On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher mocked the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a place “where we all come together to celebrate the human spirit under quarantine in a police state.” And joked that, during the opening ceremony, China released hundreds of bats as a symbol of peace.
Maher said, “[L]et’s be positive. The Olympics have started in China. Oh, where we all come together to celebrate the human spirit under quarantine in a police state. It’s a beautiful thing. … Apparently also now because China always when they have the Olympics, they clean everything up — in their view — it’s hard to find Grindr now anymore in China. … They’re very hostile to the gay people there in China now, who do you think choreographed that opening ceremony? I mean, they are — they can be a little — China can be a little tone-deaf with optics. Did you see the ceremony? It was beautiful, but to symbolize peace, they released hundreds of bats. That’s not good. But it was beautiful, come on. The pageantry, did you see, the flowers, children, so many children, somewhere on an iPhone assembly line they were going, where is everybody?”
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