Stewart is funny. Maher is just a douchebag.
Results 1 to 20 of 82
Bill Maher
We have discussed Jon Stewart, But does anyone like or dislike Bill Maher? His views are in line with Jon Stewart, mainstream liberal, so not much different.
Stewart is funny. Maher is just a douchebag.
I'll watch real time every now and then, but he's like the liberal version of Bill O'Reily.
Maher is probably the posterboy for liberal douche on a grand scale. I mean he makes Stewart, Cenk from TYT and any other liberal pundits seem like a humble monks by comparison.
The guy can turn anyone into a rabid right wing conservative with his absolute distaste for the common man. I mean I think Ayn Rand had more empathy in her bones for common people. Maher doesn't have a shred of human decency in his body much less a high opinion of workers.
I like his show because he has good guests on and can have moments of clarity and I dig his razor sharp critique of the right wing but my god when he starts ranting about how stupid American people are he makes me want to vomit.
He is also an ardent Zionist and admits he gave Jews a pass in his god awful Religious documentary because he thinks Israel is a beacon of hope in the Middle East. So not only is he dim on mid east politics but he's also ignorant of the religious fundamentalism that the people of Israel are struggling against.
So yes, this man is more smug that Christopher Hitchens if you can believe that! He is the very reason why so many Americans hate liberals and think of them as elitist pricks.
I love Maher - he's awesome. All these liberal comedians like Maher or Stewart are funny.
Maher says some good stuff every so often. When he's wrong, though, he's extremely wrong.
He's pretty awful.
I'm on some sickle-hammer shit
Collective Bruce Banner shit
FKA: #FF0000, AKA Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That Are Themselves The Milquetoast Shallows Fringing My Vast Oceans Of Wrath
At least Hitch, while having many faults, was intelligent. Maher just spouts rhetoric.
Hitchens was a brilliant man but also intentionally intellectually dishonest, which made most of his career a giant fraud.
Can you elaborate on 'intentionally intellectually dishonest'? I'm quite fond of the man despite his shitty politics. He's was a pretty big piece in my intellectual development. Before philosophy or politics, I was primarily interested in religion. He is probably the best polemicist that I have ever seen.
Alex Cockburn is proly the best source on this. But I remember watching his older videos in which he knew the difference between liberal and leftist and understood that in American these two labels were always being conflated. He even described liberals as being dangerous compromisers not to be trusted. He knew this and when he was a darling of the media he was himself conflating the two several times making it seem like the "left" was weak on "totalitarianism".
He basically became a pundit.
I remember seeing that video. A lady called into the show and called him a liberal and he responded something like: 'You're being more insulting then you intend by calling me a liberal. Where I am from we consider liberals to be dangerous compromisers. I am a socialist.'
Where should I begin with Bill Maher? Well to start with I think he won some award from the atheist movement when he's not even an atheist. He hasn't done anything for atheism besides make fun of religious fundamentalists, which is not that hard to do. He doesn't have unique insights with regard to religion and hasn't made atheism seem like a viable option for people.
Then there's the segment he did bashing feminism, using all the standard arguments real leftists are used to hearing. Bill Maher is left wing my ass.
Stalin got it wrong. A million deaths under socialism is an atrocity. A million deaths under capitalism is a statistic.
'Trotsky explained that a nationalised planned economy needs democracy as the human body needs oxygen.' Alan Woods in a summary of The Revolution Betrayed
How is he not an atheist?
I like Hitchen's style and his prose, even though he is often full of himself. But I agree that he was a careerist, an opportunist and by the end of his career, a right winger - with his weird obsession with the Clinton sex scandal and the support of the Iraq war for the reason he didn't like their religion.
Maher, is the same here, while not supporting the war, he makes a positive critique of Islam and characterizes it as essentially violent. I personally don't feel comfortable enough saying what Islam essentially is, because I am neither a part of the community as a member, nor do I know its long history in detail.
Maher is a bad comedian and has very little taste. His stand-up is horrible. It is combination of him not being very talented and coming from the east-coast raunchy 80s misogynist stand-up tradition, a tradition that has gone very wrong (Andrew Dice Clay anyone?).
He is anti-union - mostly because he thinks it protects bad workers(in one case teachers) from being fired - he was formally a libertarian (while on ABC's Politically Incorrect before he was fired). So as a libertarian he was convinced of the wisdom of the free market. It has been interesting to seem him change over the years - and be so snide to people he formerly agreed with.
Oddly Stewart's comedy riffs are too cutesy for me - some comedians try to get by on charm. Jon Stewart is that kind of comic. And he is charming. But I don't find him funny. I still like to watch him for some of his content.
Stewart has described himself as a socialist. His favorite politician is Eugene V. Debs. But I guess we should keep in mind he is largely talking to liberals. He may even be one. My instinct is that he would compromise away alot - you can see this if you watch how tame and lax he is during his interviews (even he jokes about it).
Anyways fun stuff, this is my first post, hello everyone.
Why?
Maher comes across as incredibly snobby and elitist. I mean, I did criticize rednecks in the "Politically Correct" thread, but Maher is definitely an annoying anti-redneck. So much so it makes you sympathize with Joe the Plumber. Also, he's the kind of guy that favors PC "for people he likes", but would mock a handicapped conservative. Finally, another criticism is he resorts to the "Let's get rid of religion" answer to world problems like Harris and Dawkins. But Maher is funny, and sometimes makes good comments.
Last edited by Jason; 21st January 2013 at 14:54.
Nothing will ever make me sympathize with Joe the plumber...
You got to admit Maher overly attacks Palin calling her a bimbo. That kind of aggressive strategy doesn't work, and usually backfires. Because, as I said, Republican propoganda seeks to portray "trendy liberals" as elitist.
Also, he also avidly worships Obama as "God" as do all the other trendy liberals, while excusing the imperalism and other things.
Now don't get me wrong, I like Maher, but he's "just that kind of guy". He turns off working people and drives them toward conservatism. And he makes no secret about it, saying stuff like, "I don't want live in the world of Slingblade etc..
Now a guy on the right wing side that is elitist would be Dennis Miller. His comedy is so snobby, you need a dictionary to understand it.
A few hours of Mahers worker bashing would....
What liberals (esp Maher) said about Palin was really insulting. The rhetoric was steeped in overt classism, namely that Palin & co. were dumb hicks, and everyone from the quaint little hillbilly area she's from are hicks too. I wouldn't piss on Maher if he were on fire.
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
Also, his blind Obama worship is ridiculous.
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
