Bill Maher Guest Michael Shellenberger Inexplicably Links White People and Slavery to Amber Heard and Johnny Depp

Comic and pundit Bill Maher was a bit surprised when author Michael Shellenberger delivered a molten take that somehow linked white people’s culpability for slavery to the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial.

Things took a weird turn on Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher when Shellenberger elaborated after a fellow guest — conservative British author of books like “The War on the West” Douglas Murray — insisted that America needs to “get off this thing of beating up on their own past” on slavery via analyses like The 1619 Project.

Naturally, Shellenberger saw the parallels with the recently-concluded defamation trial in which Depp was awarded just north of $10 million, and Heard was awarded a lesser amount of just over $2 million:

DOUGLAS MURRAY: There are 40 million slaves in the world today. That’s more than there were in the 19th century. If people in America could get off this thing of endlessly beating up on their own, on their own, past and look at the world today, you could do something about actual problems.

BILL MAHER: Where do you stand on all of this?

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: You’re also saying something else, which is that we’re responsible for our own behaviors. We’re not responsible for the behaviors of white people 200 years ago. It’s individual responsibility. So Amber Heard is responsible for her behaviors. Johnny Depp is responsible for his behaviors.

BILL MAHER: That’s quite a segue way, Mike.

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: I was thinking about it beforehand because the producers said I needed to have something to say about this. Um, you know, equal justice under the law is a better principle than believe all women. We actually have a system set up to evaluate the claims made, and we don’t discriminate or make judgments based on your group identity. We hold individual responsibility above all else.

Watch above via HBO.