Bill Maher had two clear reasons for writing his new book, “What This Comedian Said Will Shock You” (Simon & Schuster).
“I wanted people to be able to buy a book that was sort of an encyclopedia of every good thing I ever said over the last 20 years,” the “Real Time with Bill Maher” host said of the anthology, featuring his editorials from his TV shows.
“The other reason I wanted to do this is because I thought that, by looking over all this stuff from the past, I could ascertain whether I had changed or whether the politics had changed,” Maher, a lifelong Democrat, explained
“It’s an accusation that’s been leveled at me a lot in the last 10 years: ‘You make fun of the left more than you used to.’ And my answer is yes, I absolutely do, because they got a lot crazier.”
I spoke to Maher about his book, out Tuesday, and started by asking him what emboldens him to call out his own side.
Maher: “Why do I make fun of the left more? Because there’s much more identity politics, super-sensitivity, victim culture, cancel culture, hostility to free speech, pointless white self-loathing, forcing complex ideas about race and gender on kids who can’t even spell yet — all this kind of stuff is going on on the left.
“That doesn’t mean I became a Republican or became more conservative — because I didn’t. It just means I don’t bend the knee and just ignore the goofy stuff because I’m on team blue.”
I’m curious whether, in reading your editorials back, there were any specific ones that you felt were especially prophetic?
“I definitely know there were a number of issues that I was really out front on.
I think I’ve been out on the front on marijuana reform. I’ve been out front on the idea that our food is what is killing us.
I’ve also been out front about the idea that college has been a scam for a very long time and that you’re better off not going to college in most cases. The Democrats’ idea that we’re always better off if we have more education is bullshit. What we need to do instead of making college affordable for everybody is make college unnecessary for most jobs, which it mostly is.
I think I was also out front on opposing the idea that kids lack self-esteem. They have too much esteem. We’ve turned them into little monsters.”
Do you think, in the wake of October 7 and all the campus craziness that has erupted, that we could see a pendulum shift back toward normalcy as a counteraction to the fringe extremism?
“I hope so. So many people ask whether I was wrong for making fun of the left more than I used to. I mean, if I ever had any doubt about that question, the reaction in much of this country and especially on college campuses to October 7 put that question to rest for me.
The left has gone to a crazy place because they threw their lot in with Hamas. I mean, really? The people who consider themselves the most liberal people in the world are on the side of the people who outlaw homosexuality and make women wear a burqa? Really?
You leave the book in a very ominous place, with a chapter on Civil War. How seriously do you really take that threat, especially ahead of the 2024 election?
“I think there’s an absolute nightmare possibly looming.
We have to get back to this place where we didn’t hate each other just for having some different political opinion. I’ve said it a million times: You can hate Trump. You can’t hate everybody who likes him. That’s half the country. Even though I would never vote for him, I get when people do.
And that’s because there are a lot of bad ideas on the left — you know, abolishing the police and giving communism another try and tearing down statues of Lincoln and getting rid of the border patrol, and maybe capitalism should go, and white supremacy has never been worse, you can be healthy at any weight, gender is only ever a social construct.
These are terrible ideas. And we only have two choices, so a lot of people look around and say, ‘Yeah, Donald Trump has a lot of bad things about him, but I’m not going to vote for that [progressive] menu, either.’”
What is the number-one takeaway you hope readers get from your book?
“We’re going to fall like the Roman Empire unless we can get back to a place where we’re not hating each other so much that we’re literally taking sides against our fellow Americans.
This is the United States, and we can’t forget about the ‘united’ part.”
