Bill Maher has defended Ryan Reynolds by urging people to “live in the present” instead of cancelling people for past actions.
The US television host used his “New Rules” segment to reflect on recent headlines, including the Deadpool actor’s apology for marrying Blake Lively at a former slave plantation.
Reynolds, who was criticised for the action, said the venue of choice is “something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for”.
According to Reynolds, who revealed he and Lively got married again at their home years later, the shame of their first wedding encouraged them to become better people.
Maher turned to an unlikely source to highlight his point that, should Reynolds be criticised, so too should some other things.
“We’re all six degrees from genocidal a**holes,” the Real Time host said. ”If we start turning history into a game of guilt by association, it never ends.”
He then cited three Bible passages that sees Christ encouraging slaves to “submit to your masters”.
“If we’re gonna be consistent, I think we’re going to cancel God,” he quipped.
He then alerted his viewers to a few facts they might not have known.
“The stock exchange is 2 miles from New York’s first slave market,” he said, adding: "The country itself is named after a slave trader named Amerigo – [and] Washington and Jefferson are also up for cancellation because they owned slaves.”
In conclusion, Maher suggested a “crazy idea”, which was: “Let’s live in the present and make the future better.”
