Bill Maher: The Right-Wing's Pathetic Fake "Manliness"

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/bill-maher-right-wings-pathetic-fake-manliness




Conservatives were outraged this week after President Obama said that if he had a son, he would not allow him to play football — commenting on the violent culture of the game. From Rush Limbaugh saying Obama's comment was "irresponsible," to Glenn Beck saying Obama should "stop being a chick," conservatives whined about the importance of manliness, continuing their narrative about masculinity that attempts to veil their cowardly actions.

Watch Bill Maher take them on here:

[nxylas]

1. A lot of them heart Putin

Who would have foreseen that during the Reagan years?

[PatrynXX]

7. I wouldn't have

keep shaking my head. Your for Putin who might get many of our athletes killed? Forget Atlanta??

[paleotn]

11. Same here. Whoda thunk?

...Ex KGB Putin would be admired by rock ribbed Rethuglicans. I guess all totalitarians everywhere have some kind of emotional connection. I bet they also loved them some Somoza, Pinochet and Franco too, back in the day.

[Kath1]

2. Excellent, xchrom!

Humorous but very true.

[Enthusiast]

3. That's well done Bill.

But it's entirely too nuanced for Republicans to appreciate.

[Dash87]

4. There's nothing worse. It's cheesy manliness, in fact.

They wave guns around because they think that makes them a man. They bully women because 'a man should always have dominance over women.' They glorify bullying in general because being a man is exerting control over others. They hate homosexuals, call them names, and restrict their rights because homosexuals 'aren't real men.' They believe that no emotion should be shown, and others who do show emotion are weak. The cure, in their minds, for a lack of their brand of manliness is more bullying. Their ideal image is as fraudulent as they are - it's as corny and spurious as Libertarians idealizing John Galt.

Rush Limbaugh isn't a man. He's a hateful coward who screams uneducated nonsense into a microphone and gets paid for it. Telling somebody to "stop being a chick" is craven, Rush. There's nothing wrong with women - maybe you just have unresolved misogyny issues?

[mountain grammy]

5. Bill nails it, as usual!

[Laxman]

6. Phoney Tough Guy....

is the republican way. Did Beck or Limbaugh ever serve in the military? Did they ever play contact sports as children or young adults? Do they have children themselves where such a decision would be made? That's no, no and no.

I have two boys who both play football and lacrosse. One in college, one in high school. I was lucky enough to play both of those sports through college and escape without major injuries myself. It's not a measure of your "manhood" or "toughness". However, I love how guys whose "toughness" comes from spewing hate and making self-proclamations of their vigor and "manliness" from behind a microphone are experts. The kind of guys that are more than willing to send somebody else's kid to die for their ideology. Again, that's the republican way. Their toughness comes from words or having more or bigger guns than you or posturing, yet they know little of what it really means to be tough. Single working moms raising kids on low wages have more toughness in their little fingers than all of these blowhards combined. People who stand up for what they believe in to their financial or personal detriment are tough. Being an obnoxious bully is not tough.

You're always weighing benefits and risks in anything you allow your kids to do. My wife and I are always wondering if we're doing the right things with what our kids do. If the President would come to a different conclusion than we did, that's fine. It's got nothing to do with toughness. Toughness doesn't come from playing a sport. Participation can help you learn things about yourself like resiliency and inner strength, but there are other ways to discover that. This is all just more of the pathetic fake narrative that drives the GOP today. Its all just a bunch of camp fire tales they tell themselves to make them feel better. Pardon me, I've got to go thump my chest now.

[theHandpuppet]

15. John Wayne syndrome

A RW draft dodger who could only play make-believe tough guys and heroes.

Edited to add: I guess today's version of that would be Ted Nugent.

[Faux pas]

8. Too true!

LOL loved Willie's reaction.

[bullwinkle428]

9. Wish I could K&R 1000 times.

[W.J. McCabe]

10. Love it.

The GOP has become the club for a bunch of insecure, selfish bullies.

[lonestarnot]

12. Now that's rich. Puggies manning up. Snort.

[paleotn]

13. Maher nails it once again...

...being a frightened, insecure, reactionary clinging to their guns is not manhood. I guess I was lucky in that my father taught me that manhood is to treat all people with respect, to protecting those who cannot protect themselves and taking care of the less fortunate. Those are the men that are truly admired by all, not blow hards, arseholes and those with such low esteem they have to hide behind high powered, rifled "penis extensions".

[wandy]

14. Did he say something like toughness means restraint............

Ya know, it might take ya half a century to understand that.
But that is the difference.
Teapublicans just never understand.