I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “I used to watch Hasan and then started reading lenin and now here I am”. I have heard that with the deprogram, through the subreddit which was highly commie and encouraged people to look beyond.

I, on the otherhand, have heard it quite often. What i heard even more often is that Hasan is what led them towards second thought/deprogram in general, other left creators and then into actual theory.

So I can’t agree that he forms a pipeline, and telling his audience to read lenin does not make one if they are not going to read lenin but keep watching him instead. Socdems are not communist and have never been.

No one forms a pipeline alone. The pipeline is obviously not implied to be Hasan -> The State and Revolution as you seem to think. Hasan is the very first step towards radicalisation for many people including me and after him there were other content creators (german commies on youtube) and now i am getting into proper theory.

He is the streamer for libs that don’t even know what the word imperialism means. He is the streamer for the people that would get scared away if he were any more clear about his opinions.

I also think he gets a lot of leeway because he’s “on the left” that would not be afforded if he wasn’t so popular.

I don’t think people give him any leeway at all tbh. Every misstep or perceived misstep gets immediately put under a microscope by the left and then he gets called a socdem by some ultra-maoist or something.

Hasan doesn’t punch left, clearly leaves the door open and even encourages for people to go further down the pipeline.