Bill Maher NYT op-ed: ‘Stop apologizing, America’

Bill Maher has a plea to Americans: please, stop apologizing so much. 

The late-night HBO comedian wrote an op-ed in Wednesday's New York Times requesting that the US put a halt to insincere apologies for offensive comments, citing recent public reactions to "the unbelievable insensitivity" of everyone and everything from Robert DeNiro to Ashton Kutcher to the Super Bowl halftime show and ESPN. 

"Let’s have an amnesty — from the left and the right — on every made-up, fake, totally insincere, playacted hurt, insult, slight and affront," Maher wrote. "Let’s make this Sunday the National Day of No Outrage. One day a year when you will not find some tiny thing someone did or said and pretend you can barely continue functioning until they apologize."

Maher himself is no stranger to calls for apologies and retractions, Slate reported: he has come under fire recently for calling Sarah Palin a "c*$t," as well as for asking a pro-Obama super PAC to return his $1 million donation.

More from GlobalPost: Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama super PAC, gets $1 million donation from Bill Maher

Maher stresses the point that controversy and debate is what makes the United States what it is. 

"Disagreement…isn’t a negative or something to be avoided or suppressed — in fact, it’s quintessentially American," wrote Mediaite's Alex Alvarez. 

“I don’t want to live in a country where no one ever says anything that offends anyone," Maher wrote. "That’s why we have Canada.”