A Question About Language On Campus
Bill Maher confronted Wesleyan University president Michael Roth over how liberal professors have reshaped the way students talk about Israel and Western civilization.
Maher pointed to a shift he’s tracked for years. “Since I have been covering news and especially the Middle East, even before that, Israel was known as an ‘outpost of Western civilization,’” he said. Roth confirmed it. “Yes, it was.”
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A Disagreement Over Who’s Really Teaching What
Maher argued that language, once considered a compliment, has quietly become an insult on college campuses.
“That was always a good thing,” Maher said. “Now, I don’t think it is. The Western civilization, they talk about it like it’s a bad thing. Instead of saying Western civilization is what gave everyone who is a progressive the things they should be most proud of.”
Roth pushed back gently, admitting, “I think that a lot of our students learn just that in class.”
Maher wasn’t convinced professors were the source. “I don’t think the professors are teaching. I really don’t,” he said. Roth disagreed, noting that faculty watch Maher’s show too, “maybe even more often than an 18-year-old.”
The Question That Cut The Deepest
Maher shifted the conversation to something more personal, asking directly whether he’d be welcome on campus.
“Do you think I could come on campus and speak and be welcomed?” Maher asked.
Roth’s answer was careful. “Welcomed, maybe not, but certainly given a hearing.”
Maher didn’t let that slide. “I shouldn’t be welcomed? Someone who twice gave the Democrats a million dollars, that’s not enough credentials to come on and be welcomed?”
Roth’s response revealed something telling. “Well, if you came to Wesleyan with a million dollars, I would welcome you with open arms.” Maher’s reply was blunt. “Okay. Right. Well, I’m not going to be doing that.”
The Numbers Behind The Exchange
This isn’t just one college president’s opinion. A 2018 National Association of Scholars study of 51 top-ranked liberal arts colleges found Democratic faculty outnumber Republicans by a ratio of 10.4 to 1.
At 39 percent of those same schools, researchers found not a single registered Republican among full-time professors.
That kind of imbalance doesn’t happen by accident, and conversations like this one make clear just how deeply it shapes what students hear, and what viewpoints get welcomed at all.
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