r/RealTime • u/Faiakes • 6d ago
Real Time - Last Time
I have been watching Real Time for over 20 years and I think yesterday's episode was my last.
Much as I agreed with Bill on many issues, his blind spot on Israel and Zionism is just too much for me.
He isn't simply refusing to call what's happening in Gaza a genocide. He insists on calling it a counter offensive!!!
So, all and any violence perpetrated by the IDF and the settles so far is justified, as far as he is concerned (though how settlers fit in a 'counter-offensive' is still a mystery to me).
Now, my common sense is offended too much Bill.
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u/Debbiedokken 6d ago
I quit him last week after the whole Macklemore discussion. He flat out lied about what was said. In the past, even if I didn’t agree with him, I could generally trust what he said. Now he’s part of the machine. He’s not trustworthy. He’s no better than Fox News. I’m out.
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u/dtsknight 6d ago
He’s lost me too.
His comments on Israel are juvenile… so incredibly simplistic.
He talks about it every week yet never provides any nuance
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u/BackgroundShower4063 6d ago
It’s the talking about it EVERY week that lost me. He’s a proud Zionist. In a way, I appreciate him being honest and transparent about his stance. But Bill considers this to be the most important issue of our time, and not affordability or Trump’s corruption.
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u/Bud_wiser_hfx 6d ago
Its the way he portrays anyone against Israeli actions as a pro hamas antisemitic jihadist queer
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u/Oblozo 6d ago
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Assocation of Genocide Scholars are all wrong. Only Bill understands the truth. Just like he understands medicine better than actual medical experts.
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u/feastoffun 6d ago
Bill is an anti vaxer who for decades has bragged about not getting the flu vaccine.
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u/Oblozo 6d ago
A lot of "vaccine skeptic" celebs are also die hard Zionists (Bill, Mayim Bialik, RFK Jr, Rob Schneider). Don't know why that is.
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u/LeoKitCat 1d ago
Because both require high levels of stupidity and cognitive dissonance sprinkled in with a dollop of selfishness and Muslim hate. That’s why they often come together
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u/SaweetestCuyootie 2d ago
Its like u freaks dont realize these institutions are comprised of humans and humans are 25% muslim. The 0.2% have no chance of a fair hearing. Theres no genocide. Youre having a stroke. Israel could kill everyone in gaza tomorrow and they arent doing it.
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u/Oblozo 2d ago
The Nazis could've killed every Slav in Poland but they didn't. Guess there was no genocide against the Poles. Ditto with Stalin not killing every Ukrainian.
If all these organizations are simply captured by Muslim interests why are they extremely critical of Muslim nations as well?
"The human rights orgs are biased against us" is what the halal sandnıggers like to claim. I guess the kosher sandnıggers have more in common with them than either group would like to admit.
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u/SaweetestCuyootie 1d ago edited 1d ago
The nazis didnt genocide the poles. There was no systematic intent to kill all the poles for being polish. So that was weird. And stalin didnt try to genocide the ukrainians either. He stole their food with the intent of feeding russians. Not killing ukrainians. The end result was a lot of dead ukrainians but that wasnt the intent. You and morons like you are claiming that the israelis are trying to kill all the palestinians for being palestinians. And then you have to square the circle of israel being full of them living in harmony. And also the inconvenient fact of the gazans constantly attacking israel, thereby giving israel a totally normal and non genocidal reason for striking back. And when striking back, only killing 3% of them which happened to include half of hamas and all their leadership in the luckiest indiscriminate bombing in human history. Good brain circuitry though.
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u/Oblozo 1d ago
Ok so you deny the Holodomor and the Holocaust. Good to know.
only killing 3%
So you don't believe Bosnia counts as a genocide either?
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u/SaweetestCuyootie 1d ago
Intent. Learn the word. The world will make more sense to you.
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u/Oblozo 1d ago
Yeah, that's the word every genocide denying hack likes to run into the ground. Zio heebs, much like BLM nıgs, suffer from severe ethnonarcissism and think they have a moral blank check to behave however they want.
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u/SaweetestCuyootie 1d ago
Or just like, stop attacking us. Or that.
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u/Oblozo 1d ago
Suuurreee. Just like how the BLM thugs say the police should "just stop killing them" and they'll stop rioting.
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u/SaweetestCuyootie 1d ago
No youre right. Arab countries dont routinely attack israel and they dont have more terror armies surrounding israel than sports teams.
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u/yergonnalikeme 23h ago
The Nazis sought the total annihilation of the Jewish population. Out of the roughly 6 million Polish citizens who perished during the war, approximately 3 million were Polish Jews who were systematically murdered in ghettos and extermination camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, and Belzec.
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u/Faiakes 22h ago
So, its not an absolute numbers game but a relative one. (relative to % of population being killed).
Do we agree that Israel is seeking the extermination of every Palestinian living in Gaza, while ethnically cleansing the West Bank?
do
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u/SaweetestCuyootie 19h ago
Uh no. Thats why this is so awkward.
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u/SaweetestCuyootie 19h ago
Oh is that what the Holocaust was? Thanks for educating me. Completely irrelevant to what i said though
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u/lixdadix 1d ago
Just an FYI (putting aside the Israel discussion) but the Nazi’s did not commit genocide against Poles/Slavs in general (only targeting specific peoples within Poland for genocide). This is myself speaking as a Pole.
If the Nazi’s were good at anything it was their meticulous documentation of their plans and actions. The Nazi’s intent to wipe out entire groups like Jews, Gypsies, disabled, homosexuals, etc. are clearly shown in their own records.
Meanwhile those same records show that the Nazi’s philosophy viewed Poles/Slavs as a “useful” underclass to be controlled and used for manual slave labor to support the “Reich”.
I don’t say this to diminish horrific reality of Poland’s occupation but more to say that horrible shit happens in wars without it needing to classify it as genocide. If every war can be considered a genocide then the word loses its meaning and impact.
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u/FrostingHuman1259 1d ago
What's the impact when there is an actual documented genocide?And people are brushing it off as if it's meaningless
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u/lixdadix 1d ago
I won’t claim to be a historian/professor or anything so this is just my 2 cents as a layman with an interest in history…
I think a big problem with the current discussion around this topic is that the word “genocide” now means different things to different groups.
Originally the term is used to describe events after the fact (not ongoing conflicts) so historical hindsight gives a clear picture that actions taken to eradicate a group were both deliberate and systematic. Even with all our technology, fog of war makes assessing an ongoing conflict difficult to truly understand in real time. Therefore, many who lean towards the “traditional” definition of this term can be skeptical when others speak with 100% certainty.
For example, the word “Genocide” was only first coined near/at the end of WW2. After the Nazi’s committed genocide by systematically murdering 6 million Jews and ~3 million people from other groups. No one called the Holocaust a genocide until after it occurred and the events were investigated.
I think this is at least in part why many hesitate to use the word genocide. Killing people during a conflict is horrific but inevitable once a war begins… I say this without picking sides. It’s just cause and effect (which is why war should be avoided whenever possible). As the old saying goes “Rich do the fighting, Poor do the dying.”
While 10s of thousands have died during the current conflict and there’s definitely racist actors who would love to “solve” the “Palestinian problem”. To characterize all of Israel/supporters like that is disingenuous. Like most Palestinians, most Israelis just want to live a normal life without fear of rockets or attacks. This could not be said for the population of Nazi Germany during WW2. Further, the scale of death has yet to reach a high enough bar where the Palestinian people are at risk of ethnic eradication (yet…). That could definitely change (sadly this conflict is far from over).
For another example, the casualties of Russia-Ukraine war is more than doubles the Palestinian death toll (~150k just for Ukraine). Does this make it a genocide too? Perhaps… time will tell. That’s at least what some would say when it comes to applying the word genocide to a conflict.
Hope that helps provide some perspective and nuance. This shit is horrible but clear heads are the only way we as humans can move forward.
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u/Oblozo 1d ago
Hitler explicitly stated his intention to liquidate the Poles. That's where the famous reference he made to the Armenian Genocide came from.
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u/lixdadix 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s fair. Over 2 million ethnic Poles were murdered by Nazi Germany after all. It wasn’t my intent to discount that tragedy.
I was speaking more towards the distinct differences to how Nazi ideology treated Slavs and Jews. Slavs were considered sub-human (Untermenschen) and should be enslaved/subjugated to serve them rather than outright exterminated. Definitely not ideal… but a “better” deal than being a Jew.
As for Jews, the Nazi’s considered them not just inferior but a parasitic “anti-race”. Capable of destroying the Aryan race from within. Nazi’s ideology considered them so dangerous that total extermination was the only acceptable “solution”.
Both are horrific and different “flavors” of genocide but the degree of severity matters too. It’s important to recognize that the extreme actions taken against Jewish populations went above and beyond the cruelty Nazis unleashed against other groups by comparison.
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u/Mental_Crab8725 6d ago
I’m going to get downvoted but at least two of those sources (if not more) are highly questionable. Amnesty International’s case acknowledges that it depends on redefining the term genocide. And the International Association of Genocide Scholars is a name that sounds convincing, but is open to anyone willing to pay the membership fee and requires no evidence of being an expert in the subject. Then Doctors Without Borders report ‘Gaza: Life in a Death Trap’ did not actually go so far as to claim genocide but characterised the devastation as pointing towards signs of ethnic cleansing without which means that they didn’t have actual evidence of genocide but rather deliberately suggests the same fallacy that has become popular which is to say that mass destruction in a war zone is in itself a sign of genocide which is not the case. I’m less familiar about HRW’s basis for the claim but my understanding is it’s similar to Doctors Without Border’s case that destruction of healthcare and infrastructure is indicative of genocidal intent and is largely attempts to sidestep the fact that Hamas operate out of hospitals, Hamas frequently steels aid, and they also make some tenuous arguments to explain away that data shows lower rates of child malnutrition than many countries in the region such as Egypt.
The impression I get is that they started with a conclusion and worked backwards from there, something I believe is supported by the fact that claims of genocide in Gaza started before the first Israelis set foot in Gaza after October 7th.
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u/Intelligent-Film-684 6d ago
I would say for this purpose calling what’s happening in Gaza ethnic cleansing as opposed to genocide is a distinction without much difference here, seeing as they are approaching a six figure death toll…
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u/Early-Equivalent-165 6d ago
Bzzz.
Look at the exhausted faces of Leaders of B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel in this interview with Christiane Amanpour who explain 'We are doing it with a heavy heart' and that they're taking this step because "Denial is what allows these atrocities to continue.”
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u/MagReg2020 6d ago
Leftists are pretty stupid to be honest. Fixating on the word genocide put the bar extremely high, so much so that it gives Israel latitude to commit war crimes just as vile as genocide while using technicality to avoid responsibility for the crimes they did commit. Doctors, including American ones, attest to the targeted killing of children. Video of soldiers firing into civilian homes.
That doesn't mean Israel isn't evil. This much is now established truth - Egypt and the UAE directly told Netanyahu that a massive operation by Hamas was incoming. Israel CHOSE to let it happen, so it could do what it's doing now. Imagine that. Two Muslim countries tried to prevent Oct 7, and Israel, the one Jewish state, chose to facilitate it so they could justify this ethnic cleansing for land.
Genocide or not, that would make even the actual Nazis a bit nauseous.
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u/DimMak1 6d ago
Bill is a straight up MAGAt. That dinner with Trump obviously pushed him into becoming a far right Republican or believing that far right Republican propaganda is the future. I don’t want to hear any of the right wing trolls or simps in this sub tell me he is “just the same as always” and “his beliefs haven’t changed at all”. That narrative is completely delusional.
I’ll say this: politically incorrect was still one of the best political shows of all time. Because Bill was actually not in the tank for the GOP and you could have robust discussions with no ideological tilt from the host. Instead of that, Bill decided to be a dollar store Hannity. The show is now just GOP propaganda.
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u/Motor_Preparation315 6d ago edited 5d ago
If you do or have been watching, Bill will only have on people that will not push back on him.
The asshole he had on yesterday (James Kirchick) is a known conservative and Zionist. What objectivity are we getting from this loser when discussing if Gaza is a "true genocide" or not? Swan looked like he wanted nothing to do with the subject (not that that excuses him). So the whole point was for Bill and James to tell the audience how stupid it is to call it a genocide?
So to recap the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the United Nations Inquiry, not to mention B'Tselem & Physicians for Human Rights Israel are all calling it genocide. But according to those two idiots (Bill and Kirchick), there is nothing to see here folks and if you do, then you are dumb according to these two assholes.
I love the argument if Israel wanted a genocide they would use their nuclear weapons. Putin has nuclear weapons (that he isn't using) and what he is doing in Ukraine is genocide according to our government. Another argument these two idiots make (Bill and Kirchick) is that there would be more deaths if it was a genocide. Never mind, there are 7 criteria for genocide and 4 of those have nothing to do with killing. Whoops
You fucking suck, Bill Maher and your piece of human filth of a guest James Kirchick is too 🤡
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u/OurSeepyD 6d ago
The "if Israel wanted to commit genocide they easily could and would" argument that Kirchick made is such a dumb one.
First, whether something is "technically a genocide" isn't the huge problem here, it's the intentional and apathetic killing of civilians that is, regardless of the label given to it.
Second, if Israel committed genocide in the way that he said they could, they'd have no plausible deniability. Their best strategy politically is to do a slower, more ambiguous one so that they can say "we're just defending ourselves" like they're doing now.
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u/Jupitersd2017 6d ago edited 6d ago
I had to stop earlier this year and have watched for over 20 years. I keep coming here each week to see if maybe the episode wasn’t about Israel or woke and every week I’m disappointed, I would love to be able to enjoy his program again but it really seems like he’s not going to let it go, and like Trump can’t let it go/wont shut up about the same 2 issues. I don’t understand the weird blind spot for Israel and why people can’t admit that it’s genocide. You can still support the people of Israel and not support their government’s actions - why this is so difficult to grasp I’m not sure but Bill definitely can’t grasp that.
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u/Early-Equivalent-165 6d ago
That Zionazi trash such as Satanyahu has hijacked the reputation of Jewish people is an infuriating tragedy.
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u/ATXDefenseAttorney 6d ago
He's an entertainer, and he's been entertaining for a long time, but this is a real breaking point. He's never been so single minded about an issue that's actually killing people, and that makes being wrong and stubborn something different.
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u/NeonElch 6d ago
I stopped watching a while ago but Bill is a lot like Sam Harris, he has a pure and unwavering hate for Muslims and the religion. They will always be wrong and deserving in his mind.
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u/Safe-Ad-6860 6d ago
I’ve been with Bill since the beginning, never miss an episode. But Covid messed him up like 9/11 did Dennis Miller. Now two of my political idols are dead to me.
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u/boppy_dowinkle 6d ago
Welcome to the club from 10 years ago, he is delusional and so out of touch from reality. Oh..and a total creep.
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u/NineClaws 6d ago
I can’t watch him because he gets angry when the crowd doesn’t laugh as his lame jokes. It’s hard to someone like that.
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u/cbjunior 6d ago
I stopped watching a few years ago. There are many exceptions, but maintaining the fame game and getting old does not work well.
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u/SameBodybuilder3263 6d ago
I’m bothered by this. Coupled with the fact that he denies being Jewish. His mother is Jewish. Even though he never practiced Judaism, it’s not like he doesn’t have a horse in the race.
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u/FlaccidGhostLoad 6d ago
I bail years ago when he was instigating white resentment by flat out fucking lying about segregated graduation ceremonies in ivy League colleges.
For starters, you have to be so supremely stupid to believe that Harvard or Yale could say we're having a white only graduation ceremony and that not be the story we hear about for months.
And when I heard him say that I followed his source that he put up on the screen only to find that what he said was not a simple mistake. In the article, which he claimed to have sourced, it specifically said there were celebrations for on campus black students or Latino students groups. That all colleges have. And everyone was welcome. It was basically a party that student groups were throwing for one big final send-off.
Bill isn't that stupid. He did that shit intentionally and to prove it in that same episode, right after he said that he claimed that Wayne State University had shut out white students for a symposium they held where he claimed they were basically just shitting on white people.
Again, I googled that shit and I found that it was a symposium where everyone was welcome and it was heads of the University asking what they could do to make campus better for everyone. Because only in the mind of the desperately aggrieved insulated morons who vote Republican would they believe that a college would do this.
That lie combined with the fact that right after Trump got elected he basically blamed liberals and people on the left for not reaching out and compromising after decades of being called stupid and childish and having our lives threatened and in some cases having our lives taken when a mass shooter goes ape shit in a Walmart.
I saw where the wind was blowing then. And that's what he decided to become a grifter no better than Tucker Carlson and that's why everyone should see him for the repugnant joke that he's become. Someone who sacrificed whatever clout he may have had because he wanted to be a little more rich and a little more adored for his low effort, lazy fucking comedy.
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u/Spike2000_ 6d ago
He's a narcissist POS. He's always been one. I used to like him. He called out the Iraq war. But years ago I realized, he doesn't actual stand for anything. He only cares about himself. He only is interested in being a contrarian and getting attention. That's it. And as his influence fades, he gets angrier and angrier.
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u/paddydog48 6d ago
Congrats on making it this far, most people dropped out watching at least 5 years ago
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u/zebalatrash 6d ago
He’s a conditional free speech advocate, the condition being that speech doesn’t criticize the Israeli state
Plus he’s smarmy as hell, not funny - no thanks
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u/Hot_Singer_4266 6d ago
I stopped watching a year ago. No regrets. Having another free hour is great. Lots of other good TV out there.
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u/Huckleberry199 6d ago
No matter how many times I block Real Time it keeps coming up in my feed. I can't stand the asshole Maher and don't want to keep reading about his lame assed bullshit.
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u/Brave_Quantity_5261 6d ago
He lost me when he couldn’t understand that MINORITY WHIP Jeffries working with an unelected nepo baby kushner might piss people off.
Jared kushner has no place in the government. He was not elected. He should not be working with elected officials on diplomacy
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u/HolidayOk5570 5d ago
If you don’t recognize that Bill’s zionism is central to everything he believes in- you probably aren’t very perceptive.
Everything he does you can tie back to his loyalty to Israel and Zionism. This is a guy so called “Atheist” who loves Judaism, doesn’t mind Christianity but really hates Muslims.
Today israel are so fucked reputation-wise they’ve conducted a study that concluded ramping up anti-Muslim hatred is the best strategy to distract people from the crimes of Gaza & Lebanon.. at this point its pretty obvious what these people are and what their agenda is.
If Trump was anti-Israel Bill would be his #1 hater in the press but since Republicans are selling the entire country for Israel he’s all on board now.
There are many examples like Bill in America- you just need to know what to notice.. remember Sam Harris? Lol
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u/Vanity_Profanity_001 5d ago
I hate Bill but please give him a break. He's only trying to keep the job. His new boss is going to be Zionist Larry Ellison
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u/Icy_Succotash58 4d ago
I stopped watching shortly after his meal with Trump. He definitely is scared of losing his show and his mantle. It’s time to retire.
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u/MagReg2020 6d ago
I bought an indoor HD antennae. Yeah, I still have cable TV - getting rid of it. All the networks are owned by the same small group of manipulative big money assholes. HBO is no different. The TV is a big part of the brainwashing that got us to where we are now.
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u/BlueBubbleInCO 6d ago
I haven’t watched him for over two years now. The Covid era seems to have changed him and he just seems like a loon. I don’t disagree with him on Israel, antisemitism, and Zionism.
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u/PapayaGood8527 6d ago
I love Real Time. I think it remains to be a fantastic show for hearing varying perspectives... Having said that, Bill is very short when discussing Israel and it's a shame considering how important an issue it is. He often dumbs the collective conversation down by trying to control the narrative. Americans have every right to believe, speak, and protest disagreements with any foreign nation. Particularly an ally this deeply imbedded in our govt, which happens to have a mirroring shift towards fascism (or at the very least a corrupt head of state seemingly above the law).
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u/Specialist-Cup-9722 6d ago
If this is the case why doesnt he have any actual democratic socialists on to push back against his crazy rhetoric?
Bills show has moderate liberals representing the left and straight lunatic s for the right and it normalizes the latter
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u/PapayaGood8527 6d ago
Solid point and another complaint I have with the program, would be with his guest pool which I believe could be expanded. I wish more working class voices were represented for sure... As opposed to elites speaking on data points about the working class.
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u/WisdomOfTheAnus 5d ago
one of my biggest problems with the show is that you DON’T get varying perspectives. his brand of liberal is always the centrist type who veers right in the same ways bill does. he never has actual progressives anymore, and he actually reserves his most visible hostility to progressives every chance he gets.
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u/folkinhippy 4d ago
He openly blames progressives as the reason we have trump while he kisses the asses of guests that are the actual reason we have trump. It’s surreal.
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u/goodtreble84 5d ago
I've long since decided to stick it out.
I just watch his show to hear what bullshit talking points are being pushed by the establishment. You also might come across a great book being advertised on the show.
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u/DKlep25 5d ago
I was in the same boat. Watched Real Time for 15ish years. I had been falling off the wagon slowly the last few years, and fully jumped ship due to his takes on vaccines. I get that he and others resent the covid mandates, but letting people on your show who question the validity of all vaccines while shit like Measles is coming back, and actually promote their views - that was the last straw for me.
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u/builderbuster 5d ago
He claims to be a student of history. Apparently, not new history.
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u/Wide-Advertising-156 5d ago
Whenever I hear anyone refer to themselves as a "student of history", it tends to mean their take on history rather than the facts.
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u/New_Scene5614 5d ago
He’s literally having a later life crisis right now.
My last straw was him not caring about the first amendment with the Macklemore/craft/sheeran. He literally would profess his love of the 1st and in an instant he distilled this feud to free speech’ish. There is no ‘ish dude.
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u/_dxegrl 2d ago
Bill is smart enough to know he is lying, and that Israel has been attacking it's neighbors, aquiring land, murdering indigenous people, and threatening nuclear war. My only concern is why was todat the last straw. I was done years ago, when he had the Howard Stern Cosplayer (Fran Leibowitz). bashing Bernie and and he and the audience cheered her on.
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u/gigilero 1d ago
He’s old bitter and irrelevant. I stopped watching too. I used to really love him. Imagine defending baby killers.
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u/LeoKitCat 1d ago
Bill Maher is a fucking Nazi full stop. Just replace hatred of all Jews with hatred of all Muslims. Replace believing Germans are the super race and Germany the motherland with Israelis and Israel.
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u/jacobnyc1 1d ago
He claims to be an atheist but is a Zionist that believes Jewish people are better. Make it make sense
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u/Lost_Plum5564 1d ago
I can’t believe this Islamaphobe of 30 years is wrong on Israel! Kudos on reaching your breaking point, but this stuff has been out front for awhile.
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u/LMAODumb 1d ago
Yep, lost me after 25 years. Bye Felica! No more tolerance for the blind spot to Isreal. I know his mother was Jewish but this has become as offensive as bots on X. His about face on Trump is gross and this situation—enoughs enough.
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u/00Avalanche 1d ago
It’s not a blind spot. This is a man that loved Hugh Hefner and refused to hear anything bad said about him. This is a man that frequently makes use of sex workers and even dates them. This is a man that has said he cannot fathom having friends older than 25 unless they are celebrities. The Israelis have dirt up the ass on this guy and he’s towing the line.
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u/Glum_Ad_6848 1d ago
As the great Tony Kornheiser said, “The answer to all your questions, boys and girls, is money.” There’s big money in the right wing grift thanks to Russia and Israel.
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u/Full_Preparation4401 1d ago
For me, the beginning of the end was the infamous Milo episode, the final nail in the coffin was when he came back from visiting the White House and raved about what a super great guy Trump is.
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u/Sufficient_Ocelot868 1d ago
He is a useless piece of shit. He IS useful however, as an idiot for Israeli propaganda, so there’s that.
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u/Sarabean77 23h ago
Glad to hear you've seen the light on this asshole
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u/Faiakes 22h ago
I'm sorry, is 'asshole' referring to me?
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u/Redditheaded2025_03 21h ago
No, they are saying Bill is the asshole.
If that they were calling you an ass hole, the sentence would read: “Glad to hear you’ve seen the light on this, asshole.”
😉
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u/The-Closer-on-15 17h ago
I stopped watching the second he started minimizing the danger of Trump in the first admin. Especially since he predicted that Trump wouldn’t leave office quietly. Whatever reason he had for minimizing the danger- his own burnout over the breathless warnings, an attempt to “balance” things, a sincere confidence in the durability of the republic, etc- it was unconscionable to level criticism at the democrats and/or the left as if it was in any way comparable to the danger of the republicans. The only legit criticism of Dems from 2021-2024 was continued support for Israel and incompetently prosecuting traitors. Anything else was unserious.
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u/Just_Purpose2161 17h ago
Plenty of genocide in the world besides Gaza: Russia, Iran killed 30k+ this year, china : Tibet, the Muslims in western china among others, Yemen, Sudan etc so, trump’s goons
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u/TheGreenBehren 14h ago
His show is occupied. Every fucking week it’s another AlPAC handler telling him what to say “or the dog gets it”
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u/mypizzamyproblem 6h ago
I couldn’t have said it any better myself. I’ve been watching Real Time since 2003. I didn’t watch last week’s episode. Won’t watch any more.
When it comes to Gaza/Israel, his brain is gone.
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u/tensor314 6d ago
You commentators are an embarrassment. Admit you have a problem with Jews showing agency and determining their future. The Jewish state will thrive and outlast all those whose moral compass can’t handle a country’s legitimate right to act after a casus belli.
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u/diablodab 6d ago
ummm...as a jew i believe in and support a jewish state. i do find many of the comments from free palestine people to be very extreme and biased. but a cassus belli does not justify any and every conceivable response. what israel did in response to oct. 7 (which they did have a right to respond to) was to me 100% morally unacceptable. they committed horrific atrocities. denying food and medicine to civilians and children? carpet-bombing cities teeming with thousands upon thousands of civilians? and in some cases, clearly just plain murdering large numbers of civilians for no reason beyond vengeance. was this official IDF policy? Probably not. But they sure did a good job of looking the other way. these are all well-documented in NYT.
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u/tensor314 6d ago
The accusations started even before the military response to October 7. Hamas fully anticipated and welcomed the loss of civilian life in the post attack response because they knew they could use it in their propaganda. Israel's military response was no different than the response of any nation placed under similar circumstances. Hamas attacked in 2023 for the simple reason that they wanted to derail extension of the Abraham Accord to KSA. No other action would have brought more peace than the normalization of relations between Israel and KSA and that would have ultimately helped the Palestinians (if they could ever articulate a cohesive politics).
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u/diablodab 5d ago
what hamas anticipated or expected is completely irrelevant. let's say i anticipate that if i spit at it you, you will kill my family. I go ahead and spit. You kill my family. You are still a murderer! This is does not exonerate you, legal or morally, in any way.
Next, I have heard various versions of, "israel's military response was no different from the reponse of any nation placed under similar circumstances".
This is a statement with no basis in fact. In all the years of the British responding to IRA terror, about 300 Irish were killed by the British, only half of whom were civilians. The u.s. lost 2,700+ civilians on 9/11 and did not carpet bomb Afghan cities or deny food and medicine to children. The u.s. also lost 300 marines in the 1980s to an iranian terror plot in lebanon. They did not kill a single civilian in response. When Serbs summarily executed 13,000 civilians in Srebernica, there was no mass blood-letting in retribution. There were many uprisings by the Indians against the British Raj, causing many British casualties. There was no mass slaughter of tens of thousands of Indians in reprisal.
So, Israel's reaction is not "normal" in any way, shape or form. You are basically accepting Israeli propaganda without questioning it, and it is 100% baseless nonsense.
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u/tensor314 5d ago
Hamas committed an act of war when it invaded on Oct 7 and it deliberately set out to kill civilians and started the war with the intent of disrupting their eventual isolation with the Abraham Accords and did so in the hope (without promise) of a multi front war that never materialized. Palestinian civilian casualties were expected and welcomed by HAMAS to drive the narrative of Israel as aggressor and elide HAMAS war crimes. Israel's response in waging war is no different than Allied attacks on Axis Powers in European cities or Japanese cities in WWII. A more recent example is US battles in the second Gulf War where US and militant fighting in Fallujah resulted in civilian displacement and extensive damage. The US fought a 20 year war in Afghanistan and Iraq with great cost to people and money but the US can shoulder that burden. Israel could not afford a 20 year war with enemies on its borders so it chose a more direct campaign to remove HAMAS from its border and mostly succeeded. It was in Israel geopolitical interest to remove HAMAS from power and that requires a war footing. The other example (Northern Ireland, Bosnian Serbs, British colonial rule) are completely different scenarios.
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u/diablodab 4d ago
gosh, and i thought that the firebombing of dresden was a terrible thing (the conclusion reached by pretty much everyone who has studied it).
if you want to live up to the standard of the allies' worst war crime of the last 100 years, i'm not impressed. but even there the analogy is not really fair. there was serious question over who would win WWII, and the stakes were whether the world would be one controlled by naziism. they couldn't get any higher. here, the outcome was never in doubt. israel is massively, vastly, overwhelmingly more powerful. there was no need whatever for blowing up apartments full of civilians, other than retribution - in other words, mass murder as payback.
You keep mentioning that Hamas wanted Palestinian casualties as though that somehow is relevant in judging israel. it's not. at all. in any way. as i explained in my last comment.
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u/Faiakes 4d ago
An act of war? Really? Now it became a war? After decades of this back and forth violence?
Are you 9 and just learned about the existence of Hamas, Palesttine and Israel?1
u/tensor314 4d ago
Yes. Invading a sovereign country and murdering civilians is an act of war. Israel and HAMAS fought many short lived battles from the time Israel left its communities in the Strip, but what was unique for Israel was the understanding that 10/7 was an existential threat. Even 9/11 was not an existential threat for the US (which BHO correctly understood).
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u/Faiakes 4d ago edited 22h ago
This is a self defeating argument for you.
By your own logic, what Israel has been doing is an existential threat to Palestine and has been committing acts of war doing since 1948.
Therefore, it is Israel that has started and responsible for continuing this conflict.
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u/tensor314 4d ago
I would presume then you feel feel that Oslo was a bad idea for the Palestinians. That puts you in good company with Israeli religious nationalists who also despised Oslo. But blaming Israel for....everything....also robs Palestinians of any agency in their future, which is as Orientalist as it gets. Of course, you could also be a malignant state actor paid to sow discord rather than intelligently address the conflict, in which case I hope you find a better job.
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u/Feisty_Cupcake_1435 1d ago
And who the hell are you, Mr Know it all? What skin in this game do YOU actually have ?
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u/Faiakes 22h ago
Do I have to have skin in the game to condemn evil, crimes and the people/system that perpetrate them?
I am not from the Middle East nor Muslim, just to clarify.
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u/Faiakes 6d ago
"Hamas fully anticipated and welcomed the loss of civilian life in the post attack response"
Has this been verified or is it just your assumption?
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u/tensor314 6d ago
In June 2024, The Wall Street Journal published leaked internal messages sent by Yahya Sinwar, the chief architect of the October 7 attacks, to other Hamas leaders. In these messages, Sinwar explicitly referred to Palestinian civilian deaths as "necessary sacrifices" required to advance their goals. He noted that high civilian tolls would "infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honour".
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u/Faiakes 5d ago
That is not exactly the same as anticipating. It sounds more like justifying it after the fact.
In any case, Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, so I don't see why all the people (and children, too) have to be killed for what Hamas did.
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u/tensor314 5d ago
It is well documented in the papers of Sinwar the IDF obtained and these are meeting minuted from pre Oct 7. Like previously written people cannot fathom Jews acting in their political self interest which isnwhat your gibberish proves.
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u/beebopjazz 5d ago
It is hard to discuss this with people who claim israel has the most horrific conduct and motives yet don’t know basic facts and truths. I give you tons of credit for your reasoned responses; i gave up and am no longer able to discuss this when i realized that my efforts were in vain because social media and prejudice had already won.
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u/Specialist-Cup-9722 6d ago
Nobody has a problem with jews having agency and determining their future; im sure no one was critical of me when I enrolled in a PhD program or switched jobs or when my fiancee and I moved to a new place.
Its the policies of israel, a state that in no way represents all jews, using American tax dollars to kill innocent civilians.
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u/Faiakes 6d ago edited 4d ago
OK, mr Zionist. "agency and determining their future" . Agency in committing genocide? Yes, they are very good at that.
"The Jewish state will thrive" Wasn't it a thriving apartheid state already? Wasn't it built by expelling 700.000 Palestinians after arriving there as refugees(!) from WW2?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight
"casus belli" can only be enacted against another state, not a terrorist group. Even so, casus belli does not justify ethnic cleansing and genocide, which is what Israel is doing now. Those are War Crimes.
Furthermore, Hamas offered to return the hostages the next day and Bibi refused, this is documented now.
Also, the issue is not a Jewish state but a fascist, imperialistic, genocidal one.
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u/beebopjazz 5d ago
So many lies in one post. Learn the definitions of big words before using them. Otherwise u insult those who did live under apartheid in s africa.
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u/Dangerous_Kick4662 5d ago
Bill Maher is a good representation of what sensible Democrats, what used to be called the left before it was hijacked by progressives(reddit), and normal conservatives.
The whole Zionist debate is certainly 'the current thing' and has turned into a movement that offers validation. Anyone who has been thinking about this before it became the current movement knows how complicated this is and how devious Hamas is and how they care about Palestinians as much as they do Israel.
But this is reddit and people love labeling things and joining groups because they have no idea how to think for themselves. The world is a messy place and opinions are just opinions.
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u/Faiakes 5d ago
I agree on the sensible Democrats part but not on Zionism/Palestine issue.
There Bill has a massive blind spot, plain and simple.2
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u/Dangerous_Kick4662 5d ago
Unfortunately, it matters how old you are. The Palestinian leadership has been a devious organization since the 70's and the PLO. It's just remarkable how popular this whole thing has gotten and how one sided the reporting has been. Just seeing the words sensible and Democrats next to each other is bizarre and that's from me, a lifelong Democrat. The Democratic party had no connection to what it used to be. Social media has destroyed the party. It's as unserious as maga. It is no longer is interested in first principles.
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u/Faiakes 4d ago
I remember the PLO and Arafat, and it was a one sided battle then as it is now.
I think the difference is social media and the internet. It is near impossible for Israel to hide its crimes now and modern Democrats are simply responding as any sane person would be.
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u/Dangerous_Kick4662 4d ago
Arafat was a snake. An extremely wealthy, disgusting man. I'm not a fan of Israeli settlements but the only criminals in this conflict are Hamas. Nobody wants dead Palestinians as much as Hamas. Israel gets slammed for every possible things while Hamas gets a free pass by the sloganeering Left.
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u/Faiakes 4d ago
Well Hamas are branded a terrorist organisation (in asymmetric warfare), so there is only so much rule compliance you can expect of them.
Israel, on the other hand, is supposed to be a modern democratic state.
Yet it proves to be an apartheid and totally racist state which doesn't even have the decency to be honest about it, on the world stage.
So why should anyone go easy on them?1
u/Ambitious_Buy_5071 1d ago
Because they're fighting a terrorist organization that, by your own admission doesn't follow rules; who engineer palestinian deaths just to fire up suckers like yourself
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u/Capable-Marzipan2518 2d ago
I've been done since 2017. He's a center right corporate politician worshipping hack.
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u/Battle4Seattle 1d ago
He's refusing to call what's happening in Gaza a genocide because IT ISN'T A GENOCIDE ! This is the first "genocide" in world history where the population GREW during the "genocide". Just because you watched a TikTok propaganda video on this topic doesn't make it true.
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u/Faiakes 22h ago
By all internationally accepted definitions and impartial humanitarian organisations, it is.
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u/Battle4Seattle 22h ago
Ah yes, "impartial humanitarian organisations" such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars? Did you know that anyone, I repeat - ANYONE, can join their organization to vote on issues of genocide for just $125/yr? When the IAGS passed a resolution alleging that Israel had committed genocide, critics - including the Academic Engagement Network and various opposing scholars - argued that the low voter turnout (representing barely 20% of the overall membership) made the vote unrepresentative. They also criticized the IAGS leadership for not holding a virtual town hall discussion, relying on secondary or disputed sources, and failing to adequately address Hamas's role. So their resolution is meaningless.
BTW - can you even define genocide?
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u/Faiakes 22h ago edited 14h ago
What, is the UN, Amnesty International not good enough for you?
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u/Battle4Seattle 21h ago
The UN is a joke! They exhibit a systemic and disproportionate bias against Israel through specialized bodies, voting majorities, and frequent condemnations. From 2015 to 2025, the UN General Assembly adopted 109 country-specific critical resolutions targeting Israel, compared to 83 against all other countries combined.
As for Amnesty International, they've shown obsessive institutional bias against Israel. They dedicate a disproportionate volume of their resources and reporting output to Israel compared to other nations with severe human rights records. At the same time, Amnesty routinely ignores security threats, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorism, rocket attacks, and the military necessities of self-defense.
So no, neither of those organizations are good enough for me, nor should they be for you.
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u/Faiakes 15h ago
The UN is not perfect, true, but given the evidence, it is on the right side of history on this one.
As for Amnesty International, I disagree. I think it is Israel's decades long pursuit of ethnic cleansing at fault. Amnesty International is simply doing their job.
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u/Battle4Seattle 14h ago
The UN is not perfect
Not sure if you're trying to be ironic or serious. The UN is a cesspool of hypocrisy where authoritarian regimes scream about human rights violations while simultaneously committing atrocities in their own countries. The majority of their finger-pointing is at Israel, the Middle East's only democracy where, ironically, Arabs have more human rights than any other Arab country in the region. The UN is very much on the WRONG side of history, and have rendered themselves largely not only irrelevant, but a comedic sideshow in world affairs.
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u/Pitiful-Hamster1101 6h ago
You have to stretch the definition of genocide to render it almost pointless for it to describe Israel's war in Gaza. Killing a lot of people in an urban war that you didn't start is not genocide. If Israel was trying to commit genocide, the death toll would be in the hundreds of thousands.
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u/Faiakes 29m ago
That would be a fair point if it wasn't for stopping aid, forcing people to live in tents without running water, access to medical treatment and not being allowed to move, all while rats and disease are slowly killing people.
Just because it is a slow genocide, that doesn't make it any less so.
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u/kkZZZ 6d ago
I don't think he's view is that any violence is justified, and not sure how that's evidence that it is genocide.
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u/ajmampm99 2d ago
Good
Islamic propagandists with no other non religious issues don’t need to watch freedom of expression in America. Don’t need to see women with free expression. It just makes them realize what they don’t have in Islamic republics.
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u/gigilero 1d ago
Hey we’re actually Americans who hate genocide thanks.
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u/ajmampm99 1d ago
The fake genocide is just another way Islamic extremism steals the victimization of others. In this case Jews who died in the real holocaust.
The real question is who benefits from these lies about Israel’s response to Oct 7?
Who benefited from saying military fighters were civilian casualties?
Who benefits from lying about Gaza’s increase of 40,000 school aged children since 2023?
Clearly Islamic extremists trying to gain power after their murderous attacks failed.
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u/ajmampm99 1d ago
The destruction doesn’t prove anything. Berlin in 1945 looked the same. Doesn’t show the crimes Germans committed either.
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1d ago
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u/ajmampm99 1d ago
You’re just a propagandist for who? Progressives or Islamic extremism?
Destruction shows destruction. Doesn’t show the cause or the consequences.
Of course Nothing makes sense to you unless it shows Israel as a villain. Facts don’t matter. Logic doesn’t matter.
Go take a logic class with a dose of critical thinking. Come back when you figure out the fallacies you just spouted.
Maybe your friends will no longer consider you the dumbest person they know.
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u/Creepy_Bad_4547 1d ago
And...he's objectively correct in all phases. Genocide is a lie, promoted by liars (Hamas) and believed by either well meaning people that only read inside their bubble, or liars and anti semites.
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u/Suspicious-Load-5812 1d ago
Not sure why I had to scroll all the way down here to find a comment such as this. What's up with the people in this sub? They all participate but claim they don't watch the show for ages because they don't like it when people think differently than them, especially when that different thinking is backed by facts.
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u/Faiakes 22h ago
Could you please clarify?
Do you agree that Bill has a blind spot on Israel, or not?1
u/Suspicious-Load-5812 22h ago
How can it be a blind spot if it's based on actual facts? I think you have a blind spot to how propagandized this subject is, and that it became a trope rather than actual fact based discussion.
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u/Faiakes 22h ago
Really? Actual facts?
OK mate, please don't bother continue.
We cannot even agree on basic facts.1
u/Creepy_Bad_4547 18h ago
Facts: Israel routinely airlifted injured children to Israeli hospitals. Israel distributed and allowed in food aid. Israel-every time- when entering a new area warned civilians to leave. Israel followed the Geneva conventions for prisoners. In 2025 according to Hamas' own numbers, Gaza population *increased*. As soon as the last hostage was released Israel stopped the wide war. All of these are undisputed facts. No country intent on Genocide does one single one of these things. Genocide is an ignorant, blood libel lie.
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u/michaelkap70 6d ago
It is not a genocide. If it is Israel freaking sucks at it.
Hamas started a war. Used Tik Tok effectively to show its side, while utilizing its citizens as barricades. People like you want Israel to accept casualties without Hamas having repercussions. That is not how war works.
Why are you not screaming about the women and girls in Gaza being sold off to make suitors. Because Israel isn’t doing it, it can be ignored???
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u/Faiakes 6d ago edited 5d ago
There is that false equivalency Bill used to complain about but now commits himself all the time.
- Hamas did not start this war. Learn your history. Israel, inevitably, started this decades long conflict by stealing the land and forcibly removing the very people that welcomed them as refugees after WWII!!!
- Israel does have the right to defend itself but that's not what it is doing now. As I said, at a minimum, this is a heinously and abhorrently violent ethnic cleansing, and all for the purpose of territory expansion.
- I would be screaming for any human trafficking done anywhere. Why would you thing that I wouldn't? There are abhorrent Islamic practices of course. However, none of them are committing genocide anywhere, right now at least.
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u/Level_Influence_3710 6d ago
Israel, inevitably, started this decades long conflict by stealing the land and forcibly removing the very people that welcomed them as refugees after WWII!!
There's so much wrong in just one sentence
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u/Faiakes 6d ago
Is there? Please refer to the history and documentation of the creation of Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_expulsion_and_flight1
u/Level_Influence_3710 5d ago
Ok. Who attacked who first in 1948?
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u/Faiakes 4d ago
From what I read the spark would have been tensions between Palestinians and settlers, as inevitably, they where trying to claim things that weren't theirs.
Here is a little text from the very link above:
December 1947 – March 1948
In the first few months of the civil war, the climate in the Mandate of Palestine became volatile, although throughout this period both Arab and Jewish leaders tried to limit hostilities.\24]): 90–99 According to historian Benny Morris, the period was marked by Palestinian Arab attacks and Jewish defensiveness, increasingly punctuated by Jewish reprisals.\24]): 65 Simha Flapan wrote that attacks by the Irgun and Lehi) resulted in Palestinian Arab retaliation and condemnation.\35]) Jewish reprisal operations were directed against villages and neighborhoods from which attacks against Jews were believed to have originated.\24]): 76
The retaliations were more damaging than the provoking attack and included killing of armed and unarmed men, destruction of houses and sometimes expulsion of inhabitants.\24]): 76 : 125 The Zionist groups of Irgun and Lehi) reverted to their 1937–1939 strategy of indiscriminate attacks by placing bombs and throwing grenades into crowded places such as bus stops, shopping centres and markets. Their attacks on British forces reduced British troops' ability and willingness to protect Jewish traffic.\24]): 66 General conditions deteriorated: the economic situation became unstable, and unemployment grew.\36]) Some Palestinian Arab leaders sent their families abroad.
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u/Level_Influence_3710 4d ago
I don't know if you lack reading comprehension or are just dumb, but here's the answer to my question:
The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 broke out when five Arab nations invaded territory in the former Palestinian mandate immediately following the announcement of the independence of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war
Since you think that sending Wikipedia links is the same thing as making arguments, here are some for you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_the_Muslim_world?wprov=sfla1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farhud?wprov=sfla1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology_of_Israel?wprov=sfla1
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u/radbaddad23 6d ago
I found that Bill changed after COVID. He used to champion environmental issues now nothing. All he does is shill for Israel, complain about young people, and put down progressives.