General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBill Maher's latest advice to liberals: "Shut the fuck up for a while."
Read all about it in an article in today's "Salon."
Yeah, ol' Bill wants us to clam up for the time being, because the trump hordes: A. have more guns than we do; and B. know how to hate a lot more effectively than we can.
I wish I were making this all up, but you know damn well I'm not.
Initech
(100,027 posts)vercetti2021
(10,155 posts)We own guns and know how to use them. They flaunt them around to show they have a small peeper. Two. I can hate just as much since they are fascist. Three. No I will not shut the fuck up. You shut the fuck up, Bill.
marble falls
(56,974 posts)msfiddlestix
(7,270 posts)I stopped watching him on a forever basis a long time ago. Even during the years where I would tune on occasion in cuz his monologues tended to throw some good red meat that I admittedly enjoyed.
However weighed against what I detested and loathed about his narcissistic and asinine attitudes on array of matters pretty much forced the decision to forever boycott him.
Sympthsical
(9,028 posts)Which, not sure it's even worth the discussion.
He told people to maybe take it down to an 11 instead of the perpetual internet 12. That radical rhetoric getting increasingly radical to the point of violence is probably not a direction anyone should desire. That not every single news story on earth has to be followed by useless paragraphs about why everything on planet Earth is problematic.
But, as this is the weekend Maher thread, I already know actually understanding what the man was saying will not at all be the point.
WarGamer
(12,323 posts)"A lot of people hit me up after that editorial and said, 'You know what, you scared the sh*t out of me,'" Maher said on his HBO Real Time program. "Good. Because now the question they're asking is, 'What can we do about this slow-moving coup?' Great question, and here's the answer many will not like: If we want to halt this descent into civil war, we have to stop hating each other."
Maher went on to say that that act of hating people has become "ingrained" and "normalized."
"We don't even notice how often someone online is wishing someone dead," he said. "Anyone we disagree with about anything is evil incarnate, and every argument goes form zero to homicide. It doesn't even have to be about anything important or consequential: 'You insulted Gossip Girl? Prepare to die!'"
"Besides the fact that wishing people dead is a terrible place for your mind to be, if you're wishing them dead, you can be sure they're wishing you dead," Maher said. "You want a real war, liberals? Really? You think you're going to win the 'I want you dead' war? You're not, you're going to lose. They have way more guns and they know how to use them, and with all due respect, no one can do hate like a right-wing conservative."
Maher said he was recently driven from the airport by a man from Bosnia who was in Sarajevo before it became "a war-torn hellscape." The driver told him, "What I'm seeing here now is exactly what I saw in Bosnia next-door neighbors who despise each other."
obnoxiousdrunk
(2,909 posts)Boomerproud
(7,938 posts)What do we do to assuage rw hate? Give in? No,, I don't have a gun. Where's the solution?
WarGamer
(12,323 posts)But I like the parallel with the former Yugoslavia.
I just hope we can resolve our situation more like the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic and not do what Yugoslavia did.
LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)Your reply is better than mine. His words clearly show what he meant.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)But it's up to liberals to rein it in and dial it back.
Why is that? Why is it up to liberals to be the grown ups? Why is it up to liberals to answer for right wing hate (which routinely goes beyond the "I want you dead" ersatz bravado of the internet, spilling over into real life)? Why can't conservatives be responsible for themselves?
I'll conjecture it's because Maher knows he can get away with scolding liberals. Scolding conservatives, knowing their poor impulse control, is risky, and Maher doesn't do risky, in spite of his self-anointing as politically incorrect.
Dorian Gray
(13,479 posts)is that we are in better control of our emotions and can use logic to wait this out.
And I agree. I think we need to lead with compassion and not hate.
He gets things wrong A LOT. But I don't think that this is wrong. (When you read the substance.)
I do not want a civil war and I do not wish people dead. But dehumanization is thriving in general, anger perpetuated by social media algorithms.
It needs to end.
wellst0nev0ter
(7,509 posts)Congratulations to Maher, for being born yesterday
ms liberty
(8,549 posts)I see his point and don't completely disagree. Thanks for filling in some details.
Devil Child
(2,728 posts)Tree Lady
(11,424 posts)All the talk about how evil republicans are just splits us more. He is right both sides need to find a way to come together.
Since 2005 I have only lived 2 yrs in a liberal area. After Kerry lost I moved to a small conservative area as I wanted to try and understand them. Now I live in a mid size 85,000 conservative town. I have my democrat friends but I am also close with a few of my republican neighbors.
I think Bill is right we have to get back on our own town by town, neighborhood by neighborhood to getting along.
When we get along we can open up to ideas. He is right you don't listen to anything a person you hate says.
Response to WarGamer (Reply #5)
jfz9580m This message was self-deleted by its author.
Takket
(21,525 posts)IrishAfricanAmerican
(3,813 posts)LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)I dont think he was saying shut up. I think he was saying dont take the route of violent confrontation with the same group we have been yelling about for stockpiling guns. He was saying yes there are a few Democratic gun owners, but they have the vast majority.
And he is right in that regard. Nobody should want a shooting war, especially if one of your issues is the other side likes owning all the war guns.
Kinda hard to both find a group of people to be violent, dangerous and too well armed, while at the same time wanting to get into a shooting war with for being a joke. Those are two diametrically opposed thoughts.
elleng
(130,701 posts)TDale313
(7,820 posts)Sympthsical
(9,028 posts)The OP's characterization is pretty much flatly false.
walkingman
(7,577 posts)"Politically Incorrect" now that the Orange POS is gone he has to focus on Biden and the Dems. TFG is old news and his existence depends on "running his mouth". Some of his shtick is funny - I liked the MyAss commentary ....
" Did you hear that Facebook is changing their name but it is a secret.....I suggest "MyAss"....So when some right-wing nutjob says,"Where did you read that?" I can reply, "I pulled it right out of MyAss!"
SalviaBlue
(2,914 posts)Im so over him havent watched for several years.
Girard442
(6,063 posts)Oh. Wait.
LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)DC was armed with National Guard. He is taking about the posters online that want a shooting war. As in left vs right shooting at each other and who would win. He was not talking about left or right vs the military which is composed of both left and right leaning people.
nilram
(2,886 posts)If you're talking about January 6. The Capitol Police called for the National Guard after the capitol had been invaded, but it took over 3 hours for the okay to come from the Defense Department.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/national-security-officials-testify-about-jan-6-attack-capitol-joint-n1259434
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)Nat Guard in DC?????
Uhhhhh
.. No?
BlueJac
(7,838 posts)Now take a seat!
Celerity
(43,057 posts)Generic Brad
(14,272 posts)His point was that we all need to strive to get along - Republicans and Democrats - so we stop our march towards Balkinazation. That summation in Salon misrepresents what he actually said.
Wingus Dingus
(8,052 posts)Generic Brad
(14,272 posts)"Is that really so hard? Its up to all of us to deescalate.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Fascists think life is war,
They have to have a group(s) of people to hate,
They are militaristic,
They have to believe they have an enemy out to get them (see life is war),
They have a hero complex, and they want to be the hero for the cause.
LiberatedUSA
(1,666 posts)
a shooting war between Trumpers and a military under control of a Democratic President. He was talking about the social media users from both extreme ends (each side has its online trolls) that post warlike posts.
By all means, if some misguided left-leaning individual thinks their old Fudd gun or the AR they just bought is going to help them take on people who have been stockpiling those exact guns for years (and shooting them at gun club), then good luck with that.
He was saying, maybe we should take the rhetoric down a notch, not give in and forget, as a thread that just popped up suggests.
And anyone that is ok with that and wants gun control is just as confused as people who protest cops for killing people, then turn around and ask for a ban on guns they think are only good for murder from everyone but the same cops they dont trust for regularly killing people; which is just some of the most bizarre thinking one can have.
Or another example of confused thinking:
Calling a group of violent, overly armed nut jobs that have been stockpiling for years, very dangerous, then wanting to get in a shooting war with them because they are a joke. Its either one or the other.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)They see it as a weakness, a sign that we have given in to their demands, agenda and imposition of their reality.
Paladin
(28,243 posts)I am so goddamn tired of making things so easy for our enemies.
CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)I do not fucking need to get along with fascists, White Supremacists, bigots, nationalists, sexists, and authoritarian worshippers.
Fuck that!
Paladin
(28,243 posts)Maher wants liberals to adhere to the same good-conduct rules that the fascists threw away decades ago. If some of you want to continue that sort of losing game, you're free to do so; it's just your democracy that's at stake. You ought to know better, at this point.
mcar
(42,278 posts)Wingus Dingus
(8,052 posts)that's not a plan to save the country. That's what he meant by STFU, it was more "ratchet down the hate talk". Another point he made was that Dems always question why they promote good, helpful policies that Repub voters knee-jerk always oppose, even if it's in their best interests, and the reason why is this: THEY HATE US. It's true, but it kind of contradicts his original point that we shouldn't balkanize--it's already here.
Paladin
(28,243 posts)The fascists depend on our goody-two-shoes behavior, they gain strength from it---and Maher thinks that's just fine and dandy? Fuck that noise...
Wingus Dingus
(8,052 posts)keep the pot from boiling over into national violence, because he knows no one can call the MAGA crowd reasonable, well-meaning or responsible. But Here and elsewhere, a lot of Democrats and progressives have turned a corner and there's no going back to seeing the Other Side as just decent, normal people with some political differences. Especially not in terms of the pandemic and Jan. 6th.
Crunchy Frog
(26,574 posts)CrackityJones75
(2,403 posts)I hate fascists. I hope they die. If anyone thinks that is a problem, FUCK THEM!
You think getting along with fascist will somehpw lead to better things? Bwahahahahaha!
doc03
(35,292 posts)USALiberal
(10,877 posts)LymphocyteLover
(5,636 posts)betsuni
(25,367 posts)nilram
(2,886 posts)I was really hoping he'd share the name of some organization that gets people from opposite sides of the political spectrum together in order to discuss their differences, and commonalities, reasonably and calmly. But, nope.
As others are pointing out, he said we should all "take it down a notch." But he started off by telling liberals to "shut up for a while" and spent more time on liberals shutting up, a little time on "us all" chilling out, and about zero time on conservatives shutting up.
How many locally elected liberal officials have stepped down in the last week? I can think of two offhand--the school board member who got dead animals left in her yard, and an election official in Texas who was being threatened because he's in favor of counting all the votes. They're shutting up. I guess Bill would approve.
BlueTsunami2018
(3,480 posts)Perhaps listen to what he actually said instead of a slanted interpretation from Salon.
Crunchy Frog
(26,574 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Not mainstream liberals like Biden and Pelosi. And if it were just tRump hoards who aren't going to vote for us under any circumstances, no one would bother mentioning it.
It's the rest of society in general -- strong liberals, moderates both liberal and conservative, indies and wobblies of any flavor who might vote for what we're offering. Those who need to tone it down don't realize how going "too far" alienates and irritates, and even stokes fear in the silly-billies scared by propaganda that LW extremists have taken over the Democratic Party.
Unfortunately, typically those who need to shhh to avoid scaring the voters don't care either. Losing is not the worst outcome for true believers, even losing to a fascist takeover.
But for those who do care about the enormity of the stakes: "Careful, don't scare the voters."
gldstwmn
(4,575 posts)We're supposed to go along to get along with these people now?
JustAnotherGen
(31,777 posts)There is no both sides.
Withywindle
(9,988 posts)eShirl
(18,477 posts)634-5789
(4,175 posts)kentuck
(111,049 posts)The cult is only a reaction to the liberals?
They would likely see it as a surrender and it could be much worse?
themaguffin
(3,816 posts)shut up.
Actually, not really, when they disengage and stop attempting to subvert states and voting.
Willto
(292 posts)The difference between what Maher actually says and how it gets characterized here is consistently ridiculous to the point of being comical. I don't always agree with him either but there is no need to distort his comments to such a degree. I swear if some people here were asked to describe walking through some grass covered in morning dew that merely got their toes wet they would describe it as nearly drowning.