When a Soviet apologist receives hero’s welcome at an Ivy League campus, it signals just how deep anti-American sentiment runs within elite culture.
This week, Yale gave a glimpse of the left’s plan for commemorating America’s 250th anniversary: by sulkingly avoiding celebration. The Yale Political Union invited left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker to campus for a talk titled “End the American Empire.” That, in itself, reveals much about elite culture in 2026.
One of America’s most storied universities now hands the microphone to a professional internet figure to critique the nation that made his career possible. In one booking, Yale captured the prevailing pathology of the elite leftist: embarrassment over America and an apparent embrace of nations with tens of millions dead.
America does not promise equality of outcome; it delivers equality of opportunity—whether your ancestors arrived on the Mayflower or landed at Ellis Island with just the clothes on their backs.
Piker’s major takeaway at Yale was that “the fall of the USSR was one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century.” Sadly, he is not alone. The intent of these advocates for American guilt could not be clearer: stop celebrating America with fireworks and parades; idolize Jefferson and Franklin instead. Put on black, mourn communism, and yearn for a return to Stalin.
The rhetorical trick behind this perspective is that leftists claim the ideal of communism is just and righteous—making its downfall in the USSR (and elsewhere) tragic. Yet the reality is bleaker. Communism’s supposed ideal is unattainable because people differ in ability, ambition, discipline, and desire. Any system insisting on equal results must override individuality—a process that occurs only at the tip of a spear.
Today’s champions treat the millions killed under communism as an inconvenient footnote—along with the predictable enrichment of a ruling elite and the rise of tyranny. This is no ideal to which we should strive. Its failure should be openly celebrated, as it has been by those repressed under communist regimes and by free people watching from afar.
When leftists discuss communism, they speak in terms of ideals. When they discuss America, they speak only in terms of failures.
The ignorance here is difficult to miss. America does not promise equality of outcome; it delivers equality of opportunity—whether your ancestors came on the Mayflower or landed at Ellis Island with just the clothes on their backs. Even those getting paid to stream video games are afforded this opportunity.
America has experienced its failures. The Declaration of Independence said all men are created equal, but the Constitution constricted that promise. America’s bloodiest days were not akin to Stalin’s purges; they were civil wars to see the promise of freedom through. As communist regimes have been crushed under economic and cultural failure, America continues a never-ending march toward its stated ideals—though not perfectly or easily.
This American pessimism stems from decades of left-wing activism. Figures like Hasan Piker are visible manifestations of an older idea. The real danger lies with the left’s rank-and-file, who over the past 50 years have made vilifying America a key cultural issue.
There is something in the water during anniversary years. As the 1976 bicentennial began with patriotic fervor, it ended with a nation divided by two sharply different visions: while tens of millions celebrated with fireworks and flag-waving, Jimmy Carter rode to the White House on a platform of regret. He and his followers decided America could only lead through apology and doubt about its moral legitimacy.
With Carter’s election win, the American left transformed. Instead of seeing this as calm after turmoil, they interpreted it as a rejection of patriotism itself.
Yale’s decision to engage Hasan Piker is the legacy of that 50-year shift. Yale has surrendered its right to proudly boast of 25 graduates who served in the Continental Congress and five who signed the Declaration of Independence. And Twitch? It contributes less to society than the cheap plastic fork in your takeout order. As in 1776, patriots will prevail.
So let the Yalies sneer and Twitchers scold. The rest of us will wave the flag, light the fireworks, and celebrate the country that gave those folks the freedom to complain.
Matt Dole is a communications consultant and commentator based in Central Ohio.
