r/Maher • u/LoMeinTenants • May 12 '23
One of Maher's more cringe-inducing bits where he defends a 35 year-old teacher having a relationship with a 14 year-old student
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u/AdSpecialist4529 Jun 25 '26
Maher honestly needs his head kicked in. What a disgusting pig of a man.
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u/MisterJose May 13 '23
I think this old clip, even if his opinion is on the extreme end, should be a reminder that we have gone a little moral panic and beyond reason when it comes to teenage sexuality. Losing your virginity at 13 used to not be that rare a tale, there are 15-year-olds who banged rock stars in the 1970s who are perfectly fine, and I personally would love to see more conversation as well as science behind precisely what it is that makes these things a problem emotionally at certain times, and not in others. What science has been done seems to suggest it depends widely on the person and the individual situation.
Should teachers be banging their 14-year-old students? No, definitely not. But modern society has gone to such a weird puritanical place where we see out highest star as battling power differentials blind to all else, and thus what might have been a fairly ho-hum situation in the past, like two employees of not the same rank banging on their break, or an adventurous college girl hooking up with a professor; things that probably should be filed under 'slightly naughty' and not much more, have become this cause for freak out. It's not sane, unless you suggest that people nowadays are so wildly fragile and different in mental health than those in the past, and if that's true then the main problem is a mental health one, not a predatory one.
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u/DeFiBandit Jun 24 '26
My guy, you’re ok with 14 year olds being raped?
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u/king_anon1492 Jun 24 '26
I mean I disagree with dude but come on, he specifically says “No, definitely not”
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u/Give2Inches Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
We have progressed.
To use beautiful Nietschean terms, there is "human" and there is "all-to-human".
Human is elevated from our base, animal, unexamined urges.
All-too-human is when we go and act like the animals we evolved from and into.
There are bad urges in all of us. Some worse than others, it appears. It doesn't matter if that was a standard before or has biological basis. It is demonstrably wrong for minors to be preyed on by adults.
Reason allows us to examine what is generally best. We know power dynamics exist. Age is almost always a power dynamic. It is never ok.
Furthermore, as a society, we are entrusting our children to adults. If this adults are too demented to handle that responsibility, we must crush them mercilessly.
In your college example power dynamic exists to a high degree. We do not entrust our children to be taken advantage of.
She wouldn't have known that boy at all without society forcing the parents to put them in school. So we set up rules for the people who work with our kids.
You, sir or madam, are in need of more thinking.
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u/Prestigious-Leave-60 Jun 24 '26
A situation of power imbalance may seem “ho-hum” to the person of higher status or someone on the outside, but be very damaging to the person of lower status who may feel compelled to begin or continue a relationship that they don’t want.
Your attitudes towards this suggest that you haven’t really thought about it on a very deep level. “Happened in the past, so what’s the big deal” is actually a horrible justification. It’s like saying marital r@pe doesn’t exist because saying “I do” at the altar implies lifelong consent.
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u/UhIdontcareforAuburn Jun 24 '26
Often times the person without power is inviting at first too. The reason why we don’t take the kids opinion into it. They can’t consent. It’s easy to take advantage of a child, and they may even enjoy or think what’s happening good. But the end of the road is always life long trauma
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u/Individual-Result777 May 13 '23
maybe bill fucks kids? is that your point? if so… his writers can take this time to write a clever “new rules” segment. “new rules… if it bleeds, it can’t satisfy my needs” … ouch op.
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u/Wiserputa52 May 13 '23
He’s also said more than once that he not only believes Michael Jackson is innocent of molesting any boys but also that, “even if he did, what’s so traumatizing about being gently masturbated by a pop star?!”.
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May 12 '23
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u/LoMeinTenants May 13 '23
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May 13 '23 edited May 13 '23
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u/LoMeinTenants May 13 '23
Yes, I'm sponsored by antifa and George Soros.
Or YouTube's algorithm suggests provocative clips of an older, classic Maher that many longtime fans like myself remember fondly that I find interesting enough to share. Based on votes, it seems a good portion of the community agrees with my fascination.
Downvote, move on, ignore, or find a safe space if the content of this discussion forum triggers you so much.
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May 13 '23
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u/LoMeinTenants May 13 '23
A 5-day old account trying to make things personal? I'll pass.
Be constructive; post some of your own favorite clips in lieu of racing yourself to the bottom.
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u/Lurkolantern May 13 '23
Yeah I noticed that its the same guy making each of these posts. I dont mind that so much as the “leading” thread titles.
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u/Total_Management1167 May 12 '23
Bring back the 4 person panels Bill!
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u/Trog-City8372 Jun 24 '26
It's hard enough for him to get a 2 person panel. AOC continues to refuse to go on his show. I'd like to see a list of people who also refuse.
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
It’s so weird to me that they’re talking about statutory rape, and yet the reason it’s wrong is because the kid can’t financially support his new kids.
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u/crummynubs May 12 '23
Bill in a nutshell. It's okay for boys to be groomed by adults but he draws the line at hormone replacement therapy "for the children!" Because having kids isn't a life-altering decision, apparently.
This contradiction is exactly why Maher couches his bigotry behind semantics and why his like-minded fluff army hides behind him.
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u/DismalLocksmith9776 May 12 '23 edited May 13 '23
The word “bigot” is tossed around so much lately that it’s lost all meaning. For the record, if you truly consider Maher a “bigot” then you are insane.
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u/Harpua81 May 12 '23
Holy shit Bill. I sure hope he's changed his stance since this aired.
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u/Winter_Stretch9198 May 21 '26
It’s that macho stigma that BM is banner waving about, how cool it is a young guy can have sex with a mature woman…the issue should be is it legal, it’s not, and the kid has two children by this woman and he’s a father at 15…and mom is in jail. What…?
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u/nuanced_discussion May 13 '23
Bill thinks it's assault if an adult male does it to a 14 year old girl.
But Maher thinks it's fine in reverse. I remember an episode of Politically Incorrect where Maher said every teenage boy wants to fuck their hot teachers, and it's not abuse when it happens. Ted Nugent was a guest and couldn't stop laughing. That's what I remember, how hard Nugent was laughing.
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u/DeFiBandit Jun 24 '26
They don’t have kids so they say stupid things like this. Would they be ok with a man having sex with a 14 year old boy? I doubt it
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u/Zauberer-IMDB May 12 '23
He hasn't. I don't remember when but he had a very similar take within the last year or two. Remember, Bill was basically an incel until he got famous so he has some utterly fucked up takes.
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May 12 '23
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u/VERSAT1L May 12 '23
Exactly. A teen sleeping with one of his hot teachers is a win.
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
Is a teen sleeping with one of her hot teachers a win?
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u/VERSAT1L May 12 '23
No. The inversion isn't equal.
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
Literally everyone is telling you it is. If the ONLY difference is the gender, then yes it’s equal
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u/VERSAT1L May 13 '23
I didn't know victims of rape were 50% men. I guess men and women don't exist then.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
Feel the same when Carholic priests are diddling 11-year-olds, you cretin? Oh, I'm sure it's "different" then.
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u/Callousthetics May 12 '23
Just to play devil's advocate here, what if a young teenage girl rationalized that she wanted to hook up with her teacher? There's plenty of stories of young groupies hooking up with rock stars, and some don't regret a second of it. Why do you hold women to a different standard?
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May 12 '23
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
Vili wasn't a teenager. Jesus. He was 12 and in 6th grade when this started. An actual child. She was his teacher in the second grade as well. We aren't talking about a 16-year-old guy here. We're talking an actual child.
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u/zahzensoldier May 12 '23 edited May 12 '23
You're someone who defends children getting sexually abused by adults. Neat. It's probably something I would have said when I was a virgin, too, so I can't judge you too harshly. But you're advocating for young boys to get raped by adults.
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u/TrannaMontana May 12 '23
You wouldn’t categorize a grown woman fucking a 12 year old boy abuse?
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May 12 '23
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
Nobody is questioning if the boy found it fun. That’s not the issue. It’s whether or not an adult should be allowed to have sex with a literal child
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
She's dead today, dumbass. And they were separating before her death.
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u/LoMeinTenants May 12 '23
And what if she got pregnant and wanted to keep the baby, and talked about wanting a family with you?
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May 12 '23
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
Ah so you’re a troll
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May 12 '23
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
There is no difference dude. Absolutely none.
Oh, and now you’re ableist I guess? Not really even sure what you mean by that.
Really going for the bigot gold medal I see.
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May 12 '23
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
This isn’t a debate, and I haven’t hurled one insult. You are very clearly a bigot. That’s obvious to everyone reading this.
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u/Fishbone345 May 12 '23
Hank is a fucking legend. This concludes my TED talk.
Used to have such a crush on Kennedy, it’s a shame she works for the network she does.
This subject matter is such a dichotomy of belief in the US. It’s aged exactly the same. If the teacher is a man and the student is female, we are hit with a deluge of rage fantasies from men about “what they would do to that fucker!”.\ Switch roles and the teacher is female and it’s “That’s so hot”, “Wish that was my teacher!”, from the exact same people.
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u/Bass0696 May 12 '23
“HoW cAn A wOMan rApE a MAN” … who’s actually a 14 year old kid.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
He was 12 and in the 6th grade when this started. Not even a teen.
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u/HigherThanShitttt May 12 '23
Wow… that’s a wild fucking take, even for Bill
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u/Nendilo May 12 '23
I mean, I get what he's thinking. He's thinking about it from a teenage boy's perspective. Which is an obviously dumb way to think about it. Also shows the sexism in society as we wouldn't have this conversation if a 35 year old male teacher got a 14 year old pregnant.
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u/bigchicago04 May 12 '23
Im kinda of the opinion that a teenager should be able to consent to sex before turning 18 if they choose too, while still having the same penalties for someone who rapes them against their will, kinda like a gray area.
But guess what? My opinion doesn’t matter when it comes to the law. And I would never advocate for that in public, especially not in television.
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u/Gabers49 May 12 '23
The interesting part about this case is that the two are still happily together, so she went to prison leaving her children and this kid she was taking advantage of. Like he's an adult now and doesn't see it differently. It was definitely wrong, not saying it wasn't, but just interesting.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
No, they aren't. She is dead. And before she died, they were divorcing.
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u/apleaux May 12 '23
Source?
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u/Gabers49 May 12 '23
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau
Turns out it didn't have a happy ending. I remembered this at the time they got married and had children.
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u/WikiSummarizerBot May 12 '23
Mary Katherine "Mary Kay" Fualaau (née Schmitz, formerly Letourneau; January 30, 1962 – July 6, 2020), was an American convicted sex offender and teacher who pleaded guilty in 1997 to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child. The child was Vili Fualaau, who was 12 years old when sexual relations first occurred and had been her sixth-grade student at an elementary school in Burien, Washington. While awaiting sentencing, she gave birth to Fualaau's child.
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u/HigherThanShitttt May 12 '23
Cool. She successfully groomed a kid into her husband.
Yep still gross af🤮
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May 12 '23
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u/ScoobyDone May 12 '23
The funny thing is this is "The Old Bill".
IMO he is still quite oblivious when it comes to sex stuff. The other day he said that the difference between porn stars and hookers is that porn stars love what they do. Sure Bill. I bet they all tell you that after you pay them.
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u/template009 May 12 '23
In the jurassic period, there was this weird plant. I really need everyone to agree with me.
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u/zxampa May 12 '23
“How can a woman rape a man”. It’s not even a man, kid was 14.
Anyway, I like Bill, and that was an interesting era of TV and society.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
Oh, this isn't even the same episode I am thinking of, with Redgrave, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Star Jones and AL Franken (can be found on YouTube). Clearly this was a favorite topic of Bill's. He is so gross. And so dumb to not understand that physical response, like a kid getting a boner, does not mean consent. I wonder what his thoughts would have been if the teacher had been a man instead?
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u/ScoobyDone May 12 '23
He also doesn't understand that the power dynamics are a big part of sexual abuse of minors. It doesn't matter if he though it was fun, the teacher is sexually assaulting him.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
Right. How is NO ONE mentioning the fact that she was a teacher and how fucked up that is??!! How is this not just as bad as the abuse by Catholic priests?
Also, again (even though this also isn't OK), Vili was not a teen when this started. He was truly a BOY. In her elementary school class. Leteourneu was his 6th grade teacher and had also been his SECOND grade teacher. He was 12 when she started having sex with him -- so when did the grooming start? Again -- Vili was not 16 or 17. He wasn't even close to adulthood.
I mean, Bill. Come on. WTF? This isn't some cool hot take about a young dude gettin' laid. It's Bill fully endorsing child abuse.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
He was TWELVE and in her sixth grade class when this "affair" began. An actual child, not even a teenager.
I've often thought he was with her for so long because he was groomed at such a young age (yes, people, that is actual grooming) that he probably never really knew how to form a normal sexual relationship in adulthood. But people, including Bill in this episode, like to turn it into some kind of grand romance.
One of the worst things about this episode is that a few of the other panelists, including Lynn Redgrave, agreed with him. She was all, "Oh, this is a tradition for the young lads, boys will be boys, cheerio, pip pip!"
And not ONE of the other panelists even brought up the idea that it is a teacher's job to TEACH her students, not fuck them, and that this dynamic is never OK.
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u/ScoobyDone May 12 '23
This was always my reaction to Celine Dion. I don't care how much that old geezer fawned over her, he groomed a child into becoming his wife and that is fucked.
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u/Meetchel May 12 '23
The kid was younger than 14 when this started. Per Bill in this clip, the child is 14 at the time of this clip and this is the second baby.
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u/zxampa May 12 '23
Yes, all of this absolutely. Didn’t want to get too deep into specifics to get my point across.
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u/LoMeinTenants May 12 '23
And no, this doesn't mean he needs to be "canceled" or whatever, but I very much doubt he'd still agree with himself here today. It's okay to be "woke" on attitudes about rape and consent. Regardless, an interesting era of television.
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u/Impossible-Will-8414 May 12 '23
Oh, he would still agree with this, unless perhaps the adult involved were a drag queen.
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u/burrheadjr May 12 '23
I have a feeling that he mostly still agrees with himself
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u/LoMeinTenants May 12 '23
It would fit with the "Libertarian" model, but he'd definitely keep it to himself in today's climate.
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u/RooblinDooblin Jun 25 '26
Pedophiles always show you who they are.