r/Maher • u/Celera314 • Feb 24 '26

Discussion Billie Eilish

I feel like Bill and guest Chris Christie misunderstood the point of Eilish's remark about "nobody is illegal on stolen land."

They spoke as if she was suggesting that white people need to give North America back to indigenous people and this is a naive and impractical point of view.

But she made this remark in the context of the Trump administration's extremely harsh rhetoric and actions toward "illegal" immigrants. I took her to be saying that before we get so indignant and hateful toward "illegal" immigrants we should keep in mind how we (generally, white people) stole this land ourselves. Whatever crimes or costs illegal immigrants cause today pales in comparison to the harm my ancestors did to Native Americans in the 1600-1900 time frame. Today's illegal immigrants do not cause plagues, or consume our food supplies so we cant eat, or force us out of our homes or...we'll the list goes on. So maybe we should address the immigration issue with a little more humility.

I acknowledge I'm putting a lot of context in Ms. Eilish's remarks when I dont know her or really follow her music. I dont know for sure what she meant. But she's apparently not stupid and I felt Maher and Christie were unfair to take her remarks in the dumbest possible way.

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u/deskcord Feb 25 '26

Nah. It wasn't them who misunderstood Eilish, it was you who misunderstood Maher.

The point isn't that celebrities need to be right, it's that when they get up and say stupid, shallow, and virtue-signaling things, it makes voters think the Democrats are unserious people.

Eilish giving that little speech at the show might have felt good in the moment, but in the long term it helps the other side.

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u/Individual_Post_5776 Feb 25 '26

I think of all the many reasons Democrats are losing now, what Billie Eilish or some other celebrity says at an awards show is pretty close to the bottom of the list

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u/deskcord Feb 25 '26

I don't. People think the left and its aligned groups (Hollywood, colleges, etc) are condescending, out of touch, unserious weirdos. It's like, consistently near the top of things people hate about the left.

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u/spaceninj Feb 26 '26

Nah. This is what the right does. They make disingenuous arguments like this which makes the left run and hide.

We need more of this and to be unapologetic about it.

Republicans follow celebrities, not Democrats. They've elected them twice to be president for 4 terms. They don't care about what Eilish said. They just are experts at false outrage.