Hasan Piker, aka HasanAbi (and according to Cosmopolitan, “Woke Bae”) is one of Twitch’s biggest streamers with nearly three million followers along with and a comparably sizable presence on other platforms.

If I’m being honest, he has what you might call a charismatic vibe – part socialist firebrand, part wannabe shock jock – that pulls in fans but also makes him a lightning rod for tumult. People either love him or can’t stand him, and it’s not hard to see why. His propensity for getting under people’s skin, sometimes stretching the truth or just tossing out claims that don’t hold up, makes him one of the most contentious voices on the internet.

Take the Jewish Museum shooting in Washington, DC last May. Piker was suspended from Twitch after commenting on the shooter’s manifesto and suggesting the whole thing felt “bizarre,” hinting it could be some kind of “false flag” setup.

He didn’t outright say it was staged – implied assertions are straight out of the socialist playbook – but the way he framed it raised more than a few eyebrows. Naturally people were dismayed, calling it unsympathetic to the victims and reckless for even flirting with a conspiracy.

Later that month, Piker claimed he was detained by Customs and Border Protection at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. He spun it as political targeting, but a U.S. official called it out as “lying for likes,” leaving people split on what really occurred.

Then earlier this month, a viewer threatened to “hang” Piker and a colleague. Hasan grabbed a toy gun, waved it around on stream, and threw some sarcasm back. But he ended up targeting the wrong YouTube channel by mistake. Though it was a fake gun, the optics were terrible.

Fellow streamer Asmongold, who himself enjoys a significant following, called it dangerous, saying, “He’s gonna shoot somebody.” Hasan brushed it off as “banter,” but detractors thought it was a bad look, especially on a platform where tensions tend to escalate quickly.

He’s also dropped lines like America “deserved 9/11” or described Israel as a “giant baby nation with nuclear arms.” Assertions like that are classic Hasan – brazen, even vulgar, but often so blunt they disaffect those who might’ve been swayed to his side had he simply not been such an ass. And this has been increasingly par for the course over the past few years.

Hasan is also a man of contradictions: an avowed anti-capitalist, he currently streams from a $2.7 million-dollar home in the Los Angeles area he purchased three years ago thanks to an income that tops $2 million – an inconvenient duplicity for which his fans are either oblivious or just flat-out indifferent.

Hasan’s passion keeps listeners hooked, but his habit of favoring provocation over precision, sometimes with claims that don’t check out, makes him a tough pill to swallow. Piker is a virtuoso at igniting debate, but that spark has often started fires that sullied his trustworthiness and yet, paradoxically, grew his status as a relevant voice.

As long as there’s an audience for edgy shit lords, we can expect Hasan to be among those throwing the most manure. Try not to take it too personally.

Pictures c/o NBC News and Cosmopolitan