During his closing monologue on Friday’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that we can’t have America criminalize flag burning, but America “also can’t become what the U.K. is now,” and that if you aren’t willing to defend the right of people to say things that upset you, you don’t believe in freedom of speech.
Maher stated, “New Rule: You can love America and still be okay with burning the flag. President Trump wants to make that illegal, and I know, for conservatives, this is an issue that really drives them up a wall that Mexico isn’t paying for. But that’s the great irony, flag burning is free speech, and free speech is one of the key things that makes America great. So, now that I have you on my side on that issue, don’t be a hypocrite and defend attacks on speech from the left. Because you either get the concept or you don’t.”
He added, “It’s bad enough that Trump is attacking free speech from the right…threatening and suing networks, simply because he doesn’t like the coverage. This country can’t become that. But it also can’t become what the U.K. is now, a place where you get arrested for tweets.”
Maher then positively referenced Ricky Gervais’ statement that “If you don’t believe in a person’s right to say things that you might find ‘grossly offensive’, then you don’t believe in freedom of speech.” And stated that “ugly is the price of a freedom so great as speech.”
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