Maher Rails Against Criticism of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Tweet on Shooting Deaths: ‘F*ck All You All!’

You may remember that in the wake of the horrific El Paso and Dayton shootings, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was roundly criticized for a tone-deaf tweet putting shooting deaths into perspective.

In the past 48hrs, the USA horrifically lost 34 people to mass shootings.

On average, across any 48hrs, we also lose…

500 to Medical errors
300 to the Flu
250 to Suicide
200 to Car Accidents
40 to Homicide via Handgun

Often our emotions respond more to spectacle than to data.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) August 4, 2019

Tyson subsequently apologized, but Bill Maher came to his defense tonight and said, “He didn’t voice the one true opinion. This country’s now a place where there’s just one acceptable opinion. God forbid you have nuance or think outside the box. So fuck all you all!”

“You can express a different opinion,” Maher continued. “He wasn’t saying ‘I’m glad children are dead’!”

Daily Beast reporter Betsy Woodruff noted how, in the context of the “cancel culture” discussion, President Donald Trump complained about a movie he hadn’t seen after Fox Newsers got angry about it and now the movie’s been yanked.

“But it hurts more,” Maher countered, “when it’s the people on my wide who are supposed to be for free speech.”

Maher also defended comedian and friend Sarah Silverman after she said a 2007 blackface sketch got her fired from a movie, saying the rules of what’s acceptable keep changing.

But when he returned to the blowback Tyson received, he went a bit further as he read from Tyson’s apology:

“He wrote ‘I am therefore thankful for the candor and depth of critical reactions shared in my Twitter feed.’ This is what they used to do in the old Soviet Union! ‘Can I get out of the gulag now?’ ‘Thank you for educating me. Re-educating me.'”

Maher also said that Tyson’s not the first astrophysicist to get in trouble and brought up what Galileo went through.

You can watch above, via HBO.