The Cultural Politics of the Platformed Left: Livestreaming Authentic Leftist Ideology
Abstract
In this thesis, I investigate how Leftist ideology circulates on the livestreaming social media platform, Twitch, through the construction of authenticity. Drawing on Hasan Piker's 2024 U.S. election day livestream, I argue that Piker's image of authenticity is produced through masculine codes that make Leftist politics legible within Twitch's gaming-dominated platform culture. Using critical cultural and textual analysis, I examine how Piker's performance of authentic masculinity credentials his Leftist voice on a platform whose cultural logics privilege white dominant masculine norms. Ultimately, I contend that when counterhegemonic politics operate through the very infrastructures that shape and constrain them, the transformative possibilities of the Left remain fundamentally in question.
