Comedian Bill Maher recently appeared on ABC’s “The View,” where he offered a strong rebuttal to co-host Sunny Hostin’s assertion on the term “woke.” Hostin suggested to Maher that the term, now used extensively by the right to describe far-left manifestations in culture and politics, was hijacked, thus obfuscating its original meaning.
Hostin introduced the topic, “But it struck me that in the first segment you use the term woke and you said that woke is what was sort of ruining everything.” Maher clarified, “I didn’t say ruining everything. I said that’s why Trump could get reelected.”
Hostin continued, claiming that the term “woke” was originally used by the black community to stay aware of social injustices that were being committed. She pressed Maher as to why this would be considered a “bad thing.”
“So I just, the term woke has been, in my view, co opted by the right and weaponized and bastardized. And so I was surprised to hear you use the term because historically, as you know, because I think you’re quite brilliant that woke is a word used by the black community to know that we must be aware of social and justices but weren’t. Why is that a bad thing?” she asked.
Maher quickly hit back, explaining that words “migrate” and can change in their meaning. He even offered to use another word to illustrate his point so Hostin would not get caught up in the semantics of his statement. The comedian said, “It’s not a bad thing. And originally, that was absolutely a great thing. alert to injustice who’s not too bad, but words do migrate. Now I’ll use any term you want. Because maybe that is word that’s triggering. And so we let’s not use that word. I don’t want to call it the super far left.”
While Maher maintained that he is highly critical of the right, he emphasized that the left has become problematic. “We talked about that. I mean, I think we agree about the danger of the super far right and I can’t say it enough. I think they’re the bigger threat but don’t tell me that the left hasn’t changed,” he said.
The conversation on the panel then pivoted to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas after Maher slammed those on the left who are supporting the terrorist organization. He noted that it “straightened him up quick” to observe this support from the left. Watch the clip below:
“Well, I mean, it’s just astounding to me that they can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys. I mean, just morally, I mean, let me tell you, if you’re for Hamas, just live in Gaza for a day and I’m not talking about while the war is on. I mean, before the war. Trust me, you wouldn’t go running and screaming and begging to live in Tel Aviv, a place that has your values. I mean, women have no I mean, this is a show watched by a lot of women. Women have no rights right in this place, and a lot of majority Muslim countries around the world,” Maher continued.
The comedian defended Israel’s military activity in Gaza, claiming they were attacked and have the right to protect themselves after the horrifying massacre last October. Maher stated that Hamas ultimately needs to be destroyed.
“It’s a war and they were attacked and they’re defending themselves. Now, this is a war Do you think Hamas needs to be destroyed? This is the question. Alright, so Hamas needs to be destroyed because they are a terrorist organization who has who say openly that they want to commit genocide on the Jewish people on the state of Israel,” he said.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
"*" indicates required fields