January 21, 2018
Bill Maher wonders how he's supposed to be a comedian in this time that I call The Era of That's Not Funny.
"I'm down with #MeToo. I'm not down with #MeCarthyism. Something is way off when Senator Kirsten Gillibrand can go unchallenged saying 'when we start having to talk about the differences between sexual assault and sexual harassment and unwanted groping, you are having the wrong conversation.' Can't we just be having an additional conversation? Can we only have one thought now? I get it that Al Franken had to become roadkill on The Zero Tolerance Highway — a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on — but do liberals really want to become The Distinction Deniers, the people who can't tell or don't want to see a difference between an assault in a van and a backrub by the watercooler? Masturbation is normal and healthy. But not in the park. Giving up on the idea that even bad things have degrees? That is as dumb as embracing the idea of 'alternative facts.' I get it when Trump's side doesn't want to talk. He only knows 88 words. But we are supposed to be The Conversation People. Justice requires weighing things. That's why Lady Justice is holding a scale, not a sawed-off shotgun. Senator Gillibrand went on to say, 'You need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay.' Yes. Agreed. But we can't walk and chew gum anymore? We can't agree that groping and rape are both unacceptable and one is worse?..."
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"The Zero Tolerance Highway — a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on..."
I shouldn't have to read such stuff on a Sunday morning with a mouth full of coffee.
Bill Maher wonders how he's supposed to be a Democratic Party propagandist in this time that I call The Era of That's Not Funny.
FIFY
As usual: Bill Maher is right, but not right enough. It isn't enough for moderates (imagine me calling Bill Maher a moderate!) on either side to disagree with lunatics. They need to shout it: You are lunatics! You're around the bend! We are trying to get rid of Harvey Weinsteins and their enablers and you are absolutely ruining it! You are going to convince anyone with a brain that they should tune #meToo out completely!
Just stop it, now.
He notices at last that it is a legalistic rule making system by Rule Enforcers that announce we need rules to enforce rules to enforce The rules that say that everything is forbidden ...except for them ruling over us.
Wait until they discover that ball room dancing includes a man holding onto a woman who is holding onto a man while they walk around together cheek to cheek. MASS ARRESTS!
Justice requires weighing things. That's why Lady Justice is holding a scale, not a sawed-off shotgun.
Excellent observation by Bill Maher. And now he needs to observe that: NO you are not allowed to have more than one thought. You must all believe and parrot the party line or there WILL be consequences.
This is the bed that people like you, Maher, have made and laughed about while raking in the big bucks. Now YOU get to enjoy what you have created.
Male groping (MG) should be treated as a serious crime like rape because studies done by Certified members of The Patriarchy show that almost all rapists started out as gropists.
Maybe Maher senses that it's about to be his turn in the barrel.
I've been thinking about Alfranken going down without a fight. The thought occurs to me that there was something else far more damaging to him than just the grab-fest.
Reactions to Male Syndrome Groping (MSG) include:
- Flushing.
- Sweating.
- Ranting.
- Numbness, tingling or burning in the face, neck and other areas.
- Rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations of love)
- Chest pain.
- Giggling.
- Nausea.
- Settlementing.
"Can we only have one thought now?"
Silly boy. That's how political correctness works.
Diversity without a difference.
Maher is helping Trump win... Trump is on the free speech side too.
It's a good enough rant.
... we are supposed to be ...
And yet, we aren't.
Another example of how Maher teases those right of center that he is a non-partisan truth teller. Don't worry he'll come through in due time with his reflexive liberal jabs.
He just can't get over his essential belief that conservatives are STOOPID!
I get it when Trump's side doesn't want to talk. He only knows 88 words.
Well, as my husband Dumbplumber just observed, if you only know 88 words but they are the right words and you use them effectively then you are succeeding.
There is something to be said about an economy of words as compared to the mishmash of indecipherable word salad used by our "elites" and pretentious educators use.
He has good points, but is quite annoying by interjecting crap to point out he is an anti-Trump Democrat. I'm sure it is a crutch in order to get anti-Trump Democrats to listen to his arguments. Let's try this out:
" I get it that Al Franken had to become roadkill on The Zero Tolerance Highway, but do liberals really want to become The Distinction Deniers, the people who can't tell or don't want to see a difference between an assault in a van and a backrub by the watercooler? "
"Masturbation is normal and healthy. But not in the park. Giving up on the idea that even bad things have degrees? We are supposed to be The Conversation People. Justice requires weighing things. That's why Lady Justice is holding a scale, not a sawed-off shotgun. "
See, it actually still works. Apparently he thinks he needs to pump up his liberal Democrat street cred to support his view.
AllenS: I've been thinking about Alfranken going down without a fight. The thought occurs to me that there was something else far more damaging to him than just the grab-fest.
Agreed. The other thing is this: when he got called out, he had no allies in the Senate. None of his actual colleagues stood up for him. Makes me wonder if he had burned a few bridges in his time there.
not so subtle Nazi reference thrown in: "he only knows 88 words". Since 'h' is the 8th letter of alphabet, 88 is used in place of Heil Hitler by neo-nazis as a not-so-secret-anymore handshake.
Maher would make a better case if he drew the line between assault/groping and harassment. Laying your hands on a woman who is not interested in being touched by you hasn't been ok, ever. The harassing environment part of Title VII was the road to cultural perdition to my mind. There is a yuuuuuge difference between violating someone's body and violating their sensibilities.
That's what I've been saying all along, except a backrub at the water cooler isn't bad per se. Work it out between you.
The Trump is stupid and boorish doesn't seem like a good reading, but Maher is trying to maintain his audience, whatever else he is claiming.
Trump seems stupid and boorish to me. But a politician can be stupid, boorish, and also effective. For a guy who has been presented as a impulsive narcissist with a short attention span and no core beliefs, Trump has been surprisingly consistent. Consistency means a lot in politics.
It’s a problem for Islamic comics too. It’s tough to make a living when you are not allowed to laugh at anything and the new blasphemy laws remain supreme. By “blasphemy” I mean any material that doesn’t actively promote wokeness.
Short version of Maher: "Wait! They're coming for ME now?"
"But we are supposed to be The Conversation People."
Well, there's your problem right there, Bill. You let your nutjob Humpty-Dumpties go to town re-defining words into meaninglessness. E.g., "Converstation: encounter where one side is supposed to sit tight and stfu while the other side screeches and hoots their inchoate grievances, sometimes engaging in mob violence against the first side." See also: "struggle session".)
And here you are. You can't say you weren't warned.
(Btw, there is no evidence to support the flattering belief that your guys were ever the "the conversation people" in the first place. There's your deeper problem right there.)
Maher doesn’t like living under the rule of his cohorts. Too bad
Maher is a comedian?
Maher likes to think he and his buddies are the smart ones, that he is some sort of intellectual. However, the fact that he made a documentary mocking religion without knowing the term apologetics shows that he is a poseur.
Most of what he espouses is tired cultural Marxism originating in the 1920s and 30s. Yet he thinks he is a Libertarian and free thinker. A skeptic venturing out to slay the dragons of superstition and intolerance. He will be purged soon, I am sure.
Not tired yet.
Well, seeing as his primary material has been, "Man! Republicans are so stupid and evil," I think his material will be just fine.
"That is as dumb as embracing the idea of 'alternative facts.' I get it when Trump's side doesn't want to talk. He only knows 88 words. But we are supposed to be The Conversation People."
-- It's like... It's like Maher completely forgot the decade of "Bill Clinton is a Rapist" that the side that isn't Trump's side didn't want to talk about.
Maher is not my cup of tea, but he is on to something here and is to be commended for naming names, even though his target of choice is the safely ensconced Kirsten Gillibrand. If she runs for POTUS, will Maher continue the bombing?
The Dems have a long way to go to present a reasoned, centerist, pro-business, pro-growth alternative to Trump and the GOP.
"The Zero Tolerance Highway — a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on..."
That's why Bill Clinton took the back road.
Requoting a Klavan guest, comedy causes laughter, propaganda causes applause.
Easy to tell apart.
"The Zero Tolerance Highway — a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on —"
-- Senator Roy Moore agrees.
"but do liberals really want to become The Distinction Deniers, the people who can't tell or don't want to see a difference between an assault in a van and a backrub by the watercooler? "
-- They are the ones who called a gay man and a Jew Nazis and then rioted in Berkeley over it, so, yeah. I'd say that the left has a problem with distinctions.
Like, I never thought Maher was an intellectual heavy weight, but reading this? Man.
Why do I *not* have an audience since I can *think consistently and coherently*?
Maher is part of the "conversation people" only if conversation is defined as mocking people who don't agree with you and calling them stupid and bigoted.
Since Margret Atwood has now been accused of crime think, I can't imagine Maher will escape the purge.
Franken is the only public figure who suffered disproportionate punishment. And he's the one who resigned. Auto-anti-erotic asphyxiation......Most of these people in Hollywood prospered and flourished for decades. And there were so many of them. And their transgressions were so bizarre. Maher should be asking himself what kind of business he's in. That's the kind of question he would be asking the mullah and priests.
"Franken is the only public figure who suffered disproportionate punishment."
-- What are you talking about? We have photos of Franken groping a sleeping woman. I guess the Duke Lacrosse Boys or the Rolling Stone Fraud against the Fraternity aren't "public figures," but... Franken got everything he deserved.
How is Bill Maher supposed to be a comedian in today's climate? It would help if he had the self-awareness to note that his best jokes seem to be unintentional.
"The Zero Tolerance Highway — a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on..."
The Dems have a long way to go to present a reasoned, centerist, pro-business, pro-growth alternative to Trump and the GOP.
The party is now controlled by hard left Marxists in all but name only ideologues. They may try to pretend to be centrist and pro-growth, but they aren't. Its all identity politics now and they let the mask slip a presidential election cycle to early.
I think Maher has been sued by some of his past girlfriends for alleged abusive behavior. He's probably scared shitless that they've been taking meetings with Gloria Allred, hence the adoption of the "Now lets be reasonable about this" tone.
Yep, here 'tis! Bill Maher Hit With Palimony Suit
With court docs! ;-)
There were two punishments in the Viking legal system, outlawry and lesser outlawry. Outlawry meant you had to leave forever. Lesser outlawry meant you had to leave for 3 years. Once convicted in either case, you had to leave before your accusers could hunt you down and kill you. Those are the #MeToo rules, it’s a blood feud.
But if we are gong to have the conversation, is Kirsten Gillibrand wrong? Should Al Frankenstein be forced out of the Senate for serial groping? Senator Gillibrand would like to draw the line below that, Bill Maher would like to draw the line above. I don’t see how his rhetoric is any better than hers, in fact it’s worse, as his rant avoids the issue about where the line should be drawn.
I didn't realize Maher was a comedian. Isn't humor supposed to be part of the comedic routine? Where, in his rants, does humor surpass the hate and anger for those whose views he disagrees with?
I followed a link to an article on Politico about a rural anti-abortion, pro-gun, farmer who is in his state's assembly, and is a Democrat. My first thought, "why?"
Next thought, how much longer before he is purged.
Here is the link.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/11/terry-goodin-rural-democrats-indiana-216273
He's not wondering how to be a comedian.
He's wondering how to be a social critic.
Being a comedian these days is easy. Be funny using prepared material. Well, it's not easy but it's not like there's anything changed about the process.
That's not his goal, to save comedy. He wants to matter in "the Conversation." Like Lenny Bruce or George Carlin did. But that's like reporters hearkening back to Watergate.
Nowadays reporters want to matter so they complain about how difficult it is to be a reporter in an age of fake news. But, the trick is to actually be reporters and not be partisan mercenaries. They're not believable as reporters, so the press suffers.
Comedians that want to matter aren't funny as comedians, but they blame the culture for not letting them matter.
People don't find social criticism very funny anymore and in our age of abounding vulgarity simply saying vulgar or shocking things doesn't get the shock value.
What's difficult these days is to be a good clown. Now they get all the bad press.
Ron: Because, at one time, Blue Dog Democrats existed. At least the Rockefeller Republican/RINO wing is still strong.
I never found him funny before, so...why now?
Left Bank: "There were two punishments in the Viking legal system..."
I guess its no accident American progressives are disproportionately from the lands settled by Puritans, the descendants of the Viking conquests in York and East Anglia.
The Zero Tolerance Highway — a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on
There's an old saying that comes to mind. Don't start no drama; won't be none.
You know you're in big trouble when Bill Maher is your sober voice of reason.
"we are supposed to be The Conversation People"
What Angel said.
Conversation as in, "lecturing the deplorables."
But Maher, to be a real comedian, you have to have real talent. And you come across as a rather talentless hectoring drone.
"Something is way off when Senator Kirsten Gillibrand can go unchallenged saying 'when we start having to talk about the differences between sexual assault and sexual harassment and unwanted groping, you are having the wrong conversation."
That's assuming listening to the ceaseless bleatings of a stupid cow like Kirsten Gillibrand can be considered "having a conversation". She's all yours, Billy. All yours.
Does Maher understand his own contributions to this present climate he deplores?
Not surprised he’s upset about Franken, though. One not-so-funny comedian rallying to the side of another.
In what century was Maher funny?
Women should be independent and free to make choices except when we tell them how to feel and what to do in every encounter with a man.
Why can’t Democrats allow and celebrate the women’s autonomy that they claim to champion? They are amazingly irrational.
Maher is right, of course. But his persuasion rhetoric is pretty lame.
If you are going to attempt to temper a mob you have to be at your level best.
Never mind... After watching the video, his persuasion is not as bad as I thought.
I followed a link to an article on Politico about a rural anti-abortion, pro-gun, farmer who is in his state's assembly, and is a Democrat. My first thought, "why?"
Tribalism. His family have probably been Democrats for generations, perhaps going all the way back to 1828. That was the situation with my Dad, it took years for me to finally convince him he was actually a Republican by ideology.
"But we are supposed to be The Conversation People."
The people who want to censor political speech are "the conversation people"? The people who literally want to make a federal case of a guy telling a girl she has nice tits are "the conversation people"?
— a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on —
It's a highway only Democrats are joining because Republicans have largely been on it for four decades now. Another in the long list of reveals that Maher is left winger who poses as a libertarian so he doesn't have to defend left wing lunacy rather than any philosophical break with the far left.
“We can't agree that groping and rape are both unacceptable and one is worse?..."
No. For progressives it is not acceptable to agree they are unacceptable. First you have to determine whether it will increase or decrease their power over other people. Rape was ok when making it ok kept bill in power.
When they have a coup to perform standards change. At this point words and adultery are unacceptable.
The only constant is the progressive will to power. Nothing else matters.
You weaponized sanctimonious hypocrisy for profit and progress. NOW, your evolution is sustained and aborted by the bigotry you normalized. It's all very congruent. Select your modulus prudently.
Henry said...
AllenS: I've been thinking about Alfranken going down without a fight. The thought occurs to me that there was something else far more damaging to him than just the grab-fest.
Agreed. The other thing is this: when he got called out, he had no allies in the Senate. None of his actual colleagues stood up for him. Makes me wonder if he had burned a few bridges in his time there.
1/21/18, 8:47 AM
Guaranteed that there are unplumbed depths of slime in the Franken pool. Needle on my evil detector wraps itself around the far peg every time.
Oh, good grief. I'm surprised anyone is falling for this Maher bullshit.
When the Left starts eating its own and people - y'know *real People* who work in Hollywood and vote Democrat - are getting hurt, only then is it:
(all together now)
THINGS HAVE GONE TOO FAR!
Tomorrow, if Rush Limbaugh is accused of grabbing someone's butt, Maher will be the first one calling for Rush to be drawn/quartered & bounced off the air.
Maher hasn't been funny in 40 years.
"The Zero Tolerance Highway — a highway, it seems, only Democrats have to drive on ..."
Note to Democrats, and unlike the 2012 campaign slogan - You DID build that.
The iceberg is, even now, barely visible. Only the outline of the tip is visible through the fog. But we note that there is, indeed, an iceberg, and there is a fog, the necessary implication, if not the actual view, is clear enough.
What immensities of corruption remain to be found? At best, we can make a reasonable guess.
Maher is a libertine, not a libertarian.
Wonder how many Maher types there were in the Chinese Cultural Revolution? Teachers who enjoyed siccing the young student mob on their faculty enemies, who were hip, were down with the whole thing, right up to their own turn in a struggle session.
The answer Bill, is no, we cannot. When you toss out logic and debate and nuance in the service of absolute virtue signalling, there are no longer gradations of anything. Men are simply evil, all attention men give is rape, if there is a 2% pay gap after accounting for other factors it is oppression, and so on.
Maher also fails to notice that it is not merely a backrub by the watercooler but even asking women out or looking at them or saying nice dress which are being called assault. Notice that Aziz Ansari actually followed the active consent protocol by asking at every step and stopping when asked to, but it is still assault because his date didn't have a good time, got the wrong wine, and he didn't read her mind (though lord knows when the woman gets naked in your apartment it sure would seem like here intentions are clear).
By the way, as far as the photo of Franken is concerned, it sure looked like he was pretending to grope a sleeping woman, not actually doing it. There was space between them. So I guess making a circle with your finger and putting your other finger through it is rape now...
Oh boo fucking hoo. Its about time the left gets mauled by the PC monster they so carefully crafted. Its kind of like the Independent Counsel Law that the democrats were happy to get rid of in 1999, after Bill Clinton went through the Kenneth Starr wood chipper. But like a lot of things, its all fun and games until a democrat gets hurt, then "We need to get reasonable about this!"
I hate it when I agree with Bill Maher.
Be OK with me if Bill quits. He not that funny. Bob Hope was funny, Lenny Bruce was funny. Dick Gregory was lights out funny. Bill Maher, shrug.
If they're not careful the gals are going to talk themselves right into the 19th century.
By the way, as far as the photo of Franken is concerned, it sure looked like he was pretending to grope a sleeping woman, not actually doing it.
This was my impression too. To be honest, as much as I detest Franken and am glad to see him go...if the picture was the worst they had on him, he was railroaded.
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