NY Times Platforms Far-Left Radical Hasan Piker To Promote Theft

Alex Christy
April 22nd, 2026 3:07 PM

Text to Speech

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The New York Times has a long and infamous history of glorifying communism, and that continued on Wednesday, which ironically would have been Vladimir Lenin’s 156th birthday. On The Opinions podcast, culture editor Nadja Spiegelman welcomed The New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino and Mao Zedong fan and far-left influencer Hasan Piker to the show to promote theft as a form of protest.

Spiegleman kicked off the show by setting the tone for the next 35 minutes, “I’m proposing a new term: Microlooting. People are taking small things from big corporations and they’re feeling justified. But is it a slippery slope? What’s going on with our moral code? Thank you both so much for being here with me to talk about this. I want to start with a little exercise, just about our own morals.”

As the conversation progressed, Piker announced, “I’m pro-piracy all the way, like, across the board. Would you pirate a car? Yes. You know, if you could.”

 

 

After Spiegleman asked what that would mean, Piker said it didn’t matter because the principle of justifying stealing is what matters, “It was just a classic thing back in the day. The government-funded antipiracy initiatives would be like: Would you steal a car? I’m like, yeah, sure. If I could get away with it, if it was as, you know, easy as pirating intellectual property, I would do it.”

Spiegleman also asked, “Would you steal from the Louvre?”

Piker thought that sounded like fun, “Yeah. I think it’s cool. We’ve got to get back to cool crimes like that: bank robberies, right? Stealing priceless artifacts, things of that nature. I feel like that’s way cooler than the 7,000th new cryptocurrency scheme that people are engaging in.”

Later, Piker declared, “I’m pro-stealing from big corporations, because, you know, they steal quite a bit more from their own workers. However, one thing that might even help your ethical dilemma is the fact that the automated process that they design, these companies know will increase shrink, right? So, it’s actually factored in. The lemons that you stole are factored into the bottom line of these mega-corporations regardless.”

Spiegleman’s great concern about Piker’s tactics was not the immorality of it, but purely practical, “But what about the argument that if everyone just starts stealing wantonly from these self-checkout machines, Whole Foods will eventually raise the prices?”

 

 

Piker didn’t care because that would allow him to achieve his Marxist dreams, “Yeah, chaos. Full chaos. Let’s go. I mean, look, 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.”

Tolentino also didn’t see what the big deal was because she argued that grocery stores are already stealing from their employees anyway:

I think that hypothetical is interesting, right? Because if you look at it from a categorical imperative type thing, what if everybody did this? You know, the converse is, like, “Oh, what if every major grocery chain stole from workers and consumers? And that is basically true, right?” Like, it’s interesting. It speaks to the thing where harm committed by the individual, strangely, continually draws more ire than the same harm being committed by a structure. And so, I kind of am inclined toward this. Everyone, try it. See what happens.”

While portraying himself as the hero of the little guy, Piker made sure to clarify that he does not want to actually deal with the consequences of his beliefs. That should be left to the little people he allegedly cares so much about:

Well, I by the way— ironically enough — I don’t personally do it. I never do it. When I was younger, I stole some Pokémon cards from a friend and my father punished me. And it was such a harrowing experience that I literally can’t even steal a candy bar. When we were in college, a lot of my friends used to love doing that. You know, getting drunk, going to the gas station, five-finger discount. I would never participate in it. And I still can’t, to this day, participate in it. I’m just saying that I personally don’t really care. If someone needs the food; they should absolutely steal it.

Promoting theft does not make the podcast listener smarter. It just further adds to the Times' efforts to mainstream the Marxist-terrorist supporter, but perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising coming from the paper that also platforms the Taliban and Vladimir Putin.

Here is a transcript for the April 22 show:

New York Times The Opinions

4/22/2026

NADJA SPIEGLEMAN: I’m proposing a new term: Microlooting. People are taking small things from big corporations and they’re feeling justified. But is it a slippery slope? What’s going on with our moral code? Thank you both so much for being here with me to talk about this. I want to start with a little exercise, just about our own morals.

…

HASAN PIKER: Yeah, I’m pro-piracy all the way, like, across the board. Would you pirate a car? Yes. You know, if you could.

SPIEGLEMAN: What would it mean to pirate a car?

PIKER: It was just a classic thing back in the day. The government-funded antipiracy initiatives would be like: Would you steal a car? I’m like, yeah, sure. If I could get away with it, if it was as, you know, easy as pirating intellectual property, I would do it.

SPIEGLEMAN: Would you dine and dash from your local diner?

JIA TOLENTINO: Never. Never! Tip 35 percent. Mikes. Come on.

PIKER: No, I wouldn’t do that. If I saw somebody doing that, I’d probably pay for their meal.

SPIEGLEMAN: Yeah. Would you steal a book from the library?

TOLENTINO: Never.

PIKER: No.

SPIEGLEMAN: Would you steal from the Louvre?

PIKER: Yes.

TOLENTINO: I would not be logistically capable of executing such a fact, but would I cheer on every news story of people that I see doing it? Absolutely. Absolutely

PIKER: Yeah. I think it’s cool. We’ve got to get back to cool crimes like that: bank robberies, right? Stealing priceless artifacts, things of that nature. I feel like that’s way cooler than the 7,000th new cryptocurrency scheme that people are engaging in.

…

PIKER: I’m pro-stealing from big corporations, because, you know, they steal quite a bit more from their own workers. However, one thing that might even help your ethical dilemma is the fact that the automated process that they design, these companies know will increase shrink, right?

So it’s actually factored in. The lemons that you stole are factored into the bottom line of—

TOLENTINO: Right.

PIKER: —these mega-corporations regardless. And they still end up having increased profit margins, because they no longer have to pay the cashiers that they used to hire, as opposed to this automated system, knowing full well that people are still going to be able to steal—steal a lot more efficiently, as a matter of fact, through the automated process.

TOLENTINO: Totally. I was looking things up, and shrinkage is roughly equal internally as externally. Like, they expect it from their employees that they are, sort of, disenfranchising constantly.

SPIEGLEMAN: But what about the argument that if everyone just starts stealing wantonly from these self-checkout machines, Whole Foods will eventually raise the prices?

PIKER: Yeah, chaos. Full chaos. Let’s go. I mean, look, 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.

SPIEGLEMAN: Would you encourage stealing in the same way from a Zohran Mamdani-run, city-owned grocery store with lower prices, and why?

PIKER: No, I would not, because I feel like that’s taxpayer-funded, and the prices are—it’s union labor, and the prices are also adjusted regardless.

TOLENTINO: I think that hypothetical is interesting, right? Because if you look at it from a categorical imperative type thing, what if everybody did this? You know, the converse is, like, “Oh, what if every major grocery chain stole from workers and consumers? And that is basically true, right?” Like, it’s interesting. It speaks to the thing where harm committed by the individual, strangely, continually draws more ire than the same harm being committed by a structure. And so, I kind of am inclined toward this. Everyone, try it. See what happens.

SPIEGLEMAN: Yeah.

PIKER: Well, I by the way— ironically enough — I don’t personally do it. I never do it. When I was younger, I stole some Pokémon cards from a friend and my father punished me. And it was such a harrowing experience that I literally can’t even steal a candy bar. When we were in college, a lot of my friends used to love doing that. You know, getting drunk, going to the gas station, five-finger discount. I would never participate in it. And I still can’t, to this day, participate in it. I’m just saying that I personally don’t really care. If someone needs the food; they should absolutely steal it.

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