During his closing monologue on the Friday edition of his HBO show "Real Time," comedian Bill Maher stated that there has been an attack on the ideas and thinkers of Western Civilization in academia, even though "The ideas that came through Athens, Rome, London, Paris, and, yes, Philadelphia, are what make life good for most people in free societies today," and "all marginalized people live better today because of Western ideals, not in spite of them."