Maher to Berkeley Grads: Avoid Groupthink! Fight Climate Change!

Maher to Berkeley Grads: Avoid Groupthink! Fight Climate Change!

by Joel B. Pollak21 Dec 2014

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2014/12/21/maher-to-berkeley-grads-avoid-groupthink-fight-climate-change/

Comedian Bill Maher delivered his long-anticipated and controversial speech at the University of California Berkeley winter commencement on Saturday–and it turned out to be a rather conventional liberal address. Though much debate surrounded Maher’s views on Islam, he largely avoided the subject, instead telling students to make climate change their generation’s priority. “I hope all of you here today consider the environment to be paramount among the many challenges we face.”

Ironically, Maher would later tell students to think for themselves. “Be a free thinker. One reason our politics is so screwed up is that everyone has become so tribal. As you go down the path of life, ask what’s true, not who believes it. Be unique. Stay vigilant for busting yourself for falling into groupthink,” he cautioned. He also referred to “victims of police brutality,” drawing applause from students on a campus where protests against police have dominated public life in recent weeks.

Maher’s speech was self-consciously liberal, taking the occasional jab at Republicans and describing his own upbringing in a liberal home during the 1960s. “In my house, the only thing we did not have tolerance for was intolerance. You don’t have to be a liberal, but if you call yourself a liberal, you have to fight oppression, from wherever oppression comes from, especially of women, gays, minorities and free thinkers,” Maher said, interrupted by applause. “That’s what makes you a liberal.”

However, Maher did acknowledge that liberals had become less liberal than they perhaps once had been. He referred to his own reputation as an iconoclast, and thanked the university for inviting him to address the commencement on the 50th anniversary of Berkeley’s iconic Free Speech Movement.

“Never forget that we are lucky to live in a country that has a First Amendment, and liberals should want to own it the way conservatives own the Second,” he concluded, to loud applause.

Bill Maher

Bill Maher was a contributor for Priorities USA Action, is a friend of Seth MacFarlane, and the host of Real Time With Bill Maher.

Note: Priorities USA Action was a super PAC supporting the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign, and is supporting the 2016 Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign.

Seth MacFarlane is a friend of Bill Maher, and a director at People for the American Way.

Lear Family Foundation was a funder for People for the American Way.

Norman Lear is the president of the Lear Family Foundation, a director at People for the American Way, and was a donor for The Climate Project.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for People for the American Way, the Climate Reality Project, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).  

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

The Climate Project is a merged organization with the Climate Reality Project.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers was a donor for The Climate Project.

Albert A. Gore Jr. is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the chairman for the Climate Reality Project, and a senior adviser for Google Inc.

Sheryl K. Sandberg was a VP at Google Inc., and a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

David H. Romer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and married to Christina D. Romer.

Christina D. Romer is married to David H. Romer, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the council of economic advisers chairman for the Barack Obama administration.

John P. Holdren was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the White House science adviser for the Barack Obama administration.

Michael L. Nacht was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the assistant defense secretary for the Barack Obama administration.

Barack Obama is the president for the Barack Obama administration, and was the candidate for the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign.

Priorities USA Action was a super PAC supporting the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign, and is supporting the 2016 Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign.

Bill Maher was a contributor for Priorities USA Action, is a friend of Seth MacFarlane, and the host of Real Time With Bill Maher.