Hasan Piker defends using incendiary terms like 'inbred' or 'Zionist pig' against opponents

Twitch streamer Hasan Piker defended using controversial terms like "inbred" and "Zionist pig" against opponents in a lengthy interview with NPR Thursday.

NPR host Leila Fadel asked Piker about the backlash and controversy he has faced and whether they were related to his inflammatory comments or the fact that his "name is Hasan." Piker acknowledged his incendiary rhetoric but said he believed that most of the backlash against him was due to his background.

"Of course, I, you know, say incendiary things, but it's not reflected on in the same way when someone who's White, Christian, born and raised in America is saying incendiary things," Piker said.

INSIDE HASAN PIKER’S RADICAL VIEWS ON AMERICA, ISRAEL AND SOCIALISM Fadel then asked why someone who has felt "dehumanized" like him would choose to use dehumanizing language, particularly against Jewish opponents.

"When you hear people say, 'Why would you use dehumanizing language like inbred for some ultra-Orththodox Jews or Zionist pig?' What do you say to them as somebody who has felt that as well?" Fadel asked.

"So, great question.

I have a policy to be ruthless to those who are bullying others, to be ruthless to those who abide by certain ideologies that are conducting great harm," Piker said.

"As far as the language that I deploy that is considered dehumanizing like 'inbred,' it's one that I use quite commonly as a pejorative towards right-wing reactionary ideology, ethno-supremacist ideology, neo-Nazi ideology, because I find it to be an apt pejorative to deploy considering that these supremacist ideologies oftentimes revolve around ethnic purity, racial purity.

It's not, of course, meant to be taken seriously," he continued.

Piker added that he applies the same principle to the term "pig" and argued that he used similar language "across the board" for different targets regardless of their background.

HASAN PIKER ADMITS HE HAS 'DIALED DOWN' HIS OPINIONS AFTER PUBLIC AND DEMOCRATIC BACKLASH "It gets heated at times," he said.

"I'm a passionate guy.

I get angry.

I have to, you know, explain my frustration, communicate my frustration somehow.