New Rule: Any Democrat/Liberal/Progressive is a racist who openly admits that he “forgot the President was black.”
New Rule: Any Democrat/Liberal/Progressive is a racist who refers to the President of the United States as “President Sanford and Son.”
And New Rule: Any Democrat/Liberal/Progressive who calls the President “Barry”, is just a disaffected, old…, white man, bitter at the thought that there’s a black man in the White House.
Just as we should hold the politicians we elect to be accountable for the words they speak, so also, must we hold accountable any media personality/pundit/opinionator granted a podium by which he may affect public opinion.
Either that … or learn to think critically for ourselves.
Remember the column about Bill Maher hating Christians? Jason Whitlock (not my favourite columnist) wrote about that episode:
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/jason-whitlock-bill-maher-s-bigotry-insults-common-sense-mlk-my-mom
S E Cupp exposed Maher as a fraud. Maher is as much an atheist as I am Cambodian. She pinpointed exactly what he was, not once, but twice – angry with God. Her first accusation was an insinuation, validating her atheism, but remarking that she didn’t believe in God; but she wasn’t the one who was so angry with him.
Overtime was the real deal. He sought to discredit her atheism from the very beginning, speculating that her next book would predictably be about finding her religion. Cupp responded with a rhetorical and very direct question:
“Why are you so angry with God?”
Maher went into meltdown again, but this time, with John Avlon, accusing him of falsely balanced journalism – go figure.
I tell you. Cupp is right. Maher is angry with God and religion, in particular the Catholic Church in which he was raised. You find out what happened to him at 13, how all that ties in with the above, and you’ve got his ethos. ^ ^
Too me, Maher sometimes sounds like a petulant little boy who never completely grew up. I think he also carries a grudge over the loss of his first show. There are alot of people out there who are crying because the President has not done exactly what they wanted him to do, I wrote a piece on this here awhile ago.
I think there is alot of hidden racism in this country and it will take this next generation growing up and producing their offspring to reduce it even more. The kids, for the most part, these days are pretty open minded. One thing I have noticed is the ones who are brought up in the evangelical environment tend more toward racism even today. My grandson goes to a christian school and we are very lucky that he is so open in talking to us. Some of the kids at that school parrot their parents even though they are only 10 year old in his group. He usually tells us what is said and we tell him the truth. He does not seem to be impressionable with the thoughts they voice and is pretty pragmatic about blowing them off.
It still boils down to Teach your children well…………….
Not being funny, but something happened to Maher around the time he was about 13 years old. Seriously. I have my suspicions what it was, but if you notice, whenever someone on the show brings up something about adolescence or close to the mark, Maher gets jumpy.
Last year, on the anniversary of the moon landings, Jason Alexander brought the subject up. Maher didn’t want to talk about it, but Alexander hijacked the conversation with reminiscences of what he was doing during that time. Then he asked Bill what his memories of it were, and Maher just clammed up. Loads of writers/critics/ordinary people have also likened a lot of his petulant behaviour to that of a 13 year-old.
Something stunted Bill’s emotional and psychological growth, and part of him is stuck forever at age 13.
Not to over-generalize but many comics are very bitter and angry people, psychologically wounded from their childhood who found stand up as an avenue to channel all of that.
I wholly agree that Maher has a very adolescent personality. Pot, chicks and being smarter than everyone else (especially on religion) seem to be the main areas outside of comedy that he values the most.
Not that I’m against any of the above of course!
I would say two out of three of those areas which he values the most are shams. He loves to think himself smarter than the rest, that’s true. It’s part of his narcissism. The other two are fronts.
marion,
All of the pundit innuendo, and the old-white-guy paranoia has been going on for a really, really, really long time. Way back when, let’s say during (maybe even before) the primaries? However, it was more subtle, kinda’ sorta’ flew under the radar, no one was really paying any attention. Just a small blip; hard to see or hear, like the blips in Hunt for Red October.
Yet, I remember being over at “The Haunted House” at least two years ago and undoubtedly longer, challenging any Yahoo referring to Barack Obama as “Barry.” I flagged and complained and flagged and complained, if for no other reason than the rudeness and dis-respectfulness of it all.
As BT points out, this shit (and no I’m not quoting him) has been going on for much longer, much, much longer. I wish I still had my account over at the other place so I could go back to when the light bulb first went off in my head; research my comment history and all. I, like many of us here, fought the bigotry battle over there, yet this nastiness still raises it’s ugly, bigoted head. Maybe my radar was more finely tuned than others. My father was/is an alcoholic, a bigot; my brothers were raised the same, yet each allowed our father to toss the “N” word around in front of their young children, not once ever telling the old man to Shut-the-F-Up! I, on the other hand, took a stand; not as St. Boomer, but as a Mom who didn’t want her daughters to become indoctrinated into the family legacy of hatred and bigotry. Give you three guesses (first two don’t count) who became the black sheep of the family.
I know I commented numerous times as Cher was developing her brilliant “Hate In America” series that it would not be difficult to prove the opposition has always had more of an issue with the ethnicity of those living in the…no scratch that…at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…than the policies coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Moreover, anyone (myself included) reaching an opinion or conclusion from listening to the likes of Matthews, Maher, FN, O’Reilly, Limpballs, Joe & Mika, or any other source of “newsieness” disguised as reality-for-ratings, should be required to go back and research REAL, integrity-driven journalism: Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Frank McGee, Peter Jennings, Judy Woodruff, Gwen Ifill, Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, Bob Schieffer, and my beloved David Bloom; Brokaw used to be there for me, but no longer.
The wet-behind-the-ears tribe that has turned professional journalism into tabloid, reality-based, faux-news, are not only irresponsible, but responsible for the state of the minds they exploit.
“Newsiness” never used to be about money or ratings, it was always about integrity, reporting on what was happening as it happened, and not stiffing/seducing viewers with “well I think…blah, blah, blah.” Personally, I don’t give a shit what some makeup-laden anchor/reporter/pundit thinks. He/she isn’t being paid to think and opine, he/she is being paid to REPORT, as in:
It’s not too surprising, really. These are people who grew up with all the stereotypes and propaganda about African Americans. It’s really hard to shake that stuff off. Especially when you think you’re a liberal, fair-minded kind of person and would never have a racist thought about anyone. But I’ve said it before on this site, I have friends who say things that make my skin crawl — and they have no idea they’ve let anything bigoted slip out.
So it’s up to younger folks. I suggest tuning into The Young Turks — nice, diverse, politically astute group of commentators who don’t wander off into this kind of nonsense. They’re fun, too.
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I mean Cenk Uygur and company. Don’t know the guys above. Did you check the link I posted?
They also have a Youtube channel:
The Young Turks
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Oh that old article, which I never read because of the title. Sorry, don’t know enough about it, and don’t care.
I’ve been listening to TYT this week, and I’m liking what I’m hearing. Dylan Ratigan was on this morning — really good show.
nellie!
Once again, it’s wonderful to see you. Miss you and wish you were here more often.
boomer
Hi- Now my dander is up, nellie! I wanted to like the Young Turks until they arrogantly and dismissively said all hate crimes laws were bad because “they punish thought”. That simply is not true – it punishes acts based on MOTIVE, and ALL crimes go to motive as elements in their prosecution.
As one who has been stalked four times by RW supremacists and today had the FBI at her door over a phone threat that seems (!!!) related to the laser lights directed at her last week, I can attest to the fact that hate crimes laws are critical to our security. So the Young Turks are doing what people of privilege often do – they make their own lack of need for such laws the standard for ALL people, then trash the law because it will never apply to them.
If you want to know who is dominant in America – just try to find a racial or ethnic slur for WASPs. “Honky” doesn’t count – it comes from “Hunky” that WASPs created for Eastern Europeans (Bohemians, Bohunks, Hunkies). Hard to be offended at your own word. I am a lapsed Episcopalian – what hate symbols are you going to shove at me? Pictures of Cromwell? Riiiiight.
Race is utterly irrelvant on a personal level and the most important thing going societally, all rolled into one. White people have to ask – why does white skin confer superiority if the person “inside” that skin is nearly illiterate, fat, ugly, unwashed, mean, selfish. Why would we not trade any literate and smart, funny, compassionate Black person for said white person? What do we get out of our whiteness save something utterly without merit – a false sense of superiority we can’t even sustain.
Makes no sense to me.
I think the only real white slurs were from one white ethnic group slung at another. Mick, for one. Sicilians, who actually did have darker skin tones, were treated with all sorts of abuse reserved to those who are “exotic”.
LOL @ Cromwell. UU hate crime? Burning a question mark on our lawn.
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Yes, you did. And when speaking to Wanda Sykes on his first show this season, asked her how she liked HER black President. Sykes was piqued and retorted, asking why everything had to be about race. She wanted to talk about that, but Maher chickened out and changed the subject.
Bill is particularly bad. He thinks because he’s dated a few black women – or rather, USED them as escorts (I doubt Bill’s ever really DATED any woman, including the pierced and tattoed child he’s leading around now) – he’s got a pass to say things no other person, black or white, would think to say in any kind of company. It’s as if he thinks he’s an honorary African American. Two of the three black women Bill consorted with on a fairly regular basis BOTH said he often used racial abuse towards them.
Someone on FB once told me the difference between Bill Maher and Jon Stewart. Both are Jersey boys, both educated at good universities. Stewart is culturally Jewish and grew up in an intellectually curious household. He’s applying his intelligence to his wit. Although Bill’s mother was Jewish, he identifies himself, almost exclusively, as Irish, like his dad; and he has the characteristics of an Irishman: gift of the blarney and the ability to charm, but once they’re crossed or made fools of, they throw hissy fits. Instead of using his intelligence, Bill pairs “smarts” with his wit. Stewart is intelligent; Maher is smart. There’s a difference.
Both Bill and Chris grew up in rigid Irish Catholic homes in predominantly white neighbourhoods. Bill has said, himself, that there were NO black people in his hometown. Chris is from a working class white neighbourhood in Philly. Chris’s background speaks for itself. I doubt Bill ever met a black person until he graduated from college.
marion, please enlighten me. What is it with you and Bill Maher anyway?
You know there were blacks where I grew up, not in my neighborhood, but in the city. So I fall into both categories, yet unlike my brothers, I don’t use my “lack of exposure” to define who I am as a person. Come on marion, quit excusing/enabling these guys and get with the program. At some point, one must stop blaming the past and those who came before, and accept responsibility for who they are and will be in the future.
I’m not excusing them. If anything, I’m linking them with the illustrious governor of my state, Bob McDonnell. He comes from the same sort of roots – in fact, I think he comes from pretty close to where Chris Matthews grew up. It’s what’s indoctrinated into you by your parents. A lot of what our parents instill in us, good or bad, we either embrace or reject; but there are some things, things which we know aren’t right, which – in some people – surface from time to time.
Do I think Maher and Matthews are racist? Yes, I do, although they both would go to their graves denying this, and strenuously. But in an unguarded moment, things of this sort come out. The same with James Carville. He showed himself two days ago in that embarrassing rant on Larry King.
Would Carville’s “boy” Bill Clinton have done anything differently? Er, no … he wouldn’t. Because he couldn’t have. He was, like Obama is, constrained by law. He may have hugged a few of the more attractive women he met during a visit and murmured that he felt their pain, but other than that, he would have done nothing. And, no, James, you’re not all dying down there, as you said. No one’s clinging to rooftops or wading neck-deep in water, waiting for help not to come. That accusation was unfair. Carville’s showing himself for the good ol’boy he’s trying to hide. He, like Robert Reich – the Labor Secretary who negotiated NAFTA – have trouble accepting that they aren’t part and parcel of a Democratic Administration in the White House, that Hillary didn’t make it – unlike their cohort, Paul Begala, who’s moved on.
Believe me, there was an underlying message when Bill Maher joked at the beginning of 2009 that America had hired a black man to clean up its mess; and just like “lil massas”, when we perceive the black man to give a sub-par performance, we crack down with the verbal whip.
Marion
I grew up in predominately white neighborhoods but my parents taught me not to judge based on skin color.