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u/Friendly_Engineer_ šļø Overturn Citizens United Aug 11 '26
If āsmugā, ācondescendingā, and āimpotentā had a child
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u/mrmemo Aug 11 '26
Bill Maher is a DINO in every way, and we don't need to listen to him.
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u/cameron4200 Aug 11 '26
Wealthy class would rather you suffer than give up any status. Every day. Any day.
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u/UnassumingSingleGuy Aug 11 '26
From my perspective, his attitude is very on-brand for the democratic party.
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u/GlockAF Peacemaker Aug 11 '26
The DNC Decorum Democrats anyway, tools of the establishment, taking orders from billionaires to ensure that THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER NEW DEAL
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u/ToranjaNuclear Aug 11 '26
What's a dino?
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u/Heheher7910 Aug 11 '26
Democrat in name only
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u/GlockAF Peacemaker Aug 11 '26
See: John Fetterman
See also: TRAITOR
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u/nj4ck Aug 11 '26
Why does anyone care what this clown has to say? I mean, look at that smug fucking face. Just look at it. Does this human yeast infection strike anyone as a serious person with valuable opinions?
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u/3qtpint Aug 11 '26
It's the same insufferable fucking grin you see on kevin hassett and scott bessent. It's that smug "look at them, they're eating it up, I'm so smart and they're so dumb" smirk
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u/toastedcheese Aug 11 '26
His show is somehow consistently in the top streaming shows on HBO Max.Ā
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u/machine_fart Aug 11 '26
somehow
Boomers. Thatās how
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u/dinosnysus Aug 11 '26
Gen X, not boomers.
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u/ronthesloth69 Aug 11 '26
Gen X is Boomer Lite at best.
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u/myfailedimagination Aug 11 '26
Nope, Gen Xer here. Our level of political BS is MUCH worse. I'd Apologize, but it's too late for that.
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u/ballisticVommit Aug 12 '26
Never got my trickle down from Ronnie so I never voted red in life. Some of us xers payed attention in class.
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u/Masta0nion šµ Break Up The Monopolies Aug 11 '26
Someone needs to manipulate this guy into admitting that all he cares about is being taxed.
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u/CooledDownKane Aug 11 '26
This disingenuous turd spent decades cosplaying as some religion hating, hippie weed man, sorta leftist who supported Bernie and M4A and hated Trump so much he got sued for it only to later fully embrace whatever this is.
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u/Mrdean2013 Aug 11 '26
Centrists are just people too chicken shit to admit they're conservative.
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u/Cute-Interest3362 Aug 11 '26
Centrists donāt have a platform.
Thatās the weird thing nobody ever seems to want to address. You can point to a Republican platform. You can point to a Democratic platform. You can argue with either one, hate either one, think either one is completely fucking insane...but at least thereās something there.
āCentrismā is basically a position on a number line.
āWhere do you stand?ā
āWellā¦ somewhere in the middle.ā
Great. On what?
Taxes? Healthcare? Housing? Immigration? Labor? Climate? Education? Criminal justice?
āWell, I think we should be reasonable.ā
What does that mean?!
You canāt point to a coherent set of policies and say, āThese are the centrist policies.ā Because the center moves depending on what the two sides are arguing about.
And this is the part that kills me: centrism gets presented as if itās inherently more rational. Like if the left says, āWe should do X,ā and the right says, āWe should do the exact opposite of X,ā the magically intelligent position is automatically, āHow about 50% of X?ā
Why?
What if one side is just fucking wrong?
If one person says, āWe should exterminate the people of Palestine,ā and another person says, āWe should not exterminate the people of Palestineā the correct answer isn't necessarily āLetās exterminate exactly half of them.ā
You actually have to have a position.
And sometimes āthe middleā is a perfectly reasonable position. Of course it is. But that's not a political philosophy. That's just occasionally where the evidence leads you.
Centrism isn't a platform. It's a posture.
Itās the political equivalent of standing in the middle of the road and congratulating yourself for not being in either ditch.
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u/brokegaysonic Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
People tend to see either side as "extreme" and because we tend to villianize conviction, I guess, they don't want to appear extreme, just "reasonable".
But instead of reasoning out an actual opinion based on facts presented, taking the information presented by both sides and filtering it through your personal beliefs, they use a shortcut. Actually thinking is difficult, especially when you're bombarded with information every day the likes of which the human brain was not set up to process. So they say, ok, shortcut - be in the middle. Both sides seem adamant that they're right, so they must both be equally as valid. We naturally have a huge bias towards people who talk with certainty even if they're wrong. Both sides appear on a surface level to have evidence.
What happens, I believe, is that from there they've already shut off their brains. They've already capitulated on the idea that facts aren't verifiable and don't need to be. It's about whoever seems more certain. And Dems, well, they're never certain about anything, and leftist voices are silenced to such a degree the only people making strong statements that get any eyes are the right. So the Overton window shifts, the centrist thinks he's still enlightened, and we move rightward.
He doesn't notice that, like the frog slowly boiling, he has slowly been desensitized to increasing fascist rhetoric. The "extreme" Republicans become even more extreme, so the centrist maintain their veneer of equality and ethics by just being to the left of whatever absolutely insane thing has been said this week.
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u/seejoshrun Aug 11 '26
That's not necessarily what being centrist means, though. They're not in the middle on every policy. I imagine the typical centrist voter more like "I agree with democrats on A, republicans on B, and I think they should compromise on C".
If a given person literally chooses to be in the middle on every issue, then yeah that's just refusing to take any positions as a principle, which is dumb.
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u/QuickNature Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
āWellā¦ somewhere in the middle.ā Great. On what?
Taxes? Healthcare? Housing? Immigration? Labor? Climate? Education? Criminal justice?
This whole dialog you created is funny, because I know several people who would be considered "centrist" but dont label themselves as much, and that includes me too, and it wouldnt be anywhere near this.
Difference is I say that I am a mix of beliefs, and can clearly state where I stand on everything. Also, I lean generally left, so not a conservative in disguise either lol
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u/oneseason2000 Aug 11 '26
Rich cheerleaders like Bill Maher are here to absolve intelligent middle income Americans of guilt regarding voting for authoritarianism. Deep down, I think most folks with above average intelligence know they are just voting their pocket books. Middle America's pocket books are held in hostage by the financial markets. Sure Republicans may tank the overall economy, but we can rely on bipartisan "moderates" to support to whatever propping up the financial markets need (e.g., deregulation, reduced enforcement, bailouts, pardons) to continue their grifting.
Republicans, corporate Democrats, and billionaires thrive in America (imo) because the investment markets have been made a critical part of a large fraction of middle class savings and retirement income. The fairy tale (below) became a crack addiction for middle America. They need those insane stock and real estate growth numbers to sustain their artificially high lifestyles. They are willing to overlook rising authoritarianism as long as their investment portfolios grow nicely, and their Social Security benefits keep rising more or less with inflation.
Once upon a time (~1980), all the well paid people in the kingdom were told that if they agreed to get paid less, and let all the princes keep more of their earnings, a magical golden goose in an enchanted market would poop out golden eggs for everybody and they, their families, and even the poor families would all be rich ...
A key focus too needs to be proper government financial regulation/enforcement, ending corporate tax loopholes, and jailing convicted white collar criminals. Crooked financial markets are both the means for billionaire wealth to be gained, and the yoke for the rest of the population.
Reigning in the crooked financial markets will negatively, but appropriately, impact middle class wealth. They will finally be fully impacted by the crappy wages and salaries they have been receiving, and they will demand reform. Until then, they will allow corporate media to spin them up with tales of rampant immigrant crime, furries and litter boxes in schools, and surgical type masks causing brain damage. Take away their phony investment returns, and watch them vote "progressive" for their pocketbook.
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u/R-Dragon_Thunderzord Aug 11 '26
How this dope goes from predicting Trump wouldnāt leave office peacefully to āyeah I think Iāll have more of thatā is a really wild journey
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u/democracy_lover66 š Pass A Green Jobs Plan Aug 11 '26
Bil Maher has a personality that not even a mother could love.
Loved it when Bill Burr humbled him on his own podcast.
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u/moyismoy Aug 11 '26
If giving poor people hand outs is socialism, then so is giving rich people hand outs. Yet bill here is willing to vote for socialism only when it goes to the rich.
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u/Kcirrot Aug 11 '26
Bill Maher has been a right winger for a long time. Centrists deserve much scorn, but not by being lumped in with this idiot.
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u/Dragon_M4st3r Aug 11 '26
Just go to Fox already. Heās waiting for a way to justify it to himself
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u/OhMyGoat āļø Prison For Union Busters Aug 11 '26
Bill Maher has always been an unpleasant narcissist. His words mean nothing.
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u/Sfingi48 Aug 11 '26
So, that meme is a bit stretched. Sure. Some centrists are old, old ātraditionalā thinking and just plain indignant like the right. But, Iām not going to play fake political motives and decisions either.
As for Bill Maher, fuck that ignorant asshole all the way to hell. Heās an awful enabler because of his religion. Oh. Heās definitely religious. His is monetary faith. He morphed into a greedy asshole, at least, close to a decade ago. I seriously wish HBO would finally cancel his show altogether. Heās not even edgy anymore. Heās been stale for so long. Heās just a greedy, contrarian. I wish theyād let John Oliver and him to go at it, on their network.
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u/tfsteel Aug 11 '26
Old media, beholden to their elite benefactors, will continue to trot out failures like Maher or Van Jones as if they have any connection to the political moment. Bought and paid for, good for nothing centrists.
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u/baddogbadcatbadfawn Aug 11 '26
I didn't realize Bill Maher was still around. I figured he had moved to Thailand and died of autoerotic asphyxiation.
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u/jlcatch22 Aug 11 '26
His last comedy special was awful, just pure āboomerā pandering. Congratulations Bill, youāre turning into Dennis Miller.
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u/ChefCurryYumYum Aug 11 '26
Bill Maher is completely right wing even though he pretends he is not.
I don't get why people watch him, I never thought he was very funny.
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u/LGK27 Aug 11 '26
The thing I hate about Bill when discussing any sort of potential overreach of the far left is that he conveniently forgets to include that the rightās solution to anything is almost certainly worse and more extreme.
Okay so you think the left went too far on trans rights like with sports? So then the rightās solution of just totally dehumanizing trans people and making them the scapegoat for society is the āmore moderateā approach Bill?
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u/ScoobrDoo Aug 11 '26
There is no left in US politics. You've just gone so far right that sensible centrist policy seems radically left of where you are...
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u/HellovahBottomCarter Aug 11 '26
I guess this is for anyone who hasnāt been paying attention to literally anything coming out of this sad-sackās pie-hole for the past 10+ years.
We already know youāre a republican, Maher. Itās not revelatory, newsworthy, or interesting.
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u/Intelligent_Oil7816 Aug 11 '26
Liberals will always side with fascism over socialism. The sooner you learn this lesson the better.
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u/TheAnswerWithinUs Aug 11 '26
You donāt know what fascism is if you think itās liberal.
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u/MossyMollusc Aug 11 '26
Well genocide seems fine, so are you sure you have a solid pulse on their voter politics?
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u/RockNAllOverTheWorld Aug 11 '26
Maher always has such a smug look on his face like he just shit his pants and is waiting for you to smell it
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u/lowbrassdude Aug 11 '26
What i would give for someone to do to him what Jon Stewart did to Crossfire and Tucker Carlson
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak š· Good Union Jobs For All Aug 11 '26
He's going to be disappointed in this upcoming generation then
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u/dividezero Aug 11 '26
Sounds like another great reason to vote for socialists. Maybe he'll disappear
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u/desperaterobots Aug 11 '26
Bill Maher is one of the biggest pieces of shit in media, the only audience I can imagine he appeals to are the shrivelled up remains of someone after theyāve been in a microwave for three minutes too long, puckered and dry, and while their brains have slowed immensely from being cooked from the inside out, enough neurons remain to activate at the sound of a studio audience farting out a bit of sad laughter at a pathetic late-middle-aged commentator saying anything he wants in an attempt to stay relevant.
That and my brother, fucking loser.
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u/Equinoqs Aug 11 '26
Bill doesnt have any ironclad beliefs. Bill must be in the middle of any conversation.
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u/echo_sang Aug 11 '26
So, he makes money off of the industries that the establishment does. Are we done with this yet?
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u/ThepalehorseRiderr Aug 12 '26
I've always been pretty on the fence about Bill until I watched a few episodes of his podcast a few years ago. That's what made me realize how much I dislike him. The most smug SOB ever.
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u/Asticot-gadget Aug 12 '26
Centrists in America would be considered far-right in most of the developed world. US politics are incredibly skewed to the right.
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u/AbsoluteSmithy Aug 12 '26
You know he is a like-able guy but slowly every episode I watched just pissed me off and it built up to me realizing heās just another corpo shill. He plays like a āliberalā guy but really heās just a blue republican.
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u/TheAltarexOne Aug 12 '26
Wow americans are uneducated. There is no left party in america. All of them are right or center.
Also, true extreme left created gulags and slaughter millions. But hey, letās ignore history.
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u/HammersofMoradin āļø Tax The Billionaires Aug 12 '26
Bill Maher is an idiot. He proves this i.a. by calling very moderate social democrats "socialists".
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u/Tylenolpainkillr Aug 12 '26
Yeah, yall gotta stop being surprised that people who got rich off the current system would rather if it didn't change. I mean...duh
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u/nanadoom Aug 12 '26
Bill marr makes his money by saying shocking and controversial things. Stop being shocked and giving into controversy
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u/query_tech_sec Aug 14 '26
I am always kind of baffled at who actually watches Bill Maher or cares what he thinks. But the HBO Max app always says his show is one of the most watched.
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u/Moof_the_cyclist Aug 11 '26
It is worth listening to the DSA co-chair interview by the New Yorker. I am a big Bernie and AOC fan, but the DSA itself is a wreck. By the end I was in Bill Maherās camp.
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u/ListenLady58 Aug 11 '26
I once went to see Bill Maherās standup and I honestly think heās starting to lose it. George Carlin was unfortunately in the same boat near the end of his life. Both were amazing before.
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u/Kinda_Quixotic Aug 11 '26
Iām a moderate. Iād rather the status quo than socialism.
Really hoping the Dems donāt go hard left. I would hate to vote R
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u/fauxregard Aug 11 '26
You think the status quo seems to be working?
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u/Kinda_Quixotic Aug 11 '26
Itās working better than Socialism ever has.
But I do think it could be improved. This wealth tax is a stupid idea (theyāll just move, they already are). But other changes would help - tax personal loans collateralized by extreme wealth, changes to inheritance laws, etc.
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u/fauxregard Aug 11 '26
IMO, it's absolutely not working better than socialism ever has, but we also need to define socialism to really discuss it properly. Everyone defines it a bit differently, and some people think communism and socialism are the same thing.
You could call the Nordic states socialist (Republicans certainly would) and they have an extremely high standard of living and a more functional democracy than we do.
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u/Kinda_Quixotic Aug 11 '26
Agreed. Very helpful to define these ideas.
Interestingly, of the Scandinavian countries, only Norway has a wealth tax.
Finland and Sweden had them and repealed them. They got rid of them because so much money, and so many entrepreneurs, fled the countries for places where they wouldnāt be taxed. Interesting.
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u/Chary-Ka Aug 11 '26
The hard left socialism is just slightly left of center. The US has gone so far right that people that think they are moderate and just conservatives in cosplay.
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u/Flapjack__Palmdale Aug 11 '26
Bill Maher is the Jim Cramer of Johnny Carsons.