General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bill Maher is really turning into a vile racist [View all]Violet_Crumble
(36,387 posts)Then again, I got really bored sometimes and I'd prod Rhinodawg and respond to his latest anti-Muslim one-liner by asking what he meant, but I and most of DU (and admin seeing they showed him the door) already knew what he meant. I'd say what's at play with the linked comment is that I'm fully aware of the rather stinky posting history of the person who made the original comment (not Quantess) and there's no other way to take what they said than outright, nasty bigotry, and that's what I responded to. I'm absolutely confident that if you'd seen what I've seen, you'd feel the same way...
I'm an atheist and I don't make any difference between religious bigotry and any others. It's all from the same ugly place, imo. It's not bigotry to criticise religion, but it crosses into bigotry when adherents of a religion are blamed for the actions of extremist types in their religion. I also suspect that in the US religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism aren't in the news compared to ones that the media have a fixation on, like Islam and Christianity. And the difference between those latter two in the US is one is the predominant religion in the US and the religion of those in positions of power. Muslims on the other hand are under attack from mainly (if I ignore this Bill Maher guy) RW media types. So even though I'm an atheist, I feel for American Muslims, especially after seeing things like those Muslim schoolkids being abused by protesters when they were singing the American national anthem.
I've seen a bit of Bill Maher. That's about all I'll be ever seeing as he totally unimpressed me and came across as a complete unfunny wanker. I like Jon Stewart and especially John Oliver for my American comedy/politics mix, even though the latter isn't American. But Bill Maher just leaves me cold...