Bill Maher, the sharp-tongued liberal comedian who’s never shied away from skewering both sides, dropped a bombshell on Friday’s HBO Real Time that has 2A advocates raising eyebrows and high-fiving in the shadows. While admitting he doesn’t love everything about the chaotic ouster of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro—a dictator Maher himself labels as one who’s been inviting China, Russia, and Iran to meddle in the hemisphere—Maher confessed he doesn’t hate it either. It’s a rare concession from a guy who’s built a career on coastal elite snark, essentially nodding approval to a popular uprising that toppled a socialist strongman after years of hyperinflation, food shortages, and brutal crackdowns on dissent. For context, Maduro’s regime disarmed civilians early on, confiscating firearms under the guise of public safety, leaving ordinary Venezuelans defenseless against Chavista militias and state terror. Sound familiar? It’s the endgame of every gun-grabber’s fever dream, where an unarmed populace begs for scraps from a tyrannical regime propped up by foreign adversaries.
What’s clever here—and massively relevant to the 2A community—is Maher’s unwitting endorsement of real-world blowback against disarmament dogma. Venezuela’s 2012 gun ban, cheered by global leftists, paved the way for Maduro’s iron fist; without personal arms, citizens couldn’t mount effective resistance until mass protests and military defections snowballed into this regime-shaking revolt. Maher’s don’t mind attitude flips the script on Hollywood hypocrisy: the same crowd that romanticizes armed rebels in movies (think The Hunger Games) suddenly gets queasy when it happens for real against a leftist darling. Implications for gun rights? Crystal clear. This validates the Founders’ wisdom in the Second Amendment—not as a hunting hobby, but as a bulwark against exactly the dictatorships Maher now cheers toppling. If Venezuela’s unarmed masses had retained their rifles a decade ago, Maduro might’ve fallen sooner, sparing millions from misery. It’s a brutal lesson for American progressives pushing assault weapon bans: history shows that when the state monopolizes force, it invites foreign puppeteers like Putin and Xi to pull the strings.
For 2A patriots, Maher’s half-hearted thumbs-up is a propaganda gift. Share it widely—let it expose the cognitive dissonance in blue-check echo chambers. As Venezuela inches toward possible freedom, it underscores why we fight: an armed populace isn’t a bug in democracy; it’s the feature that keeps dictators at bay. Don’t love everything about the operation? Neither do we—but we’ll take the win against tyranny any day. Stay vigilant, America; the next Maduro could be closer than you think.
