HBO anchor Bill Maher attacked the progressive, environmental activists on his “Club Random” podcast, calling their criticism of older generations hypocritical and declaring that he wouldn’t be the “schmuck driving the three-dollar car” to combat climate change.
Maher criticized the notion of rich environmentalists forgoing the use of private aircraft in his conversation with fellow comic Dana Carvey: “I now assert that only those who are unable to fly privately do so. Those who can would do it.”
Maher stated that action must be taken “as a group of humanity” in order for the situation to be solved; he did not want to be the only one making sacrifices to rescue the planet. However, all that has been done so far is discussion.
“I just don’t feel like me [not flying private] is making a difference,” he added. “We either do this as a group – I’m just not going to be the one schmuck not enjoying my life.”
Highlighting Gen Z environmentalist Greta Thunberg, the host declared her to be an exception as she won’t fly in private jets: “She’s not representative of her generation who love to blame us.”
Maher summarized young environmentalists’ criticism of their elders as “you wrecked the world!” Then retorted, “Yeah, like you’re doing it differently. You’re not driving? Right. You’re just with Greta on a sailboat all the time. You’re using cars as much as we did. So, shut the f— up!”
He jokingly said, “We’re all decided that we’re just going to drive over the Grand Canyon and have a great time on our way. And as long as that’s what we decided, I’m not going to be the schmuck driving the three-dollar car.”
Comedian Carvey joined in, dismissing Thunberg with his “three-word” impersonation: “How dare you? How dare you?”
Carvey offered a middle ground take on the whole discussion, saying of humanity’s solutions: “We’re going to try to get to the renewables when they’re practical and they can take over for fossil fuels.”
But for now, Carvey offered, “Everyone’s a Republican when the lights go out, right?”
Maher concluded the discussion by pointing out developing nations like India find American environmentalists to be unreasonable in their demands. He imagined them saying, “Wait, you used [the resources] and now we can’t have air conditioning?”
Maher takes a lot of grief from his fellow liberals for being somewhat level-headed but he’s usually the only voice of reason I’ve seen on late-night liberal tv.
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.
