Bill Maher. Anyone else think he's changed or wondering if it's us???

[Comfortably_Numb]

I get the solar countdown but it’s just changing every day without really changing. And last night’s interview with Meghan Kelly was just a rehash of a couple of extreme alleged examples of how much she, and he, hate “SJW.” I’ve watched for years, seen him live, and used to think he was a good comedian with thoughtful social comments. Now he just seems like a pissed off old man. I know, I know, change the channel...so maybe it’s just me.

[Thekaspervote]

1. I think he's very bitter..his libertarian roots are showing

He can be very racist and has been very nasty especially towards Hispanics. when someone gives voice to the likes of steve bannon....that’s it. He should go squarely in the trash bin

[rso]

4. Maher

He treats his right wing guests with too much respect and deference. It’s like he does not want to risk those types not coming to his show, so he lets them spout BS with no pushback.

[Shermann]

22. I push back on the claim of no pushback

He doesn't trash his conservative guests, but he does gently call them out.

Treating guests with respect to keep the door open for them is just good business, in addition to being courteous.

Joe Rogan walks that line adeptly as well.

What's the alternative, creating a news and entertainment echo chamber? The very thing the right wing media gets criticized for?

[Thekaspervote]

64. Anytime Maher or rogan "toys" with guests the likes of bannon, giving them air time

Is not helpful..period. We already have enough of that in fux snooz. No..I personally don’t believe they are much different...agendas, wanting to be right, stirring shit!

[Shermann]

65. Bannon got nowhere pushing his agenda on Real Time

Kellyanne got nowhere pushing her agenda on Real Time.

Maher didn't cause any major damage, but we got intelligent, interesting conversations. Maybe they were pointless, maybe they weren't. But Maher certainly wasn't wittingly or unwittingly pushing any agendas of theirs.

I draw the line at rightwingers like them. I do not wish to hear from Kayleigh or the QAnon Shaman...or even Trump.

[meadowlander]

80. If you insist on inviting actual Nazis on your show, "gently calling them out" isn't good enough.

If you're going to give a platform to those people, you better be damn sure you're in a position to win the argument decisively or you need to fucking stop and ask what you're doing with your life.

Sitting there nodding and chuckling while Milo Yiannopoulos, et al spreads dangerous fascist memes and Russian propaganda is not enough.

The problem is that Maher isn't as smart or as good a debater as he likes to think he is and he gets regularly steam-rolled by some of the right-wingers he has on his show and it's super unhelpful in the long run.

[Thekaspervote]

48. ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

[rso]

2. Maher

I think it’s him. He gave Megan Kelly 20 long minutes to spout BS, never pushing back on her nonsense and agreeing with her throughout. And his bringing up his grievances every single week with California because he can’t get a shed built is a relatively insignificant issue only important to him, and it’s very annoying. On the positive side however, the short segment on the “my pillow” guy was funny, as were some lines in “New Rules”.

[Comfortably_Numb]

3. I agree... I find myself fast forwarding through his bs for his "bit" and new rules...

[empedocles]

53. Same here

[pwb]

5. Comedians seem to go bad.

I stoped watching him like I stoped watching Dennis Miller. They leave comedy with wealth.

[Comfortably_Numb]

8. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit--Dennis Miller became intolerable.

[Shermann]

17. DM is great

He's a non-card-carrying Conservative though. He leans to the right for sure. The right has so few comedians, I always enjoyed his perspective.

But you don't see him much anymore.

[Ilsa]

33. I don't think he's been funny in years. He just seems sour

and ready to be the grumpy old man.

[Yeehah]

35. Yeah, if you're bulimic and need to puke really fast

Dennis Miller is anything but "great." He's a piece of human garbage and not funny at all.

[marble falls]

37. He was absolutely brilliant. Then he forgot he was a comedian.

[milestogo]

6. He's always been a misogynist asshole.

His new rules segment is funny. I stopped watching the show but I still watch new rules on You Tube.

[malaise]

7. Years ago Bill Maher started attacking Muslims and Islam

I wrote my own new rule and stopped watching.

[still_one]

30. He still does when the opportunity presents itself

[malaise]

41. No surprise

Promoting one mumbo jumbo over another is how we got here

[Hortensis]

52. This. His special mix of acid ugliness and professions

of oily virtue doesn't come together for me.

[edhopper]

56. He attacks all religion

and doesn't give Islam a pass.

[Beringia]

9. Who is SJW

[Comfortably_Numb]

11. Social Justice Warriors--- the "woke folk" he rails against.

[PatSeg]

32. "Social Justice Warriors"?

Maybe that is a common acronym for some, but honestly, I would not have figured that one out on my own. Thanks for the clarification.

[NoRethugFriends]

42. Google would have told tou right away (nt)

[PatSeg]

54. Yes, that's true

but I get tired of Googling every acronym I come across, when it would have been easier to spell it out in the first place. For that reason, I avoid using any but the most common acronyms when I am posting or commenting online. When in doubt, I spell it out.

[Beringia]

61. You shouldn't have to do research in order to understand a post

People have made original posts about this lately. Please do not use acronyms.

[tonedevil]

69. I thought that was silly...

in the post you refer to and silly here. Acronyms are part of our living language. Keep up or don't that's your choice, but it isn't going to stop.

[muriel_volestrangler]

86. "SJW" gets 526 hits on Democratic Underground alone

It's a very common abbreviation in American political talk in the past 5 years.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

71. Unfortunately, not all acronyms show up on Google.

It really, really isn't that hard to type out the full name of something.

[Cartoonist]

43. That's not what I heard

I thought it meant single Jewish women. A phrase never used politely.

[Hortensis]

50. Lol, probably not these days, though we know he doesn't like

Mrs. Rashida Tlaib and JSJW (Jewish SJWs). And since he's NYC bred, he's very likely known the older acronym for years.

Interestingly, he was raised NYC Irish Catholic and that his maternal side was Jewish kept secret from him until...probably he was too old to continue it.

[gulliver]

10. He's in a slump

I think he needs to do big live shows in front of audiences. The pandemic hasn't been good for him. He's even blowing his jokes, emphasizing the wrong words, like he doesn't rehearse or even try without a big roomful of people.

[DoBotherMe]

12. He needs 12 step

IMHO

[BannonsLiver]

116. Because of the "Devil's Lettuce"?

[DoBotherMe]

118. No

Because of his stinkin' thinkin'

[nolabear]

13. He was once a bit mean and pretty clever. It's reversed.

He’s mean, smug, judgmental, entitled, and seems to have a thing for “attractive” right wing women. He’s a complete dick about certain kinds of people and I’ve stopped watching him. Why he still gets panelists is beyond me.

[Comfortably_Numb]

14. Wow, you nailed it. "Now it's reversed."

[MustLoveBeagles]

20. You nailed it

[hunter]

15. He's always been creepy...

... another good reason to quit television.

[marble falls]

31. He does have a creepiness about him. He reminds me of the 'mean' friend a lot of us ...

... had, that got more mean and less friend yearly until the last day you ever see them is the last day of high school.

[Hortensis]

55. Boy, is that descriptive. Bingo! That mean syndrome's lead to a number

of mutual partings in our life, though for us typically as we all matured and settled into our adult beings in the 1970s and '80s. But then, as the 1990s and oughts got going, it picked up again -- and accelerated. A couple of the guys turned creepy too, as if they no longer cared about pretending to decency as they once did.

"A bit mean and pretty clever. Reversed."

[meadowlander]

82. I think you get some leeway for being mean/clever in your teens and 20s

because that's how you can prove how "smart" you are in American culture and it's all part of rebelling against the people in power but then people are expected to grow up and learn a better way to relate to others.

The problem is when fifty or sixty year old men don't ever move past that phase and turn it on people who are younger and have less power than them.

[marble falls]

93. We're living longer and trying to stay true to some sense of self. I'm glad I'm a late sixties ...

... hippie-ish sort, rather than a late forties or early fifties Red Menace sort of guy. But wise asses do seem to get ahead.

[Faux pas]

16. I

quit watching him before the election. He's a gigantic turn off, so, I turned him off.

[Paladin]

18. I gave up on Maher years ago. He's more right-wing, every season. (nt)

[MustLoveBeagles]

19. It's him

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. Fuck Bill Maher.

He's always been a pissed off old man.

[tenderfoot]

23. I gave up on him years ago...

I do still like the new rules part but I don't find him to be very good at interviews. He tends to soft-pedal abhorrent guests like Ralph Reed. He's foisted assholes like Kelly-Ann, Ann Coulter and Christine O'Donnell onto the national stage. He thinks he's responsible for getting Milo Yiannopoulos cancelled when it was actually a Canadian teenager. I can go on and on.

[Dem4Life1102]

24. With Maher you have to take the good with the bad

Yes he does give RW liars too much airtime without any pushback for their lies. And yes he is bigoted and sexist at times. But he also have thoughtful guests and skewers republicans better than anyone else. We just have to be honest about who he is and what he does, always remembering that he is not a liberal or an ally of democrats.

[Generic Brad]

39. Like most human beings, he has some good with the bad

We should be able to hold differing viewpoints yet still work to find common ground. That is what his entire show is about. I never expect to agree with everything he and his guests say, but I am grateful that there is one place still out there where people can still have a public dialogue and get some insight into how others think.

Reading these comments, I get the impression that some of us advocate a standardized set of viewpoints as the only valid ones and everyone else needs to go away or be told to piss off if they have the nerve to show up. If anyone really watched last night, they would have noticed that was the main beef he and his guests had.

[Dem4Life1102]

49. No

I think most people here are just being honest about him.

[Hortensis]

59. No, that's not it for me. I realized a long time ago that the virtues he

claims are cover for the real Bill Maher. He's not a nice or principled man.

He is a showman who understands that his viewers want to believe he is, so he dresses his persona in assumed wisdom and virtue as needed and adds more decent people to his show as needed. But principles and understanding are not what he's selling, they're to help his viewers excuse and be comfortable with what they're buying. Neither he nor Rush, or any of their sort these days, invented this technique, of course.

[Shermann]

102. Not an ally of Democrats?

You started off strong, then went off the rails.

He is a strong supporter of Biden.

He made a $1 million donation to the Democratic Senate Majority PAC in 2018

He was a supporter of Hillary.

He was a supporter of Obama all 8 years and made a $1 million USD donation to his super PAC. He expected nothing in return except perhaps an interview, which he got.

Is 12 years and $2 million enough for you?

He is very critical of Democrats at times because he wants them to WIN elections. He is critical of cancel-culture largely because it alienates voters. He is critical of apathetic campaigning because it fails to connect to voters. Those things make you LOSE elections.

Do you see the difference between constructive criticism from within, and the rocks being thrown from the right?

It's odd that I have to point out this distinction.

[Dem4Life1102]

103. Nope

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1801865/bill-maher-rips-democrats-hypersensitive-woke-irredeemable/

https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-maher-democrats-trump-romney-mccain-2016-11

https://decider.com/2017/10/07/bill-maher-democrats-overbearing-hot-car/

https://fair.org/home/the-phony-liberalism-of-bill-maher/

Just being honest about him. Let republicans be sycophants of a rich white male TV celebrity.

[Shermann]

104. You have not demonstrated that Maher wants Democrats to lose

Cynical, sure. Harsh, absolutely. But he doesn't want Democrats to lose. That's my point and the point you sidestepped. What's honest about that?

[Dem4Life1102]

105. Never said that he did

But he’s not always an ally to democrats. Ask Al Gore.

[Shermann]

106. My claim in #102 is that he has been an ally for at least 12 years

Your reply in #103 was "Nope"

Now you are dragging in Al Gore which was 20 years ago.

Are you walking back #103 then?

[Dem4Life1102]

110. Not walking back anything.

I stand by my original post that everyone has to take the good with the bad with Maher. I’m not going to demonize him to say everything he does is bad nor will I idolize him and not abide any criticism of him.

[Dem4Life1102]

114. You debunked nothing

And I’m just being honest about him.

[NurseJackie]

25. It's not just you. I don't watch it... the Mister watches less often too.

But, mostly he skims through... fast forwarding to the mid-segment bit and then on to "New Rules". But even then, it's clear that Maher's shtick is getting to be a little long in the tooth. It's shopworn and showing its age.

Honestly, I much prefer "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver. (And while we're on the subject: I think that HBO should offer Jim Jeffries a show. We enjoyed his Comedy Central show, but it was cancelled.)

[marble falls]

28. +1. John Oliver and Jim Jeffries both got smarts and can make a point with great humor.

[marble falls]

26. He changed for the worst after apologizing to W after 9-11. He's not funny, he's bitter, dismisive.

[still_one]

27. I am in California, and I have solar. It took about two months to order the panels, inverter,

including one day installation along with approvals.

The problem isn't with California rules regarding Solar, the problem is Bill Maher, and the obvious multi-million dollar estate he lives in. I suspect the type of roofing he has cannot accommodate solar panels, which means he has to find an alternate means where to install the panels and the inverter. It appears that he didn't get all the requirements up front before the work was started, which imply this multi-million dollar jackass is either an idiot, or is just looking to call attention to himself.

A couple of weeks ago he had Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying spreading delusional conspiracies in reference to COVID and the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, then saying those who refute their claims are part of the "cancel culture".

https://www.reddit.com/r/samharris/comments/l8i6ao/bill_maher_hosts_bret_weinstein_and_heather/

They were also spewing, without any evidence, that they were 90% sure that Sars Co V2 came from a Chinese lab. When the WHO team was analyzing where the virus came from, all evidence still points to an animal to human transfer, probably from the wet markets, and probably from bats.
Of course that isn't in line with Maher's xenophobia against Asians, similar to his standard anti-Muslim views

This also is not the first time he has pushed vaccine misinformation. Probably the worst was when he pushed the quack saying goat milk cures HIV:

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/when-antivaccine-pseudoscience-isnt-enough-bill-maher-embraces-goat-milk-hiv-quackery/

and you are right, he is much worse in his old age.

I turned him off when he was letting Meghan Kelly push her lies about Don Lemon and Rachel Maddow unchallenged.

His program has been getting more and more unwatchable these past years.

[Shermann]

29. He is a Democrat who is borderline conservative on at least one issue

He is not on board with cancel culture/political correctness/social justice warriors/etc. He's been upfront about it from Day 1 and it is his whole deal. But he is NO friend of Republicans, and probably one of their fiercest opponents. He is not against diversity and equality, just various means to achieve it.

Also he owns a gun which he says he doesn't obsess over.

I think he has earned some leeway.

[Dem4Life1102]

34. He is not a democrat

He is a self proclaimed independent and libertarian who does lean left on most, but not all issues.

[Hoyt]

38. If only the majority of population leaned left, we would solve a lot of problems here.

[Shermann]

40. Anybody else with his views would get to be a Democrat

He has a very large audience which puts a bullseye on his back. His views seem to come under heavy scrutiny on account of him being a kind of mouthpiece for the Democratic Party.

But he's entitled to his idiosyncratic views, he isn't running for office.

[Dem4Life1102]

47. But he is not a Democrat

which is his right. And he has never been a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. That’s not to criticize him but to be honest about him.

[Shermann]

60. He may not be a Big "D" Democrat

...but he's a liberal and far more Democratic than Republican. Maybe he was more Libertarian than Democratic in the past, but I don't believe that is currently the best characterization.

Semantics are important, but really aren't relevant to the OP's criticism. I defend Maher all the time on DU, and frankly it's like shooting fish in a barrel. The criticisms are always very vague and amount to little more than "I just don't like the guy".

The left has always done a great job with constructive criticism of their own. When guys like Al Franken were falling on their swords, asshats like Roy Moore remained brazenly defiant. It is a weakness and it is a strength. Maher is one of those critics and one of the first to embrace the term "cancel culture".

Unfortunately, the right will pick up on this and then pile on. So this makes those criticisms from within sound like right-wing talking points. But they aren't.

Just being honest.

[Dem4Life1102]

68. He calls himself an independent and libertarian.

And I wouldn’t waste my time defending a white male TV celebrity. Republicans are much better at that.

[Shermann]

70. Watch this

[Dem4Life1102]

73. So?

Doesn’t change the fact he calls himself an independent and libertarian.

[Shermann]

74. Regarding being a Libertarian, "called" in the past yes. "Calls" in the present no.

Unless you can provide a link which is somehow more convincing than my video of him addressing this very subject.

[Dem4Life1102]

75. So what does he call himself "in the present"?

[Shermann]

76. Independent Liberal Who Writes Million Dollar Checks to the DNC?

I don't know, does he have to have a label? Maybe the "David S. Pumpkins of Politics". He does his own thing.

In any event, he's a friend of the Democratic Party. He differs here and there on a few things, and gets a LOT of criticism here for it.

The optics on that are not good in my opinion. Not good at all. I really don't get it.

[Dem4Life1102]

77. No he doesn't have to have a label

But he has described himself as an independent and a libertarian. And he has supported democrats at times but at other times he has not. That is just being honest about him.

When he does or says something good, he should get credit for it. But if he does or says something bad, he deserves to be criticized.

[meadowlander]

79. He's always been a Libertarian who sometimes agrees with Democrats and is mostly just anti-Trump.

He's a contrarian who likes to bait people into arguing on TV for a living.

The last episode I watched was the one with Steve Schmidt where Maher was determined to get him arguing with Markos Moulitsas from Daily Kos. Even Schmidt kept saying "yes we obviously disagree about some things, but there's a lot more important shit going on in the country right now" and Bill kept baiting him until he would talk about something that liberals would disagree with.

I think Bill is sometimes funny but he can't keep his eye consistently on the big picture because he keeps getting distracted banging the drum about his perpetual gripes with "cancel culture" and religion, etc. and trying to manufacture a grudge match for ratings.

He tries to walk the middle road between a comedy show and serious political commentary and it just doesn't work. You end up with pretentious, vacuous, mean-spirited shit-stirring that just isn't that funny most of the time.

This flew pre-Jon Stewart's the Daily Show because we didn't have anything better but now it's just a bit dated and sad compared with shows like Last Week Tonight and Colbert and Sam Bee. I only watch it because there's absolutely nothing else on worth watching the two days a week Rachel Maddow is off.

[Shermann]

85. Another claim of Maher currently being a Libertarian

Debunked soundly in Post #70

[iemanja]

36. He's always been an asshole

You're just catching on.

[Comfortably_Numb]

62. Clearly yours is the minority opinion, to which you are absolutely entitled.

[Johnny2X2X]

44. He's falling for a con

Are there some cases of “cancel culture” that are egregious and wrong? Yes, there are ridiculous stories. But he’s playing like they’re rampant and it’s a majority in the left who are part of it. They’ve taken a hand full of cases and turned it into something that’s happening thousands of times a day across the country.

This is not an issue worth devoting much time to, it’s rare and if ignored will burn itself out. With so much going on in our country, to give this white grievance center stage is ridiculous. It’s like the 500th thing people should spend time worried about. Maher is too isolated now, he’s consuming information that is rotten.

As a straight white male, trust me, cancel culture is not something I worry about at all. It’s never going to effect me or anyone I know. And I recognize that literally every other demographic in the country faces hundreds of challenges more daunting than straight white males do from “cancel culture.”

Maher is no longer funny. And he’s falling for white privileged fantasyland grievances. What a shame.

[PatSeg]

58. Well said

His extremes have gotten more extreme and now he's starting to sound like a cranky asshole, railing against government regulations and politically correct extremes. Though I sometimes agree with some of the things he says, I would hardly give that much time and attention to them and it certainly isn't something I want to hear about for an hour once a week.

I most definitely did not want to hear Megyn Kelly talk about "both sides do it", as if all things are equal.

[Crunchy Frog]

45. I used to watch the show regularly and really enjoyed it for the most part.

I mostly found his discussions to be funny and intelligent and incisive, and found the New Rules to be really funny. So yeah, I think he's changed because I find him almost completely unwatchable now. I didn't try to watch last night, but it sounds about like what I've come to expect.

I don't know what's happened to him, if he's just gotten old, or if Trumpism has worn off on him. I don't think it's me. My tastes don't change that much.

[PatSeg]

46. Maher has always had a way of rubbing people the wrong way,

but lately he has gotten much worse. It seems to have happened during the quarantine. Something really changed and he appears to have lost his rhythm. Now that Trump isn't president anymore, he is obsessing over smaller issues, that he runs into the ground. It is as if the only way he can remain relevant, is to be super anti something.

Megyn Kelly did bring up some legitimate concerns about her experiences with her children's school, though I think the instances she cited are probably quite rare. Then she dissed Rachel Maddow as focusing so much on the "Russiagate hoax", which Kelly put in the same category as the right's assertion that the election was rigged. Seriously? Maher didn't call her on that, though he did briefly say something about false equivalency and then moved on to his latest pet peeve, the "woke" movement. He's like a dog with a bone, which is his prerogative, but it doesn't make for very interesting television.

Meanwhile, I kept waiting for him to finally acknowledge that Biden is really doing a good job as President and that there have been some remarkable changes in his first month. Nope, I didn't hear him mention Joe Biden's name once. I think the last time he referred to Biden, it was something derogatory about him hurting his foot playing with his dog, implying that Biden was too old and frail for the job. He did say that the pandemic was getting better, but no indication that the White House had anything to do with it and then he suggested once again that the virus was overhyped.

With the exception of New Rules and an occasional interesting guest, his show is quickly becoming unwatchable.

[Shermann]

88. It will be challenging for political comedians during the Biden era

Maher managed quite well during the 8 years of Obama though.

He'll find some hot-button issues to talk about, no worries.

I've been watching him since Politically Incorrect.

[PatSeg]

90. I have as well

And during all those years, there were times when he pissed me off, but for the most part, he was must-watch-TV. He often says out loud what a lot of people are thinking, but won't say.

Meanwhile, no one was more horrified by the election of Donald Trump than Bill Maher. He was rightfully concerned that it could be the end of our democracy. You'd think that he could express some relief and happiness that Joe Biden is in the White House, but he acted rather disappointed that it wasn't someone else, though I have no idea who he thought would be better. I recall him dissing pretty much every Democratic candidate during the primaries. Perhaps he's not happy unless he is unhappy about something or someone.

Maher's opening monologue and New Rules are usually funny, but I watched the show for the serious dialogue. The comedy was just frosting on the cake.

Maybe Trump was a bad habit that was hard to break for comedians and political pundits. There are so few people who can take his place.

[MarcATL]

51. He's a POS

And this is coming from a former fan going back to the 80s.

[Buckeyeblue]

57. He doesn't really have new ideas or a new point of view

Dave Chapelle would be much more interesting host. Political shows that avoid keeping racial inequality in the conversation are irrelevant.

I'm 51 and caucasian. If we aren't talking about racial inequality, poverty and the environment we are ignoring the top issues of our time.

[meadowlander]

83. Yes. Hasan Minhaj's excellent "Patriot Act" gets cancelled

after like three seasons and meanwhile we're on season 19 of "grumpy old white man rants about his shed while learing at the Fox News Barbie of the day".

[LizBeth]

67. So women are piece of shit because we do not embrace his sexism? Ok.

[LizBeth]

96. "anyone here is worth a crap." So what if he throws out sexist slurs and comments.

I am not the one for you to be concerned about.

[Willto]

98. Agree with you Freelancer

First of all the gross exaggerations here at DU of what Maher did or said on a given show and the context in which it occurred is fascinating to behold for people like myself who watch each week. The descriptions here and the reality of what I watched for myself are often so far apart they aren't even on the same planet.

And I'm sorry but anyone that thinks Maher isn't firmly on our side has powers of perception that are just worthless. The guy always encourages people to vote for Democrats and donates huge sums of money to Democratic campaigns. He spends the vast majority of his time on the air just absolutely eviscerating right wingers. The sad truth is that far too many in our camp have become so intolerant that anyone who doesn't agree with them 100% of the time is viewed just as negatively as a real enemy. The end result is that they would toss people like Maher onto the dung heap of history despite the fact that he probably agrees with them on at least 90% of the issues facing us today. Not good enough baby. Gotta be totally pure or you are no better than a MAGA hat wearing Trump cultist. Ironically the MAGA hat wearing Trump cultists adhere to the same all or nothing membership standards for their side.

Sad to see us emulating them.

[LizBeth]

66. As a woman I clearly saw the pissed off old white man for a long time. Sometimes he hits it.

As much as not he swings and misses. Along with Moore. That privilege keeps getting in their way. They are not nearly as smart as they think they are.

[BannonsLiver]

72. I used to like him, then I didn't.

But I’ll admit, I do enjoy the reaction he elicits from some people here. It’s pretty funny, really.

[frogmarch]

78. I quit watching his show more than

ten years ago. He was always an asshole, but he finally became an unbearable one.

[GoCubsGo]

81. He is who he has always been.

It's just that those who never noticed it before are starting to notice. Don't know how they missed his long-time love affair with Ann Colter.

[tishaLA]

84. Blithely saying 8 and 9 year olds

Shouldn't have to think about race, or tacitly agreeing with that sentiment, is the very definition of white privilege. Imagine the African American, Latino, or Asian American kids who get called racist names who can't un-know race and racism and then saying " but we want to shield our children from hearing about their pain." That's who Maher and Kelly are.

I've had animosity toward Maher because of his misogyny for years (check a list of producers/EPs and writers on the show; last I checked there was 1 woman out of something like 20 people), but his racism, and especially the way his racism has become more pronounced recently, as with his Ben Sasse interview, put the final nail in the coffin.

[TexasBushwhacker]

91. He can't be a racist

He f*cks black women.



But seriously, he's one of those "confirmed" bachelors, who likes his "freedom", only dates women decades younger than him that he can feel superior to, gets bored, dumps them and goes home to count his money ALONE. Pathetic.

I just watch New Rules on YouTube.

[Oneironaut]

87. If you mean, "Becoming Joe Rogan," then yes

[634-5789]

89. Yeah, he's not good anymore, Not funny, nothing.

[mnhtnbb]

94. Yes, I do think he's changed. Maybe too much isolation during pandemic.

I had seen him live--twice--when he came to NC. First time was around 2015 when Hillary was running for the nomination. Been watching Real Time for years.

I think when he came back from his hiatus from Thanksgiving until mid-January he was a lot different. I didn't even bother to watch last night's show.

[dsc]

95. He has always been a mixed bag

his biggest sin tonight, IMO, was to not have any Black voice on at all given what he knew his interview with Kelly was going to be about. I frankly think there is a case to be made that things have gotten worse for Black Americans in terms of rights in recent years. I don't think the GOP of the 1990's or even early 2000's would have dared oppose updating the VRA en masse like the GOP is now. I also can't imagine the GOP of the 1990's and 2000's explicitly campaigning on throwing out Black votes (not that they weren't attempting to do so, just that they are bold enough to admit it now). It would have been nice to have a Black perspective on Maher's take of where we are in regards to Black America.

[mountain grammy]

100. Agree! Well said.

[Duppers]

99. Posted in another thread last night...

Bill Maher lost me many many months ago when he said:

"Covid, covid, covid - it's all I'm hearing! I'm so OVER covid!"

The fact that he was so annoyed at just hearing about covid really turned me off. I thought: Well, F you, Bill Maher...you & all your RW guests, like Megan Kelly tonight. Besides, folks don't watch to hear wingers.

[LymphocyteLover]

101. I used to think he was funny and enjoyed his opening monologue and New Rules segments.

But his political discussions were almost always very annoying. Finally I gave up and stopped watching altogether a little over a year ago.

[betsuni]

107. What I love about the show is that the discussions are long and it's live so

there's plenty of time to form opinions about guests. I have no idea why so many people seem obsessed with warning anybody about watching it. Maher is the "politically incorrect" guy. Duh. Do people not know who he is?

[Humanist_Activist]

108. He's always been a contrarian asshole who seems to have no direction outside of...

self-aggrandizement. I really don't understand people who are enamored with him, especially those who ostensibly claim to be politically or socially on the left.

[jalan48]

109. All this Bill Maher butthurt. If you don't like him don't watch him. It's that easy.

[Humanist_Activist]

111. Uhm, he has his own show on cable, despite the fact that he's a despicable...

bag of putrid, fermented fecal matter, a lot of people, for some reason, think his misogynistic, racist, transphobic and other bigoted opinions matter.

[jalan48]

115. Yep-maybe we can censor him and not allow him on the air.

[Humanist_Activist]

117. I'm sorry, does he have a constitutional right to an HBO show?

Where in the Constitution is that?

[nolabear]

112. You do know this is a discussion group, right?