Maher: Afghanistan shows ‘woke’ Americans ‘what real oppression looks like’

HBO’s Bill Maher went after “woke” Americans who say America is an oppressive country, urging them to look at the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have taken control.

“If you think America is irredeemable, turn on the news. … There’s a reason Afghan mothers are handing their babies to us,” Maher said in his monologue, referring to images of desperate Afghan mothers handing their children to U.S. troops for evacuation at the airport in Kabul.

What’s the lesson of Afghanistan? Maybe it’s that everyone from the giant dorm room bitch session that is the internet should take a good look at what real oppression looks like. #Wokeistan #WakeUpCall pic.twitter.com/HoNJkucheF

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) August 28, 2021

“We’re not the bad guys,” the liberal comedian remarked on his show. “Oppression is what we were trying to stop in Afghanistan.”

“We failed, but any immigrant will tell you we’ve largely succeeded here, and yet the overriding thrust of current woke ideology is that America is rotten to the core, irredeemably racist from the moment it was founded,” he said.

Maher urged Americans to take in Afghan refugees after thousands of Afghan civilians evacuated the country following the Taliban’s takeover two weeks ago.

The “Real Time” host also mocked “woke” Americans over controversies surrounding past comments by public figures, saying the U.S. is “so oppressive, sexist and homophobic we can’t find a host for the Oscars or ‘Jeopardy!'”

Mike Richards, who was named the next “Jeopardy!” host, stepped down after backlash over resurfaced comments about women’s bodies and clothes. Maher noted that Richards once asked a podcast co-host if she had ever taken “booby pictures.”

“And this is where your new Afghani roommates that you took in will prove so valuable because they’ll turn to you and say, ‘Have you people lost your f—ing minds?’” Maher said.

“‘Have you ever heard of honor killings? Public beheadings? Throwing gay men off of roofs? Arranged marriages to minors? State-sanctioned wife-beating? Female genital mutilation? Marriage by capture? Because we have,’” Maher added.

Thousands of Afghans have fled the country since the Taliban took control this month, fearing retaliatory killings for helping Americans during the 20-year conflict and for repressive policies toward women that the group enacted when it was in power in the 1990s.

Women in the country are fearful of losing their right to education and work that they fought to gain over the past 20 years.

“What’s the lesson of Afghanistan? Maybe it’s that everyone from the giant dorm room bitch session that is the internet should take a good look at what real oppression looks like,” Maher said.