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Brictoria
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26 Sep 2021, 10:41 am



Dox47
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26 Sep 2021, 2:56 pm

When did Bill Maher become the voice of reason? I saw this trending on Twitter last night and watched it, it's worth your time.


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26 Sep 2021, 3:16 pm

^^ I agree with him. I like the comment at 4:42. :D


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Brictoria
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27 Sep 2021, 3:26 am

Dox47 wrote:
When did Bill Maher become the voice of reason? I saw this trending on Twitter last night and watched it, it's worth your time.

It's interesting that he was bringing up the same points that I have seen made by many "centrists" and conservatives for quite some time...



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27 Sep 2021, 3:45 am

I never heard of a *black national anthem*.


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ASPartOfMe
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27 Sep 2021, 11:58 am

Brictoria wrote:
Dox47 wrote:
When did Bill Maher become the voice of reason? I saw this trending on Twitter last night and watched it, it's worth your time.

It's interesting that he was bringing up the same points that I have seen made by many "centrists" and conservatives for quite some time...

On certain issues he always has been been the voice of reason. While he can be construed as a man of the left, viciously and personally anti Trump, saying humans are causing global warming, when talking about liberals and democrats says “we” etc he holds “conservative” views.
Bill Maher, Once Canceled by the Right, Takes Aim at the Left's Cancel Culture
Quote:
It was over before he knew it. Bill Maher, host of the hit show Politically Incorrect on ABC, was canceled by the network's parent company, Disney, with no real explanation back in June 2002. It wasn't the ratings.

Disney, it turns out, handed Maher his death sentence for comments he made on his show on September 17, 2001. On the set that fateful and fatal night was conservative author Dinesh D'Souza, who responded to President George W. Bush's contention that the terrorists responsible for the carnage were "cowards." D'Souza disagreed. "One of the themes we hear constantly is that the people who did this are cowards," explained D'Souza. "Not true. You have a whole bunch of guys who were willing to give their life. None of 'em backed out. All of them slammed themselves into pieces of concrete."

Maher agreed with D'Souza's point, and what he said next unleashed the firestorm that would end his show. "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away," Maher said. "That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building—say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

Maher's words were soon everywhere. It didn't help matters that they were taken out of context, as many pundits—especially in the conservative media—implied that he'd called our soldiers cowardly.

A contrite Maher issued an apology. "In no way was I intending to say, nor have I ever thought, that the men and women who defend our nation in uniform are anything but courageous and valiant, and I offer my apologies to anyone who took it wrong," he said in a statement.

His apology didn't change anyone's mind. Conservative media pushed for boycotts of his show's sponsors. Sears dropped the show, citing an outpouring of outrage from angry customers. FedEx and others joined the exodus.

Just months later, Maher was canceled, his career in tatters.

Worse, anyone who followed Maher's career knew how he felt about radical Islamists. Indeed, Maher has been one of the few voices in the mainstream media willing to differentiate between the majority of peaceful Muslims in the world and those with views so extreme that they're a danger not just to America and the Western world but to Muslims too.

For anyone watching Maher's recent attacks on the entrenched assault on free speech by the progressive left, his experience with boycotts and cancellations is worth telling. Because what's been consistent in Maher's old and new shows is his hatred of dogmatic extremism, including the religious variety. Maher's principles on this fundamental issue, it turns out, are more important to him than his political and partisan preferences. And more important even than adulation from his liberal brethren. It is, dare I say, a deeply principled stand.

On his HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, last week, he talked about the heat he's been taking from progressives for challenging the far left's nearly religious devotion to its orthodoxies and dogma. "To me, when people say to me sometimes, like, 'Boy, you know, you go after the left a lot these days. Why?' Because you're embarrassing me," he said.

Perhaps Maher's best monologue on the subject happened last spring during his "New Rules" segment on Real Time. It began with a graphic of the word progressophobia, a phrase Harvard anthropologist Steven Pinker made up to describe, as Maher noted, "a brain disorder that strikes liberals and makes them incapable of recognizing progress." Maher then ran through a litany of titanic cultural shifts in America to prove his point.

Maher then took aim at fellow comedian and Hollywood star Kevin Hart and something he told The New York Times. "You're witnessing white power and white privilege at an all-time high," Hart told the reporter about the current state of race relations in America.

"This is one of the big problems with wokeness," Maher countered, challenging Hart's claim. "What you say doesn't have to make sense or jibe with the facts, or ever be challenged, lest the challenge itself be conflated with racism."

Maher went on to prove the absurdity of Hart's claim. "But saying that white power and privilege is at an all-time high is just ridiculous. Higher than a century ago, the year of the Tulsa race massacre?" he asked rhetorically. "Higher than the years when the Ku Klux Klan rode unchecked and Jim Crow went unchallenged? Higher than the 1960s, when the Supremes and Willie Mays still couldn't stay in the same hotel as the white people they were working with?"

Maher then came in for the kill. "Racism is simply no longer everywhere. It's not in my home. It probably isn't in yours, if I read my audience right, and I think I do. For most of the country, the most unhip thing you could ever be today is a racist."

Maher pinned much of the blame on millennials, many of whom came of age during the rise of safe spaces and trigger warnings, and the educators who created and engendered such nonsense.

"We date human events with A.D. and B.C., but we need a third marker for millennials: B.Y. Before you," Maher joked. The studio audience, filled with young fans, erupted with applause.

Maher then closed his monologue with this parting thought about his country: "It's not a sin—and it's certainly not inaccurate—to say, We've come a long way, baby. Not mission accomplished. Just a long way."

Maher's monologue went viral, with conservatives cheering what they mistakenly believed was his move to the right. Progressive critics mistakenly believed he'd moved to the right because he was getting applause from Republicans.


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Brictoria
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27 Sep 2021, 8:28 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
Brictoria wrote:
Dox47 wrote:
When did Bill Maher become the voice of reason? I saw this trending on Twitter last night and watched it, it's worth your time.

It's interesting that he was bringing up the same points that I have seen made by many "centrists" and conservatives for quite some time...

On certain issues he always has been been the voice of reason. While he can be construed as a man of the left, viciously and personally anti Trump, saying humans are causing global warming, when talking about liberals and democrats says “we” etc he holds “conservative” views.
Bill Maher, Once Canceled by the Right, Takes Aim at the Left's Cancel Culture
Quote:
It was over before he knew it. Bill Maher, host of the hit show Politically Incorrect on ABC, was canceled by the network's parent company, Disney, with no real explanation back in June 2002. It wasn't the ratings.

Disney, it turns out, handed Maher his death sentence for comments he made on his show on September 17, 2001. On the set that fateful and fatal night was conservative author Dinesh D'Souza, who responded to President George W. Bush's contention that the terrorists responsible for the carnage were "cowards." D'Souza disagreed. "One of the themes we hear constantly is that the people who did this are cowards," explained D'Souza. "Not true. You have a whole bunch of guys who were willing to give their life. None of 'em backed out. All of them slammed themselves into pieces of concrete."

Maher agreed with D'Souza's point, and what he said next unleashed the firestorm that would end his show. "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away," Maher said. "That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building—say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

Maher's words were soon everywhere. It didn't help matters that they were taken out of context, as many pundits—especially in the conservative media—implied that he'd called our soldiers cowardly.

A contrite Maher issued an apology. "In no way was I intending to say, nor have I ever thought, that the men and women who defend our nation in uniform are anything but courageous and valiant, and I offer my apologies to anyone who took it wrong," he said in a statement.

His apology didn't change anyone's mind. Conservative media pushed for boycotts of his show's sponsors. Sears dropped the show, citing an outpouring of outrage from angry customers. FedEx and others joined the exodus.

Just months later, Maher was canceled, his career in tatters.

Worse, anyone who followed Maher's career knew how he felt about radical Islamists. Indeed, Maher has been one of the few voices in the mainstream media willing to differentiate between the majority of peaceful Muslims in the world and those with views so extreme that they're a danger not just to America and the Western world but to Muslims too.

For anyone watching Maher's recent attacks on the entrenched assault on free speech by the progressive left, his experience with boycotts and cancellations is worth telling. Because what's been consistent in Maher's old and new shows is his hatred of dogmatic extremism, including the religious variety. Maher's principles on this fundamental issue, it turns out, are more important to him than his political and partisan preferences. And more important even than adulation from his liberal brethren. It is, dare I say, a deeply principled stand.

On his HBO show, Real Time With Bill Maher, last week, he talked about the heat he's been taking from progressives for challenging the far left's nearly religious devotion to its orthodoxies and dogma. "To me, when people say to me sometimes, like, 'Boy, you know, you go after the left a lot these days. Why?' Because you're embarrassing me," he said.

Perhaps Maher's best monologue on the subject happened last spring during his "New Rules" segment on Real Time. It began with a graphic of the word progressophobia, a phrase Harvard anthropologist Steven Pinker made up to describe, as Maher noted, "a brain disorder that strikes liberals and makes them incapable of recognizing progress." Maher then ran through a litany of titanic cultural shifts in America to prove his point.

Maher then took aim at fellow comedian and Hollywood star Kevin Hart and something he told The New York Times. "You're witnessing white power and white privilege at an all-time high," Hart told the reporter about the current state of race relations in America.

"This is one of the big problems with wokeness," Maher countered, challenging Hart's claim. "What you say doesn't have to make sense or jibe with the facts, or ever be challenged, lest the challenge itself be conflated with racism."

Maher went on to prove the absurdity of Hart's claim. "But saying that white power and privilege is at an all-time high is just ridiculous. Higher than a century ago, the year of the Tulsa race massacre?" he asked rhetorically. "Higher than the years when the Ku Klux Klan rode unchecked and Jim Crow went unchallenged? Higher than the 1960s, when the Supremes and Willie Mays still couldn't stay in the same hotel as the white people they were working with?"

Maher then came in for the kill. "Racism is simply no longer everywhere. It's not in my home. It probably isn't in yours, if I read my audience right, and I think I do. For most of the country, the most unhip thing you could ever be today is a racist."

Maher pinned much of the blame on millennials, many of whom came of age during the rise of safe spaces and trigger warnings, and the educators who created and engendered such nonsense.

"We date human events with A.D. and B.C., but we need a third marker for millennials: B.Y. Before you," Maher joked. The studio audience, filled with young fans, erupted with applause.

Maher then closed his monologue with this parting thought about his country: "It's not a sin—and it's certainly not inaccurate—to say, We've come a long way, baby. Not mission accomplished. Just a long way."

Maher's monologue went viral, with conservatives cheering what they mistakenly believed was his move to the right. Progressive critics mistakenly believed he'd moved to the right because he was getting applause from Republicans.

I'd seen a small portion of the earlier episode where he was talking about how the "left" was embarrasing him with their words\actions, but haven't been able to track down the complete segment yet to view his entire message.

An interesting part of the article which you linked (and which is observable, to some degree, on this site) was:
Quote:
What his critics on the left didn't understand is that many traditional liberal Democrats believe the same things. Indeed, a silent majority of Americans dislike the radical ideas being peddled by Marxist progressives (white privilege, critical race theory and radical wealth redistribution among them) but are afraid to speak up. And afraid because those same progressives who talk endlessly about inclusion use bullying tactics to stifle dissent. And cancellation to kill it.


It certainly aligns with the approach I have seen taken by many advicates of CRT and "white privilege" and how those who question these subjects in any way are treated.



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27 Sep 2021, 9:02 pm

Quote:
majority of Americans dislike the radical ideas being peddled by Marxist progressives (white privilege, critical race theory and radical wealth redistribution among them) but are afraid to speak up.


I think one of the reasons for the general madness in the world right now is the lumping together of things into one big uber-enemy that doesn't actually exist, so everyone feels miscategorized all the time.

White privilege and critical race theory have nothing to do with Marx, he was just not a fan of colonisation. And wealth distribution without changing the mode of production is how in capitalism you can keep workers just happy enough so they don't become... you know... Marxists.


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Brictoria
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27 Sep 2021, 9:47 pm

shlaifu wrote:
Quote:
majority of Americans dislike the radical ideas being peddled by Marxist progressives (white privilege, critical race theory and radical wealth redistribution among them) but are afraid to speak up.


I think one of the reasons for the general madness in the world right now is the lumping together of things into one big uber-enemy that doesn't actually exist, so everyone feels miscategorized all the time.

White privilege and critical race theory have nothing to do with Marx, he was just not a fan of colonisation. And wealth distribution without changing the mode of production is how in capitalism you can keep workers just happy enough so they don't become... you know... Marxists.

I think there's a reason that few complain about this being incorrectly classified as being "marxist" socialism (which was focussed on "class"), as opposed to "nationalist" socialism (which is focussed on race)... Whilst correctly labelling it would be nice, for some reason those attached to race-based socialism have a preference for the incorrect terminology...



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28 Sep 2021, 8:36 am

I never thought the day would come when I would be agreeing with Bill Maher. The Left wing "Progressives" in America have gone flat out insane.