A Post-Debate “Real Time” Had Surveillance on its Mind

There was a presidential debate this week, an event that Bill Maher would compare to a cockfight on this week’s Real Time. For a show with politics on its mind, you might think that the debate would be at the center of most of the latest episode’s discussions — but instead, a combination of current events and the episode’s lead guest took things in a very different direction.

Specifically, this episode covered a lot of ground when it came to surveillance — whether from law enforcement or private industries. Maher’s first guest was Palantir Technologies co-founder Alex Karp. Karp is an interesting figure; this recent New York Times interview gives a pretty good overview of his positions and opinions. But he’s also less of a household name; or, as Maher said when Karp first took to the stage, “These people don’t know who you are.”

Karp gave a succinct overview of his work with Palantir. “We were the first anti-woke, pro-American, pro-defense successful — we went public — company,” he said. He also weighed in on some broader cultural issues, in which he seemed pretty well aligned with some of Maher’s beliefs; Karp isn’t a fan of TikTok, for one thing, and he also alluded to “[t]he pagan religion that’s infected our colleges.”

“What do you actually do?” Maher asked.

Karp replied that Palantir “[produces] weapons-grade software and [uses] it on the battlefield.” This also led him to speculate about the future of war, which he predicted would include “drone-on-drone war fighting.” Karp also noted that his company wasn’t just used in military settings, and pointed to its role in logistics for Operation Warp Speed.

While Maher sounded a skeptical note about some of the U.S.’s military forays, he and Karp were largely aligned on policy matters. Still, Maher also closed out the interview with a sense of caution, saying to Karp, “I certainly hope you stay in the cause of good and not evil.”

Later in the episode, after pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson and former Senator Al Franken joined Maher, a very different permutation of surveillance came up, as the trio discussed Tyreek Hill’s recent encounter with the police. Maher called the incident “A depressingly emblematic part of what this country represents now, which is that everybody’s an asshole.” But he was especially critical of how the police had behaved, arguing that “Cops act like it’s a bar fight.”

Anderson said that she admired Hill’s response, and compared the situation to the arrest earlier this year of golfer Scottie Scheffler. “All the body cams are doing is showing us that this bad stuff is happening,” she said. For their part, both Franken and Maher concurred on the importance of body cams.

“[Cops] never used to go to jail when they did horrible shit, and now they do,” Maher said. “That’s progress.” Whether it’s progress enough is, presumably, a question for another episode.

Past Guests Loomed Over This Week’s “Real Time With Bill Maher”

With the election two months away, there was plenty to discuss

Other notable moments from the episode:

Maher on the conspiracy theories that have surrounded one Ohio town: “This is what Trump supporters are doing now — trying to prove that this Facebook meme, this insanity that he’s basing the campaign on, is true. Literally a wild goose chase.”
Maher on Laura Loomer: “She’s for people who find Marjorie Taylor Greene too intellectual.”
Maher on Laura Loomer, part two: “You’ve heard of Florida Man? She’s Florida Woman.”
Last week’s panel discussion got very heated. Though Anderson and Franken occupy different ideological lanes, both were far more collegial, whether discussing Harris’s debate strategy or the merits of green energy.
Anderson, on Taylor Swift’s endorsement and the dangers of apathy: “The couch is the enemy.”
New Rules this week found Maher arguing for a much shorter campaign season. “What sentient person couldn’t cast their vote right now?” he said.
Maher, on the length of campaign season in the U.S. compared with other countries: “The only reason we stay stuck in permanent campaign mode is money.”