Is it possible to be so far to one side ideologically that you overlap to the other side? In 20th century Europe it was thought by some that a left-wing movement – communism and a right-wing movement – fascism overlapped or were the same thing. However, HBO host Bill Maher has a different idea of such an overlapping – that a movement is “right-wing” by definition because it is radical.
On HBO Friday night airing of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” during the “Overtime” Internet-only segment, Maher expressed some concern about the Egyptian revolution leading to a transfer of power into the wrong hands. He doubted the scenes from Tahrir Square were representative of Egypt as a whole.
“As I said to that wonderful woman Mona [Eltahawy] who I had on the show last week, I still do not think it is representative of the 80 million Egyptian people,” Maher said. “I think it’s the more well-to-do, more educated who are in the square.”
Maher’s fear: That since the scenes from Cairo were indicative of the Egyptian population, it would lead to a radical Islamic state. However, Hooman Majd, author of “The Ayatollahs’ Democracy: An Iranian Challenge,” noted that’s the case with many revolutionary movements.
“Revolutions are rarely representative of all the people,” Majd said. “The Russian Revolution wasn’t. The French Revolution wasn’t. It’s very well that a revolution is representative of all the people.”
“Both those revolutions got hijacked by the right-wing – and the Iranian Revolution,” Maher added.
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However, Maher explained that you could argue the Russian Revolution was “hijacked by the left-wing,” but due to the nature of it being that far left, it was really right.
“I suppose people would say the Russian Revolution was hijacked by the left-wing,” Maher said. “I think when you go that far left – you’re really the right-wing. I consider Lenin and Stalin right-wingers. Don’t tell Rush Limbaugh.”