On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that one of the lessons from the situation in Afghanistan is that Americans should have perspective about their own country and despite the tenant of woke ideology “that America is rotten to the core,” “no one here tries to escape by hanging onto an airplane.” And “There’s a reason Afghan mothers are handing their babies to us.”
Maher said, “Blind hatred of America is just as blinkered as blind love, and we Americans should really get some perspective about where we live. Watching the shit go down in Afghanistan, I was reminded lately of every conversation I’ve ever had with an immigrant, almost all of which — if we got to really talking — included the notion, oh, you people have no idea. All you do is bitch about and badmouth your own country, but if you knew about the country I came from, you’d stop shitting on your own.”
He added, “I have never been a rah-rah America type, and in fact, have often made fun of Republicans in the past for being overly sentimental. … But liberals, as usual in this era, have now gone too far in the other direction. They under-romanticize America. They have no perspective. Last week, the Taliban murdered a comedian. His name was Nazar Mohammad, and he made up funny songs on TikTok. They forced him into a car, tortured, and then executed him, a comedian, a thing like that hits a little close to home for me. I’ve had two presidents up my ass. … I mean, neither experience was pleasant, but I didn’t have to worry about being dragged until I’m dead behind a Toyota Tacoma. Have a little perspective about the stuff we howl about here. I’m sorry your professor said something you didn’t like, that won’t be a problem with the Taliban. Because you’re not allowed to go to school.”
Maher further stated, “If you think America is irredeemable, turn on the news or get a passport and a ticket on one of those sketchy airlines that puts its web address on the plane. There’s a reason Afghan mothers are handing their babies to us. And we should take them. Americans, right now, should take in Afghan refugees into their homes and into their neighborhoods. And I’m sure everyone who just clapped is thinking the same thing, yes, someone who isn’t me should definitely do that. But that doesn’t make us the bad guys. We’re not the bad guys. Oppression is what we were trying to stop in Afghanistan. We failed, but any immigrant will tell you we’ve largely succeeded here. And yet the overriding thrust of current woke ideology is that America is rotten to the core, irredeemably racist from the moment it was founded and so oppressive, sexist, and homophobic we can’t find a host for the Oscars or ‘Jeopardy!'”
He continued, “I’m sure you heard, the new ‘Jeopardy!’ guy is out because he said boobies in 2014. And this is where your new Afghani roommates that you took in will prove so valuable. Because they’ll turn to you and say, have you people lost your f*cking minds? Have you ever heard of honor killings? Public beheadings? Throwing gay men off of roofs? Arranged marriages to minors? State-sanctioned wife-beating? Female genital mutilation? Marriage by capture? Because we have. What’s the lesson of Afghanistan? Maybe it’s that everyone from the giant dorm room bitch session that is the Internet should take a good look at what real oppression looks like. … America may not be the country of your faculty lounge and Twitter dreams, but no one here tries to escape by hanging onto an airplane.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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