War on the West?
'Progressive' comedian Bill Maher defends Western values against perceived assault
Comedian Bill Maher’s commentary on “The War on the West” went viral, with as of this writing more 1.2 million views on YouTube:
A 2022 book by the same name, “The War on the West,” by British author Douglas Murray became a NYT bestseller in 2022 and made similar points. “The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It’s high time that we revise them in turn,” Murray wrote. He’s a neo-conservative who is best known for his criticism of immigration and Islam, and for his support of Brexit. (Wikipedia.)
It’s a little surprising to hear the supposedly liberal Bill Maher quoting him, but Maher likes to provoke his generally liberal audiences with politically incorrect views. He has long been anti-woke. He may have a moderating impact on his liberal audience, or turn some of them into reactionaries.
The argument builds on one made by Samual Hunnington in his 1995 book, “Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order.” He argued that with the demise of the Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the US, people's cultural and religious identities would become the primary source of conflict in the world. This thesis became extraordinarily popular after 9/11/2001 as it pitted Islam against Christianity and Judaism. It subsided as the vast majority of Muslims, Christians, and Jews sought to get along and find common ground, but has re-emerged with the Israeli-Palestinian war, with charges and counter-charges of anti-semitism and Islamophobia.
Murray’s book was praised by the likes of Newt Gingrich: It’s “a compelling must-read for anyone who cares about our Western culture and where it’s headed.”
Murray has rejected critiques of his work as far-right.
The publisher’s summary of Murray’s book is as follows:
China has concentration camps now. Why do Westerners claim our sins are unique?
It is now in vogue to celebrate non-Western cultures and disparage Western ones. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning, but much of it fatally undermines the very things that created the greatest, most humane civilization in the world.
In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of
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