Bill Maher, the ranting star of the HBO show “Real Time,” has doubled down on a recent diatribe against billionaires like Elon Musk who want to colonize Mars. He has produced an animated video in partnership with the left-oriented media company ATTN, which Maher is an investor in. According to Deadline, Maher’s screed against moving to Mars is the backdrop of some cheesy animation in a definitely not safe for work video.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson pushes back
Maher usually does not dwell on the subject of a rant, choosing to move on after hitting a picked target.
But like Donald Trump’s status as president of the United States and belief in God, the idea of space exploration and spreading humanity to other worlds seems to stick in Maher’s craw. Possibly the reason is that his friend and frequent guest, Neil Degrasse Tyson, called him on his opposition to going to Mars in a calm, measured manner.
To be sure, Tyson, in his own way, is almost as annoying as Maher, as anyone who has read his Twitter feed can attest. But he took down the HBO host with alacrity by explaining that humanity spreading out into space is as natural a part of evolution as early life emerging from the ocean onto dry land. As Maher yelled obscenities, Tyson added that when we learn to terraform (i.e.
make more Earthlike) Mars, we will also be able to repair whatever environmental damage people have caused to our home planet.
Growing left wing opposition to private space exploration
Maher’s opposition to going to Mars seems to be part of a growing left-wing reaction against space exploration in general. A recent story in Aeon, entitled “Whitey on Mars,” echoed the Apollo-era protest song against the moon landings composed by Gil Scott-Heron by suggesting that even private space colony efforts are racist.
Ironically, a subsequent article by an Apollo-era, African-American engineer in Aeon refuted that premise handily by pointing out that space exploration, whether by NASA or SpaceX, provides lots of hope and opportunity to people of all races.
In short, as commercial space efforts, whether they are Elon Musk’s visionary dreams of building cities on Mars or more practical undertakings such as Moon Express’ effort to mine the lunar surface, or Planetary Resources’ plan to exploit abundant asteroid resources, come closer to reality -- expect the social justice warriors to rise against them. They will not be motivated by reason but will act out of spite and blind rage.
