For a satirist like Bill Maher, some weeks bring material that abounds with comic potential. This Friday’s episode of Real Time With Bill Maher opened on a more dour note, with Maher discussing the current state of Afghanistan and the recent suicide bombing. He also alluded to a group of San Diego students currently stuck in Afghanistan. “That’s how bad things are in California — families are vacationing in Afghanistan!” Maher quipped. “I mean, my dad took us on some shitty summer vacations, but…”
Maher ended his opening monologue with a positive note, alluding to OnlyFans’ recent decision to hold off on an explicit content ban. “If there’s one thing millennials love more than canceling the patriarchy, it’s women having sex for money,” Maher said.
Craig Whitlock, author of The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War, was the show’s first guest. Maher introduced Whitlock as “the guy who knows the most about” the circumstances leading up to the current moment in Afghanistan — though the initial segment of their conversation found the two lightly sparring over the current state of Kabul. Whitlock made the case that it had improved over the last 20 years, while Maher was more skeptical — a position which led to a few awkward moments.
Maher compared Whitlock’s book to “the modern Pentagon Papers,” and Whitlock offered a few choice moments from the history of the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan. This included a moment early on, when Donald Rumsfeld publicly chastised reporters for speculating that America could become bogged down in Afghanistan when, in private, his memos showed that he was worried about the exact same thing.
And Maher brought up something that’s been a running theme over the course of the last few shows — namely, that defense contractors have made a substantial amount of money from the conflict in Afghanistan, which has also led to that conflict (and others like it) fueling themselves. All told, it made for a candid and harrowing conversation.
The episode’s panelists offered two very different takes on American politics. Ralph Reed remains best-known for his time as the head of the Christian Coalition, and he’s since written a conservative Christian case on supporting Donald Trump. Katty Kay co-hosts the podcast When Katty Met Carlos, which focuses on politics in the United States.
And Maher kicked things off with a big question — focusing on some Congressional Republicans calling for Joe Biden’s resignation and the hypocrisy of some who endorsed his Afghanistan policy right up until the point where they didn’t. Democrats, Maher argued, tend to do “the cleanup work, the dirty work, the responsible adult things” and then end up criticized for it.
It was a point Kay agreed with, observing that the deal that took U.S. forces out of Afghanistan was one signed by Donald Trump during his time in the presidency. Reed pushed back, arguing that the deal Trump signed had provisions in place that Biden hadn’t abided by; Kay countered that many of those conditions were impossible to verify.
From there, Maher shifted direction slightly, exploring contemporary polarization. What’s gotten to the point where the American left and right are on such fractious terms? Kay argued that the Cold War gave ideological opponents in the United States someone to focus their ire on; with the Soviet Union gone, the situation has fundamentally changed. Reed agreed, and also made the argument that social media has helped drive people apart.
The ratings success of Greg Gutfeld’s late-night comedy show prompted a discussion of conservative comedy more broadly — with Maher arguing that there was an opening for it now in a way that there hadn’t been one before. “Comedy goes where the funny is,” he said, “and there is funny on the left now, as well as the right.” And from comedy and politics, the panel turned its gaze to religion and politics, exploring whether a drop in church attendance over time might also be due to partisan politics.
For this episode’s New Rules, Maher addressed the premise of Candyman and the guy suing Nirvana over the photo from the cover of Nevermind. The bulk of the segment focused on Maher criticizing disproportionate admiration and disdain for the United States. He criticized many conservatives for the former, pointing to the Supreme Court’s ruling invalidating part of the Voting Rights Act as one example. “It’s not because John Roberts is a monster, but because people like him tend to over-romanticize America” Maher said.
Maher argued that the left has gone in the opposite direction — and cited a number of countries around the world beset by political oppression or economic catastrophe. And he made an impassioned case for taking in Afghan refugees. Which then led to a strange digression into the Jeopardy! hosting situation, and a call for viewers to ask immigrants what they think of the country. It made for an odd note on which to end the episode, but it felt very much in keeping with the larger themes he’s brought up this season _ for better or for worse.
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