Bill Maher on the Tea Baggers Pining for the 1950s...a great time to be male and white

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Run time: 05:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqOZ-i3ISX4   Posted on YouTube: February 15, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 15, 2010 By DU Member: Amerigo Vespucci Views on DU: 8164

 

[Lorien]

1. They do indeed. The only part of the 1950's they DON'T want was the tax structure. nt

[DBoon]

2. Another thing they don't want about the '50s:

highest percent of civilian workforce unionized in history.

Resulting in unprecedented prosperity for blue collar workers.

[NoQuarter]

6. They're not even thinking about that.

These throwbacks think everything exists in its own little vacuum, and there's no such thing as "cause and effect."

[NOLALady]

35. Unprecedented prosperity for

white blue collar workers.
There was nothing nice about the 50s for some Americans.

[DBoon]

38. The CIO unions were strong supporters of civil rights

The UAW in specific was very progressive in this.

Their attitude was quite counter to the old-line Samuel Gompers craft unions

[D-Lee]

39. Workers were comfortable ... at least in Detroit!

Could afford a home, support a family, have health care, and their children had a future ...

Parts of it are starting to look better all the time ...

Oh, and they definitely were democrats and in a union! (Although some did vote for Ike and, in later years, liked Regan -- remember that Old West TV show he did, that we watched on black and white TV sets?)

[dmr]

46. Death Valley Days

Ironic, huh?

[DissedByBush]

16. The good old days

Are never as good as people remember them.

[happygoluckytoyou]

29. HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED TO "YOUR" FIFTIES------->

since the white guy took over america, killing of course the RED guy, enslaving the BLACK guy, underpaying the BROWN guy, and building his railroads with the YELLOW guy, second-classing the white GAL.............

while the WHITE GUY rested on his butt.... he bred like cattle the black guy who now rules most of his sports
...........he forced all the other colors and genders TO WORK HARDER.....

a woman had to work twice as hard for the same pay
various colors could not get jobs and had to build their own businesses
some had to live in multi-generation housing and SAVE THEIR MONEY
many were proud to GET JOBS.... and GO TO COLLEGE....

-------------------- DID I MENTION HOW FAT AND LAZY THE WHITE GUY WAS GETTING ALL THIS TIME ? ? ?

poor poor white guy.... seems you have lost your motivation.... seems you can hardly speak english....
-------------------- had to IMPORT your brain-power from the soviets, the chinese, the jews
-------------------- and those which you were growing at home.... all those colors you once mistreated

SORRY WHITE GUY... PADRE KNOWS BEST... PARDEEP KNOWS BEST... 我的三个儿子....
......................... ALL THAT IS LEFT FOR YOU.... KING OF THE HILL.... FAMILY GUY....
YOU HAVE OPTED TO BECOME THE BUTT OF YOUR OWN JOKE

[NICO9000]

36. How does "King of the Hill" fit into this scenario?

Have you ever seen it? There's nothing racist about it. Hank Hill may be an uptight white man, but he has a true moral code and almost always does the right thing without being pushed. I realize he's only a cartoon character, but that show is a lot more realistic (even in its own absurdity) than the average live-action sitcom.

Can't stand "Family Guy" though - just not funny to me.

[Eric Condon]

42. This post is ridiculous

White or not, blue-collar workers are NOT the people to blame for the downfall of this country. Your logic doesn't make any sense and is filled with ridiculous generalizations. Beyond that, the talking point that "white guys have ruined everything" is just lazy. "White guys" didn't do anything. "Rich white guys who own corporations/politicians," sure. "Racist white guys who oppressed other races," sure. But "white guys" didn't do anything as a monolithic group, because no group does.

Also, if you haven't noticed, most Jews are white.

[DissedByBush]

55. With all this "white guy" talk

I sure wish I could get my white guy check.

You know, having grown up dirt-poor and all.

Let me have that supposed privilege!

[Uncle Joe]

54. I read your post before clicking on the O.P. link and was disappointed that Maher

didn't use that in his material.

He could have connected drastic alteration of the tax structure/burden since the 50's, current CEO/worker 300-1 income disparity, our national economic crisis, explosion of debt; government and private, and the increased domination of corporate control over "We the People's" government all rolled in to one.

Maybe all of that would've painted a too clear to miss picture for any watching tea-baggers.

[Political_Junkie]

3. Indeed!

:applause:

[Joey Liberal]

4. Indeed!

[Turborama]

5. K&R Great clip!

Thanks for sharing, AV.

[rurallib]

7. I want my Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, Beaver Cleaver

world back. With Dick Clark spinning the platters and all the keen teens meeting at the malt shop after school. And everybody knew their place.
:cry: :cry: :cry:
I would disagree a bit with Maher. The employers want the 1890s back - no unions, company towns - couldn't be much better

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. "Pleasantville"...

"What do you want to do to me right now? Come on. Everyone is turning colors. Kids are making out in the street. No one is getting their dinner."

:rofl:

[Initech]

8. 1950s? More like the 1850's!!!!!!

[Historic NY]

10. He is spot on...I hear the 1950's thing all the time amazing. ...

from a Hudson River city that whites abandoned in great numbers for the burbs. It funny because I usually tell them they caused the problem by leaving the crumbs to slum lords and minorities...kinda of like when the I-talions , J-ews , I-rish moved in. They don't get it. Moving on up was moving on out someone had to take their places.

[wilt the stilt]

15. Yonkers? n/t

[Historic NY]

32. Newburgh

[wilt the stilt]

47. Yonkers suffered the same fate

I grew up next to the river and it is s ad to see h=what has happened to Yonkers. It was always the part of Westchester that Westchester wished it would leave.

[madmom]

11. Never did like Jackie Gleason, didn't know why,I was just a kid. Maybe I do now.

[AlbertCat]

12. Bring back the 50's! Yeah! More beatniks!!!!

"How did you get your hair so straight?"
"I, like, smoke some refer, and, like, iron....my....hair.... Dig?"



"Hey Wally! Did you hear mom's a dyke!"


They don't even want the 50's back.... they want the TV 50's back. Just like they think the real world today is just an episode of "24".

Delusional indeed.

Like those old white men want to live without Viagra again!

[rurallib]

14. I was pre-teen in the 50s. Just last week I was telling my daughter

how bad the 50s sucked if you were anything but white, male and protestant.

[phasma ex machina]

28. +1 "they want the TV 50's back."

Go back to the nuclear bomb zeitgeist? FAIL

Go back to the Draft? FAIL

Go back to dying in Korea? FAIL

Go back to the US Army making an example of Elvis Presley ? FAIL

Go back to "The Organization Man" bullpens? FAIL

Go back to cloth diapers? FAIL

Go back to milk delivery at your doorstep? FAIL

Go back to AT&T owning every phone in your home? FAIL

Go back to getting news from M$M? EPIC FAIL

Go back to vapid inane BW TV? FAIL

Go back to Hollywood Factory entertainment? FAIL

Go back to one car at most per family? FAIL

Go back to the tanks they called cars? FAIL

Go back to fans instead of air conditioning? FAIL

Racist, sexist Maher can shove his '50s fantasy where the sun don't shine.

[unapatriciated]

33. Did we watch the same video? Why are you calling Maher a Racist?

It is not his '50's fantasy.
I wouldn't mind having milk delivered to my door from a local dairy.;-)

[radiclib]

34. "Racist, sexist Maher" ??

HUH? Did you even watch the clip? :shrug:

[DutchLiberal]

37. No, she didn't. Just the name "Maher" let the alarm go off with the PC Police.

[YOY]

Yup. The 50s that existed only in fantasy land.

Run time: 05:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqOZ-i3ISX4   Posted on YouTube: February 15, 2010 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: February 16, 2010 By DU Member: YOY Views on DU: 8164

 
Although I would like to see more Fonzie and less Ralph Malph in my Pseudo 50's.

Holee shit...how did I get the OP in my post???

[ihavenobias]

13. K & R n/t

[ooglymoogly]

17. Rec to da moon. Nails it. nt

[Lilyeye]

18. Bill hit it out of the park! He summed these people up perfectly.

[alp227]

19. Where's Sarah Palin's high school diploma? That's some good stuff.

She has one but chooses to act like she doesn't.

[PatrynXX]

20. Stand up Bill

When did he start that? Love it. Could be the next george carlin there although he would come out and say the word. saying "the word" and saying the "X" word is the same thing. Best thing to do is apply the word to what white supporters of blacks were called. Or who have black friends. Wiggers. That way that's reverse racism of a sort.... white on white. fuck you. Got into it with some guy online in 1997 or so who lived in Southern Texas. That's how I found out what a wigger was.

Now they used Obama being black as a way of being outright racist thinking hey I'm immune, if they call me racist ahh that's just Obama supporters going off the rails. Bill is right now you have teabaggers (can't talk, my mouth is full) saying Palin's the enemy. Well duh she's a woman.. Can't have a woman leading the 50's revolution.

I'd take Hillary any day over Sarah.

Or if you wanted to get republican on me.. Ann Coulter is smarter than Sarah Palin. Although she uses her brain wrong. Went to the same University as Keith Olbermann... even if she wants to push who's rich and who was poorer and somehow Keith didn't go because he was poorer. So I say that because I'm not anti woman like the Right wants to think I am. But they do outright racist.... where's the blacks? Pretty sure we ain't sexist because there's plenty of women, black, white, latino, asian, oceanic (am I missing anything) that are complaining about Sarah Palin. So one can't compare the two. Uppity shit. What the fuck is wrong with being smart? I'm brain dead on some issue's. Heck while I've been called a retard.... I've called myself (even this morning) a fucking retard for doing something stupid. Kinda like hitting your thumb with a hammer (rarely do that :P ) very hard not to say "FUCK!!!" outloud.

(or I suppose for those True Blood fans.. and season two and the girls getting ready to kiss a guy in Bill's house and her fangs come out. Whoops gotta cover those up. Oh she forgot she was a vampire. lol)

After Bush stole the election in 2000 (not so obvious in 2004 Diebold made sure of that, oh there went my test scores) I really went political. 2004 I was watching Fox News back then, then at some point around 2006 or earlier bumped into Keith's show and then Bill dropped his mouth and tried to get someone arrested for saying Keith's name on his show. Been watching ever since. Then thanks to podcasts Rachel Maddow's rocking. Really loved the liberal member here posting the Fox twisting video's on youtube, and I'm rambling now but just wanted to mention, if you have this program called Jdownloader (look it up on google) whatever you do, don't copy the link with that program running. It's a playlist.... do'h sure enough jdownloader then went to download 100 some video's. Wish I could turn that off. Probably a way, but I want it for other links because It avoids the malware crap going through sites like protectlinks.com to get to the real ones.

[Alcibiades]

53. Maher started as a stand-up

He's been doing it since 1979, and his show features segments where he does do stand up comedy, though I doubt he does all or most of his own writing any more.

[Yavin4]

21. The 1950s That They Remember Was Created Through Strong Progressive Policies

Policies such as allowing workers to unionize and strike against their employers raised wages and provided benefits for the lightly-educated, working class, and the GI bill which allowed an entire generation to buy homes and go to college. Also, as previously stated, this was paid for by incredibly high tax rates on the rich, strong anti-trust legislation, and tight regulation of the banking industry.

The fact that so many White, male, blue collar workers today support the Republican party is proof of how sorry our educational system is in this country when it comes to teaching recent history.

[Mumblefratz]

22. Bill Maher is both funny and insightful.

If you haven't seen his movie Religulous you're really missing something. It is long (100 minutes), but it's time well spent. You can see the entire movie at the following link.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3791007322683758535#

One point I want to make about something mentioned in the posted clip, the "To the moon" reference from the Honeymooners. I have no intention of defending anything that could be perceived as the threat of violence against women but to anyone that was familiar with the show it was very clear that there was no real threat.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honeymooners

"In most episodes, Ralph's short temper got the best of him, leading him to yell at others and to threaten physical violence, particularly against Alice. Ralph's favorite threats to her were "One of these days ... one of these days ... Pow! Right in the kisser!" or to knock her "to the Moon, Alice!" (Sometimes this last threat was simply abbreviated: "Bang, zoom!") This has led some to criticize the show as displaying an acceptance of domestic violence. Ralph never carried out his threats, however, and others have pointed out that Alice knew he never would. In retaliation, the targets of Ralph's verbal abuse often responded by simply joking about his weight, a common theme throughout the series. Alice was never seen to back down during any of Ralph's tirades."

"The show presented Ralph as an everyman and an underdog who struggled to make a better life for himself and his wife, but who ultimately failed due to his own shortcomings. He (along with Ed) devised a number of get-rich-quick schemes, none of which succeeded. Ralph was quick to blame others for his misfortune, until it was pointed out to him where he had fallen short. Ralph's anger was replaced by short-lived remorse, and he would then apologize for his actions. Many of these apologies to Alice ended with Ralph saying, "Baby, you're the greatest", followed by a hug and kiss."

[BootinUp]

45. just watched it

thanks for the link to religulous.

Lots of great stuff in there. The interview with "Doctor" Cummings was hilarious. Another funny was the pregnant pause after Sen. Mark Pryor said "You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate".

[TwentyFive]

23. The 1950's: A great time to BE White...and WEAR White too.

If you want to know what happened to all those white sheets...they got cut up and made into Tea Bags.

They fool nobody. Bill Maher is right.

[Capitalocracy]

24. It's still a pretty good time to be male and white... a few of the "perks" are gone

like how much of a disproportionate advantage you have over other people (still there but slightly diminished), as well as the progressive tax structure and the minimum wage still more or less related to the cost of living...

[GreenTea]

25. Very funny insightful shit...Thanks Bill - Love your weekly HBO show too!

[WhoIsNumberNone]

26. It's ironic-

that since the 50's the top tax rate has been cut by more than half, thus reducing federal revenue, while government waste gets ever more outlandish. And of course the worst offenders in this area are the one group that conservatives love giving gobs of public money to: Defense contractors.

[Enthusiast]

27. Hey, I'm a 50+ year old white male

and I feel Bill nailed it. It's a fact.

And the demographics are such that the old white men will soon be relinquishing some of their power unless they take drastic steps to change the very nature of our elections or voter registration. The PTB understand this full well. Time to go all fascist on us.

[progressoid]

30. Yep - I know people like that.

He summed them up perfectly.

[DeSwiss]

31. K&R!!!

:applause: - Absofuckinglutely Bill!!!

[applegrove]

40. Looking forward to the return of his show next Friday.

[HuckleB]

41. And Maher would have loved the '50s, too! Almost no vaccines!

[athenasatanjesus]

43. were the 50's any good for white males either?

I wasn't alive in the 50's but from my perspective it seemed like a lot of white males back then may have had control of most of the countries possessions but thanks to the patriotic propaganda lacked control over their own selves.

[Mike K]

44. There were things to like about the fifties -

- and things to not like. How one felt about it depended on many factors, mainly where one lived and one's economic status.

America was a very different place in the fifties, better in some ways but worse in others. More than anything the fifties was a time of growth for the American middle class, mainly through the empowerment of unions and relatively honest, constructive regulation of the economy and its most powerful and productive components.

Overall, life in the fifties was much simpler. There were no computers, tv was black, white and barren, there was plenty of parking space, America was a much safer place and the future was bright. And while some think of life without computers and color television as intolerably primitive, the things we regard as technological marvels today will seem archaic and boring to advanced humans of the next fifties. The 2050s. If our species manages to make it that far.

[Dollface]

52. and little kids played outside unsupervised,

[olegramps]

48. The American Workers screwed their own self.

The workers today blame their desperate situation on the greedy corporations. The fact of the matter is that they bought the managements bull shit that they would be well taken care of and that unions were their enemy. Why pay unions dues when you could get the same benefits from the wonderful people in management. When membership fell from a high of 36% in the 50's to 6% today they gave management a free rein to out-source their jobs, cut their pensions and cancel their health insurance. They fucked them selves.

[undergroundnomore]

49. Is it true

that tea baggers were issued Klan hoods at the rally?

[Wizard777]

50. We're not ready for a black President and it's the fault of women.

You see our pregnant wives are in the kitchen. So of course they don't have their shoes on yet. We just can't go there until they at least have their shoes on. You know how women like to make men wait. So were not ready for a black President and it's all womens fault.

For the sarcasm challenged: :sarcasm:

[ProfessorGAC]

51. I'm Male & White, And I Don't Want the 50's Back

Geez, for the first 7 years, the music sucked! Well, unless you had access to east coast jazz.
GAC

[norvech]

56. lol

Always hilarious and brilliant at the same time.

[Tx4obama]

57. Kick n/t