On Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, Maher asked a very relevant question for today's climate of being fired because of personal beliefs: "Obama was against gay marriage in 2008, does he have to resign?"
Maher took a walk down memory lane during his "New Rule" segment, remembering the politically correct days of the 1990s when, he says, "blacks became African-Americans, Mexicans became Latinos and Indians became casino owners." Back to a time Maher had a show called Politically Incorrect in response to that environment.
Maher compared that time with today's instant access social media saying, "In the '90s, you had to at least get off your ass to be in a fake mood of hurt feelings." He continues railing against social media as a game of "gotcha" and pointing out what is wrong with everybody else in order to feel "morally superior."
While Maher disagrees with the beliefs of a few of his examples, he uses them to point out how political correctness is rearing its ugly head in even stronger ways. He mentions the Dolphins fining Don Jones and sending him to sensitivity training for his negative comments after seeing the so-called first NFL Draft same-sex kiss. Or Phil Robertson's comments on homosexuality -- Maher said, "Why even listen? What do you think he was going to say, 'The Tonys are nothing without Neil Patrick Harris'?"
But perhaps the best thing Maher has ever said on television happened in this segment. He mentions Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich being forced to resign after it was revealed that he supported California's gay marriage ban in 2008. Maher said, "Obama was against gay marriage in 2008, does he have to resign?" He added, "Hillary came around just last year, can she be president?"
"You can't purge everybody who doesn't evolve exactly on the timetable you did," said Maher. Which goes to show that every once in a while, a liberal can be right.
