Xanderhal

Alexander Haley (born: ) better known online as Xanderhal (a portmanteau of Alexander and Haley), is an American political commentary YouTuber who is known for producing left leaning content. He was previously known as PIGPUNCHER. His content consists of livestreams to YouTube and Twitch, and uploading segments of those streams as their own videos on YouTube. His content consists mostly of response videos and debates.
==History==
Xanderhal first created his channel on 29th March, in 2015 under the name of PIGPUNCHER. He originally made Minecraft content on 2B2T, the longest running anarchy server in Minecraft, before he turned towards livestreaming and political content.
Xanderhal claims he was a right-wing reactionary, and has mentioned several times that he grew up in a household that was emotionally abusive, and he felt that validated the right wing views he had. He has spoken on this matter several times, and has made several videos where he talks about how he went down the alt-right rabbit hole, such as his video HOW I ALMOST BECAME ALT - RIGHT and HOW I ESCAPED THE ALT - RIGHT. He was eventually pushed away from conservatism after watching the Jontron Vs Destiny Debate, and he began watching Destiny's content until he was completely pushed away from the alt-right.
Xanderhal later began making more political videos, eventually dropping his Minecraft videos entirely to focus more on politics. 
==Views==
Xanderhal is an Anarchist, however, he advocates for Socialism as he believes it is easier to convince people on. He possesses far-left views, and as such, he typically identifies as a leftist as a general term.
Xanderhal has said that when debating, he tends to aim to try to bring the person he is speaking to over to his perspective, rather than appeal to their audience, as he feels this is more effective. Due to his friendship with Vaush, he is often considered part of the dirtbag left. However, he does not often engage in the rhetoric of the dirtbag left, such as open bloodsports or insulting unless the person he is debating does so first. He however, does defend the dirtbag left, as he sees the work done by it as valuable. He defended the dirtbag left directly in a debate with Zoomer Nation in the video Is The "Dirtbag Left" A Force For Good? - Debating Zoomer Nation.
Xanderhal is extremely socially Progressive, and spends lots of time on his channel defending progressive viewpoints, mostly transgender rights. As such, he has a deep hatred of TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists). He has a dislike of Progressive Liberals and Conservatives, who he sees as conservative and as people who only care for the aesthetics of conservatism, when in reality they only harm discourse and desire to maintain the status quo. He also possesses a dislike of gatekeeping and sectarianism within the left, believing that the left needs to be more unified in order to defeat the rise of the alt-right on Youtube, despite them not being relevant since 2017 and being banned everywhere. He also dislikes "wokescolds" - Leftists who attack the character of other leftists for not being as socially aware, progressive, or careful with their language as them.
He supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 US Democratic Nomination. He has also supported a "Vote Blue No Matter Who" movement, and was extremely anti-Bernie-Or-Bust, believing them to be equally as responsible for the possible re-election of Donald Trump.
==Controversies==
===Vaush===
Xanderhal has been criticized for being friends with Vaush, whom has been a controversial figure within the online left. However, he has refused to disassociate with Vaush, and continues to be friends with him to this day.
===EssenceOfThought===
Following drama relating to Contrapoints, Xanderhal responded to a video by Youtuber EssenceOfThought on the 14th January 2020, called Essence of Thought's Bad Faith Criticism Of ContraPoints. Throughout the video, Xanderhal responded to Essence of Thought's criticisms of Contrapoints, taking particular issue with the fact they did not watch Contrapoints full video before making their video, and feeling that their criticisms were in bad faith. Xanderhal later said that he felt the stream wasn't some of his best work and he didn't articulate himself well. However, he has said he stands by everything he said in the video.
This resulted in EssenceOfThought responding to Xanderhal, and this led to Xanderhal's Twitter being banned, as it was mass reported by fans and supporters of Essence of Thought. At the time, Xanderhal was still going by PIGPUNCHER, but after this, he decided to go through with a rebrand that he had been planning for a while. He renamed his channel to Xanderhal, named after his character from a DND stream with Vaush, Conure, CyberWitchLexi and WhiteNervosa. Since the rebrand, EssenceOfThought has continued to target Xanderhal, including doing a livestream attempting to criticize him, and referring to him as "Piggy", in response to a dead naming joke / controversy. Essence of Thought's stream was generally well received by their fans have also been noted for trying to get Xanderhal's new account banned, through methods such as tagging Xanderhal's twitter and calling him "PIGPUNCHER" or "PIGGY."
Xanderhal has offered to debate or talk with EssenceOfThought several times, however, EssenceOfThought has refused to do so several times. Xanderhal has since given up attempting to get in touch with them, though has said if they wish to approach him, he would be willing to speak to them.
==="PIGPUNCHER" is a deadname===
Xanderhal has joked that now, when someone calls him PIGPUNCHER, it feels slightly akin to Dead Naming - A phrase referring to when a transgender person who has changed their name is referred to by their birth name. This controversy is minor, but has had some people feel it was slightly disrespectful.
===YouTube Drama Community===
Xanderhal claimed in a video that the YouTube Drama community has no left-wing representation and claimed Keemstar is alt-right. Keemstar then responded to him on Twitter, denying the claim. Xanderhal then stated that he is planning to build bridges with drama YouTubers to further his ideology. He then got excited after SomeOrdinaryGamers followed him and saying that he was planning to build bridges with him. He was mocked by Optimus and WillyMacShow.
===Lauren Southern Debate ===
In April 2021, Xanderhal debated Lauren Southern about her children's book, "The ABCs Of Morality", which was also illustrated by George Alexopoulos. Xander cited incorrect studies and subsequently lost the debate. He was then mocked by Destiny, and accused by his fans and left wing commentators of platforming a Neo Nazi. 
===Vanessa Vokey===
In 2021, Xanderhal reacted to a video by radical feminist Vanessa Vokey. During the video, he began getting extremely angry and caught a nosebleed on camera. Vanessa then mocked him on Instagram. He also called her a SWERF (Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminist) and a TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) and her videos started receiving mass dislikes. He also told his fans to report her videos.
===Cringe Panda===
In March 2020, Xanderhal responded to a video by Cringe Panda, a 13-year old YouTuber. During the stream, Cringe Panda responded in his livechat. Xanderhal asked her to come onto his Discord chat, but her mother wouldn't let her. Xanderhal and his fans then claimed that Cringe Panda's parents were controlling her, and her videos got mass reported, resulting in two being removed. 
===Balenciaga tweet===
On November 21, 2022, Shoe0nHead tweeted about the brand using children in their photoshoots. In one of these images, a court document about child exploitation material can be seen inthe background. Though changed it afterwards, the backlash caused them to trend on Twitter and they closed down several of their social media accounts. Kim Kardashian also received backlash for saying that she was unsure whether to cut ties with them and received backlash when it was found her husband was the CEO of , Balenciaga's parent company.https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1594532715126202368https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/1597017102665142272https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKBUtib-gW8
However, Alexander accused Shoe of trying to incite gay panic because of the aforementioned post and tweeted "Shoe0nhead on her way to once again use her massive platform to provide the neo-nazis in her audience with fodder they can use to justify the murder of gay people but this time the day after another Anti-Gay terror attack."https://twitter.com/XanderhalTV/status/1594780797029928960 Shoe later tweeted "too late he did it. and unfollowed me. just like contra, the serfs, hunter etc. all of them over pedo shit. normal and cool. not gonna stop me from talking about it.".https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1594790589895438336
===Alleged abuse towards ex-editor and Keffals death threats===
On July 29, 2024, Demon Mama leaked several Discord DM screenshots from Xanderhal's former editor Cherry detailing what is allegedly him berating her over a money transfer on November 27, 2023 in which he allegedly said "So I think I am f***ed. Still no money and still does not show as pending in my bank account. OKAY THE NUMBER WAS WRONG CONFIMRED THE 4K WENT TO SOME RANDO. IT HAS TO BE STOPPED". He allegedly tried to get Cherry's attention and was claiming that he was "going to be homeless" and was "Buying a ticket back to California". Cherry then responded to Xanderhal and said that he allegedly failed to pay her 1 month before his meltdown.https://x.com/DemonMamaReal/status/1818091031960936869https://x.com/DemonMamaReal/status/1818091034192314415https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otIhgcS6rck
On December 17, 2023, he also allegedly made death threats to Keffals and demanded her address saying "I hate all of them Cherry. I want all of them to die I would kill keffals in a heartbeat. I wouldn't even shoot her I'd beat her to death with the gun". The DMs also detail Cherry telling Xanderhal that he's not in "a good mental state". Xanderhal responded with "I WILL KILL HER. Whats her address? I want it I wanna know where shes at". Cherry also allegedly said that Xanderhal was spiraling but he allegedly didn't listen, responding with "Someone has to die for this. I will never be happy until someone has died for this. Ideally Keffals"https://x.com/DemonMamaReal/status/1818093545733206316https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phMotSQVGQs
Keffals made a response video to this situation on X/Twitter saying "My position on Xanderhal saying that he wants to kill me is that nothing online matters. We all need to log off. please go outside. Get a hobby. go have sex. Literally do anything except be mad online. you can choose to live a life that is not miserable. I f***ing hate the internet. This is a miserable place. I'm planning to retire from streaming and will lock my account sometime next year and move on with my life. no one here is actually happy and you can only find happiness if you choose to prioritize things that really matter. I don't have anything else to say about this. I'll be back whenever, I really don't care anymore. try explaining this situation to literally anyone outside of this small internet echo chamber and watch the look they give you at how fucking insane you sound. I'm planning on getting married next year, I have good friends, I have hobbies and a social life. things are good. none of the good things in my life come from the internet and everything bad that has happened to me in the last two years has. I'm thriving". 1 day later, she announced that she was retiring from streaminghttps://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTtEe8EaIAAPpjO?format=jpg&name=large . She later privated her accounts and it is unknown if this retirement is going to be permanent or not.https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GTxedjQWQAAVuR1?format=jpg&name=small
==References==
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:News YouTubers
Category:Reaction YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2015