Why does he need to be defended? Does he actually contribute to the issues he is concerned with in any way that doesn’t also benefit his brand? How would any streamer, regardless of their professed politics, be worth anything to a revolutionary process? Why is he not a mere spectacle?
Socialist is a broad term and I don’t think this data is so clear cut because socialist grew by 10% in just 6 months in 2020 then tapered off. To me this shows rather that his audience is renewing, based on this graph.