New Rule: Collective Narcissism | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -And finally, New Rule. Someone needs to tell the people who block traffic in the name of a cause that no one likes them. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) And you're probably damaging your cause. In case you haven't seen what's been going on lately, activists to end the war in Gaza have begun gathering on roads and bridges and preventing travelers from crossing. It happened last week in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle. They also blocked traffic here on the 405, but no one noticed. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(CLEARING THROAT, LAUGHING) What they did notice was this, that you have to be pretty stupid to think that the way to attract people to your point of view is to make them arrive late. to pick it up. their children from daycare. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And that's what most normal people think. "I have a son, I have a job, and yes, I'm sure there are injustices on both sides in the Middle East as there are injustices all over the world, but I'm going to be late for work, something The protesters on the bridge seem to have the luxury of not having to worry, which seems like a kind of privilege. (AUDIENCE APPLAPS, APPLAPS) You can stick your hands to the street because your hands don't have to do any work today. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I'm not saying there aren't sincere passions about Gaza, especially among people in the region, but social justice warriors, for many of them it seems like it's more about war than anything. the cause is.

If you

real

ly cared so much about apartheid, which Israel doesn't actually practice, where Arabs vote, serve in parliament, hold positions in the judiciary, wouldn't you start with this? With the hundreds of millions of women in the world who live under a true apartheid, a gender apartheid of the most brutal type. -I'll wait. (LAUGHTER) -(AUDIENCE APPLAVING, APPLAVING) Are you

real

ly speaking truth to power, or do you just think you look good in a keffiyeh? (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Which is actually just Che Guevara's new t-shirt. Another historical figure that you never researched and that is why you think he is a hero, but in reality he was a sadistic, racist monster who fought for communism, the worst form of government that has ever existed. -But they are small things. -(AUDIENCE CLAIMING, APPLAUDING) When...

Little things, when activism merges with

narcissism

. Less about the cause and more about me. "Look at me, look at me". "And if you like the way I'm fighting injustice, remember to like and subscribe." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(CLEARS THROAT) In February, a sad and confused man even set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy, ​​and in his last Facebook post, he said... (READ IMMEDIATELY) Cocktail Interesting question, sir, and I suppose the correct answer is: "Kill myself." (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) But it really wouldn't have solved the problem if General Ulysses S. Grant had blown himself up and his last words had been: "Hey, Lincoln, are you using that log?" -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(LAUGHTER) And then, last week, another sad, confused man set himself on fire at the Trump trial in New York, so you can tell yourself that you are a martyr to the Palestinian cause , but it's a lot less special when the next guy does it for Stormy Daniels. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(LAUGHTER) I don't want to downplay how sad it is when someone takes their life for any reason, but maybe from now on, before someone commits an act of civil disobedience, they should do it.

Ask yourself some questions like: "Is the most important thing in my life something I hadn't heard about six months ago?" -"Do I even know--" -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) "Do I even know what the hell I'm talking about?" (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) "Am I really here for the cause or is the cause here to bring me to you?" (AUDIENCE APPLAUSES) Hey, if it makes you feel good to dress up as a revolutionary, get knocked out, get burned, just don't drag Gaza into that. Also... (LAUGHTER) -...throwing things on paintings is just stupid. -DON LIMON: Yes. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(LAUGHTER) Nobody sees mashed potatoes in a Monet and thinks: "You're right, I should recycle my cans." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(LAUGHTER) Last week, Google employees organized a sit-in to protest against their company doing business with Israel.

Their T-shirts said, "Googlers Against Genocide," but they could also have said, "Look at me, look at me." And Google did see them, right up to the door. (AUDIENCE CLAIMING, APPLAUDING) They fired the 28 the next day. Yes, the Cojone Prize will come to them next year. (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) But... perhaps the question today's protester needs to ask himself more than any other is: "Why do I care so much about this particular cause?" North Korea starves its people, China puts them in concentration camps, Myanmar brutalizes the Rohingya, Boko Haram kidnaps entire villages of women, Burundi's president says homosexuals should be stoned to death because, quote: "They deserve it".

Nothing? Ukraine? (GUNS) Maybe if these Googlers had even the slightest idea what kind of oppressive fundamentalist morons they were supporting, Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, they could take it a little easier on the biggest monster. of the world, Genocide. José. Genocide, by the way, is when you want to wipe out an entire people. That is the stated goal of Hamas. That's what "from the river to the sea" means. Hamas would do that to Israel, but it can't. Israel could do that to them, but it doesn't. -And you know how... -(AUDIENCE APPLAVING, APPLAVING) And do you know how you could discover that? -Google it. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) (AUDIENCE APPLAUDS, APPLAUSES) And not to rub it in, but do you know who all this posture reminds me of for a cause? -This fat guy from Florida...-(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) ...who always pretends he's dedicated to the cause of making America great again when, clearly, he's just the biggest attention whore in history .

He always finds some new injustice, from Obama's birth certificate to a rigged election, without knowing anything about it and making it personal. So, break that down, my warrior friends. The person you're most like is the guy who looks like he's always jerking off two guys at once. -There it is, I have it inside. -(AUDIENCE APPLAVING, APPLAVING) Ah, yes! (LAUGHTER)