Back in 2020, National "Public" Radio promoted a nasty little book called "In Defense of Looting." NPR summarized the "Marxist-informed" author Vicky Osterweil in the wake of the "racial justice" rioting in cities: "She argues that looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society."
It's interesting to imagine how they would feel if someone stole all their lame Nina Totenberg tote bags, or some transgressive activist broke in and emptied out the designer fashions in NPR CEO Katherine Maher's residence. They are striking an anti-capitalist pose, and let's guess it's not the same if you commit property crimes against socialists.
Now it is The New York Times that is platforming the advocacy of petty theft from the Left. On their podcast "The Opinions," they brought on another Marxist-informed dilettante named Hasan Piker, best known as a live-streaming personality on Twitch, popular with video gamers.
This was their online headline: "The Rich Don't Play by the Rules. So Why Should I? Why petty theft might be the new political protest."
Piker said, "I'm pro-stealing from big corporations, because they steal quite a bit more from their own workers." He claimed it was interesting "that a kind of harm committed by the individual, strangely, continually draws more ire than the same harm being committed by a structure. And so, I mean, and so I kind of am inclined toward this. It's like, everyone try it! See what happens!"
But don't break into Piker's house and steal his stuff. He'd probably beat you to a pulp. A year ago, the Times wrote a gushy article about Piker and his muscle-bound physique under the headline "A Progressive Mind in a Body Made for the 'Manosphere.'"
As a Marxist, Piker prefers government-operated stores, matching the plans of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani: "I'm in favor of fast and free buses and also government-owned storefronts. And two of those policies the mayor of this beautiful city is currently working on." He wouldn't steal from those.
But it's not just theft; it's also the advocacy of assassination. As they talked about "an outpouring of glee" over Luigi Mangione shooting down an insurance executive in the street, Piker brought out one of his communist heroes: "Friedrich Engels wrote about the concept of social murder, and Brian Thompson, as the UnitedHealthcare CEO, was engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder."
Social murder? That's a fancy Marxist term to describe capitalism as "systematized violence." Refusing to pay for someone's health-care costs is "social murder," so the execution of a health insurance CEO is justified.
Piker complained that "Americans are very draconian about crime and punishment. They're very black and white on this issue. And yet, because of the pervasive pain that the private health system had created for the average American, I saw so many people immediately understand why this death had taken place."
The leftists routinely scream about how "normalizing" President Donald Trump is creating a permission structure for fascism. Piker's ideological embrace of violence and theft has been normalized, and the permission structure for communism is obvious in America's most celebrated newspaper.
Just as it was in New York Times columnist Ezra Klein's article titled "Hasan Piker Is Not the Enemy" — which the Times then changed to "This Is Why There's No Liberal Joe Rogan."
Piker is now endorsing and appearing at campaign events with Democrat candidates for Congress. The Times clearly wants the Democrats to accept the message "Hasan Piker Is Your Friend."
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org.