Talk show host Bill Maher blasted liberals on Friday for using “extreme bullying” techniques to define free speech as speech that doesn’t offend them.
Following the recent terrorist attack at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Mr. Maher came out against conservatives like Bill Donohue who called he says called him an “anti-catholic bigot so many times it’s now my ringtone,” but said he was far more troubled by liberals who cannot tolerate speech that challenges their ideas. Mr. Maher then referred to groups that petition to have conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh taken off the airwaves.
“Yeah liberals hate bullying all right, but they’re not opposed to using it,” Mr. Maher said in a video posted by Mediaite. “When they casually throw out words like bigot and racist it does cow people into avoiding this debate, and if you’re doing that, you don’t get to wear the ’Je suis Charlie’ button, the button you should wear says ’Je suis part of the problem.’”
Mr. Maher said that to Muslims who love their religion and might be offended by people insulting Islam, that he feels the same way about marijuana.
“Say you are… Muslim. And you love love love you some Islam. It’s what uplifts you and inspires you and you can’t imagine your life without it or why everyone else doesn’t love it too. Believe me I get that, that’s how I feel about weed. But when someone criticizes weed, I think, ’good, more for me,’ not ’off with their head,’” said the “Real Time” host, Mediaite reported.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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