Marc Maron Calls Out Comics Who Feature ‘White Supremacists’

Marc Maron isn’t laughing at podcasters and comedians who invite “shameless, self-proclaimed white supremacists and fascists” to be on their shows.

In a lengthy blog post on Monday, the host of “WTF With Marc Maron” called out his peers who have offered a platform to far-right figures and warned about an emerging “American fascist movement.”

“Once tolerance is removed from the dialogue, democracy suffocates,” Maron wrote.

The podcaster, who earned major attention for featuring then-President Barack Obama on his show in 2015, said he’s long predicted the United States was making an unsettling swing towards authoritarianism.

“What is brewing in this country is an American fascist movement rooted half in grievance and half in Jesus and enabled by tech oligarchs and an inundation of propaganda from many sources,” Maron wrote.

The comic said that fascist mindset has since “fully percolated” and is now “pouring into the minds of all of us.”

“It is shameless and proud,” he continued. “Culturally, the combination of blatant racist fear mongering and the anti-woke movement has delivered their message for the future. A future that marginalizes almost all voices.”

Maron blasted comedians for enabling that cultural shift. He wrote, “The anti-woke flank of the new fascism is being driven almost exclusively by comics, my peers.”

He said it didn’t matter whether those comedians were true believers or opportunists.

“Whether they are driven by the idea that what they are fighting for is a free speech issue or whether they are truly morally bankrupt racists doesn’t matter. They are part of the public face of a fascist political movement that seeks to destroy the democratic idea.”

He added: “When comedians with podcasts have shameless, self-proclaimed white supremacists and fascists on their show to joke around like they are just entertainers or even just politicians, all it does is humanize and normalize fascism. When someone uses their platform for that reason they are facilitating anti-American sentiment and promoting violent autocracy.”

Though Maron did not call any comedians or politicians out by name, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has made podcast appearances a key part of his strategy to reach younger, mostly male, voters.

Some of the former president’s most-watched moments of this election cycle were during interviews with podcasters like Joe Rogan and Theo Von.

Maron’s comments follow comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s stream of crude and racist jokes while he opened Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday night.

Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” prompting the Trump campaign to attempt to distance itself from his remarks.

Read Maron’s full blog post here.