Bill Maher Condemns Woke Revolution, Twitter’s “Red Guards” and Its American Parallels

Bill Maher thought a lot about China on this week’s edition of HBO real time. His first mention was during the opening monologue when he talked about people “freaking out” about the Chinese spy balloon over Montana.

“Now they know where we keep the cows,” said Maher. He noted that the Chinese deny that the balloon is being used to spy on us. “That’s what TikTok is for.”

Maher countered those who want to shoot it down and called for calm. “We have to watch until it cracks and burns,” he said. “Like Kanye”

But Maher got serious during his editorial about the new rules, noting how the vigilantes are trying to reinvent human nature. He talked about the Red Guard movement in China, where people attacked those accused of not toeing the ideological line, made them wear clown hats and publicly shamed them.

Such tactics, Maher said, are an attempt to change things by shouting at them, a problem — and now it’s becoming more of a fact here in the US.

To illustrate, Maher cited the story of Jason Kilborn, a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law, who was accused of behavior that made some students of color uncomfortable. During an exam, he alluded to two racial slurs in a hypothetical question about a black worker suing an employer. Complaints followed, and he was banned from campus and asked to undergo awareness training and write five self-reflective essays.

This was the modern version of what the Red Guards did. “If you don’t see the similarities between[Kilborn]and can’t see this, you’re the person who needs to be re-educated,” Maher said.

He concluded his editorial by recalling how Winston Marshall, the former Mumord & Sons banjo player, was forced to leave the band and frantically apologized for supporting a controversial book.

“Pain from a book?” Maher asked. “Not unless he hit the drummer in the head with it.”

Maher compared this situation to John Lennon’s song “Revolution”, which called for people carrying pictures of Chairman Mao to “not get along with anybody anyway.”

“There was a man who understood how good intentions can change,” Maher said.

Maher also had former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria “Rondo” Arrandondo, both of whom agreed that what happened to Tire Johnson in Memphis was bad.

The panel included New York Times columnist Brett Stephens and Arizona Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego.

Their most interesting discussion concerned the decision to end the pandemic emergency measure in May, which brings changes to a number of issues, particularly immigration.