During a conversation on the Club Random podcast on Sunday, normally liberal comedian Bill Maher clashed with Democrat presidential candidate Marianne Williamson over higher education in America, ending with an apology from Williamson.
Maher railed against the soaring price of college tuition, which he called a “scam.”
“That is part of the scam,” Williamson agreed. “But there’s another value to education which is much more valuable. And that is the expansion of our thoughts, the expansion of our critical thought process.”
“But they’re doing the exact opposite on campus!” Maher exclaimed. “All they do on campus is throw people off of it for having thoughts that don’t conform to the one true opinion. I could list 50 professors I’ve read about who were fired or thrown off just for trying to teach nothing outrageous, just mentioning things!”
“I agree with that,” the spiritual guru responded.
The host went on to call the college indoctrination “the head of the snake” that ultimately has ramifications in politics.
“That is where the insanity that becomes — winds up downstream in your world, in the political world,” Maher told the candidate, “And then becomes issues like about transgender and racial stuff and what’s going on in school boards where people do not like what their kids are being taught in schools, it begins at the university level.”
“Woah, woah, woah,” Williamson interjected. “People who are complaining about what their kids are being taught in school in general are not the ones who went to those colleges.”
“Correct, it’s the people who are teaching their kids who went to those colleges or are fans of that kind of thought,” Maher said. “And I think a lot of teachers these days are kind of like semi-activists and they think they can reorder human society and the easiest way to do-”
“Bill, you’re so cool most of the time and then you become this curmudgeon, almost like right-wing sounding,” Williamson complained.
“Excuse me?” Maher shot back. “That’s an ad hominem argument. Should we stick to the facts and the issues? Should I talk about you on a personal level?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to be, like, personally insulting,” Williamson clarified.
“I get that sometimes it’s like, ‘Well, I can’t really argue with this on the facts, so I’m going to say, Oh, you’re a mean old man who’s saying get off my lawn,'” Maher continued. “And that’s not what I am and let’s just stick to what’s reality.”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Williamson told Maher. “I apologize. Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”
Maher is sounding more and more these days like a progressive finally coming to his senses. Come on, Bill, come over to the Dark Side.