Bill Maher had a message for immigrants who come to the U.S. looking for the American Dream but, in his view, aren’t interested in embracing the country’s “liberal values.”
During Friday’s (August 14) episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher, 70, tackled immigration and assimilation in his latest “New Rule” segment, arguing that there are certain American ideals he believes shouldn’t be up for debate.
“If you want the American Dream, you have to take the American values,” Maher declared.
The comedian acknowledged that most immigrants still want to assimilate, but argued that some have embraced a different idea of what the American melting pot should look like.
“Something has changed in the equation. Now, most immigrants still want to assimilate. But some now have this other attitude of melting pot,” Maher said, before adding, “F*** you, you melt!”
Maher’s point wasn’t that immigrants have to abandon their cultures. Quite the opposite, he said. Eat your family’s food. Speak another language at home. Celebrate your religious holidays. Keep the traditions that matter to you.
“Look, you don’t have to love everything about America. We don’t. That’s why Yelp was invented,” he explained. “That’s why Yelp was invented. But, you know, if you do get past ICE, America’s actually pretty cool. We say you do you. Eat the food your grandma cooked. Speak another language at home. Celebrate religious holidays. We welcome your food, your art, your fashion, your First Ladies.”
But Maher drew a line when it came to what he considers core American values.
“But you have to answer one question: Do you like Western civilization? Because that’s what we are. And that’s not negotiable,” he said.
He then asked the Real Time audience whether gay rights should be considered one of those non-negotiable values. The crowd responded with loud cheers and applause.
To make his point, Maher brought up Melissa Chaudhry, a liberal Democrat from Seattle who is running for Congress. He noted that LGBTQ+ rights were not included among the causes she supports.
“Because a lot of Muslims do not feel that way, unfortunately,” Chaudhry said.
Maher then posed a question of his own: Is progressive politics now willing to “throw gay people under the bus anytime it clashes with what makes Muslims uncomfortable”?
“How about homophobia: we just don’t do that here,” he said, before joking, “We will make you bake a wedding cake.”
He also cited political activist Linda Sarsour, quoting her as saying, “Our number one… priority is… our community. It is not to assimilate.”
“OK, but that’s not really how immigration works,” Maher responded.
He illustrated his argument with a typically Maherian hypothetical involving Japan.
“If I move to Japan, I don’t get to say, ‘OK, everybody. A couple of changes. First of all, shoes stay on in the house now. Also, no more tentacle porn, that’s gone.’”
From there, Maher rattled off a list of practices he said have no place in the U.S., including “Honor killings, not letting women show their faces, polygamy, cousin f***ing, female genital mutilation.”
“There’s lots of stuff we don’t do here. And it’s non-negotiable. And it’s not ‘white values.’ These are liberal values. People fought and died to establish them,” he said. “And it’s not racist to say if you want to come here to help form a more perfect union, great. But some things are too fundamental to change.”
Maher made a point of saying that he applies the same standard to Christian nationalists.
“And I would say the same thing to Christian nationalists,” he said. “Democracy, not theocracy. Free speech, even about religion. Equal rights for women, LGBT — that’s America.”
By the end of the segment, Maher was anticipating the obvious criticism of his argument.
“Now, you can, and I’m sure some of you are screaming, ‘Islamophobia!’ But that’s just a bulls*it word to cow people into not talking about this,” he said. “This has nothing to do with non-whites becoming the majority. I don’t give a s* about that. I don’t give a s*** about colors. White people — they’re white, they’re not pandas. I care about liberal values being replaced by illiberal ones.”
Real Time With Bill Maher airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO.
