On his "Club Random"podcast, HBO host Bill Maher went after the progressive, environmental left, calling their criticism of older generations hypocritical and saying he wasn’t going to be the "schmuck driving the three-dollar car" in order to fight climate change.
Talking to fellow comedian Dana Carvey, Maher knocked the idea of wealthy environmentalists forgoing the use of private jets: "I say this now: The only people who don’t fly private are the ones who can’t. Anyone who can, would."
Maher said he didn't want to be the only one making sacrifices to save the planet, something needs to be done "as a group of humans" for the problem to be solved, but it's been all talk and no action.
"I just don’t feel like me [not flying private] is making a difference," he added. "We either do this as a group - I’m just not going to be the one schmuck not enjoying my life."
Highlighting Gen Z environmentalist Greta Thunberg, the host declared her to be an exception as she won’t fly in private jets: "She’s not representative of her generation who love to blame us."
Maher summarized young environmentalists' criticism of their elders as "you wrecked the world!" Then retorted, "Yeah, like you're doing it differently. You're not driving? Right. You're just with Greta on a sailboat all the time. You're using cars as much as we did. So, shut the f--- up!"
He jokingly said, "We're all decided that we’re just going to drive over the Grand Canyon and have a great time on our way. And as long as that's what we decided, I’m not going to be the schmuck driving the three-dollar car."
Comedian Carvey joined in, dismissing Thunberg with his "three-word" impersonation: "How dare you? How dare you?"
Carvey offered a middle ground take on the whole discussion, saying of humanity's solutions: "We're going to try to get to the renewables when they're practical and they can take over for fossil fuels."
But for now, Carvey offered, "Everyone's a Republican when the lights go out, right?"
Maher concluded the discussion by pointing out developing nations like India find American environmentalists to be unreasonable in their demands. He imagined them saying, "Wait, you used [the resources] and now we can’t have air conditioning?"
On last week’s podcast, Maher again took on his fellow liberals, saying some of them are "crazy" for saying that men can get pregnant. He dismissed the whole idea as a "Ripley’s Believe It or Not" joke.