Bill Maher used his HBO platform to mount an unapologetic defense of Western civilization and to dare his critics to challenge him on it.
According to the Daily Caller, the Real Time host framed the debate in stark terms, rejecting fashionable relativism and insisting that the Wests cultural inheritance is worth defending. No, it was a clash of civilizations the civilizations are very different and ours is better, Maher said to loud applause from his studio audience, according to the New York Post (NYP). And if youre not clapping, spend a week in a Muslim capital, you wouldnt last especially as a woman.
Maher opened the segment by highlighting Vice President JD Vances recent trip to Budapest, where Vance campaigned for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ahead of Sundays national election, the NYP reported. He told panelists Douglas Murray and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff that Orban goes too far in some areas but insisted Western civilization is real and must be protected, a theme he has pressed before, including in a December clash with Ana Kasparian over the treatment of women in Islamic countries.
Vance placed that same civilizational argument at the center of his April 7 rally in Budapest, speaking to roughly 5,000 supporters at MTK Sportpark. The vice president said the United States and Hungary together embody the defense of Western civilization, rooted in Christian civilization and Christian values, CBS News reported, even as Orban, who has governed Hungary for 16 years, now trails his main challenger in pre-election polling, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Maher, while defending the West, did not give Orban a free pass. He pressed the panel on why both Washington and Moscow appear to be backing the same candidate, asking, Russia is basically running his campaign. Russia is campaigning for him to win, and were campaigning for him to win. Were working with Russia on the same guy to win an election? Maher said, per the NYP.
Murray, a long-time critic of mass migration, contrasted Orbans strict border policies with European Union governments that opened their doors to large-scale immigration, the NYP reported. He still criticized Orbans closeness to Moscow but suggested Hungarys reliance on Russian energy helps explain the relationship, underscoring the broader conservative argument that defending Western and Christian civilization often collides with the geopolitical and economic entanglements global elites have created.
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