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7 Minutes of Bill Maher's bigotry - why do liberals & leftists still listen to him?

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this is really screwed up that now you have religion defenders calling secularists bigots

really?

those religions are fuckin' Ultra-Conservative for fuck's sakes... fuck
 
You're acting like the only way one can criticize human rights abuses in Islamic countries and Muslim communities is to look at them from the simplified, one-size-fits-all point of view that Harris and Maher use.

No, Maher and Harris always make it clear that they are not talking about ALL Muslims. Watch the Ben Affleck clip -- they explicitly state this at the outset. Their point is that in vast swaths of the Islamic world it is literally dangerous to be a women, homosexual or apostate. Not all the Islamic world, but much more than is comfortable.
 

fantomena

Member
milo_bill_maher_thats_not_unreasonable_trans_bathr_by_digi_matrix-dazu1i4.gif

So he's an idiot for making a stupid statement in one episode?

this is really screwed up that now you have religion defenders calling secularists bigots

really?

those religions are fuckin' Ultra-Conservative for fuck's sakes... fuck

I know we have a lot of disagreements over things like eu, trade etc.

But with this, I agreed with you no question.
 

Toxi

Banned
So he's an idiot for making a stupid statement in one episode?
He's an idiot for doubling down on his stupid statements after that episode.

When he said that transgender people have a “psychiatric disorder,” do you just move on from that?

Move on? It dominated the entire [online] segment. The other guests attacked him. When I say, “That’s not unreasonable” [to not want to share a bathroom with a transgender person] it’s because women have said that to me: “I want to know,” or “I’m not comfortable with someone in the bathroom, even if they, in their minds, have decided they are a woman.” Doesn’t that opinion count at all?
 

Macam

Banned
If you watch the show he makes it pretty clear that he doesn't consider himself a liberal or progressive, as he calls them out on their "bullshit" often. Also, he makes it clear that he is first and foremost a comedian, not some kind of political pundit.
I watch for the panel discussions, guest interactions and the comedy. Sometimes I agree with things said, sometimes I don't, no big deal.

Pretty much this.
 
Which middle eastern country do they mischaracterize?

It's not about countries being mischaracterized. It's about an entire religion being painted as fundamentally responsible for its current strains of orthodoxy and extremism, instead of looking at the sociopolitical factors that have evolved over multiple decades and have led to those movements rising and their associated abuses becoming more common.
 

Toxi

Banned
I want to ask: If you have such a problem with the Left defending awful regressive conservatives, why the fuck do you watch Bill Maher?

Do you think giving a blowjob to Milo Yianopolos because of the Berkeley protests isn't doing just that?
 

Fuchsdh

Member

The "if they got laid more" is something tons of people bring up here and elsewhere about why there are a bunch of angry white supremacists, so it seems fair to argue it's an issue there too.

But yeah, I find a lot of their criticism disingenuous in that there's nothing inherently more violent and sexist in the Quran than the Bible.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
this is really screwed up that now you have religion defenders calling secularists bigots

really?

those religions are fuckin' Ultra-Conservative for fuck's sakes... fuck
Muslims in America are victims of bigotry and violence, that refugees from abroad are seeking safety, and that the most numerous victims of Islamic violence are other Muslims. And ideas about some intrinsic "cultural incomparability" are bunk. People adapt
 

rjc571

Banned
This thread is a perfect example of how liberals allowed the US government to be taken over by conservatives... instead of working together to bring down the corruption and ass-backwardness overrunning the Republican party, they instead focus most of their efforts on vilifying their own people for holding views that aren't 100% in line with their own.
 
Bill Maher has always been an asshole. I still really like the format of his show and I think it's best of class but come on this dude has always been an asshole ever since the 90s. I never understood why anyone would want to hear him actually speak on anything? He's not an idea guy or anything and is only interested in hosting arguments for entertainment.

That's great, and it's entertaining but he behaves like a banned neogaffer. Plays dumb, fake concern, lacks empathy, overly pessimistic, etc.
 

kamspy

Member
this is really screwed up that now you have religion defenders calling secularists bigots

really?

those religions are fuckin' Ultra-Conservative for fuck's sakes... fuck

10 years ago this board was devoted to fighting religous oppression. We just got done beating Christianity back far enough to let gays marry and people to use cannabis without threat of incarceration.

Are we inviting Islam into the western mainstream as a way of starting "New Game+" on all the freedoms we just won?
 
This thread is a perfect example of how liberals allowed the US government to be taken over by conservatives... instead of working together to bring down the corruption and ass-backwardness overrunning the Republican party, they instead vilify their own people for holding views that aren't 100% in line with their own.
If you are transphobic I don't have to give you the time of day, and I'm not going to.
 
Nobody cared when Bill Maher (and Sam Harris) spent the last 15 years tearing christianity apart, but apparantly critizing a religion even more deserving of scrutiny and it's diehard adherents makes them the worst people in the world. They're simply concerned and they have a right to be concerned. Even more importantly, if you refuse to listen and denounce them as bigots, it only further empowers the truly bad people on the far right because like it or not, the islamic fundamentalist issue isn't going away and if sane, reasonable people on the left aren't allowed to dicuss it, the people will go (and have gone) to the only people who will and that's the real concern.

I would like to add however that Bill Maher slightly disappointed me on the trans issue. If he was informed at all then he would've refuted Milo's fake and misleading sexual abuse statistic and not referred to them as weirdos, but i'm still not going to throw him under the bus because of that unfortunate slip up.
 

TaterTots

Banned
Maher doesn't line up with the current liberal stance. He makes offensive jokes to get a rise, which PC culture loathes and his views aren't so modern on a lot of topics. That being said, I'm a fan and agree with him a lot.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Nobody cared when Bill Maher (and Sam Harris) spent the last 15 years tearing christianity apart, but apparantly critizing a religion even more deserving of scrutiny and it's diehard adherents makes them the worst people in the world. They're simply concerned and they have a right to be concerned. Even more importantly, if you refuse to listen and denounce them as bigots, it only further empowers the truly bad people on the far right because like it or not, the islamic fundamentalist issue isn't going away and if sane, reasonable people on the left aren't allowed to dicuss it, the people will go (and have gone) to the only people who will and that's the real concern
Christianity is a force of institutional power in the US and Europe. Islam is...It's so far from being that that it's laughable
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
10 years ago this board was devoted to fighting religous oppression. We just got done beating Christianity back far enough to let gays marry and people to use cannabis without threat of incarceration.

Are we inviting Islam into the western mainstream as a way of starting "New Game+" on all the freedoms we just won?
Are you for fucking real with this shit? Like fundamentalist islamists are suddenly going to take over the fucking government or something? Is that fucking seriously what you think the threat is here?
 

Lime

Member
this is really screwed up that now you have religion defenders calling secularists bigots

really?

those religions are fuckin' Ultra-Conservative for fuck's sakes... fuck

I think you have gravely misunderstood the difference between a religion and the actual people who follow or practice it.
 

Toxi

Banned
10 years ago this board was devoted to fighting religous oppression. We just got done beating Christianity back far enough to let gays marry and people to use cannabis without threat of incarceration.

Are we inviting Islam into the western mainstream as a way of starting "New Game+" on all the freedoms we just won?
Yeah I'm really worried about all those Muslims controlling American politics. It's clearly them who are threatening our civil rights and liberties.
 

RDreamer

Member
This thread is a perfect example of how liberals allowed the US government to be taken over by conservatives... instead of working together to bring down the corruption and ass-backwardness overrunning the Republican party, they instead focus most of their efforts on vilifying their own people for holding views that aren't 100% in line with their own.

At what percentage of disagreement, especially if said disagreement is vile and ridiculous, does he become not one of my own?
 
Specify his hateful beliefs and bigotry.

It's already been done in this thread and on this very page, so what's the point if you're not going to read it?

Yeah, this is the scary part to me: that you need to be 100% in line with someone or else they are trash and should be boycotted.

What's really scary to me is that bigotry is apparently A-Okay if the person in question says a few things liberals like. I'd hate to see Democrats try to get their own Trump.
 

fantomena

Member
Maher doesn't line up with the current liberal stance. He makes offensive jokes to get a rise, which PC culture loathes and his views aren't so modern on a lot of topics. .

You seriously have to specify what you mean with "current liberal stance" and what you mean with "modern topics".
 

Kinyou

Member
He comes off as a pompous ass, and says some dumb shit, but from the stuff I've seen he also occasionally offers some good criticism. Like others have said, you can watch the show with a critical mindset.
 
Boy, this thread is just filled with wolves tearing deer herds apart.

I'm honestly afraid to express my opinion here in fear of getting banned by some overzealous moderator who thinks that because I watch Bill Maher and generally agree with his points, that now I'm some bigot supporter and apparently a supporter of pedophilia too?

Does it ever end with you guys? Hopefully some day it will. Attacking your own kind isn't going to get you anywhere.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Do you think Israel does fucked up stuff and also recognize that anti semitism abd anti-Semitic violence is a serious problem even though "lol Judaism religion amirite"?
 

kamspy

Member
Are you for fucking real with this shit? Like fundamentalist islamists are suddenly going to take over the fucking government or something? Is that fucking seriously what you think the threat is here?

Yeah I'm really worried about all those Muslims controlling American politics. It's clearly them who are threatening our civil rights and liberties.

Not the Islam part, the conservative part. Evangelical christians would vote the same way on social topics. It's just an injection of conservative voters. Anti gay, and freedom of expression.
 

REV 09

Member
Maher is a comedian...with questionable views at times. He's hardly a spokesperson for the left. His show is funny though and I enjoy the discussions even when I disagree with certain things.
 

fantomena

Member
Stop being purposely obtuse and/or a troll. There are dozens of posts in this thread responsive to your vague, deflecting questions. Every time someone answers you, you move the goalposts with one of these ridiculous questions rather than responding to the post yourself.

Perhaps your right.
 
Christianity is a force of institutional power in the US and Europe. Islam is...It's so far from being that that it's laughable

But what exactly is being gained for the left by hesitating to be critical of Islam? I argued this in another recent thread, but I think that's actually quite beneficial to the right while doing nothing to actually help Muslim's. Because while a very vocal section of the left are accusing people on their side of the political spectrum of being racist and Islamaphobic for being critical of the religion, the right is building their entire political campaigns around actually being racist and Islamaphobic. And then they're getting into power and implementing those views. You can be critical of something without hating it. The left never would've succeeded in achieving marriage equality for gays if it weren't for the fact that many Christian's were on board as well. And those Christian's never would've gotten on board without the relentless nature of the lefts criticism of certain aspects of the religion.
 

Nairume

Banned
He comes off as a pompous ass, and says some dumb shit, but from the stuff I've seen he also occasionally offers some good criticism. Like others have said, you can watch the show with a critical mindset.
Occasionally, yeah, he can have decent things to say, but all the baggage he brings with him just makes it increasingly hard to justify keeping him around as a prominent figure.

Like his Religulous film potentially had an important message to it, but then he wrecked it by deciding it was more important to present bad information to help prove his point than it was to try and build his argument through legitimate means.
 
This thread is a perfect example of how liberals allowed the US government to be taken over by conservatives... instead of working together to bring down the corruption and ass-backwardness overrunning the Republican party, they instead focus most of their efforts on vilifying their own people for holding views that aren't 100% in line with their own.

Liberals love to eat their own. Outrage!
 

jtb

Banned
Boy, this thread is just filled with wolves tearing deer herds apart.

I'm honestly afraid to express my opinion here in fear of getting banned by some overzealous moderator who thinks that because I watch Bill Maher and generally agree with his points, that now I'm some bigot supporter and apparently a supporter of pedophilia too?

Does it ever end with you guys? Hopefully some day it will. Attacking your own kind isn't going to get you anywhere.

What you don't understand is that someone who spouts hateful bullshit about certain groups (transgender community, Islam, etc.) isn't "my/our kind". In the age of Trump, did it ever occur to you that that's precisely what some people are fighting against?

This thread is a perfect example of how liberals allowed the US government to be taken over by conservatives... instead of working together to bring down the corruption and ass-backwardness overrunning the Republican party, they instead focus most of their efforts on vilifying their own people for holding views that aren't 100% in line with their own.

Well, it all depends on why you think Republicans are bad. If you think they're bad because they oppress the LGBT community and promote xenophobic policies....
 
Stop being purposely obtuse and/or a troll. There are dozens of posts in this thread responsive to your vague, deflecting questions. Every time someone answers you, you move the goalposts with one of these ridiculous questions rather than responding to the post yourself.
He isn't being a troll.

He is genuinely left wing. I debated with him about free Trade and globalization.

Some of you American "leftusts" are now conducting which hunts on secular Liberals on this issue of religion and or relious conservatism.

I get. Religious minorities are being piled on by racists but that should not shield the religion that is anti-liberal
 

Nairume

Banned
Maher is a comedian...with questionable views at times. He's hardly a spokesperson for the left. His show is funny though and I enjoy the discussions even when I disagree with certain things.
The "I'm just an entertainer" argument doesn't fly when he also does moonlight as a legit political commentator.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
But what exactly is being gained for the left by hesitating to be critical of Islam? I argued this in another recent thread, but I think that's actually quite beneficial to the right while doing nothing to actually help Muslim's. Because while a very vocal section of the left are accusing people of being racist and Islamaphobic for being critical of the religion, the right is building their entire political campaigns around actually being racist and Islamaphobic. And then they're getting into power and implementing those views. You can be critical of something without hating it. The left never would've succeeded in achieving marriage equality for gays if it weren't for the fact that many Christian's were on board as well. And those Christian's never would've gotten on board without the relentless nature of the lefts criticism of certain aspects of the religion.
What, exactly, is "criticism of religion" here? Is it criticism of theocracies? Recognition of the institutional misogyny and homophobia in Muslim controlled countries? I literally don't know a single progressive who doesn't vocally agree on those .

But to extend that to skepticism about if we should be letting refugees into the country? Painting the hijab as an intrinsic symbol of opression? (Liberal Muslim women I met in college still wear it by choice) Suggesting there's some irreconcilable"incomparability" with Islam and liberal values when the lived experiences of many of us say otherwise? Get outta here with that. It fuels genuine hatred and violence towards peaceful citizens
 
But what exactly is being gained for the left by hesitating to be critical of Islam? I argued this in another recent thread, but I think that's actually quite beneficial to the right while doing nothing to actually help Muslim's. Because while a very vocal section of the left are accusing people on their side of the political spectrum of being racist and Islamaphobic for being critical of the religion, the right is building their entire political campaigns around actually being racist and Islamaphobic. And then they're getting into power and implementing those views. You can be critical of something without hating it. The left never would've succeeded in achieving marriage equality for gays if it weren't for the fact that many Christian's were on board as well. And those Christian's never would've gotten on board without the relentless nature of the lefts criticism of certain aspects of the religion.

Because the criticisms are blanket statements and it comes off as hate and ignorance rather than a legit criticism.
 

Boney

Banned
He's a moron that is subservient to television, a "for liberal" that diverts attention from important issues and focuses on mocking the ridiculous opposition.

He had some balls for quitting his earlier show but he's every much of a nitwit as those crazy republicans he mocks. And is one of the premier examples of secular fundamentalists who are completely ignorant to the Muslim faith and religion overall, yet fervently believes it's in their best interest to adopt his faith.
 

riotous

Banned
He's always just been a jackass TV host; I remember him defending cigarette companies because he was a smoker years ago. He shouldn't be labeled a "liberal" he's just a jackass TV host guy with a show that talks politics.

I don't see a lot of Maher worship from anyone but libertarians and some conservatives actually... how is he even a liberal figure?
 

jtb

Banned
He isn't being a troll.

He is genuinely left wing. I debated with him about free Trade and globalization.

Some of you American "leftusts" are now conducting which hunts on secular Liberals on this issue of religion and or relious conservatism.

I get. Religious minorities are being piled on by racists but that should not should the religion that is anti-liberal

What if civil liberties are... whisper it... higher on the priority list than free trade? As, I would imagine, they are for many liberals?
 

mlclmtckr

Banned
Boy, this thread is just filled with wolves tearing deer herds apart.

I'm honestly afraid to express my opinion here in fear of getting banned by some overzealous moderator who thinks that because I watch Bill Maher and generally agree with his points, that now I'm some bigot supporter and apparently a supporter of pedophilia too?

Does it ever end with you guys? Hopefully some day it will. Attacking your own kind isn't going to get you anywhere.

You can be a regular-ass go-with-the-flow nominal leftist who likes weed and doesn't mind gay people but is generally a selfish and unempathetic person who has no problem othering people who don't 'fit in' to your limited worldview without getting banned.

That's like Bill Maher's entire audience. It's fine.
 
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