Yes, technically Mandela was considered a terrorist because he was a member of the ANC, which was labeled as a terrorist group during the cold war after its infrastructure attacks against an apartheid government accidentally killed civilians. I agree this was a mistake and should have been corrected sooner. But this was also a lingering bureaucratic snafu, and doesn’t have anything to do with the Houthis. And for the record, Mandela was welcomed into the white house by Bush and considered a respected ally decades before being delisted.

The Houthis meanwhile have fired on, captured, and killed crew members of merchant ships belonging to various countries uninvolved with the conflict. They’ve haphazardly fired cruise missiles at Israel that instead land in civilian areas in Egypt. Their slogan translates to “God Is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A curse upon the Jews, Victory to Islam”. Whatever justifications they may give for their actions, they are terrorists.

I did some more research and I’ll admit the guy may not have been a member of the Houthis. I’m sorry for saying that when it was unconfirmed, but I still wish he would’ve been pressed to give a real yes or no. I didn’t find an explanation for why else he would call himself a Red Sea pirate. But if not, then at least he does support them with content like this and was welcomed onto a ship patrolled by armed guards they had captured for a tour or for content.

Also, you are misremembering the tone of the interview. Hasan’s fourth question was if the guy had heard of One Piece, followed by Hasan saying that the Houthis were “doing what Luffy would do”. When the guy was talking about their motivation for capturing the ships, Hasan said “Yeah yeah yeah yeah, exactly, no, I’m saying it’s a good thing. I understand.” Hasan asked if he was a Houthi member later, after bringing up anime.