When the man is right, he's right -- and he's been right a lot lately, as we've highlighted here, here, here, here, here and here. On Friday's Real Time, Maher absolutely teed off on the Chinese Communist Party while heaping extra scorn upon Americans who've caved to the regime in pursuit of wealth. Conservatives have been blasting the NBA, Hollywood and many others over this craven, hypocritical greed for some time. Maher's monologue doesn't break much new ground, but it's noteworthy and satisfying nonetheless. People deserve to be shamed for what they're doing, and Maher's fire is scorching and righteous:
The #Olympics pretends to only be about sports, but really the games have always been a bit of a proxy war for which country has the best system. #StopKowtowingChina pic.twitter.com/l2fUDh4nSi
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) February 19, 2022
"Perspective matters. China has basically jailed an entire ethnic minority, the Uyghurs, a situation that both the Trump and Biden administrations have called a genocide. America is not close to that. And it's a cynical dodge to pretend China's sins should be overlooked because we all do it. No." ... "'Kowtow' is a Chinese word but boy, Americans have gotten good at it," Maher quipped, before knocking Google, claiming the tech giant caves to Chinese censors and strips its "Don't be evil" clause in order to access China's markets...Maher played a clip [of actor John] Cena's appeasing video apology [for calling Taiwan a country] which was spoken in perfect Mandarin, to which Maher reacted, "And I thought steroids shrunk your balls." ..."In the original ‘Top Gun,’ Tom Cruise wore a bomber jacket but the flags of several Asian countries that are our allies sewn on the back. Well, the flag for Taiwan has now magically disappeared for the upcoming ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ Well, he used to be a maverick. Now he does whatever China says."...In 2020, NBA players wore jerseys that said ‘Freedom,’ ‘Speak Up,’ and ‘Justice,’ but I guess those things only matter for home games. Sorry, Uyghurs. Someone has to tell me where we got this rule that you can't criticize China because I suspect we got it from China. Because after all, it's where we get everything else," Maher added.
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As it happens, the New York Times is also out with a blunt new story about China's economic influence driving Westerners to muzzle criticisms of the CCP's egregious human rights abuses. The regime silences, jails and 'disappears' critics at home, while using the threat of lost financial opportunity to induce foreigners into self-censorship:
Before the Winter Olympics, Chinese officials cautioned athletes against speaking out about topics that cast them in a bad light. Then, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told American athletes not to anger the Chinese authorities. It was the latest sign that China’s campaign to stifle dissent is succeeding in an important way: U.S. institutions and businesses are increasingly silencing themselves to avoid angering the Chinese government. The professional wrestler and actor John Cena apologized, in Mandarin, last year for calling Taiwan a country. In 2019, a Houston Rockets executive apologized for tweeting support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong after Chinese officials complained, and a top video game publisher suspended an e-sports competitor who voiced support for the protests. The 2013 movie “World War Z” was rewritten to clarify that its zombie-spawning virus didn’t originate in China.
American businesses and institutions want access to this enormous market. Given China’s authoritarian leadership, that means playing by the Chinese Communist Party’s rules — and, in particular, avoiding criticism of its human rights abuses. So cultural institutions that are influential bastions of American values like free expression are now frequently absent from public conversations about China...Censorship prevents these [Western] institutions from shining a light on China as its leaders oppress dissidents, crack down on democracy in Hong Kong, round up and detain ethnic Uyghurs and threaten war with Taiwan...In the meantime, Chinese studios are getting better at making movies, and they’re not afraid to take an anti-American stance...The consequences are asymmetrical. Chinese movies proudly showcase their country’s values while American movies remain silent about China — skewing the messages people hear not just in the U.S. and China but across the globe.
The piece concludes, "Before the idea of a movie is even conceived, the first thing they need to think is, ‘How can I make sure that this movie can be shown in China?’" That kind of self-censorship is harder to detect — or do anything about. Ultimately, American institutions may have to make their own choice: Reject censorship or maintain access to China. Right now, desire for access is winning." Which means China is winning. Amid criticism of the IOC for bestowing this year's creepy, dystopian Winter Olympics upon Beijing, there's also a gale of pushback against an American golf superstar for his financial dealings with another brutal regime:
Phil Mickelson on working with the Saudis:
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) February 18, 2022
“They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates." https://t.co/T3pdtzdSib
That's quite a quote, and people are piling on Mickelson over it. But one wonders if he'd come under similar fire from some of his critics if he was negotiating a similar deal with China. As established above, there's a lot more at stake for a lot of people when it comes to the CCP, so I suspect much of the calumny would be relatively muted. I'll leave you with another Maher-related note, in light of his anti-child-masking stance. All he's doing is following the science, even as it may offend the tribal superstitions of many on his 'side:'
Wow, the New York times has finally admitted 50% of the truth about kids & masks; conceding downsides & good outcomes in kids
— Vinay Prasad, MD MPH ????? (@VPrasadMDMPH) February 20, 2022
One more year and they will admit that there is no evidence to show that masking kids slows viral spread.
Halfway there!https://t.co/d2sQHyIh6C pic.twitter.com/CYMRab9rTm
Just an absolutely amazing admission here. An MSNBC reporter notes that the biggest challenge for Democrat governors ending their mask mandates is that liberals have made mask-wearing such an important part of their identity that they might not be able to give it up. pic.twitter.com/LhCp4T279A
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) February 17, 2022
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