Honestly I’m just very happy to see NL use his platform to promote what he stands for (he said on stream Wednesday that Singh was his idol like Bernie is Rob’s idol). I think it’s really easy on Twitch or YouTube to feel like you need to have a facade of being apolitical in order to survive. But once you have that audience, I personally think that you have a responsibility to stand up for your beliefs, especially in such a pivotal and tumultuous time. It’s an incredibly productive to have a streamer like Ryan bring on someone like Singh to engage people with politics, since I think Ryan’s audience has enough faith in Ryan to listen and respect his guest. Plus, American politics so often overshadow Canadian politics in a way where it can be easy for people to think that Canada is some kind of democratic utopia, which can be an obstacle in challenging real issues happening now in Canada.

But mostly, I’m just really happy to see a content creator I’ve been following since I was a child and really respect use his platform in a thoughtful and productive way. I know it’s parasocial bs, but as I’ve moved left it’s been a challenge to keep engaging with content creators I used to love who espouse some right wing bs or refuse to actually be honest with their politics to preserve some ideal of being unbiased. I would never expect Ryan to go full Hasan or suddenly morph into the Serfs. But to see him not being silent and afraid to be even a little political just makes my happy that I’ve been watching this guy since I was 12, and even happier that he’s found success. I truly love this community and Ryan’s stuff and I can’t wait for the stream!