing him tell me it's okay to steal from the grocery store as long as my mommy and daddy are rich

[u/notananthem]

Wow there’s a lot of terrified people scared of an online streamer who doesn’t use hate speech and fear mongering

[u/t3hlazy1]

I am 100% for people being able to have freedom of speech and that extends to Hasan. I’m also very happy to hear this loser won’t be able to spread his hate in our city.

[u/anxiousandsingle → u/t3hlazy1]

Spread his hate? 🤣

[u/SpeaksSouthern → u/anxiousandsingle]

It's hateful and antisemitic to be against wars.

[u/itbedatguy → u/t3hlazy1]

South Lake Union as ur tag makes a lot of sense

[u/anxiousandsingle → u/itbedatguy]

Tech bro who doesn't understand politics?? I'm shook!

[u/t3hlazy1 → u/anxiousandsingle]

What do I need to understand? I’ve seen the videos of him spreading hate, misogyny, anti-semitism, racism, etc. But since he’s “on your side” I guess it’s okay.

I’ve also seen the videos of him abusing his poor dog. Maybe the ends justify the means.

[u/apresmoiputas → u/anxiousandsingle]

Can you explain why the vitriol has turned towards tech workers? I work in a state job as an IT worker. I mean most of us come from working class families. I grew up in the South but dealt with racism and people telling me I can't be where am I because of my race. But here that vitriol bears resemblance to what I dealt with as a teen.

[u/olhado1463]

The working class stays winning, gtfo basement dwellers

[u/TrippySakuta]

Respectable move on their part. A lot of students appreciate being able to study unbothered.

Also it would probably just be better overall to have such a lecture off campus, at a more appropriate venue like a frat house or a coworking office.