Hasan Piker Sparks Fury on the Right With Comments on How to Make Explosive Drones For Cheap

Screenshot via Twitch

Popular progressive streamer Hasan Piker sparked fury on the right this week with commentary on how easy it is to build an explosive drone and arguing that kamikaze drone attacks should replace suicide bombing.

Piker was live-streaming on Twitch, where he is one of the platform’s most-popular hosts, and was showing clips of Iranian drones hitting targets around the Gulf in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.

“Again, that’s a Shahed drone. Like, that’s crazy. Bro. You really actually don’t need, like… I was thinking about this with, like, the Afghanistan Taliban-Pakistan fight that was taking place. And I was really thinking about this—you really don’t need suicide bombing anymore, you know?” Piker told his audience, adding:

Cause, like, the Taliban guy was like, “Oh, you have nuclear arms, but we have suicide bombers. Like, we’ll just blow up your country with suicide bombers.” And it’s like, you really don’t need that anymore in drone warfare, right? You don’t need that at all. Just make f*cking drones. You can purchase them from, you know, you can buy them in the online marketplace.

Like, China literally sells explosive ordnance delivery mechanisms that you can put on a DJI drone that you purchase, like, at virtually no significant cost in comparison to, like, the sophisticated equipment that you need to put together.

So… um, I guess, like, at that point, you’re doing that for the love of the game, right? Like, you’re doing suicide bombing just for the love of the game because, like, you want to keep it old school? Is that what it is? Why is bro saying that? I’m just saying it’s, like, insane that—I mean, this is basically functionally what you could get away with if you facilitated, like, a somewhat good, difficult-to-pull-off suicide bombing strike, right? And instead, you’re just using a Shahed drone that’s, like, $10,000?

Piker’s commentary was clipped by the anti-Semitism watchdog Canary Mission and quickly went viral on social media, with many from the right pushing the FBI to get involved. Piker has stoked controversy in the past for his positive takes on Hezbollah and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen — both dubbed terrorist organizations by governments around the world.

National Republican Congressional Committee Deputy Executive Director Jack Pandol shared the clip and wrote, “The ‘Joe Rogan of the left’ who said America deserved 9/11 tells his listeners to make exploding drones to commit acts of terrorism. cc: @FBI.”

MAGA influencer Ian Miles Cheong added, “Pam Bondi and Kash Patel need to get on this.”

New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino added, “Hasan Piker is telling his followers to make suicide drones. Hasan also said that America deserved 9/11 and has hosted Houthi terrorists on his stream. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of our mayor and a current city councilman hanging out with him recently.”

Piker replied to Paladino, writing, “be on the lookout for a defamation suit councilwoman!”

Below are some additional reactions:

Although some were quick to defend Piker, noting he was offering a suggestion for how the Taliban should fight Pakistan, not his audience at large.

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