Comedian Bill Maher roasted lefty academics for trashing Western civilization — while enjoying the freedoms and institutions it created.
During Friday night’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” he vented during a conversation about Israel with Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, who has criticized the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement against Israel that has flared at the elite Connecticut school and other campuses.
“Israel was known as an outpost of Western civilization,” he told Roth.
“And that’s what it was called. That was always a good thing. Now, I don’t think it is,” Maher said, referring to the changing perception of Israel amid its war against Hamas in Gaza that began after the Oct. 7 attacks.
“Western civilization — they talk about it like it’s a bad thing, instead of saying Western civilization is what gave everyone who’s a progressive the things they should be most proud of,” Maher continued.
Roth jumped in to acknowledge that “a lot of our students think just that.”
Maher was incredulous.
“The professors are teaching that message? I think they’re learning it from my show,” joked Maher.
Roth suggested the professors might be watching his show more than the typical 18-year-old, prompting Maher to ask whether he could come to the Middletown, Conn., campus and be “welcome.”
“Welcome maybe not, but certainly …” Roth responded, drawing laughs from the audience.
That prompted Maher, who frequently skewers the left, to point out his Democratic fundraising credentials.
“Someone who twice gave the Democrats a million dollars — that’s not enough credentials to come up?” he marveled.
Roth said if he brought $1 million for the school, he’d be welcomed “with open arms,” earning laughs.
