At the time of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Hasan Piker was in a sense doing the same thing as Mr. Kirk: making content.
News of the attack reached him as he was streaming from his home in Los Angeles, which he does for many hours most days. Mr. Piker, 34, who identifies as a socialist, had very different politics from Mr. Kirk. But they did have some things in common. They were stars of a new political media class, major figures in the contest to win the hearts and minds of young Americans and unafraid of courting controversy. Mr. Piker and Mr. Kirk had debated several times before and were scheduled to debate again, at Dartmouth College, later this month.
These men were foes, but they shared an arena.
On his stream on Wednesday, days before the authorities would arrest Tyler Robinson, 22, as a suspect, Mr. Piker processed his shock in real time, as more than 60,000 viewers tuned in.
“It’s very hard for me to see this as anything but an immediate threat to anyone that does this,” Mr. Piker said at the time.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Piker talked about what Mr. Kirk’s death means for the kind of attention-grabbing media activism the two men have helped define from opposite sides of the political divide. He also said that while he will continue with his own activism, the assassination has been a “wake-up call” about his own personal safety.
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
There’s always been a question of, to what extent are online political influencers sincere? Does what happened Wednesday change your understanding of how serious the political situation is in the country right now?
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