Bill Maher is nothing if not consistent.
He’s no fan of religion, witness his 2008 documentary “Religulous.” He votes Democrat, always. And he hasn’t budged on his free speech bona fides.
His party has, but not Maher.
So when the “Club Random” host invited Canadian comic Tom Green on his show the two clashed over their countrys’ free speech principles.
America has the First Amendment, but the country wobbled on free expression during the Biden administration. The Twitter Files made that abundantly clear.
So did Biden’s “misinformation” czar Nina Jankowicz, dubbed in some circles as Scary Poppins.
The elderly Biden said one of his biggest presidential regrets was not fighting back harder on so-called “misinformation.”
He’s the same leader who kicked off his 2020 presidential campaign with the “Very Fine People” lie.
A tribute to the accusations of “misinformation” being thrown about.
I present Biden’s short tenured 2022 gift to the nation Nina Jankowicz, aka Scary Poppins, his appointee for Executive Director of the Disinformation Governance Board of the United States.
She will be missed. pic.twitter.com/Lr4zeeqXwd
— Oscar Duh Grouch (@oscar_z_grouch) January 8, 2025
Canada’s free speech incringements have been more obvious and frightening.
Remember how the governmnet clamped down on the Truckers’ Protest? Even The Atlantic warned about movements within the country that would dramatically curtail free expression.
That context matters for Maher’s Sunday chat with Green.
“England has arrested people for having opinions on the Internet,” Maher said during their free-wheeling conversation. Fact check? True.
Green countered that there’s “misinformation” about Canada’s free speech principles.
That word likely triggered Maher, who understands how modern censors evoke it to censor others. Remember the COVID-19 pandemic?
“I have never experienced a situation where I can’t say something [in Canada]. There are hate speech laws in Canada, so there are things you can’t say. But you know what? Who would want to say that s*** anyways, right?”
“That’s not what free speech means,” Maher said.
“There’s a clearly defined definition of what hate speech is, so it’s not over-reaching. It’s really specific,” Green said about Canada’s rules. “You can pretty much say anything you want except things you would not agree with, and that nobody would want to agree with.”
“You don’t know what free speech is, then,” Maher countered. “That’s the definition of ‘Not Free Speech.’ Not everybody thinks the same. The Supreme Court ruled in our country that the Nazis could march in Skokie, Illinois.”
The host referred to the 1977 case where Neo-Nazis targeted a Chicago neighbhood where many Holocaust survivors once called home. The ACLU defended the Nazis’ free speech rights at the time, although the civil rights group no longer battles for free speech as it once did.
Today, FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) is arguably the best organization defending the First Amendment.
Maher is on the same page as FIRE, something Green learned during their exchange.
“The Supreme Court said, ‘As abhorrent as it is, that is what free speech is about,'” Maher said. “Anybody can defend the speech that we all like, but sometimes it changes what people like, and you just don’t want to be limited.”
Ironically, Green starred in one of the most divisive films of the 2000s. His movie “Freddy Got Fingered” drew withering reviews for its deeply offensive gags.
Hate speech? It’s in the eye of the beholder.
Roger Ebert gave the film zero stars back in 2001.
This movie doesn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels.
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