Bill Maher goes full MAGA - says Dems party of slavery and he needs to be harder on left than right

[NewsCenter28]

https://www.foxnews.com/media/maher-mocks-media-condemning-european-parties-far-right-origins-says-dems-party-slavery

"When I was younger, there was no doubt in my mind who the champions of free speech were, and also the threat, and the threat was all on the right and the champions were on the left," he noted. "That’s not how I feel now. So when people say now ‘Why are you harder on the left?’ Well that’s one of the big reasons."

After criticizing Trump, saying that he only wasn’t seen as more of a threat because many did not take his hyperbole seriously, "The left is much more in my face, much more constant, much more daily problem" later quipping that if anything, "maybe the woke people should apologize to me and all of the people like me for all the things they robbed us from ever hearing, jokes that were never told because someone was just too scared to say something."

I apologize for the trash link, but I trust that, in this case only, Fox accurately portrayed what that Trump-loving fascist asshole said.

I wonder if Chris Licht paid him off to become a Republican. He also railed against the COVID pandemic financial benefits recently along with downplaying the likelihood that Putin would invade Ukraine pre-war in 2022.

HEY BILL, YOU MISERABLE LOW-LIFE BASTARD ASSHOLE, HOW IS ANYONE ON THE LEFT AS IN YOUR FACE AND CRUDE AS THAT MONSTER, TRUMP, WHO IS REPONSIBLE FOR 1 MILLION COVID DEATHS+ AMONGST OTHER ATROCITIES.

The party of slavery line matches up nicely with how his party, the GOP, calls themselves the party of Lincoln btw.

Perhaps he and MTG are ideological soulmates?

[Marcus IM]

1. Bill who? n/t

[TheBlackAdder]

2. Is this the guy who ragged about his parents and then came full circle to become them?

[gldstwmn]

90. He's that guy that used to sell pot that now wants people to get off his lawn.

So yeah, basically.

[Haggard Celine]

3. He's an asshole. This sort of thing is

expected by people like him. Look at all the horrible things being done by Republicans and then tell me what awful things the Democrats are doing. The difference is profound. Yet Maher still feels the need to call out the Democrats for talking on their phones in the car, while he GOP is drunk as hell and weaving all over the road. I don't know if it's HBO that wants him to go after Democrats or if he just wants to do it.

[634-5789]

6. YES. This post should have never been juried!

[Ray Bruns]

33. He might as well be a republican. He's got the right attitude.

“I got mine, screw you”

[634-5789]

5. He started losing it in 2018, and will champion the GQP now. Too bad.

[Duppers]

13. Absolutely agree!

That's the date I put the hammer down on viewing his programs.

(My hubs wanted to watch but later agreed that Maher had become bonkers with his Reich-wing comments & monologue.)

[Phoenix61]

7. Not the least bit surprised. I stopped watching him years ago.

IMHO… he’s an arrogant asshole who is no where near as clever as he thinks he is.

[B.See]

17. So have I.

[royable]

19. Ditto

[barbtries]

37. me too 100%

years ago. no where near as clever as he thinks he is.

it was him having that ann woman on that turned me off. coulter. ann coulter - i know, who?

[vercetti2021]

8. Fuck Maher

He is a big time TERF and a transphobe. My mom dropped HBO after he started spouting more RW horseshit.

[William Seger]

9. Maher is a comedian; as a political commentator, he's ALWAYS been a joke

I sometimes watch his monologues because they're usually funny, and sometimes watch the interview if I'm interested in the person, but then I skip ahead to the New Rules because the panel commentary is usually tedious and not worth the time. But then, when he gets to the "... and finally, new rule..." (and gets "serious" ) I usually stop watching because it's almost always a big pile of arrogant crap.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

105. He's not much of a comedian, either

He's had some good writers, but he himself isn't very funny.

[SpamWyzer]

10. Maher

has never gotten my respect. He has ALWAYS been a weasel. I am waiting for the report that some NYC person sick of him gives him what he deserves. He is scum and deserves to be treated that way. I am boycotting all his sponsors. Woke people should boycott him out of existence.

[William Seger]

12. It's dirt simple: Today's right-wing is all about preserving bigotry

... and bigots like Maher are drawn to it, no matter how shitty it's candidates and other policies are.

[2naSalit]

14. Bill doesn't seem to know...

The difference between apples and oranges. And his lack of self awareness is colossal.

[Celerity]

15. Maher errs on several levels. The Brothers of Italy party has roots going back to Mussolini

via various manifestations of the ultra hard RW in Italian politics. Even MORE importantly, Brothers of Italy is STILL a fascist party at heart.

That is massively different from the historical changes within the US Democratic Party.

The US Democratic party has, over the past 60 years or so, did a 180 degree switch and is profoundly no longer anything like the Dem Party was going back to the Civil War (and the Civil war's run-up, plus the Dem party of the time after the Civil War up until it first started to change.)

It doesn't matter anymore what the Democratic Party did when it was the party of slavery, Jim Crow, etc etc, as it no longer has any of that left in it. Those fuckers are all in (or at least extremely sympathetic to) the Rethugs.

He also errs with his bullshit about the LW being more aggressive and violent and militant in the US than the RW is.

Maher is a fool and a gaslighter on both of those subjects.

[ToxMarz]

16. That 'Dems are the party of slavery' crap is such a lazy denuciation

A political party is not an innate sentient being, it's a social construct made up of its members/affiliates. The mambers and the platform of the Democratic party are a wholly, diametrically and demonstrably different construct than it's earlier itterration.

[RVN VET71]

25. Maher would agree with you 100%

At least the excerpt of the back-n-forth with Brand quotes him as saying that "they were the party of slavery and Jim Crow but they outgrew it."

I think your comment and many of the comments to this post were made without actually looking at the link that was provided. That's too bad because the link quotes the actual words used by Maher, not those that were erroneously extrapolated by someone who is obviously not a fan of Mr. Maher.

FWIW, I actually admire Mr. Maher's talent and occasionally his wit. Running a show like his, with guests who are frequently at emotional odds with each other, is challenging and he manages quite well -- usually -- to keep the conversation going.

Also, fwiw, I stopped watching his show more than a year ago after his grossly absurd support for Florida's fascist reaction to the covid pandemic -- using DeSantis' sanitized and fabricated statistics to paint a picture of the "Sunshine State" as a land of delight and health! (One of his guests complained, childishly, that she was sick and tired of covid -- and the precautions the CDC and WHO had issued -- because they were just sooo burdensome and interfered with her rights, or some such bs.)

But he did not condemn the Democratic Party as the party of slavery. Not in his conversation with Brand. In fact, check out the link and you'll see that Fox -- the chief propaganda of fascism in this country, deliberately took Maher's "slavery" comment out of context in its headline.

[ToxMarz]

45. That's nice to know, and NO I didn't actually look at the link provided.

I was replying to the post that was made. If the post is erroneously extrapolated from the actual words Maher used, maybe the onus would be on calling out the erroneous post. I (as I'm sure many do) come to DU as a (generally) reliable aggregator of news and opinion that interests me.

[thesquanderer]

62. Yes, the OP mis-represents the actual content.

Maher said it WAS the party of slavery, that we out-grew that. His point was really that no party is historically clean, and you can't judge them today merely on what they once were.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

97. There you go with "pesky" facts.

[whathehell]

78. Um, yes..

just a bit oudated.

[wnylib]

18. I agree that Maher is an a.h. not worth watching.

But, in the interest of accuracy, I disagree with a couple things in the OP. Maher is a Libertarian, not a Republican. He also disliked Trump intensely while Trump was in office and verbally attacked him constantly.

As a Libertarian, Maher is no friend to the left and never was. His misogynistic "jokes" turned me off of him years ago. His preening during his monologues is annoying. He acts like a child performing for parents or other adults and then waiting for the applause and pats on the back. His attacks on covid precautions were irresponsible.

During the pandemic, while comedians like Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Seth Meyers performed from home without an audience, Maher used a stage and canned laughter to imitate performance with an audience, as if no one noticed that there was a pandemic. I guess he needed to hear praise in the form of laughter in order to perform, like a child who needs adults to clap and say, "Isn't he cute?"

Maher is an a.h., but an insignificant one. Not worth watching or getting worked up about.

[Walleye]

20. The complaint this asshole is making about liberals is that liberals make assholes feel bad

He really does have an inflated sense of his own importance. And you could smell the misogyny on him

[Emile]

29. +1 spot on!

[UpInArms]

21. Maher's love for Ann Coulter made me turn him off 20 years ago

Eom

[aocommunalpunch]

30. Fuck yea

Ain’t watched that miserable fuck in years. He can hang with Clarence Thomas in hell.

[BlueMTexpat]

22. I gave up on him

LONG ago.

He has NO credibility whatsoever as a political commentator.

Occasionally, he is able to make a joke, but certainly not worth following.

[TheDemsshouldhireme]

23. Long time viewer of his show

I still watch every week. I can handle criticism of my side, we're not perfect. With that being said, Maher goes to the woke well more than Desantis. My wife and I play a game on how soon into his show he will say the word "woke" and he cant go a single show without it. Not one.

Also when he was on Jake Tapper's show and he asked Bill to define woke he really couldn't but instead used the example of taking down Abe Lincoln statues and taking his name off schools. I challenge Bill and his writers to list all the concrete examples of this. Not recommendations that later didn't happen, but actual concrete examples of name changes or statues removed. I found one in Boston of a statue where the objection to it was that it was a half naked freed slave at Lincolns feet. So in that case it really wasn't against old Abe but how it portrayed the former slave.

Problem is Bill makes tired generalizations, like every democrat is a snowflake who needs a safe space. Or that every school is teaching white students they are oppressors. It's fox news lazy type of crap. He likes to go after that teacher in Ontario with the giant fake breasts, and I agree that's stupid Bill, but it's in Canada, it's not even in this country. He tries to turn the most extreme liberal things on say the San Francisco city council and make that main stream democratic platform or ideas.

[Woodwizard]

24. He likes to throw bombs.

And it works proven by this thread. Many times I see posts about what an ass he is and the next day he is criticizing the right and getting a cheer thread.

He is what he is and has been for a long time just an attention whore stirring up outrage on one side or another.

[Hortensis]

31. Lot of truth. Attention whore. But more -- extremely untrustworthy.

Whenever he goes too far, or people are upset on an issue, he fools people by increasing the time spent preaching and explaining right and wrong, but he can't stick it himself.

[Skittles]

26. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

repukes are treated like white men, while Dems are treated like women / POC (we have to be twice as good to be considered half as good)

fuck that shit

[kaotikross]

27. The thing is

that Maher has become wealthy enough to maybe have to pay a fair share of taxes if Biden can get that done. I haven't seen very many wealthy people who want to do that. How dare evil leftist enslavers demand that he only buy ONE yacht and pay some taxes instead of two? He'll have to cut back to a slightly lesser grade of caviar! The horror!

[FreepFryer]

28. So ready for Maher to be banned here as RW talking points. His ideas and shtick are garbage. (Nt)

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

34. I know right

Every late Friday night/early Saturday morning there are a couple of posters who post clips of the show. But when I point out that they are posting right wing propaganda I get roasted in the comments as if Maher is off limits.

[Sympthsical]

41. And you'd be proving his point by doing so

That hostility to speech and dissent is becoming a problem.

[FreepFryer]

43. Intolerance is not tolerable in a just society when it advocates dehumanization of others.

They’re way over the line, and it’s not just speech - they are a platform for antidemocratic advocacy.

[Sympthsical]

49. I'm talking about Maher

You want him banned for being "right-wing" which isn't even close to what he is.

Constantly monitoring others for having Wrong Thought and seeking to cast them out of group for being heretical is many things.

Liberal isn't one of them, though.

15th Century Catholic, maybe.

[FreepFryer]

51. I'm talking about DU. We don't permit naked RW talking points and Maher has devolved to them. (nt)

[Abolishinist]

74. Don't forget, he's... also... wait for it... a FASCIST!

[whathehell]

81. +1. Thank you!

[JHB]

32. Mahar is an asshole who blames his audience when his jokes fall flat

Audience tastes have always shifted. Mahar's old enough to remember that when he was starting out there were old comedians whose acts weren't as popular as they once were; they had their fans, but to the younger set they were pretty cringe-inducing.

But not for him, for him, it's all the fault of "woke".

[Vinca]

35. He's very hard to watch these days. His whole schtick is based upon scolding people. He railed

against Covid restrictions and nags people who eat things other than lettuce and tofu. He's fine calling others everything in the book, but is outraged if we're outraged. His guests of late have been mostly right wingers and other than the "New Rules" segment has become a giant bore. They should replace his show with something featuring Al Franken.

[Tomconroy]

36. I like Bill Maher. He's funny. I don't have to agree with everything

He says to enjoy his humor. And he makes me think even if I don't agree with him.
Don't know how people know what he's saying these days when everyone here stopped watching him 20 years ago.

[whathehell]

39. Yeah, I think that

attitude comes easily to White Men who aren't personally demeaned by him..

[Just_Vote_Dem]

61. +1 n/t

[Tomconroy]

66. It comes easily to someone who actually has a sense of humor.

[whathehell]

75. Um, no, that particular "humor"

comes easily to those who aren't it's targets.

Having that "sense of humor" is easy when it's not YOU being made the butt of it...Get it now?

[whathehell]

88. Lol..If only you knew HOW wrong you are!

I've been KNOWN for my humor since childhood

Tell me..Does your "sense of humor" also include racist jokes, or just misogynist ones?

[Tomconroy]

89. If you have examples of Maher making racist or misogynistic

Jokes I'd be happy to look at them and I might change my mind.
But provide video. I trust but verify.

[whathehell]

94. Oh please..

I have no video, nor do I know how to obtain any but, as anyone watching him knows, he once called Sarah Palin a "dumb cunt" and REGULARLY refers to people as "whiney little bitches".

[whathehell]

95. Actually, Google provides several videos

of Maher discussing, and defending, of course. his calling Palin a "cunt,"

I copied the link, but I'm unable to paste the link right now for some reason.

[betsuni]

47. They don't know anything about him and that he always supports Democrats.

I think it has a lot to do with him apologizing many times for voting for Ralph Nader and that he'd never make that mistake again and always vote for Democrats, also contributed millions to get Democrats elected and urged other wealthy Democrats to do so. Somehow this seems to make people mad.

[Just_Vote_Dem]

63. What makes people "mad" is his misogny and Islamaphobia

And he does not represent himself as a Democrat, but as a libertarian, I believe.

[whathehell]

79. Thank you..

He is the personification of Male Entitlement.

[dem4decades]

38. If I never saw Maher's name again on DU it would be fine with me. John Oliver is great. Maher a

pompous ass.

[betsuni]

40. What actually happened is Russel Brand said people called far-right by the media

can be traditional conservatives, and Maher said he doesn't know much about Italian politics but the new Italian prime mister didn't seem to be fascist to him, sounded like conservatism, like "I'm a mother and I'm proud to be a mother."

Media said her party had fascist roots, Democrats' roots were also bad (do people not know Southern Democrats left the party in the sixties with Civil Rights?) "but they outgrew it." That yes, all our parties have corrupt roots. "The immediate hair-trigger, OMG the world is ending" makes Maher think he doesn't trust the media. Every day there are examples of headlines completely wrong and everyone gets mad without checking if it's correct because it's opinion and not fact. Like "Bill Maher goes full MAGA" -- where does he do that in this interview? Please tell us. In detail.

Brand went on to support Putin. Maher said the greatest threat of authoritarianism in America came from Trump claiming he did not lose an election and getting a giant chunk of his party to go along with that. Bill says as a liberal he thinks we should be constantly working to make life better for people, he donates a lot of money to help (millions, and he urged wealthy liberal to do the same). Brand says it doesn't really matter if Trump or Democrats get elected, same.

Maher says Lenny Bruce had nine trials. Comedians have been complaining about political correctness for decades.

But "he and MTG are ideological soulmates?" Not once in the interview did Maher say anything supporting Trump or Republicans.

Awaiting the inevitable personal insult.

[ruet]

69. Reply From DU...

[betsuni]

119. +1

[Celerity]

116. For once we agree.

[jcgoldie]

42. Bill Maher fits right in with party of white grievance

Because of course the most important issue facing America is whether someone was offended by his jokes. Mememememe! Fuck you Bill Maher.

[whathehell]

80. The party of White Male grievance

especially.

[Sympthsical]

44. If Maher is MAGA, that term literally has no meaning at all

Calling someone as anti-Trump as he is MAGA is ridiculous. He was the one ringing the alarm bells that he didn't think Trump would leave office if he lost the election. He'd ask politicians on his show what they would do if that happened. They brushed him off.

He was right. The politicians who thought it would never happen were wrong.

I think Maher is a good barometer of partisanship. The less people can tolerate dissension or criticism of party or ideology, the more they hate him. It's not 1:1 or the sole cause to dislike him, but it lines up well pretty regularly.

I don't agree with everything he says - not by a long mile. I think sometimes he goes far afield on some topics, and he kind of has a streak of health-nuttery/medical suspicion that I find common in a very specific subset of Californians. Rich, white, and liberal. Think your Berkeleys and your Marin counties. For ten years navigating various medical systems and organizations for patients, I ran into a lot of medical woo in these quarters.

However, he is a thinker. He's making up his own mind. He's giving thought to topics. He has conversations with all kinds of people, whether he agrees with them or not. He's the opposite of closed, insulated thinking. And he's saying what he thinks regardless of whether or not it plays well with the team.

And team people hate him for it.

Bill Maher is MAGA? We just use terms for anything nowadays. Not because they mean things, but because they signal who's in-group and out-group. I trust, given its constant use the last six months, Maher's about to be accused of stochastic terrorism in some way - gotta get those vocabulary terms out there to signal who's the heretic.

And he's dead right about freedom of speech. 100% right. It's my greatest dissension with my side. I think the principle of free expression is under constant daily attack. "You can say this. You can't say this. If you say this, we're going to try to get you shut down in some way. We'll let you know what thoughts you're allowed to have." Navigating social media (or hell, just regular media) is a constant endeavor of trying to maneuver through speech and thought codes an increasingly authoritarian mindset is trying to impose on everyone else.

Whether or not I agree with what he says about something, he at least seems like he'd be crazy interesting to have a conversation with. As opposed to people who constantly wander this earth, "You have to think or say what I want you to think and say, or else you're a heretic and must be cleansed." Those people are the fucking worst. And so endlessly dull. And dangerous to free expression.

At least Maher ain't that. When it comes to free expression, I think he has it right and his opponents are completely wrong. From upthread I saw, "I can't wait until he's banned from here for being RW talking points."

Nailed Maher's point for him in one.

[betsuni]

48. +1

[RobinA]

50. Pretty Much My View

I don't always agree with what he says, but he has a take not unlike my own about many things. He says stuff some of us think but aren't allowed to say, and yeah, he's an equal opportunity basher. He's no MAGA, he just doesn't genuflect every time a Dem says something.

I also am tired of every time a white person opines on something it gets brushed off as a white guy talking, as if that immediately disqualifies them from having anything intelligent to say.

It's interesting that these days, both left and right automatically disown (and name call) anyone who says anything that doesn't conform to the party line.

[FreepFryer]

52. Lol "maher's point" is whatever gets maher attention, which increasingly means attacking us (nt)

[Sympthsical]

54. Criticisms are not attacks

Especially when those criticisms are in service of trying to steer people off a shitty path, which is where I find most of his criticism stems from. When he's criticizing our side, his general point of origin is for an adherence to more liberal principles vs. a more authoritarian mindset that has been creeping in over time.

People who cannot handle criticism - which is increasingly and more clearly a thing than ever - are also people who cannot admit fault or course correct.

These aren't good attributes.

[FreepFryer]

55. His commentary is rarely criticism. It's punching down, sniping and unfunny bullying. RW gold. (NT)

[whathehell]

77. "Punching down", "bullying"

Yes. Essentially, that's what misogyny and racism IS.

[whathehell]

83. Legitimate "criticism" is leveled at Behavior,

NOT at conditions of birth, i.e., gender and race.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

107. He doesn't criticize

He whines and bashes.

His woke and identity politics obsession is bigoted in the extreme, the very personification of white male privilege getting its knickers in a knot because women and gays and brown people don't sit by and shut up and let the white men make jokes at our expense or decide what's "best" for us...which oddly is what's only best for white trash like him.

F that, F him, and F all the other privileged white trash who defend that rot.

[Sympthsical]

108. Welcome back

[Abolishinist]

109. I'm finding it difficult to ID Maher as "white trash".

MTG? OK. Boebert? Of course. But Maher?

If you don't mind, please provide your definition of same, and how Mr. Maher is a part of that group. Oh, and as a "white male" myself, how I am also considered to be a member of the white trash clan. I must say, it's news to me!

[Mz Pip]

59. +1

[obnoxiousdrunk]

67. +1. N/T

[Raine]

72. +1 nt

[moonscape]

99. Agree about the narrow lanes

for acceptable expression of views and speech all over the place. I often see a railing about a singular statement, or hell interpretation of a statement, of a stalwart liberal as grounds to pigeon-hole them, never watch them again, turn them off, etc.

[Celerity]

104. I agree with you on the points you made, but I do find fault with Maher on a couple of other points

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217803578#post15

[betsuni]

120. +1

[dalton99a]

46. Maher is a has-been comedian and a boring pseudo-intellectual, contrarian troll

[Paladin]

57. Nailed him in one pithy sentence! Congrats. (nt)

[NotVeryImportant]

53. I question self-professed liberals, leftists and Democrats who still watch him.

Other than that, meh...

[themaguffin]

56. He's an ass, but I have watched him for years. He's called out the GOP a lot.

He's been a mess since the pandemic and has always taken an absolutist view on speech.

[onenote]

58. Actual Maher statement: Democrats "were the party of slavery and Jim Crow. Then they outgrew it,"

The OP ignores the last part of his statement.

[whathehell]

86. Sure, and the Republicans "were the party of Lincoln"

but they certainly "outgrew" that.

Reaching back a century and a half to make contemporary political points is probably not the best strategy.

[Dirty Socialist]

64. I'm glad he went to the other side

I never liked him anyways.

[uponit7771]

65. "Dems ****WERE**** party of slaver (past tense) but outgrew it", was the statement ...

... we need to be more accurate with quotes

[roamer65]

68. Maher is a libertarian.

So he’s a Repuke that smokes pot and is only right at best half of the time.

I don’t give a rat ass what he thinks.

[NickB79]

70. Nothing's stopping you from making all those jokes that were never told, Bill

Please, say what you want to say for us all to hear. No one took that right away from you.

And when we use our rights to stop listening to your racist tripe, that's only fair.

[whathehell]

91. Awww..Poor Widdle Bill.

He's losing that White Male Privilege that let him tell : "jokes" at everyone else's expense!...He now has to consider OTHER people's feelings!..The horror!

I think I'll have a widdle Whiney White Guy Sad now.

[kentuck]

71. Maher donated a million dollars to Obama campaign...

So, he has put his money where his mouth is, in the past.

He has long been a Libertarian and an advocate for marijuana legalization. He has not sworn allegiance to any Party but has grown very impatient with some recent Democratic positions, especially on the masks and what he calls "woke" politics.

He believes Democrats are masochistic in that they keep promoting ideas and issues that harm themselves politically. He has been very disenchanted with California politics. There may be some merit in some of his arguments.

[whathehell]

76. On one level he "put his money where his mouth is".

Last edited Fri Apr 7, 2023, 06:53 PM - Edit history (1)

That said, he's still a misogynist pig, imo, and, much as I love Obama, no amount of money given to a male candidate will ever change that.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

73. I stopped paying attention to Maher a long time ago

[ismnotwasm]

82. Well. He's been a sleaze for a long time

Not surprised by this in the least

[LiberalFighter]

84. I'm sending prayers and thoughts to him.

[H2O Man]

85. Recommended.

The guy is an asshole. He mistakes himself for an intelligent being.

[Caliman73]

92. Maher is an idiot...

Conservatives will always be a bigger threat to speech and to other freedoms, than the left.

He is equating the systemic inequality in access to food, shelter, education, justice, and the exercise of rights, to some people getting upset and using their voices and the little consumer power we have, to impose consequences on people for hateful speech.

This, this right here, above is what Maher is comparing. This is what Bill Maher is saying that is the example of "the left" becoming a bigger threat to speech. This is why he is criticizing, "the left" and supports Conservatism.

Speech has NEVER been free. No one has EVER been allowed to say whatever they wanted to without consequence. There have been real comedians who were actually arrested by the government, for telling jokes considered obscene. Maher is complaining because he can't tell jokes that are racist or sexist. He gets bent out of shape because people get upset and boo him because jokes we may have found funny 15 years ago, aren't really funny anymore because... gasp... sensibilities change as societies progress.

Traditionally, it is been the voices of minorities and women that have been silenced. Literally silenced by lynching, incarceration, discrimination, and in the case of women, by violence and internment in psychiatric hospitals. That was done by Conservatives, who did not want the social hierarchy to be challenged.

Now, as I said, people are becoming more aware and more sensitive to how making fun of disabilities, gender, race, etc... can be demeaning and harmful to people and we aren't finding those jokes funny anymore and Maher thinks that this is some new form of oppression. "Won't somebody please think of the rich older White out of touch comedians!! Please!!!

Whiny rich privileged people just aren't funny Bill!

[BigDemVoter]

93. He's another sad sack of shit. I stopped watching his tiresome & boring blather a long time ago.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

96. The source of this "story" is FOX "News?"

[Abolishinist]

100. I know!

He should be invited to appear on a segment of 60 Minutes, where Lesley Stahl could be relentlessly brutal toward him!

[Just A Box Of Rain]

101. Lesley Stahl did the nation a great service.

She made MTG look bad--like a liar and a bigot (which is what Greene is)--in front of a large national audience on television's most respected news magazine.

An audience whose trust and respect Lesley Stahl has earned over many decades.

[liberal_mama]

98. Bill Maher is repulsive. He gets worse and worse by the day. I haven't watched his show in years.

Sadly, I used to be a fan of his show. He's gotten more and more extreme in his crazy beliefs, especially since Covid started. I think that he's had multiple Covid infections and I think it's affected his brain.

[Wibly]

102. Total misrepresentation of what Maher said and says

I swear, some times you folks over here on the Dem side get just as hysterical as the idiots on the other side.
This piece totally misrepresents Maher. He is not a Republican, not a Trump supporter, and though there are often flaws in his logic, and his wealth has insulated him from the common folk, to proclaim him a "Trump loving Fascist" says more about you than it does about him, and none of it any good.
And all this just because he's said one or two things you personally disagree with, or misinterpreted to begin wit, demonstrates who the "asshole" really is.
Instead of apologizing for "trash talk" maybe you should try not engaging it in the first place! Ya think?
Fact is, despite his misgivings, Maher still provided a critical platform for people from across the political spectrum to voice their positions, and for those positions to be openly challenged.
Maybe you like living in an echo chamber where only opinions you agree with are promoted, but the fact is, that is not what the USA is about. The USA is about different ideas and opinions being brought out into view, debated, argued, and resolved through in insight, open mindedness, logic and reason and compromise.
It is laughable when someone declares someone to be an "asshole" then admits to not having listened to him "in years". That is just as stubborn, bullheaded and obnoxious as anything permeating out of the dank dark unscrupulous and self serving dark muck of the GOP.
If Democrats really want to lead in the future they are going to have to begin to demonstrate they are different and better than the GOP, and they are not going to do it with hateful disgusting threads like this one!

[Abolishinist]

103. Thanks, I can't disagree with a thing you said.

For better or worse, we have a two-party system. In addition, we have two strikes against us going in... we are grossly under-represented on a per-capita basis in both the Senate and the electoral college. It makes NO sense whatsoever to get out the fine-tuning fork in order to go after someone like Bill Maher. Just one of the hundreds of examples I could post for those who call him a "Republican".

“If Hillary was president now, would we be turning the clock back on the one issue for which there is no more time, climate change?” Maher asked. “Would we be having to wonder if our president’s love of dictators foreshadows some kind of coup here? Would anyone have to wonder if she was Putin’s bitch? And instead of trying to kick millions off health care to pay for a tax cut for herself, she’d be trying to raise her own taxes to get more people covered.”

I cringe at the ignorance of those lunk-heads on the TV who ape the right-wing meme that the D's are socialists and communists, knowing full well that the followers of the MTGs and Boebertz of this world are bereft of the intellectual capacity to defend such statements. I try not to be a hypocrite, so to be true to myself I have to say that anyone calling Bill Maher a fascist, which in the world of logic and reason is indefensible, is just as risible.

So much more to say, but it's been a long weekend, and dinner beckons.

[betsuni]

117. Thank you.

[PCIntern]

106. Did you ever hear about his interactions with Keith Olbermann?

He tells a terrific story about Maher. Episode 67 Nov 1,2022. Podcast.

It’s the final story of the podcast that day I believe.

[ecstatic]

110. Early onset dementia.

Either due to covid or weed. A lot of guys go hard right once the dementia starts kicking in.

[BootinUp]

111. A decade or more ago I might have let Maher push my buttons

but that was then.

[Arthur_Frain]

112. I'm beginning to wonder if Bills name is in Epsteins little book?

I think tfg was there too, and if he goes down lots of folks are beginning to wonder just who is going to trigger the poison pill of revelation?

[B.See]

113. Fuck Bill Maher

... sold his ASS, to the lowest bidder.

[Abolishinist]

114. Kudos! Brilliant! And who, by the way, would this lowest bidder be?

Oh, and by the way, do you have any issues with OP itself?

You know, as far as, well, you know, taking the talking points of Fox News and presenting them WAY out of context, as though this is what Mr. Maher actually SAID in toto?

[David__77]

115. He seems like a standard neocon-type conservative.

Very wedded to to the ideology of the market.

[Celerity]

118. Post 44 destroyed significant parts of your OP, yet nothing from you in response.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=17803840