How do people in Turkey view figures like Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur?
Posted by molindevent@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 52 comments
They’re part of a fairly affluent and highly Westernized Turkish-American media sphere but they also don’t fit neatly into the standard pro-establishment American liberal mold. They’re often critical of US foreign policy and sometimes come across as more sympathetic toward countries opposed to the US than mainstream American commentators
How are they generally viewed in Turkey? Do people see them as representative of a certain type of diaspora Turk, or as something more uniquely American?
plebbitchungus@reddit
Not a single Turk is aware of the existence of those two. And I would imagine most wouldn't be a huge fan of the nepobaby tankie either way.
egny@reddit
You mean you don't know who they are.
molindevent@reddit (OP)
I agree he’s a nepo baby, I’m just not sure he’s really a tankie 🤣 maybe tankie-adjacent
janjko@reddit
He hates and belittles the Polish people because they hate Russia and hated the time they were under them. He is the definition of a tankie.
molindevent@reddit (OP)
Idk aren’t tankies communists? Hasan supports Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani. I feel like actual tankies would probably see him as a revisionist rather than one of them
egati002@reddit
Hasan is a communist of the highest order. He supports the Chinese Communist Party, he recently went to Cuba to support the communist regime there. He always talked about how evil capitalism and the West are, how evil the "Western mindset" is and so on. Even worse - he also supports islamist terrorist groups.... But was born a nepo baby and has millions of dollars...the trash of trash.
janjko@reddit
Oh, he is a communist, but he also knows that communism doesn't pass well in the broader crowd. So he shifts between social democrat and communist depending on the crowd he is in front of. He even said he does this.
molindevent@reddit (OP)
So when he appears on state-run media and shills for a government that literally imprisons "tankies" is he playing some 3D chess or what?
janjko@reddit
Show me one such example. You mean shilling for China? He thinks of China as his ally because they are a USA enemy. He also thought about Russia like that, but it became very hard to simp for Russia, so he decided against it.
Tankies are people from the west who cheered for Soviet Union tanks going into eastern European countries, like Czechoslovakia and Hungary to crush their attempts to break away from the Soviet control. And Hasan also aligns with that feeling. So yes, he is a tankie.
SolidReputationWorld@reddit
Dude....... c'mon.....
NidzoMadjija@reddit
Uh, based?
Perfect-Nail9413@reddit
He 100% is a tankie.
BulutAndFriends@reddit
He glazes China to the bone, apparently supports the idea of Kurdistan and thought the USSR falling was a catastrophe for human history, not being aware of how our Kazakh cousins were victims of famine and how Stalin deported Meskhetian Turks.
Hasan isn't just "a" tankie, he's literally the worst example of a tankie.
Perfect-Nail9413@reddit
They also used the Kazakh to test their nuclear weapons on.
molindevent@reddit (OP)
Bro if you think that’s the worst of it, you have no idea how bad tankies can get
BulutAndFriends@reddit
He also supported the ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Kurds, despite being a so-called advocate of Kurdistan.
Perfect-Nail9413@reddit
Nepobaby tankie and failed pick-up artist.
situmaimesdemain@reddit
We have to know them to have an opinion. If you ask a Turk about streamer named Hasan, they will either think of Htalks or wont know anyone at all. Similar with the other one.
molindevent@reddit (OP)
So... uniquely American?
Our media basically always follows what Serbs in the diaspora are doing. The moment anyone with Serbian roots has even the slightest noteworthy success abroad, every outlet starts talking about it like it’s some huge national event
An underground rapper of Serbian descent from Detroit drops an EP and it somehow makes the news cycle. If we had something like the "Young Serbs" people here would probably be obsessing over them nonstop 🤣
I get that your diaspora is way bigger so people are probably less fixated on it but I still expected at least some kind of opinion or discourse around those guys
phantoms1n@reddit
Who's the Serbian rapper from Detroit? I live across the river curious
canyoubelieveitt@reddit
Hahahaha same here
molindevent@reddit (OP)
They dug up a video of Charlie Kirk talking about how he played basketball for a Serbian team in Chicago after his assassination and people here completely lost it. They even put up a mural of him in that jersey
yokedici@reddit
You are Charlie Serb?
levenspiel_s@reddit
We will know and talk more about the dispora in Europe for some reason. Maybe it's the proximity, or the direct everyday links (footballers, actors, etc). Other figures in the US, such as Dr Oz or Dr Sancar had a little bit of flame, but then got forgotten. Nobody really cares about Uygur or Piker, and as the commenter says, almost noone knows them.
Maximum-Doctor2564@reddit
So you know Aleks Petrovic? The King of the Butterflies?
molindevent@reddit (OP)
I can’t really find anything about him in Serbian media, so he seems to be one of the few diaspora Serbs who’s still flying under the radar
situmaimesdemain@reddit
Your diaspora population is way closer to your mainland than ours. We have about 90 million people here, Turks abroad are too outnumbered to dominate Turkish discourse.
molindevent@reddit (OP)
Yeah that makes sense in terms of scale. I think in our case it’s less about influence and more about media fixation on anything diaspora-related, even when it’s pretty marginal
gavats@reddit
who and who
envalemdor@reddit
They’re uniquely Western/American, only Canadian/American Turks would know them.
unluckyexperiment@reddit
Very few Tutks are aware of those guys' existence. It's more likely an American thing.
Big-Waltz5204@reddit
I'm not Turkish but I like Cenk. Been actually following tyt for global news for last 15 years probably. He is not a sellout like majority of pundits are. I think he genuinly has good intent. And he is one of best debaters I ever seen. Watching him on Piers Morgan is a trip, nobody has a chance.
Hasan, idk, he seems ideologically driven which I don't really like. Closeted communist. Cenk is pragmatical in his views whether Hasan is idealistic. I think Hasan experiment gonna probably end badly, he gonna rub too many people the wrong way.
sleepand@reddit
Nobody has heard of them unless they are actively following American social media.
sefq13@reddit
I listen to hasan sometimes, I think what he's trying to do is righteous and valuable.
canyoubelieveitt@reddit
He is preaching communism whilst wearing a 20000 usd watch
Perfect-Nail9413@reddit
He also tried to make a pick-up artist grifter before he suddenly became a leftist feminist.
CrnoCapor@reddit
Communism is when no phone
Kreol1q1q@reddit
Lol of course Hasan wears an AP Royal Oak and a Richard Mille, the quintessential rich obnoxious douche watches.
HuusSaOrh@reddit
Why should i care about an American?
Rasputin_Offical@reddit
Cenk kinda can handle the job even if he falls short in some stuff. Hasan on other hand may be the country's worst export ever. Like you would honestly be ashamed of being from the same nation as him.
Kardiyok@reddit
Being autistic and in front of a stream for 9 hours every day talking politics doesnt help him. Youre bound to go insane and catch strays. That being said most of what he says and does seems like its for the good cause so positive I guess.
Cant say anything about Cenk Uygur. I only heard him talk once or twice.
ohgoditsdoddy@reddit
I like Hasan’s takes on many things. Cenk is alright too, but less so. I’m not a part of either one’s cult though.
DarkWandererAmon@reddit
I know Cenk Uygur, I used to watch Young Turks for a bit
PotentialBat34@reddit
I learned about the Young Turks with happy merchant lady actually. I doubt many know about it, but given how loud they are and how questionable it is for them to finance a studio, and a crew with that many number of views, I kinda resembled them to our Ruşen Çakır. Ana looks good tho
Hasan I knew for a long time and could've coincidentally met because I was hanging around a lot with his old friends between 2017 to 2019. Many told him a fraud, and turns out to be they themselves were too so I am not so sure recently anymore. Champagne or not, Americans needed to hear a socialist to say these things so good for him I guess.
Ninevolts@reddit
Hasan Piker's family are the founders of a right wing political party called Future Party, lead by former prime Ahmet Davutoglu. His family is relatively unknown but the party is very well known and not loved at all.
Necessary-Meeting-28@reddit
From a Turkish standpoint their political positions don’t make any sense. We don’t really have millionaire socialists or mixed socialist/islamist views.
Dyspchordia@reddit
Most people have no clue who they are
My thoughts: Hasan is better than any turkish speaking streamer.
No one left wing in turkey is allowed a platform, social media is a hellhole of rampart nationalism, racism, tramsphobia and misogyny
Even 90% of turkish content in reddit is bannable if they were in english instead, direct call for ethnic killings is allowed in turkish speaking space.
So hasan is a breath of fresh air.
vladasr@reddit
I appresciate Czenk doing it is as brave for interior usa polithics as for foreign. He survives without strongly influential back like other big podcasters like Carlson or Save America. Bernie bross are like opposite of establishment some kind of xix century communists
PasicT@reddit
I would assume most people in Turkey have no clue who they are. Also, both speak English better than they speak Turkish.
Ok-Perception-856@reddit
Hasan's Turkish is great he does not speak any different from a guy living in Turkey.
bagdf@reddit
Almost nobody knows them. My personal opinion about them, I agree with cenk on some issues but can't stand the way he talks like he's screaming all the time. Hasan on the other hand is an absolute clown and a moron.
Otherwise-Strain8148@reddit
I watch cenk from time to time but he is loud af.
I cant watch those us figures for too long because all of them thinks in terms of team us vs team them. So many identity politics wrapped around every topic that it is very hard to get rid of those and reach to the core.
Piker is younger and is probably more popular right now but i havent watched him yet.