Five reasons why liberals should boycott Bill Maher
Five reasons why liberals should boycott Bill Maher
We don't have to settle for Bill Maher.
We don't have to settle for the mainstreaming of white nationalism from the left.
We don't have to accept the garbage Maher told us this week to justify that booking of Alt-Reich champion Milo Yiannopoulos.
SEE IT: Bill Maher defended statutory rape in 1998
There is no law that requires a comedic meal to be served with two heaping sides of Islamophobia.
When Bill Maher is at his best, he can be insightful, funny, and even brilliant. In 2017, he is harmful, outdated and dangerous. He has been for many years now.
Just how long can Maher's supporters keep watching? Where does a line get drawn?
Let's take a look at Maher's five main flaws:
Larry Wilmore tells Milo Yiannopoulos to ‘go f--k' himself
1. Maher is hate’s best friend
Just how soft was it? The Washington Post called it “a bromance,” the New York Times called it a “largely docile, chummy affair,” The Daily Beast a “lovefest,” and the Huffington Post a "mutual admiration society.” Jezebel was succinct: “Bill Maher is a Monster.”
How generous was Maher?
It is still unclear if Maher issued a donation to the The Yiannopoulos Privilege Grant — funding "exclusively available to white men who wish to pursue their post-secondary education on equal footing with their female, queer and ethnic minority classmates."
Bill Maher defends booking Milo Yiannopoulos amid backlash
No donation to aid white male oppression? Well, how about a question about the grant? Or any real questions about Milo's racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia?
Bill Maher is harmful, outdated and dangerous.
(Janet Van Ham/HBO/AP)Make no mistake: Maher is the reason for the last-minute CPAC invite. He should own that.
Within 48 hours, Milo was disinvited from CPAC, lost a book deal, and lost his job as editor at Breitbart. The now infamous video of Milo seemingly condoning pedophilia was put forth by the conservative “Reagan Battalion.”
Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from Breitbart after pedophilia comment
Maher had absolutely nothing to do with Milo's downfall. He should own that, too.
Instead, here is what Maher told the New York Times on Tuesday night:
“About a week ago, I went on Van Jones's show, and somebody asked me about the booking. I hadn't really gotten into the details of Milo yet. He was just getting on my radar. I said, specifically, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Then we had Milo on, despite the fact that many people said, ‘Oh, how dare you give a platform to this man.’ What I think people saw was an emotionally needy Ann Coulter wannabe, trying to make a buck off of the left's propensity for outrage. And by the end of the weekend, by dinnertime Monday, he's dropped as a speaker at CPAC. Then he's dropped by Breitbart, and his book deal falls through. As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. You're welcome.”
Maher's audacity is in full display here. He is delusional. The only question is whether he knows that. Without the release of the video by Reagan Battalion, Milo would still be speaking at CPAC next to his former Alt-Reich Breitbart colleague Steve Bannon.
Bill Maher's epic rant: F--k Patriots for ties to Donald Trump
Maher refuses to admit this self-evident truth, when truth is supposed to be Maher's Holy Grail.
Maher's Milo episode has inspired an HBO petition and a #BigotBillMaher hastag.
It should also inspire a deeper look at an almost fanatical philosophy on privileged speech.
2. Maher’s sunburn is the worst disinfectant
Bombthrower Milo Yiannopoulos belated backlash
The right amount of sunlight can certainly be a disinfectant. Too much sunlight can also cause sunburn. Not being able to discern the difference between the two is called privilege — and Maher is steeped in it. As a wealthy cishet white male who is immune to Trump's policies, Maher is drenched in sunblock.
Maher pitches a softball interview to Milo Yiannopoulos on "Real Time with Bill Maher."
(Janet Van Ham/AP)If there was ever a time a nation would understand the value of free publicity, it would be after Trump's election. When Trump kicked off his campaign in 2015, and declared that Mexicans were rapists, he polled at only 6%. Almost immediately, every news channel turned into Trump TV, and gave him billions of dollars of free advertising.
Non-stop media sunlight (not just Fox) helped elevate Trump to the presidency — in exchange for hundreds of millions of media dollars. CBS CEO Les Moonves captured this dynamic when he said of Trump coverage: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS … The money's rolling in.”
Barack Obama talks the election with Bill Maher
Milo's appearance was not good for America, but it is damn sure good for Maher's ratings.?
3. Maher’s Islamophobia and Ann Coulter
"I think our motto should be post-9/11, ‘raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.’"
Most disturbingly, Coulter's declaration of Muslims (or Arabs) as "ragheads" prompted an enthusiastic ovation. Again, this was stated at the CPAC conference, not talk radio.
Three days after Sept. 11, Coulter proposed that America "invade their (Muslim) countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." The Atlantic credits Coulter with helping to develop Trump's blueprint:
"In her exploitation of bigotry, Coulter is not only one of Trump's forerunners, she is one of his inspirations. Trump has called Coulter's latest book, ‘Adios, America! The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole,’ a ‘great read.’ She's warmed up for him at rallies."
Coulter is not just some talk show bigoted blowhard to be dismissed, she is helping to craft national policy.
But this influence or 100 other unconscionable Coulter statements has never prevented her from being a regular guest on Maher's show — often to hawk a new book (she has sold over 2 million).
Coulter is more than a TV foil. Maher regularly refers to Coulter as “my good friend,” and she calls Bill her “true loyal friend,” as well. They go out to dinner. Is it worth asking how a self-proclaimed liberal could ever be good friends with a woman as bigoted and vile as Coulter?
Bill Maher's bestie Ann Coulter.
(MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)As a general rule, if Coulter calls you a “true loyal friend” or Milo calls you a “good liberal” — you are not a liberal.
4. Maher’s fear of Muslim guests who disagree
But most glaring, Maher rarely uses his platform to invite Muslims to combat his own islamophobia. Last year Dean Obeidallah wrote that Maher has “A Fear of Muslims Who Talk Back.”
“Maher not inviting Muslims to be in his show when he lectures on ‘what Islam is really about’ is like having a discussion on Black Lives Matter with only a panel of white people. True, we see that very thing happen on Fox News, but Maher keeps telling us he's a liberal."
On his show, Maher values the voices of Milo and Coulter more than Muslims who disagree. Think about that.
Far from a free speech purist, Maher rigs his shows by filtering the guest list.
To support his Islamophobic worldview, Maher will often have fellow atheist thinkers Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris on his show, and leave them to debate with actors instead of Muslim thought leaders. (Note: Critics have also called Dawkins/Harris brand of "new atheism" Islamophobic or "Secular Fundamentalists" but that's another article).
This month, Maher asked Harris about his opinion of his Twitter spat he had with National Women's March co-chair Palestinian-American Linda Sarsour.
Here is an idea? How about inviting Sarsour on so she could speak for herself?
Had Maher invited Sarsour on for Friday’s show, his 4 million viewers would learn that Sarsour and other Muslim activists raised more than $100,000 this week through a campaign titled "Muslims Unite to Repair Jewish Cemetery" to repair dozens of vandalized tombstones.
"This is another way for us to publicly defy the stereotype that Muslims and Jews are not communities that can get along,” Sarsour says. In these perilous times, these are precisely the type of stories and voices that need to be elevated by Maher.
Yiannopoulos had to resign from Breitbart days after his appearance on Maher's show because a video surfaced of him praising pedophilia.
(James Keivom/New York Daily News)But instead, Maher is scheduled to follow up Milo's invite with yet another invite to Asra Nomani, a Muslim woman who voted for Trump. How Fox News of him.
But Maher is worse than Fox. At least Fox's penchant of hiring crazy black pundits specifically to trash other black pundits is recognized by progressives for the cheap racist tactic it is. Yet Maher does the same exact thing for Muslims, and it goes unchecked.
5. Maher’s show format is dangerous in 2017
In the 1990s, Maher began his ABC show "Politically Incorrect" by inviting liberals and conservatives at a time when the conservativism would be considered left-wing in 2017. Even more recently, Trump is nowhere close to John McCain or Mitt Romney, either.
While the Trump/Bannon Republican Party has since transformed into an unapologetic agenda promoting white nationalism, Maher's talk show format has remained the same.
For Maher's format to succeed, he must regularly invite more Coulters, more Milos, and more hate. Even less outrageous Republicans are being held hostage to Trump — and won't dare defy Trump's 84% approval rating amongst Republicans (see Republican cabinet votes).
This comes at a time when real progressives are not trying to dialogue and legitimize a fascist and racist agenda. Real progressives are in the streets and in town halls forcefully condemning it.
It's a new day. The times dramatically shifted on Nov. 8, a bunch of pathologically lying fascists are crafting public policy, and Maher is still Republican Partying like it's 1999.
HBO colleague John Oliver's show, based on unapologetic opposition to Trump and Bannon's insanity, is fit for 2017.
Humor-wise, what does Maher have that Oliver doesn't? Does Oliver's lack of Islamophobia or unconscionable guests make him less funny?
At one time, Maher's show — minus the Islamophobia of recent years — filled a critical void in providing a needed platform for voices on the left. This author watched him happily and consistently. But his time is up now.
Who needs comedy with a helping of Islamophobia?
(Janet Van Ham/AP)This week a video resurfaced of Maher making similar claims as Milo in supporting certain cases of pedophilia (for Maher, gender makes a difference). It is unclear whether the discovery of this video will have any impact on his career. If it does, Maher will play the martyr.
But that video shouldn't matter.
In 2017, progressives should already be leaving Maher's contaminated liberalism in droves.
Maher's staying power says less about him, and more about how much bigotry his supporters are willing to tolerate.
Where do progressives draw the line as Maher keeps unapologetically extending it?
Precisely how many Islamophobic statements must he make?
Are these 20 statements high enough? Are these seven minutes not long enough?
Anti-Muslim hate groups have tripled with the rise of Trump. Should we wait until it quadruples?
Is the line at Maher's friendship and promotion of Ann Coulter?
Or is it at inviting Milo?
Or would it be at David Duke, should Maher invite him on next week to better understand his "point of view"?
Where is that line?
Is there one?
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