Bill Maher

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/05/bill-maher-on-ayn-rand-its-all-stuff-that-seems-very-deep-when-youre-19-years-old/

Bill Maher on Ayn Rand: ‘It’s all stuff that seems very deep when you’re 19 years old’

Years ago, Maher conceded, he supported some libertarian ideals, saying he wanted to keep the government out of his bedroom, his medicine chest, “and especially not in the second drawer of the nightstand on the left side of my bed.”

But somewhere along the way, he said, libertarians became devotees of Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, which he called “a book that’s never been read all the way through by anyone with a girlfriend.”

But even as he said he still supported notions like “shutting down the American empire,” Maher also had a message for people attempting to shame him for allegedly turning his back on that stance.

“I didn’t go nuts, this movement did,” he said. “Like when you see a stop light, your reaction should be, ‘Great, an easy way to ensure we don’t crash into each other.’ Not, ‘How dare the government tell me when I can and cannot go!’”

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Type: Discussion • Score: 16 • Views: 2,994 • Replies: 35

@edgarblythe,

I don't have anything to add, not being a libertarian and not being a fan of Bill Maher, but will be back to see replies. I find Maher vulgar and offensive and I don't like his views on the Middle East.

1 Reply

@revelette2,

If you overlook the vulgar offensive rhetoric he still has a lot to say that makes good sense. I like him.

1 Reply

@RABEL222,

I could get past his vulgarism, I freely admit that I am a prude and I'm not fond of dirty jokes if I even get them. However, he is particularly vocal about Islam/Muslims and violence on almost any subject having to do with the middle east.

For example:
=Debating Bill Maher on Muslims, Islam and US foreign policy

Quote:

Last night I was on Bill Maher's HBO show "Real Time". There have always been numerous views of Maher's with which I agree. But he has become one of the most vocal and extreme advocates of the view that - while religion generally should be criticized - Islam is a uniquely threatening and destructive force and that Muslims are uniquely oppressive and violent, and that mentality has infected many of his policy views (see here and here for some comprehensive background; just two weeks ago, he had a fairly typical outburst on this topic). When I was scheduled to do the show, I was hoping that the opportunity would arise to debate these views (or that I could create the opportunity), and last night it did.

The resulting exchange, which was somewhat contentious and sustained for a show like this, can be seen on the recorder below. The segment begins at the 4:45 mark and our specific exchange begins a couple of minutes after that (the first segment on this video is a debate on whether Benghazi is now a "scandal" in light of newly released documents). Our exchange ends up, I believe, capturing the crux of this debate - which is essentially similar to the one I had recently with Sam Harris and friends - rather well:

It has two videos, I can't really hear them, but I imagine it is fairly typical of his usual rants on Islam.

1 Reply

@revelette2,

You really don't understand Bill Maher. His antiMuslim sentiment is as strong as/equaled to his fundamentalist antiChristian and fundamentalist antiJewish sentiments. He's a very militant atheist as self-depicted in his documentary, Religulous (2008).

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@tsarstepan,

I agree with Glen Greenwald on Maher's anti-Islamic views, while he is against all religion, he is more against Islam than the rest.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

You really don't understand Bill Maher. His antiMuslim sentiment is as strong as/equaled to his fundamentalist antiChristian and fundamentalist antiJewish sentiments. He's a very militant atheist as self-depicted in his documentary, Religulous (2008).

For someone who purports to be critical of basing political policy and bigotry on the Bible, he lets the Zionists off the hook all too casually. I suspect he has a religiously based bias towards Zionism and the state of Israel.

As Sam Greenspan wrote in his review of the movie: "By fairly casually glossing over the Jews, I think it's another step toward people easily being able to dismiss the movie. (Which is bad, because, though I haven't made it that clear above, I absolutely agree with Maher that shaping political policy and bigotry around a centuries-old book written by humans, is something that must be questioned.)"

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@revelette2,

He's very anti-Zionistic as well.

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When I first saw him as a young stand-up comic on the Tonight Show, his jokes about religion were very mild. Bill Maher had a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother. He joked that as a child he went to confession, saying "Bless me father, for I have sinned. I believe you know my attorney, Sheldon Greenstein."

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@wandeljw,

Has anyone watched his "Religulous" routine...he touches my heart!!

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@edgarblythe,

Gotta love him!

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@edgarblythe,

I can access youtube now - egads, this is great but the words slide away. Time for me to learn about closed captioning, anyone know how? I can look it up, just wondering.

Youtube and I have iffy connection, as I cannot upgrade and don't tell me to one more time, my adobe flash. I've been told that now more than a thousand times. Or is it ten thousand. But I am teetering on ok there now, which naturally could go either way.

If I have trouble hearing Maher, imagine my dealing with english comics..

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What I know of Maher, from my own watching, I like very much. I haven't cable, so I just catch him on the net sometimes.

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@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

Bill Maher on Ayn Rand: ‘It’s all stuff that seems very deep when you’re 19 years old’

'

I know it makes Phoenix nuts when I say this but Ayn Rand reads like bad Harlequin romance - same characters, same storyline.

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When they are given a near sainthood status, nothing stops the true believer from believing.

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@edgarblythe,

I remember being very strong for whatsisname.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

I'll add that I mostly don't know, my lack of media sopping years, so I'm not just against people.

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@edgarblythe,

Everything has to be in context of the life lived. We cannot place her work in context of our life today. Her take makes sense when you consider what she lived through...although I never agreed with her. Socialism stole her life...she was angry to not have options.

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https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152400860922297

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