In a Facebook group, someone shared the following meme quoting Ricky Gervais:
"It is nonsense to claim that one should respect all beliefs. Beliefs need to earn respect. Some beliefs are irrational, immoral bollocks. I can respect your right to hold them without respecting the actual beliefs in any way." - Ricky Gervais
OP said that he was talking about leftism, and many left wingers got very upset and claimed that he was only talking about religion.
In reality, Ricky Gervais himself has said that he applies this sentiment to other topics as well:
Ricky Gervais @rickygervais: "Everyone has the right to believe anything they want. And everyone else has the right to believe that those beliefs are fucking ridiculous. Cheers."
Dr. Theologician @contra__culture: ""I love to argue about things that don't exist" Weird."
Ricky Gervais @rickygervais: "You think that statement only applies to religion?"
Of course, one left winger went on to make all sorts of even crazier statements, like that "he despises people punching down on others" and that "conservatives can only think in binary" which is why they "can't seperate [sic] his comedy from who he himself actually is".
Ironically, this left winger shared a screenshot from an article that accuses Gervais of punching down ("To his detractors, including some fellow comics, the 63-year-old is a heretic whose best days passed after The Office ended and who now “punches down” against disadvantaged minorities solely because he’s an attention-seeker"), he got savaged by the TRAs for "anti-trans rants masquerading as jokes" (and since trans people are now considered one of the most marginalised people out there...) and as far back as 2016, The Verge was already claiming he was "consistently punching down".
And again ironically, his former collaborator Robin Ince called him a “pin-up and role model for the alt-Right”. It seems Robin Ince, then, is a conservative who "can only think in binary" (him backing Jeremy Corbyn notwithstanding).
