Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) - 9/6/19

[Rhiannon12866]

Monologue: Weather Vain

Bill recaps the top stories of the week, including President Trump's flubbed hurricane forecast and Mike Pence's trip to Europe.




Christina Hoff Sommers

"The Factual Feminist" host Christina Hoff Sommers joins Bill Maher to discuss the state of modern feminism.




Joe Walsh 2020

Former Congresswoman Joe Walsh (R-IL) joins Bill to atone for his past and discuss his primary challenge to President Trump.




New Rule: The Fudge Report

In his editorial New Rule, Bill calls on Americans to take control of their health and address the growing obesity epidemic.


FYI: No Overtime this week...

[crazytown]

1. "he has no moral compass and no compass"

[rampartc]

2. when did walsh look inro a mirror and imagine his yuuuuge inaugeration ctowd?

he is just nutty enough for the repub base to vote for, if, of course, trump did not exist.

[tomhagen]

3. Shame the right wing corporations that sell Americans sugar and cheap processed carbs.

Its not the fat; its the bread and the fries

[OnDoutside]

4. Amen.

[appalachiablue]

6. +1 and many food deserts lacking grocery stores

[Auggie]

5. Great segments. Thanks for posting Rhiannon12866 ...

New Rules was spot on.

[SocialMediaInfluenza]

7. Why did he have to mention Biden's eye?

I dunno, maybe I'm not watching enough television (!), but I honestly had not heard about it till now. Bill is always chiding Democrats for shooting ourselves in the foot. Well, in this instance, I think he may be doing exactly that himself.

[gopiscrap]

9. welcome to DU

[SocialMediaInfluenza]

10. Thanks

[gopiscrap]

13. you're welcome

[smirkymonkey]

8. Thank you Rhiannon for posting!

Last edited Sun Sep 8, 2019, 04:03 PM - Edit history (1)

I generally enjoy his show even though he often has guests on that I don't agree with, however Christina Hoff Sommers is one of the most odious guests he has had on in a long time. Joe Walsh was a breath of fresh air compared to her.

She tries to portray herself as a liberal and a feminist, however she is anything but. She is aligned with the American Enterprise Institute which is "officially" non-partisan, however is closely associated with conservative and neo-conservative ideals. You can tell by listening to her that she is an absolute fruitcake and hostile toward women and feminists.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has declared "The Factual Feminist" as an enabler of Male Supremacy and supporter of the MRA movement. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/08/christina-hoff-sommers-cant-take-single-line-criticism


She has also joined ranks with Milo Yiannopoulous to "defend freedom" on various campuses and is outwardly hostile toward the #metoo movement. She is nothing more than a female misogynist. Her whining about being protested on college campuses and how people needed "safe spaces" on this show was disingenous and absurd.

From the SPLC article:

"The claim made in the SPLC profile is narrower than Sommers’ reformulation. Sommers has written a book on the “war against boys” and has insisted that reported rates of rape and sexual abuse are exaggerated. These arguments undeniably “overlap” with MRA concerns. As Alex DiBranco at Political Research Associates points out, “claiming rampant false accusations of rape and violence is one of the most prevalent men’s rights and equity feminist talking points.” And further: “Equity feminism’s depiction of women as liars with ‘victim mentalities’ dovetails alarmingly with (and legitimizes) the online manifestation of the men’s rights movement, which uses more virulent and hateful rhetoric to convey the same argument.” The only label the SPLC gave Sommers, “equity feminist,” is one she embraces.

But what’s odd about Sommers’ grandstanding is her history with the MRA movement and the direct praise she’s received from its ranks. Sommers was a prominent apologist of a vicious, far-reaching misogynistic online campaign that fed directly into both the Male Supremacy movement and what would ultimately become the alt-right. Sommers, using her perch at one of the wealthiest and most powerful policy organizations in the country, defended Gamergate.

Gamergate was a years-long saga where male gamers systematically harassed female game developers and journalists with doxing, stalking and rape and death threats. Some of these women were targeted because they dared to be critical of the male-dominated space, others were attacked only for trying to exist within it. But to Sommers, the harassers were “just defending a hobby they love.”

This advocacy (Sommers dedicated at least one episode of “Factual Feminist” to defending the gamers) earned her the praise of many in the MRA movement. It also inspired some bizarre fan art and even a nickname, “Based Mom,” which Sommers enthusiastically embraced.

During the days of Gamergate, Sommers also made common cause with Milo Yiannopolous, appearing at several events with the former Breitbart News tech editor who rose to fame fanning the flames of harassment. Yiannopolous, last seen hocking milk thistle extract on an InfoWars broadcast, was exposed as a white nationalist enabler and bigoted bully who did very little of his own writing. But for a time, he was a hot commodity and a Sommers ally in the war against “political correctness” on college campuses and feminism, which Yiannopolous enjoyed likening to cancer. In the case of Yiannopolous, it appears the much derided campus protesters were a better judge of character and politics than Sommers."

Fuck Bill for having this disgusting woman on his show! I haven't been this pissed at him EVER!

Anyway, not mad at you at all for posting, just disgusted with him for having her on the show. His misogyny is showing.

[BigmanPigman]

11. Thanks for the info.

I thought I was a feminist, equal rights, etc. but when she was on proclaiming that she is a feminist and a Dem I started to wonder about the labels and definitions are that she seems to be applying incorrectly to real feminists and related issues.

I kept saying during her segment along with many "Huh?" and "I don't get it".

[smirkymonkey]

12. Thanks Bigman!

If there is one thing I can't stand is when these false "feminists" go out there and proclaim that they are the true feminists and that all other women are wrong and proceed to bash them. This woman is a joke. She has allied herself w/ MRA groups and supported them in the name of "freedom of speech". She is no friend of women or of feminism.

[BigmanPigman]

17. There are certain people I refuse to watch and listen to...

She has been added to that growing list. I never heard of her before and now that I have she will be boycotted by me.

[PatrickforO]

16. Hmm. I did not know this. Gamergate. We can do without harassing anyone.

I guess I stand corrected from my post below...to a degree. I'm not one for embracing ANY dogma 100% be it Marxism, feminism or any other ism or ology. Always better off to think for ourselves and look for germs of truth, and points to refute, both.

[PatrickforO]

15. OK, coming back. I deleted my last post because I weighed in on

Christina Hoff Sommers.

I was blown away by the fact that at a Brandeis lecture by Sommers, thirty young women fled to a safe room with a therapy dog. I don't even know what to make of that. My own daughters, my granddaughters and certainly my wife and my ex-wife are ALL made of FAR sterner stuff than that.

As to Sommers' opinions, my major point of disagreement with her is on equity of wages. Women in fact experience lower wages across the board. Sommers attempts to explain this away by implying that women self-select into jobs that naturally pay less, or are less willing to work brutal hours because they may be taking care of kids.

In the end she says that women should 'learn how to negotiate.'

Here is the excerpt from the dialog:

SOMMERS: What did they study in school? What job are they in? How many hours a week [do] they work? How long do they commute? How dangerous is the job? And when you factor in these various things, the wage gap begins to narrow to the point of vanishing.

MAHER: But some of it is because women, they say, don't negotiate as well as men for their own behalf.

SOMMERS: Well, you know, some Harvard economists, like Claudia Goldin have looked into that and think it doesn't explain the gap. Most of the gap is explained by – it's a very high end where men are willing to work just punishing hours on weekends, in law firms and in finance, and that has an enormous payoff.

MAHER: Well, women do that, too, of course.

SOMMERS: They don't do it as much. Now, you could say it's unfair because women are maybe taking care of children or women don't have the liberty to do that. Now, that’s true, and that's an interesting discussion, but notice that's not because employers are cheating them, it's because men and women do behave slightly differently in private life.

MAHER: Even if it is – and I think it is somewhat the case that women are not as adept at negotiating for themselves – it is incumbent upon them to...

SOMMERS: ...learn how to do it.

MAHER: Thank you.

I cannot help but think that Sommers is missing the point. It isn't that women earn less because they aren't willing to work as hard as men in law firms. These wage inequities really are across the board. All you have to do is check the census figures in American Fact Finder and you can see some serious disparities.

However, on the rest of what Sommers said in the interview, I tend to be a bit more agreeable. I've long been concerned about the ever-increasing fragility of our college kids. If you can't sit and listen to someone (sane, not a nazi dirtbag, but sane) who has differing opinions from you, then how will you EVER get ahead. How will you ever learn how to debate them effectively? All you're doing is running away.

I mean, think about your job. There's no safe room or therapy dogs. Generally you must take care of yourself by applying assertiveness when necessary, and accessing help from HR when necessary. If you are so fragile you have to go chill in some safe room every time someone says something that rubs you the wrong way, rather than confronting them and telling them to cease and desist, well...you won't be very successful.

I guess my point is that by teaching these young women that they are victims, some of these professors are actually undermining what they say they want.

You know, when we elect Warren to be president, that's going to send a really powerful, profound message to women (and men) everywhere. But, you know, when Warren gets into the WH, there isn't a 'safe room' there if someone hurts her feelings. Luckily, she is smart and tough-as-nails.