Recently, there was a snippet of
story we did in 2018.
It was about religious people in
the United States, Christians
specifically, who wanted to
essentially enact more restrictive
anti-abortion legislation.
They wanted to essentially use
their religion to dictate how
we live our lives.
Now, that snippet that went viral
really confused me,
because I don't know why a video
from November of 2018 would get all
of this attention suddenly.
And then I realized, that's right,
there's something big happening in
Poland right now.
They just passed incredibly
restrictive anti abortion laws.
So the BBC reported that abortion
in Poland is now allowed
only in cases of rape or incest or
when the pregnancy
threatens the life of the mother.
The ruling by the Constitutional
Court found that a 1993
law allowing abortion in cases of
severe and irreversible fetal
abnormalities was unconstitutional.
So if you are found to have
a pregnancy where the fetus has
severe defects like severe issues.
In Poland, you're forced to keep
carrying that fetus.
And it is an unbelievably cruel,
terrible law to implement.
The court justified its ruling on
the grounds that an unborn child is
a human being and
therefore it deserves protection
under Poland's constitution which
ensures the right to life.
And in 2019, 98% of abortions were
carried out on those grounds,
meaning that there was some sort of
abnormality or
defect with the fetus.
And so this ruling effectively
banned the vast majority
of pregnancy terminations in
the country.
So with that context in mind, you
can understand why this went viral.
These comments might be strong, but
it's how I genuinely feel I don't
care that you're a Christian.
I don't care what the Bible says.
Like, I feel like it's a clown
show, like sitting here trying to
decipher what your little mythical
book has to say about these very
real political issues, right?
I don't care if you're Christian.
In fact, I will fight for you to
have your religious liberty and
practice your Christianity,
I believe in that.
I don't believe in Christianity,
which means that you do not get
to dictate the way I live
my life based on your religion.
I don't care what the Bible says.
You have every right in the world.
All those women who identify with
your religion have every right in
the world to not get an abortion,
to not take birth control, but
they do not have the right to
dictate my life, and
what I decided to do with my body.
I don't care about your goddamn
religion.
I'm so tired of having non stop
conversations about what the Bible
says.
You live your life in the way that
you interpret the bible.
Again, I don't care, but
you don't get to take the bible and
tell me, well, the bible says this
in this chapter and this verse.
I don't care, I don't care,
I don't believe in it and
I have the right, based on our
constitution to not believe in it.
Cenk, the stuff that actually ended
up I don't know, making me feel
like I have a purpose,
making me proud of my career.
There are things that
I didn't expect, right?
Like it's kind of crazy because
like I would have never
expected that video to go viral.
But more importantly,
who cares about me going viral?
I wouldn't have expected that my
rant there would speak to people
who want to articulate the same
thing and were afraid to articulate
it but watching me say
it gives them like the courage or
the comfort to say it.
And I'm not just putting words in
people's mouths, so I got a lot of
messages from people from Poland
that I want to share with you guys.
Actually Cenk if we pull up
the graphics, can you read it?
Because it's embarrassing to read
really nice things about myself.
So can you just do it?
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, sure.
>> Show our first graphic.
>> And then I'll tell you about,
some of the best moments we've
had that I think are related
to our stand against religion.
And I want to go back to the issue
of Poland as well but
let's see these.
So this person wrote in hi,
I only would like to thank you for
your speech.
I'm from Poland where government
don't give up about people's
rights.
Strong words like yours give us
power to fight with this little,
you know what?
Thanks appreciate your courage
to say it loud.
And yes, the Polish government
is right wing and doesn't give
a damn about your rights and
I love that you're fighting back.
We got another one.
I do not even know if you'll read
this message apparently you know
now, but I would like you to know
that you're my heroine.
I don't think I'm pronouncing
that right.
Anyway, I've been replying this
video a million times and
I wish my Polish government could
finally understand this real
political issue.
And by the way, guys- >> Okay.
>> Let's pause for a second for
me to say something.
When I go to meetups or when I used
to pre-COVID, the number one
comment I hear now is Anna is my
daughter's role model.
Or she's a hero to me because
of how strong she is.
And I love that and I'm so
proud of that.
It's one of the things I'm most
proud of In my entire career.
I love strong women and
that we have been a vehicle for
featuring them and giving voice.
I don't understand why
anyone doesn't like strong women.
I mean, it's so awkward for the old
school people to still look for
typecast for
timid women on TV, it's insanity.
I believe in strength and
passion and fighting for you and
I love that Anna does that.
I want to keep piling on the
awkwardness is there is there more?
>> No, no, no, it's enough now and
I really underestimated how
uncomfortable this would make
me feel.
Because it's it's sweet and I'm so
appreciative and I read these on my
own and it means a lot to me but
it's enough.
Thank you.
I don't want to read it like to
the audience anymore.
[LAUGH] >> Okay, now, I hear you,
I hear you.
>> Yeah. >> But can I just say
look, as it turns out, some of the
things I'm most proud of, is how we
affected people across the world,
and as it turns out, a lot of times
it was about the issue of religion.
I remember reading
the Reuters story.
We didn't expect it at all.
We didn't know anything about it.
I'm just reading a random story
about this 15 year old Turkish kid
in Germany who was considering
going to join ISIS and
had been radicalized and and then
in the middle of the article says,
but he heard this broadcast on
The Young Turks and realized that
it was okay for him to be gay.
And that God created him that way,
and that he wouldn't create him
that way and then hate him for it.
And I changed his mind and he came
out instead of joining ISIS.
Everything was worth it on that
story alone, right?
I remember I was once
at the RNC and a Kurdish reporter
came up to me and
said, that's the famous Cenk Uygur.
And I'm like, really?
Tell others,
I'm sure anybody else knows that.
because I know in Kurdistan you're
famous because after we retook one
of the cities you said we
would be free forever now, and
then we had stood up for ourselves.
And that guy broadcasts all over
Kurdish territory.
I love that,
I'm super proud of that.
Relatively speaking just certainly
what they have been in the past.
Occurrences are way more free,
they fought for it,
they have tremendous courage.
And I love that we stand up for
the powerless.
So back to Poland now.
So if you hear 98% of the abortions
were done because of fetal
deformations and abnormalities,
you might be thinking really
are people using that as an excuse?
No, this is a very important thing.
There's only a thousand abortions
that were allowed legally
in Poland in this time period.
There was 200,000 estimated
abortions that were done illegally
or outside of the country.
So most of the abortions
are already banned in Poland.
So this was for people who actually
had medical problems and
even shut that down.
And now to Anna's point.
Religious people have trouble
understanding that
we are not in your religion.
We don't have to follow the rules
of your religion.
So Muslims make this mistake,
fundamentalist Muslims do,
when they say you're not allowed to
draw the Prophet Muhammad.
No, you're not allowed to draw
the Prophet Mohammed,
I'm allowed to draw anything I like
because I'm not in your religion.
I used to be in Islam.
Islam is no worse than any other
religion.
It has wonderful parts about
helping the poor and
the needy, etc.
It also has parts I don't agree
with, that's why I left it.
Okay, now you have to follow
the rules of the religion you left.
No, I don't, that was the whole
point of leaving it.
And so then on Christianity like,
okay, us Christians wrongly believe
that the Bible says that you should
not have an abortion,
actually the Bible is pro abortion,
read numbers you'll see.
But okay, whatever, that's their
interpretation of their text.
Okay, so that's why you have
to follow my religion.
Wrong again, Bob.
I don't,
especially in America, where we do
not establish a religion.
It's in our founding document.
So just think about it this
way, guys.
What an amazing assumption of
privilege for
conservative Christians to say
you must all follow our religion.
What an absurdity,
I'm not in your religion.
In a country you claim is free,
I'm supposed to be bound by your
interpretation of ancient
mythology.
That's obvious insanity,
we just haven't been able to say
that because our media doesn't have
the courage to call out
religious zealots.
They always bow down.
We have to be respectful.
I don't have to be respectful of
you telling me what
to do with my life.
That's not what we sign up for.
My parents came here from Turkey.
We came here for freedom.
We came here because we have
the ability to worship any religion
or no religion.
You don't get to come and
then tell us, now you're going to
be ruled by a Christian theocracy.
I'm not interested in America,
in that in America and I'm also not
interested in that in Poland.
And if you're in Poland,
they're not even right about their
religion, read numbers,
the Bible is pro abortion.
That's an absolute fact.
They blind you from day one.
And then they say and by the way
for us people who are not
religious, they're saying no, no,
I know in Harry Potter Dumbledore
said that you should be against
abortion or for abortion,
but my priest interpret that to be
against abortion, so
now you must follow Dumbledore.
No, no, I don't have to follow
Dumbledore or Odin or Athena or
Jesus or Mohammad,
they're all myths.
So go ahead and
hate me if you want, but
read those texts,
they're all comically wrong.
>> Okay, I think it's important
to shed some light on what was
going through my mind when I
went through that rant.
Because look part a huge part of
it, of course was the story we were
covering.
But it was also like I was so
tired of hearing you talk about
what the Bible says like it was
also you, right?
Like you're making a good point but
like we've worked together for
14 years and
you've made that point about like
the Bible says don't eat shellfish
and this meant I was just, my god,
I can't take it anymore.
I don't want to talk about
this anymore.
It doesn't even it doesn't
even matter what the Bible says.
We live in a country with religious
liberty, meaning that we're not
forced to believe one religion or
the other.
It also means that we don't have to
believe any religion.
We can be Atheist,
we can be Agnostic, so I get
why you make that argument and
it's a good argument to make.
But in that moment,
I was just like I don't care about
numbers like I just don't want to
hear about numbers anymore.
I don't want to hear
about any of it.
I don't want to hear right
wingers cite their Bible.
I didn't want to hear your
argument about how
the Bible doesn't say that.
I just want everyone to understand,
we live in a country
where the Federal government is not
allowed to force a specific
religion down your throat,
that's all that matters.
>> So I know that they can't get
this through their thick heads.
But a lot of Asian cultures think
that an abortion is like knee
surgery.
They think it's the most
uninteresting medical procedure.
They don't ascribe any morality to
it at all, pro or con.
So now we have the West saying,
we're so arrogant in our beliefs
that even though the majority of
the world does not agree with our
beliefs, we're going to say that
it's a moral issue and they must
follow our version of morality.
It's just every part about it is
insane and I'm tired of coddling
fundamentalists.
So Anna, in a sense of course,
you're right.
What difference does it make if
Zeus had sex with a duck or
a woman, he didn't have any of them
or a swan, I think it was, right?
It's so, Especially in America,
if you think we should follow your
religion, you missed the whole
point of the country.