HBO host Bill Maher urged Americans to “get over the fantasy” that they are people of “core convictions and deeply held beliefs” on an episode of “Real Time” Friday night.
Maher criticized Americans for flip-flopping on their beliefs, saying they base their values on what’s popular with their political party.
“They only care which side is saying something,” he said, citing electric vehicles (EVs) as an example.
“This car used to be ‘fire.’ Now it’s on fire,” Maher said while showing footage of Teslas being burned at a dealership.
“Back when Elon Musk was presumed liberal, liberals loved electric cars and conservatives hated them,” he continued. “Then Elon went MAGA, and while the car market grew by 10% last month, sales of electric vehicles were down 5%, and not just Teslas, all EVs.”
“Conversely, MAGA Nation used to hate EVs two years ago,” he added. “Seventy-one percent of Republicans said they would not consider buying an electric car. Trump said they were for, quote, ‘radical left fascists, Marxists and communists.’ Now he’s selling them on the White House lawn.”
The “Real Time” host then turned his focus to an issue on which he felt Democrats had changed their stance on due to politics: keeping kids in school.
He referenced “An Abundance of Caution,” a book by David Zweig, which detailed the detrimental effects closing schools had on children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Here’s the author’s takeaway line: ‘The Academy of Pediatrics were very strongly in favor of getting kids into schools, but as soon as Trump came out in favor of reopening, they completely reversed their position,” he quoted.
Maher followed up with a tongue-in-cheek remark: “Hey, if you find yourself suddenly hating something you loved five minutes ago or vice versa, ask your doctor if ivermectin is right for you.”
He brought up the controversy surrounding the drug during the pandemic, noting how public opinion shifted largely along party lines.
“It [Ivermectin] won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for what it did for humans, but whatever the point is, it’s a drug, it’s not a politician,” Maher noted. “Drugs don’t have political parties, although I do suspect Xanax is a Democrat.”
Staying on the topic of health, Maher criticized conservatives for supposedly switching their stance on public health over the last few years because of politics.
“Do people really want to put politics ahead of their very health?” he asked. “Let me answer that — Yes. I know they do, because when Michelle Obama adopted as her first lady project to get America healthy again, Republicans went buck wild apes— real housewives throw drinks in your face crazy against it because it was Michelle Obama who said it.”
He recalled conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh mocking the initiative by asking if Americans were “supposed to eat roots and berries and tree bark.”
But according to Maher, conservatives’ views on public health completely shifted once U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed to his new cabinet position.
“But now that Robert Kennedy, leader of the Make America Healthy Again movement, is in the Trump administration, tree bark good, f— yeah make America healthy,” he quipped. “Finally, somebody said it. And when I say somebody, I mean not a Black, liberal lady.”
Maher closed the segment by urging Americans to stop reflexively supporting or opposing positions based solely on who supports them.
“But until we get to where we can do that,” he joked, “I just hope the Democrats come out strongly next week for dictatorship, coal mining, and making pot illegal.”