In the last episode of his HBO series, Real time with Bill Maher, comedian and talk show host Bill Maher introduced a “new rule” that makes people talk. Addressing the culture of cancellation, specifically based on social justice, he suggested that “guardians of the trap” should stop judging others whose hearts are in the right place.
Bill Maher has talked about canceling culture before
Those who watch Real time with Bill Maher We know that the host identifies himself as a liberal, and often defends the idea of freedom of expression. But in recent months, Maher has been increasingly concerned with canceling culture. Speaking about the resignation of MSNBC host Chris Matthews, after he was accused of “flirting” on the air, Maher called canceling the culture a “cancer in progressivism.”
Earlier this year, Megyn Kelly appeared on her show and spoke about the backlash she got for appearing black-faced while dressing up as Diana Ross for Halloween. Maher suggested that even though she made a mistake, the “awakening” that left her canceled her before she could learn and grow.
“They’re gross because all they care about is having a scalp on the wall,” Maher told Kelly. “They don’t care if you’re really racist, which you’re not … They always want to find the worst version of who anyone is.”
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He’s been critical of the ‘gotcha’ crowd when it comes to career
In a 2019 interview with The New York Times, Maher addressed the “gotcha” movement and suggested that politically correct people are only trying to protect feelings, while liberals are trying to protect real people. She said the “woke up” crowd is constantly changing the rules, just to have that moment of surprise. Speaking of race, she said she doesn’t follow the changing rules and sticks to the liberal values she learned from her parents and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“When I was growing up, the most liberal thing I could do was not see the color,” Maher said. “Well that’s wrong now. You see the color, always, so you can register your white privilege, but I grew up in the Martin Luther King era: judge by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin. I still think that’s the best way to do it, not watch it. “
He added that he believes that if someone enters a room, after a minute, they shouldn’t be thinking about color and they don’t. “This is how I have always been,” he added. “I have real black friends. I don’t think they want me to always be thinking: black person, black person, I’m talking to a black person. “
Bill Maher’s new rule addresses race and cancel culture
At the end of his June 26 episode of Real time with Bill MaherMaher entered the “New Rules” part of the show. She went straight to how people are canceling others just because of the way they advocate for racial equality.
“Blacks have to demand that whites stop culturally appropriating how angry they are at racism,” Maher says on the show. “It’s great that Caucasians have finally joined the fight for racial justice, but do they hate racism more? – Whites should stop trying to cancel other people whose hearts are in the right place, but they don’t do it exactly right on the first try. “
He goes on to describe how Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf launched an hate crime investigation into park exercise ropes built by an African-American man who was initially reported to be ropes. Maher also says he fears that the Gotcha culture will divide people rather than unite them.
“I am concerned that the kind of tensions the ‘gotcha’ guardians are creating is going to make people afraid of mixing at all, and push us towards a kind of re-segregation, rather than just seeing one person and no color, now we are only seeing color, “he says.” Maybe this is the old school liberalism speaking, but I don’t think that is the way to go. “
Real time with Bill Maher It will return with new episodes on July 31 on HBO.