New Rule: The Lesson of Afghanistan Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

[nycbos]

This is on point. There is a lot wrong with this country. There are many historical injustices and many current injustices that we must atone for. But it isn't racist, colonialist , or imperialist, to say that what ever flaws we have as a society we are far better than countries where honor killings are acceptable. As Bill rightly points out there is a reason Afghan mothers are giving their babies to us.

[Shoeless Louis]

1. Fuck BillMaher! Irrelevant. Take it to OAN.

[wolfie001]

2. Oh my!

[BlueTsunami2018]

3. OAN?

Not liking Bill is one thing but what's with the OAN shit?

His points are spot on in this segment.

[IronLionZion]

4. I wish conservatives would go immigrate to Afghanistan

lots of guns and religion and facial hair, not much government regulations or civil rights. No woke liberals forcing vaccine mandates in Afghanistan.

[ancianita]

5. "Blind hatred of America is just as blinkered as blind love" is his first false premise.

A broken clock might still be right twice a day. But both sides are not equally broken.

"But liberals, as usual in this era, have now gone too far in the other direction" -- then he equates the Left with the Taliban murdering a comedian?? WTF?

He can remind both sides -- the broken clock one and the science/fact/reality based Left one -- that Afghan immigrants will say, "have you people lost your fucking minds?!"

And he can give examples of why each would do well to find out what time and why that is.

But he may not say "both sides" are equally wrong about America. Not when the hating Left adults are always explaining, advising, outreaching, envisioning, cleaning up, healing and repairing the damage left by the "blind love" manchildren.

[nycbos]

6. No

He isn't equating the left with the Taliban murdering a comedian.


He is saying that there are those on the far left who can't see there is a difference between the flaws this country has and the evils of the Taliban.

Take Rep Omar. She went from a refugee to the United States House of Representatives, but she still equates the US government with the Taliban.

[LenaBaby61]

7. Well ...

I'm not a huge fan of Rep. Omar, but she is right: There ARE elements of this very government and country that are turning into the Taliban.

Anti-vaxxers don't care if they kill us who are vaccinated--as long as they don't have to wear a mask. They also believe that Jesus will protect them and their families from Covid-19.

The Supreme Court, packed with Federalists right-wingers who will IMHO overturn Roe.

African-Americans, like that comedian in Afghanistan are still being murdered by racist police. I fear for my nieces and nephews, and they damn sure also fear for their own lives/safety as well, because a racist policeman can take one of them out in a heartbeat just because he CAN.

Maher has the right to his opinion, but he's damn sure safer than I am from the police, and no white-splainin' he does will convince me otherwise. I'm a bi-racial female (Black/Native American), and I can easily lose my life here in this country because a racist ass policeman may decide to pull me over, look at me and not like the way HE thought I looked at him, order me out of the car and blow my head off or choke me to death, and if not for the young lady with the cell phone who now suffers from PSTD, George Floyd would have just been another n***er murdered by the police, because the report those racist, murderous police wrote up for that day was nothing like what I saw of George Floyd--who was on his stomach, handcuffed and begging for his life, and especially not accurate after seeing Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck sucking the air/life out of him as Floyd was yelling "I can't breathe." Chauvin had a lot of complaints as well on HIS resume, yet he was allowed to keep on doing what he was doing.

Must be nice Bill to not have to worry about the police like I have to and like many of my relatives have to here in the "good old" USA in 2021 and in the 21st century..

[ancianita]

8. Welp,

I don't know if I stand corrected since I wasn't all that confident about what he meant, anyway.
But then I've only watched this twice. Let me see if I can sort this out.

If he says that the "those" of the far left who can't see the flaws of this country -- the armed Right who support the Taliban, voter suppression and sending women home, not to mention the flawed origins of the Constitution -- are as blind as the Right, then he's wrong.

We on the Left see an unfolding fundamentalist sexist Christian Taliban here who want to kill people, who "suicide" themselves as mass shooters, who support using state power to nullify voter power.

So I'll give you the Omar example as one flawed perspective, though some of our government IS like the Taliban. Just because the system worked to help her gain office, doesn't mean she's entirely wrong.

Yes to Maher's saying that "Both sides" have see themselves as having flaws.

Big NO to the overall spirit of Maher's argument that is wrong to claim that both sides are equally wrong. He can pick equal numbers of examples of flaws all he wants, but he will never prove both parties are thereby equal in breadth and depth of wrongness.

He just won't admit that the Democratic Left are still the good guys.
He knows that even the other side can see that good is as good does.
He just thinks he can validate the Right's thinking back into a rational arena again.
He just doesn't want to believe how lost and bought they really are.

[scipan]

9. He's got liberals all wrong.

He picks a shallow stereotype of liberals.

Look at what we do. We came out in huge numbers last November to stop nascent fascism. Why? Because every leftist I know believes in the Constitution and our institutions. We think they could be better.

Even black people I know, and ones I've looked up to, have been saying that they want us to live up to our promise. Barbara Jordan, MLK... believed in the... Potential? Promise? Something fundamental about the USA and how it was conceived. The American dream and how it should include everyone. And if there's anyone who has a right to not believe in our country, it's black folks.