The New York Times hosted an interview with two communist millennials who condone theft as a moral good because they believe it will hurt the wealthy.
NYT culture editor Nadja Spiegelman published the interview Tuesday on “The Opinions” after hosting the discussion with political commentator and left-wing kingmaker Hasan Piker and The New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino. (RELATED: Big Food Smuggles Toxic Agenda Right Under MAHA’s Nose)
The interview, Spiegelman said, followed a trend she coined “microlooting,” or the ability of younger Americans to steal a small amount of product from big corporations, laugh it off, and justify it as survival or as retaliation against wealthy elites and corporations that they believe still exploit the working class.
The half-hour discussion began with a list of hypotheticals presented by Spiegelman, with the intent to gauge what happens when stealing is or is not permissible.
“I’m pro-piracy all the way, like, across the board,” Piker said, saying that he would steal anything if it were as easy as privacy. Piker also said that he thinks people should be committing more “cool crimes,” such as bank robberies or stealing priceless artifacts.
The New York Times platformed Hasan Piker on their “The Opinions” podcast to promote theft as a form of protest. The Mao fan said, “Yeah, I’m pro-piracy all the way, like, across the board. Would you pirate a car? Yes. You know, if you could.”
He also says he would steal from… pic.twitter.com/D05oo7WEwk
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 22, 2026
Tolentino said that she endorses the use of paywall removers against her own employer and also said that stealing from a big-box store, such as Whole Foods, is “neither very significant as a moral wrong,” before admitting that she had stolen from Whole Foods on several occasions.
In trying to make Tolentino’s argument for her, Piker said that companies have already factored in people stealing into their bottom line and still come out with increased profit margins, thanks in part to automated checkout systems.
“I’m pro-stealing from big corporations, because they steal quite a bit more from their own workers,” Piker said.
Spiegelman contributed to this idea, adding that CEOs in 1965 were paid 21 times as much as the average worker, but by 2024, CEOs made 281 times more than the average worker.
A bit later, Piker adds “I’m pro stealing from big corporations, because, you know, they steal quite a bit more from their own workers. However, one thing that might even help your ethical dilemma is the fact that the automated process that they design, these companies know will… pic.twitter.com/fB7U8Y6HN7
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 22, 2026
“Well, the rules are already designed in a way where, if you steal from the poor, you become rich; if you steal from the wealthy, you go to prison,” Piker said. “So there’s only one direction where you can do unlimited theft and erode the social contract for the 99 percent. … Because it’s a cliché at this point, but wage theft is the most consequential amount of theft that takes place in the United States of America.”
Spiegelman then presented the slippery slope, asking whether Whole Foods would eventually raise its prices if people began to steal indiscriminately.
However, Piker waved the concern off, calling for “full chaos” before pivoting to praise the socialist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, for his push for free transportation and government-owned storefronts. (RELATED: Ketanji Brown Jackson So Unhinged, Other Liberal Justices Won’t Touch Her Dissent)
“And the thing with Zohran is that he does instill confidence in governance all of a sudden,” Piker said, suggesting a national political and mental shift among youth across the United States. “People for the first time ever see someone actually making that positive change, and it brings more confidence, and it creates an environment where people can demand more Zohrans.”
Notably, Tolentino’s parents were involved in a job placement agency during the early 2000s, ostensibly for Filipino immigrants, but allegedly schemed to steal nearly $2.75 million and were subsequently indicted on 40 federal counts of money laundering, conspiracy to smuggle immigrants, and visa fraud. The Tolentinos were accused by federal prosecutors of having trafficked Filipino laborers into the United States, according to court filings. Ultimately, Jia Tolentino’s father pleaded guilty to one count of defrauding the federal government.
Mission To End Modern Slavery, a group opposed to human trafficking, characterized the scheme as “the modern manifestation of institutionalized trafficking,” and said that Jia Tolentino has participated in the “culture normalizing and excusing” of trafficking while using “her parents’ identities as Filipino immigrants themselves as an excuse, disregarding their power and influence through class.”
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