Critic Makes Maher's Point

In his "new rules" segment Friday night, Bill Maher attacked two right-wing Johns, the Republican governor of South Dakota, American chauvinism.... and is condemned by a journalist/broadcaster of the left:

This has to be seen to be believed. Old, rich, centrist white guy tells people in America to stop complaining about racism & injustice because 'only 5% of Burundians have electricity' & Honduras has more murders than us. Can't make this stuff up. Pure, unadulterated whataboutism. https://t.co/WQyAucvRc6

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 28, 2021

Citing his experience talking to immigrants, Bill Maher, in the video included in the tweet, had noted

Blind hatred of America is just as blinkered as blind love. And we Americans should really get some perspective on where we live.....

I have never been a "rah, rah America" type and in fact have often made fun of Republicans in the past for being overly sentimental because they're the ones who tear up at military flyovers and get a boner when the governor of South Dakota rides into a biker really dressed like a painting of Teddy Roosevelt.

Being old and white (and wishing I were rich), perhaps I have no standing to note what should be obvious. That is in part that if you possess the perspective Hasan lacks, you undoubtedly would reject both blind love and blind hatred of America. 

If discussing health care in the USA, it's "whataboutism" to note that we have a superior system than in, say, Honduras (if in fact we do). Comparison to other affluent societies, such as predominate in western and northern Europe, would be more appropriate.

But Maher wasn't talking about health care.   After criticizing John Boehner and John Roberts, the latter over voting rights, Maher observes

But liberals, as usual in this era, have now gone too far in the other direction. They under-romanticize America. They have no perspective....

In Saudi Arabia, grown women can be jailed for doing the kinds of things we think of as routine without the permission of a male guardian. China rounds you up if you're the wrong religion and puts you in camps. More children in Burkina Faso work than are in school. Only 5% of Burundians have electricity. The homicide rate in Honduras is eight times what it is here. The inflation rate in Venezuela is 2,719%. The Philippines in the last five years have put to death 27,000 low level drug dealers, my old job. In North Korea, people starve to death....

There is a reason  Afghan mothers are handing their babies to us. And we should take them. Americans right now should take Afghan refugees into their homes and into their neighborhoods....

Most people will not do so

but that doesn't make us the bad guys. We're not the bad guys 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, and so oppressive, sexist and homophobic.

When the Soviet army withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the Soviet Union did not take in Afghan refugees beyond some officials from the government the USSR had propped up and the mujahideen had overthrown. But many thousands of Afghans, rescued by USA marines, will be welcomed to the USA (as well as to a few other nations) in the wake of the withdrawal of American and allied forces.

The USA isn't the only western republic which is accused of being oppressive and racist. A Canadian, Zionist, and human rights activist picks up on another lack of perspective, if not blatant hypocrisy:

Massive rally now of social justice activists in front of the United Nations Human Rights Council calling to boycott, divest and sanction Afghanistan's Taliban regime for its abuse of women, gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity. pic.twitter.com/Y4JQlDPKMO

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) August 27, 2021

 

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