Late-night TV host Bill Maher slammed cancel culture during an interview with former NBC host Megyn Kelly, saying it’s not about upholding values of diversity and inclusiveness but more about “getting a scalp on the wall.”
“We have a lot in common — we were both s–canned by major broadcast networks,” Ms. Maher told Ms. Kelly on HBO’s “Real Time” Friday night.
He was talking about Ms. Kelly’s very public firing from NBC News in 2018 after she defended people wearing blackface on occasions such as Halloween.
“When that happened to you, I was angry for you, honestly, because this cancel culture … when they do polls, they find, like, 80-90 percent of the people in this country hate this s—t,” Mr. Maher said. “Even liberals hate this s—t. This is one reason why Trump got elected, because people hate political correctness so much that they’ll even take it in the mouth of a werewolf when he’s not politically correct.”
“I mean, you even apologized for something that I didn’t think was that awful,” he continued. “It’s like, why couldn’t you just say, ‘OK, I was a little inartful about how I expressed that, my bad, I’m sorry, move on with our lives.’ Instead of, ‘No, you have to go away for all time.’ Who are these perfect people who have never made any mistake?”
Ms. Kelly responded that “the country is going through something right now” and that marginalized groups are trying gain equal footing in society, but that the approach is what needs to be worked on.
“Do we do it with grace and humanity and understanding that people make mistakes and that we’re all imperfect and we’re going to screw up, maybe more than once?” Ms. Kelly said. “We can’t expect a perfect score of any person.”
Mr. Maher added, “What’s galling is the people who hate bullying are always bullying … the people who love diversity, except of opinion. There’s only one true opinion.
“They’re not left, they’re gross,” he continued, “because all they care about is getting a scalp on the wall. They don’t care if you’re really a racist, which you’re not.”
