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Real Time With Bill Maher
Last night on HBO‘s Real Time With Bill Maher, the recent attack on writer Salman Rushdie was at the forefront of the discussion. The 75-year-old author of The Satanic Verses was being introduced to give a talk at western New York’s Chautauqua Institution when a man rushed the stage and stabbed him. He is currently on a ventilator and struggling for his life.
Maher said the topic is “somewhat personal” as Rushdie is a good friend (and frequent guest) of his. He read the attacker’s name, Hadi Matar, and said that his guess would be that he’s “not Amish” given calls for Rushdie’s death by Islamic extremists.
Sal, as Maher called him, was planning to talk about artistic freedom. “Giving that speech is unthinkable in most Muslim countries,” Maher said, warning, “Don’t come at me with Islamaphobia. When you say ‘phobic,’ it’s just a way to shut off debate.”
Guest Piers Morgan, who has had his own issues pertaining to free speech noted, “The defense of free speech starts with something you can’t stand.” You may hate the opinions or even the person, Morgan said. “But you should be able to tolerate their right to have a different opinion.”
Morgan mentioned how calls for “trigger warnings” and cancellations of people for offensive speech in the US and UK are increasing. “It’s nuts,” he said, insisting “it’s a very thin line between that and Salman Rushdie.” Concerned about what has happened to Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock just for telling jokes, he added: “when you stray into violence, it winds up with Salman.”
New York Post columnist Rikki Schlott, 22, claimed her generation was “never taught the principles of free speech.” She believes increased sensitivity to words has been one of the causes of incidents like Rushdie’s attack. “The logical conclusion to people who believe words are violence,” she said, is “You fight words that offend with violence.”
You can watch a clip of this discussion above.
During the episode Maher also touched on the FBI‘s raid of former President Donald Trump‘s home in Mar-a-Lago. He poked fun at the items that might have been found in Trump’s safe but then got serious.
“Is it going to justify this raid or is this going to be a political nightmare?” Maher asked.
“In the end, it comes down to what is in these boxes… if it turns out to be the real deal, if it turns out that Donald Trump has violated the Espionage Act, that is a serious crime and he should be held to account,” Morgan said. “If it doesn’t turn out to be there, that there are legitimate questions, I think, from the Trump supporters about the different standards applied to Donald Trump that hasn’t been applied to Hillary Clinton, to James Comey, to Hunter Biden and the others.”
