It doesn’t happen all that often, but there are occasions where talk show host Bill Maher makes sense. It usually takes a certain kind of guest to get Maher to that point, and this past Friday author Bret Easton Ellis was that guest.
Ellis, who’s known for writing social commentary fiction novels that have been turned into somewhat famous cult classic films (“Less Than Zero,” “American Psycho”), joined Maher on HBO’s “Real Time” last Friday to promote his new book, “White” — which is interestingly enough a rare non-fiction title for Ellis. The author spoke about the topics raised in his book, which includes outrage culture, political correctness and the rise of “social justice warriors” in the Millennial generation.
After Maher asked Ellis about how we became a “victim culture, Ellis responded:
I think a lot of what happens happens because one generation reacts against another. And when we talk about social justice warriors or victimhood, we're talking about a generation [Millennials] that is reacting towards Generation X, which was kind of cool, very aloof, very different to things, wasn't so overly emotional.
Another guest on the show, New York Times race-baiting columnist Charles Blow, unsurprisingly took issue with Ellis’ use of the term “social justice warriors,” claiming that he knows plenty of social justice warriors that we never hear about who do good work. Blow almost gave Ellis and Maher a “how dare you” moment when they brought up social justice warriors.
“What’s the problem with social justice warriors?” Blow incredulously asked.
You got time?
Maher actually defended Ellis’ honest criticism of social justice warriors.
“Well sometimes they go too far,” Maher said in response. “I’ll answer that question. There’s no overreach among social justice [warriors]?”
Maher brought up a good point that applied throughout the conversation, because Blow kept interjecting during the interview Maher was attempting to conduct with Ellis. Maher simply asserted that could be an overlap between the “good” social justice warriors and the social justice warriors who are just interested in clicks.
But, since Blow seems to live in a privileged bubble where ill-informed, sometimes violent social justice warriors don’t exist, he couldn’t admit that there could be a few apples in the bunch, as there is with any segment of the population.
It just goes to show that the elites who write for places like the New York Times and Washington Post, don’t live in the same reality that the rest of us do. They see what they want to see, because it’s convenient for the agenda.
For the full segment between Maher, Ellis and Blow, watch below: