{"id":47169,"date":"2026-08-15T19:06:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47169"},"modified":"2026-08-15T19:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T14:06:36","slug":"bill-maher-rips-immigrants-who-refuse-to-embrace-liberal-values-on-real-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47169","title":{"rendered":"Bill Maher Rips Immigrants Who Refuse To Embrace \u2018Liberal Values\u2019 On \u2018Real Time\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fbill-maher-081426.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/bill-maher\/\">Bill Maher<\/a> had a message for immigrants who come to the U.S. looking for the American Dream but, in his view, aren\u2019t interested in embracing the country\u2019s \u201cliberal values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During Friday\u2019s (August 14) episode of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/show\/real-time-with-bill-maher\/\">Real Time with Bill Maher<\/a><\/em>, Maher, 70, tackled immigration and assimilation in his latest \u201cNew Rule\u201d segment, arguing that there are certain American ideals he believes shouldn\u2019t be up for debate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want the American Dream, you have to take the American values,\u201d Maher declared.<\/p>\n<p>The comedian acknowledged that most immigrants still want to assimilate, but argued that some have embraced a different idea of what the American melting pot should look like.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething has changed in the equation. Now, most immigrants still want to assimilate. But some now have this other attitude of melting pot,\u201d Maher said, before adding, \u201cF*** you, you melt!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maher\u2019s point wasn\u2019t that immigrants have to abandon their cultures. Quite the opposite, he said. Eat your family\u2019s food. Speak another language at home. Celebrate your religious holidays. Keep the traditions that matter to you.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, you don\u2019t have to love everything about America. We don\u2019t. That\u2019s why Yelp was invented,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat\u2019s why Yelp was invented. But, you know, if you do get past ICE, America\u2019s actually pretty cool. We say you do you. Eat the food your grandma cooked. Speak another language at home. Celebrate religious holidays. We welcome your food, your art, your fashion, your First Ladies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Maher drew a line when it came to what he considers core American values.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you have to answer one question: Do you like Western civilization? Because that\u2019s what we are. And that\u2019s not negotiable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He then asked the <em>Real Time<\/em> audience whether gay rights should be considered one of those non-negotiable values. The crowd responded with loud cheers and applause.<\/p>\n<p>To make his point, Maher brought up Melissa Chaudhry, a liberal Democrat from Seattle who is running for Congress. He noted that <a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/tag\/lgbt\/\">LGBTQ+<\/a> rights were not included among the causes she supports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause a lot of Muslims do not feel that way, unfortunately,\u201d Chaudhry said.<\/p>\n<p>Maher then posed a question of his own: Is progressive politics now willing to \u201cthrow gay people under the bus anytime it clashes with what makes Muslims uncomfortable\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow about homophobia: we just don\u2019t do that here,\u201d he said, before joking, \u201cWe will make you bake a wedding cake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also cited political activist Linda Sarsour, quoting her as saying, \u201cOur number one\u2026 priority is\u2026 our community. It is not to assimilate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOK, but that\u2019s not really how immigration works,\u201d Maher responded.<\/p>\n<p>He illustrated his argument with a typically Maherian hypothetical involving Japan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I move to Japan, I don\u2019t get to say, \u2018OK, everybody. A couple of changes. First of all, shoes stay on in the house now. Also, no more tentacle porn, that\u2019s gone.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From there, Maher rattled off a list of practices he said have no place in the U.S., including \u201cHonor killings, not letting women show their faces, polygamy, cousin f***ing, female genital mutilation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s lots of stuff we don\u2019t do here. And it\u2019s non-negotiable. And it\u2019s not \u2018white values.\u2019 These are liberal values. People fought and died to establish them,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not racist to say if you want to come here to help form a more perfect union, great. But some things are too fundamental to change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maher made a point of saying that he applies the same standard to Christian nationalists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I would say the same thing to Christian nationalists,\u201d he said. \u201cDemocracy, not theocracy. Free speech, even about religion. Equal rights for women, LGBT \u2014 that\u2019s America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the end of the segment, Maher was anticipating the obvious criticism of his argument.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, you can, and I\u2019m sure some of you are screaming, \u2018Islamophobia!\u2019 But that\u2019s just a bulls*it<strong> <\/strong>word to cow people into not talking about this,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has nothing to do with non-whites becoming the majority. I don\u2019t give a s* about that. I don\u2019t give a s*** about colors. White people \u2014 they\u2019re white, they\u2019re not pandas. I care about liberal values being replaced by illiberal ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Real Time With Bill Maher<\/em> airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET on <a href=\"https:\/\/decider.com\/platform\/hbo\/\">HBO<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/plain\" class=\"optanon-category-C0023\">\n\t(function(d, s, id) {\n\t\tvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n\t\tif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n\t\tjs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n\t\tjs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&appId=823934954307605&version=v2.8\";\n\t\tfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n\t}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Maher had a message for immigrants who come to the U.S. looking for the American Dream but, in his view, aren\u2019t interested in embracing the country\u2019s \u201cliberal values.\u201d During Friday\u2019s (August 14) episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher, 70, tackled immigration and assimilation in his latest \u201cNew Rule\u201d segment, arguing that there&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/decider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bill-maher-081426.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1156","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}