Bill Maher lashed out at Gen Z on Friday for seeming to care about climate change while being addicted to a lifestyle that prioritizes convenience, luxury and consumption.
“In polls, young people always claim to be more concerned about climate change than other generations, but they don’t act like it,” Maher said on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.” (RELATED: Bill Maher Says He Has More Conservative Fans Than Ever Before, Explains It’s Because Liberals Now ‘Have A Crazy Section’)
Maher said that while Greta Thunberg might be the conscience of her generation, she does not represent it. Instead, Kylie Jenner, who has about 279 million Instagram followers – more than 21 times the number of Thunberg’s followers – represents her generation, Maher said.
“I mean seriously, who is the real influencer in that generation? The model citizen or the model? The young woman who refuses to fly or the one who refuses to fly commercial? You see what I’m saying? Greta gets where she’s going on a sailboat powered by the wind. Kylie takes a private jet powered by Exxon. And she’s 21 times more popular.”
Maher said that he’s fond of both comfort and capitalism and gives Jenner credit for creating an empire without ever releasing a sex tape. “And like her dad, she’s a self-made woman,” he quipped, referencing Caitlyn Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner.
“But Kylie embodies and embraces a lifestyle that is pretty much the opposite of carbon-neutral. And the younger generations f*cking love it,” Maher said.
Maher then pointed out the hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance of Gen Z shaming others for forgetting to bring a cloth bag to Trader Joe’s, while loving YouTuber Mr. Beast, who gave his 40,000,000 subscribers 40 cars, and Jason Derulo, who celebrated his 22,000,000 followers by eating 22 hamburgers.
“Kids, you’re going to have to make a choice here,” Maher said. “Do you want to be progressive or excessive? Team drastic or team plastic? When Kylie’s lifestyle becomes uncool and unpopular and you stop loving Bitcoin and stop thinking that stuffing your face is harmless, I’ll take you seriously. Until then, shut the f*ck up about how older generations ruin the planet.”
“You can either be the fake tits and private jet generation or the one that saves the planet, but you can’t be both because fake tits are not biodegradable,” he said.