I listen to his KCRW on streaming every week, not just because of the great music he plays and the bands I've found as a result, but also because he's such a lovable dork about it.
I loved Bill Maher's openers and especially his closing message which often railed against the liberals making us look crazy. He was a valuable moderating effect. I liked a lot of his guests.
But he got old, and cranky which meant that the real him was the arsehole in between his staff writing good openers and closers.
He especially sucked when not listening to younger women on his show. It felt insulting, and I wasn't allowed to hear good ideas get developed because he was shitting on them. It was misogynistic.
'Irreligious' was my best reason to watch him. But it means nothing now that he's a Zionist in spirit.
He was politically incorrect but now he's correct.
I agree with what you’re saying but I have a few liberal young-30s friends who unironically enjoy watching him every week. Their reason is because his panels have people of diverse political ideologies. At face value, it’s a refreshing alternative to the pandering echo chambers that are everywhere in mainstream media but the topics just revolve around more culture war bull shit. I find him boring more than anything.
And I know he’s had Bari Weiss and Ben Shapiro on his panels several times. The only valid reason to host either one of them is to call them a stupid asshole until they rage quit.
He had Milo Yiannopolous on shortly before Milo became one of the very few "successfully cancelled" people and it was like, what possible reason would anyone have to talk to this person?
I used to watch Maher every week because he had people from both sides of the aisle but then one week he had on Van Jones and Ann Coulter - both from different sides but listening to these two speak felt nauseating... like I get it, they are from different sides of the spectrum, but after the show, I was like...why the fuck did I spend my time listening to these two? What intellectual value did they add to my life? The answer was nothing so I stopped watching his show. Also, his takes on Israel/Palestine are awful.
I am an ex-fan as well. I even saw Maher twice in person. He became a whining old white man before my eyes over the pandemic time. His attitude and constant complaining about masks and those of us on the front line made me stop listening. I'm a front-line provider... Then there is his flagrant misogyny..
Right - totally became very whiny. Like I get it, the whole pandemic was hard for Maher, isolating in his mansion and bitching about masks, but some of us were actually working trying to help people and treat people with covid.
"I agree with what you’re saying but I have a few liberal young-30s friends who unironically enjoy watching him every week. Their reason is because his panels have people of diverse political ideologies."
That's what I told myself when I watched his show, also when I was in my 30s.
Maher is remarkable for being as boring as bat shit. Why does he have a place in American culture, why has he been able to make a comfortable living from being a banal white guy? I don't understand.
I gotta admit that I used to kinda like Real Time. Then I told myself that I liked it for the good and/or smart guests he would have on (who generally were among the people handing maher his own ass.) Now I just can't stand him or his dumb show. He's awful and his opinions are nonsense and his is the kind of overblown confidence that leads him to never understand why he's wrong (or even that he is in the first place).
Incidentally, Max pushes his dumb show front and center almost every time I turn on the app, and I have skip past his smug mug to watch the actual quality shows like Last Week Tonight or Kamau Bell's show.
Also I think I would have included the time when Glenn Greenwald absolutely took maher to task over islamophobia and his blind spots over middle east interventionalism. I recognize that greenwald has become a giant ass of late himself, but this was before that and still was a thing of beauty at the time.
Well written! But IMPO, Jon Stewart did do that, just in a different mode. It didn't seem like that for a while in the aughts because the screw ups of the Iraq occupation were so big and the lies being told about how it was going were so obvious that he could, during those segments, fully do his job without any comms trickery.
His show is a last bastion of LA network executive- types, and other people who consider themselves modern-day equivalents of Don Draper; to preserve their illusion of being 'above it all' and keeping the weirdos in line.
It doesn't wash, tho'; most people with two grains of sense know that it's weirdos all the way down, including the fans of Bill Maher.
I love Henry Rollins. I hope I never find out some terrible thing about him because he's just the best.
There are so few pure humans, but he's a candidate
I mean, he could bench Maher, and he gives this shy little schoolboy shrug. Fucking adorable.
I listen to his KCRW on streaming every week, not just because of the great music he plays and the bands I've found as a result, but also because he's such a lovable dork about it.
I loved Bill Maher's openers and especially his closing message which often railed against the liberals making us look crazy. He was a valuable moderating effect. I liked a lot of his guests.
But he got old, and cranky which meant that the real him was the arsehole in between his staff writing good openers and closers.
He especially sucked when not listening to younger women on his show. It felt insulting, and I wasn't allowed to hear good ideas get developed because he was shitting on them. It was misogynistic.
'Irreligious' was my best reason to watch him. But it means nothing now that he's a Zionist in spirit.
He was politically incorrect but now he's correct.
He has no purpose except his smug ego.
Fuck Bill!
I agree with what you’re saying but I have a few liberal young-30s friends who unironically enjoy watching him every week. Their reason is because his panels have people of diverse political ideologies. At face value, it’s a refreshing alternative to the pandering echo chambers that are everywhere in mainstream media but the topics just revolve around more culture war bull shit. I find him boring more than anything.
And I know he’s had Bari Weiss and Ben Shapiro on his panels several times. The only valid reason to host either one of them is to call them a stupid asshole until they rage quit.
He had Milo Yiannopolous on shortly before Milo became one of the very few "successfully cancelled" people and it was like, what possible reason would anyone have to talk to this person?
Even called him a “young, gay, alive Christopher Hitchens”
I used to watch Maher every week because he had people from both sides of the aisle but then one week he had on Van Jones and Ann Coulter - both from different sides but listening to these two speak felt nauseating... like I get it, they are from different sides of the spectrum, but after the show, I was like...why the fuck did I spend my time listening to these two? What intellectual value did they add to my life? The answer was nothing so I stopped watching his show. Also, his takes on Israel/Palestine are awful.
I am an ex-fan as well. I even saw Maher twice in person. He became a whining old white man before my eyes over the pandemic time. His attitude and constant complaining about masks and those of us on the front line made me stop listening. I'm a front-line provider... Then there is his flagrant misogyny..
Right - totally became very whiny. Like I get it, the whole pandemic was hard for Maher, isolating in his mansion and bitching about masks, but some of us were actually working trying to help people and treat people with covid.
"I agree with what you’re saying but I have a few liberal young-30s friends who unironically enjoy watching him every week. Their reason is because his panels have people of diverse political ideologies."
That's what I told myself when I watched his show, also when I was in my 30s.
Maher's so pathetically insecure. Burr's not afraid to call him a pompous ass.
I quit watching that idiot years and ago. He honestly shouldn't even be relevant anymore.
There are unfortunate number of things that shouldn't be relevant anymore but still are, sadly...
Aye😕
Maher is remarkable for being as boring as bat shit. Why does he have a place in American culture, why has he been able to make a comfortable living from being a banal white guy? I don't understand.
Maher is also a scab.
Used to think he was the biggest asshole on Earth. Then I found out about Glenn Beck
He is definitely somebody who has figured out how to keep himself in the news by saying “outrageous”things.
I gotta admit that I used to kinda like Real Time. Then I told myself that I liked it for the good and/or smart guests he would have on (who generally were among the people handing maher his own ass.) Now I just can't stand him or his dumb show. He's awful and his opinions are nonsense and his is the kind of overblown confidence that leads him to never understand why he's wrong (or even that he is in the first place).
Incidentally, Max pushes his dumb show front and center almost every time I turn on the app, and I have skip past his smug mug to watch the actual quality shows like Last Week Tonight or Kamau Bell's show.
Also I think I would have included the time when Glenn Greenwald absolutely took maher to task over islamophobia and his blind spots over middle east interventionalism. I recognize that greenwald has become a giant ass of late himself, but this was before that and still was a thing of beauty at the time.
Here's the clip for anyone who's interested - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYG7GR13DnU
Also maher is an antivax weirdo, so...
I don’t know why the title and photo combo gave me a full spit take laugh, but thank you. The read was even better.
Well written! But IMPO, Jon Stewart did do that, just in a different mode. It didn't seem like that for a while in the aughts because the screw ups of the Iraq occupation were so big and the lies being told about how it was going were so obvious that he could, during those segments, fully do his job without any comms trickery.
This was a fun read.
I think Bill is a walking cartoon who takes himself way too seriously.
An Islamophobic asshole.
His show is a last bastion of LA network executive- types, and other people who consider themselves modern-day equivalents of Don Draper; to preserve their illusion of being 'above it all' and keeping the weirdos in line.
It doesn't wash, tho'; most people with two grains of sense know that it's weirdos all the way down, including the fans of Bill Maher.
Perhaps he is not for a person nearly as much as he is for a set of standards that are worth living by and for.