Hasan says Asmongold has created environment for Nazis: ‘Your intention at that point doesn’t matter’

Asmongold has found himself front and center of many online discussions around streamers and political figures in the days since Donald Trump’s inauguration, and today is no different after fellow streamer Hasan Piker called out Asmongold’s humor and the welcoming environment it creates for certain people.

Specifically, Hasan called out Asmongold’s so-called “edgy” humor when it came to anti-Semitism and Nazi dog whistles, reacting to a clip on stream where Asmongold responds to a message in chat about 4chan posters claiming the streamer was Jewish. Asmongold denied those claims to his chat, saying he was German, “the opposite” of Jewish, he claimed, before telling them to “get that idea out of your fucking head.” This clip, coupled with other statements and jokes the Asmongold has made on stream and elsewhere, seemed to be a tipping point for Hasan, who said the streamer was essentially creating a space for Nazis to feel comfortable in.

“From where I’m standing, it doesn’t necessarily matter if he is personally, ideologically invested in Nazi ideology,” Hasan said of Asmongold, reacting to the clip of Asmongold. “At this point, you have opened up your environment to Nazis. You’re giving them a space to occupy and operate. Your intention at that point doesn’t matter at all.”

Hasan also mentioned Asmongold’s joke about being “99 percent sure” the Holocaust happened and how the streamer then said immediately afterwards that he was completely sure the Holocaust happened, indicating the 99 percent comment was simply a joke. In Hasan’s eyes, the fact that Asmongold clarified he was sure the Holocaust happened didn’t really matter at all, since the original comment that was clipped, reposted, and written about extensively was going to get the attention of people who actually don’t believe the Holocaust happened and make them think Asmongold’s stream was a safe space for them to continue spewing their rhetoric under the guise of joking around.

The comments from Hasan inevitably lead to people defending Asmongold with claims that he’s previously stated how much he hates Nazis, which Hasan addressed, saying those comments are never what’s clipped and shown to other people—including those that might actually be Nazis.

“It very quickly moves from ‘ha ha, we’re just being edgy here,’ to ‘holy shit,'” Hasan said, referencing how quickly normalizing those jokes can cause shifts in a streamer’s community and the people populating it. “And I think it’s already virtually there… you’re normalizing heinous shit.”

The clip of Hasan has gained plenty of attention on social media and streaming subreddits like LivestreamFail, where many of the commenters seemed to agree with Hasan’s sentiment. Many people brought up how the r/the_donald subreddit began as a satire forum that quickly transformed into a place for fans of Trump. Reddit shut down the subreddit in 2020 after saying it repeatedly and knowingly violated platform rules about hate speech, harassment, and other standards. One popular comment references a real-life story which the commenter claims they had watching a bartender kick a man wearing Nazi patches out of their bar, telling the commenter that even allowing a person like that in there that seemed nice and normal would only result in that person inviting more and more of their friends until the bar turned into a hangout for Nazis.

Asmongold responded to Hasan’s comments today mostly by making more jokes. “According to Reddit, we know one Nazi who stopped watching my stream because he was unhappy with the way I covered something,” Asmongold said on his zackrawrr channel, where clipping is currently disabled. “So I feel like we’re 1-0. I don’t know any Nazis who have stopped watching Hasan.”