Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher slammed the idea of comparing historical figures to modern woke culture ideology.
During the “New Rules” segment of his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher, on Friday, Maher discussed a recent essay by American Historical Association President James Sweet that sought to highlight how judging historical figures according to modern-day identity politics “ignores the values and mores of people in their own times.”
Sweet apologized for writing the essay, but Maher said the writer shouldn’t be sorry for drawing attention to historical “presentism.”
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“Being woke is like a magic moral time machine in which you judge everyone by what you think you would have done in 1066, and you always win,” Maher said, noting that it is “just a way to congratulate yourself about being better than George Washington because you have a gay friend and he didn’t.”
“But if he were alive today, he would too, and if you were alive then, you wouldn’t,” Maher added.
Sweet’s essay took aim at controversial examples of presentism, including the highlighting of historical inaccuracy of claims made by The 1619 Project’s founder Nikole Hannah-Jones about the United States being built on racism and slavery.
Maher pointed to the idea of slavery going beyond a racist ideology and institution, saying: “The capacity for cruelty is a human thing, not a white thing.”
“Everybody who could afford one, had a slave — including people of color,” Maher continued. “The way people talk about slavery these days, you’d think it was a uniquely American thing that we invented in 1619. But slavery throughout history has been the rule, not the exception.”
Maher also noted how liberals have become distraught over illegal immigrants being sent to Martha’s Vineyard.
“The migrants, first, they went to Martha’s Vineyard, and then they sent them to Cape Cod,” Maher joked. “Just throw in a stop in Nantucket, and it’s the same cruise I got my parents a few years back.”
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Megyn Kelly also recently slammed woke discussion about slavery, saying it is fueling racism in the country.
