Bill Maher: "We SHOULD blame China."

The Quarantine Zone
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Racist? Maher is an atheist who has been accused of being an Islamophobe because he considers Islam to be among the most fundamentalist of religions and the most common basis of theocracies. When the Sultan of Brunei declares that gays will be stoned to death in the town square that is surely worthy of comment – and protests and boycotts. That is hardly racism.

Misogynist? Around half of his usually-distinguished panelists are women; if not half, then certainly very many of them.

Bigot? What would be your cite for that? The virus did come from China. It has nothing to do with Asian-Americans or with individual Chinese people but it does have to do with certain unhealthy customs and with government bungling, though the latter is certainly not unique to China.

Unfortunately the Emmys have a “reality show” category, the most inane and mindless form of television in existence. Trump had two nominations in that category. Maher’s nominations were for being informative and funny.

That was the show on Nov 1, 2019 where the introductory guest was Jay Gordon, who has been called an anti-vaxer but is more of a cautious skeptic. I would have to agree with your cited article, though – even though Maher tried to focus the discussion on the vast unknowns that still exist in medicine, there was too much fodder there for nutcases to use to reinforce their anti-vax sentiment. As with Yiannopoulos, I wish Maher would stop having guests like that, although nutcase guests are really rare, and Maher often challenges them, as when Rick Santorum was on spreading disinformation about climate change. Santorum cited a denialist study about which Maher had no prior information, but took the time on the following show to provide a detailed scientific rebuttal, which I thought showed an admirable motivation to get the facts out and set the record straight.

I think this has gotten way off topic and I’m done with it. Maher is not perfect; he’s sometimes divisive, controversial, and opinionated, and many people don’t like him. To each his own. I enjoy his style of humor. Obama thought enough of him to be a special guest on one show, as have countless leading public figures from both sides of the political spectrum.

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No gays please?

83

…thanks for the reminder.

Bill Maher is a racist, misogynist, a bigot **and **an Islamophobe. How could I have forgotten that one?

Surrounding yourself with a panel of “usually-distinguished panelists are women”, just like being nominated for an Emmy 41 times, is not a magical shield from misogyny.

That Bill Maher is a bigot? Sure.

We are so far down the track from “blame China” right now we are in a different time zone. Its pointless virtue signalling. For Maher to come out with this rant now, as thousands of American die as a result of a pathetic response from the Federal government is nothing but a distraction.

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Maher is opinionated, controversial, sometimes a kook about his pet causes. But he’s not a bigot, racist, or misogynist, and an opinion article is not a cite, it’s just an opinion that is wrong.

More to the point, what is this “virtue signaling” that you are accusing Maher of? Who is he signaling and what’s the frequency?

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I could have predicted this post.

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100% agree with you here. And why is BB not being called out for criticizing Mahers condemnation of the Sultan of Brunei? He is homophobic. Why is calling him out ‘Islamophobic’?

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…I’m not sure you quite understand how this whole “opinion thing” works. It is my opinion that Bill Maher is a bigot, racist, or misogynist and an Islamophobe. You are free to hold an opinion that differs from mine.

He is obviously signalling people like yourself, and people like the OP. As for the frequency: well you have to ask yourself that question because I certainly can’t pick it up.

Why would people criticize me for something that obviously didn’t happen?

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This is what Maher SHOULD have said. And he should have demanded accountability, instead of providing a diversion from America’s inept Federal “response”, for lack of a better term.

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I mean, when it comes to blaming China, I think we can definitively blame them for two things here: (1) the filthy wet markets that continue to enable these illnesses to proliferate, and (2) the secrecy and bungled coverup of the Chinese government when this disaster first started.

I am not really sure how anybody could really address the latter issue; changing that would probably have to come from the Chinese people themselves. But in terms of the former, I don’t see anything wrong with international actors exerting maximalist pressure on the regime to crackdown on the filthy wet markets and to permanently ban them.

But labeling the pandemic as the “Chinese virus” isn’t helping anything, and it probably makes China less likely to eliminate their wet markets.

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Thanks for your permission, but here’s the thing, you cited an opinion piece as if to say, ‘I’m right because other people agree with me’. State what you think all you like, but don’t cite if as if it’s incontrovertible. You make the same error as the claim made earlier that Maher is right because he’s been nominated 41 times as an entertainer.

I don’t think it means what you think it means. I agree with Maher, Hitchens, Harris and many other atheists. Are they signaling their virtues to me? Am I signaling my virtues by making that statement? Because if that’s what you think then you’ve made the definition of “virtue signaling” so broad that it is no longer meaningful.

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…I was asked for a cite that Maher was a bigot. The cite I provided had many examples of what many would describe as bigotry. I could provide many others if you like. Or you could just watch his show. The fact that it was an opinion piece is irrelevant.

LOL. My point exactly. Virtue signalling isn’t really a thing, its never actually been a thing. But if people like Bill Maher are going to pretend that it is then I’m more than happy to throw it back in his face.

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Well, crap, I guess one more before I drop this tangent:

Maybe if you keep repeating it over and over, it will somehow magically come true.

According to the Oxford dictionary, a misogynist is “a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women”. So Maher allegedly despises women yet constantly invites prominent, smart, and articulate women to his in-depth panel discussions. You have a strange definition of misogyny, one that is not shared by any dictionary or lexicologist.

So your cite for his alleged bigotry is an opinion piece in an edgy online publication? I like the promo piece at the end of the article: “… ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadn’t done it?” If it was a responsible news outlet, probably not very likely.

But as I said, Maher has many detractors. He also has many supporters:
Politically Incorrect won an array of awards, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Technical Direction, two CableACE awards for Best Talk Show Series, and a Genesis Award for Best Television Talk Show. Maher earned numerous award nominations for his producing, writing, and hosting of Politically Incorrect, including ten Emmy nominations, two TV Guide nominations, and two Writers Guild nominations … On June 22, 2002, just six days after the cancellation of* Politically Incorrect*, Maher received the Los Angeles Press Club president’s award (for “championing free speech”) … Real Time [with Bill Maher] has earned widespread praise. It has been nominated for more than ten Primetime Emmy Awards and six Writer’s Guild awards. In 2007, Maher and his co-producers were awarded the Television Producer of the Year Award in Variety Television by the Producers Guild of America.

One more thing, about the controversial Milo Yiannopoulos interview, for which Maher was much criticized for inviting a true bigot and racist on his show for the one-on-one interview part. From the same source as above:
In the days following the interview, Yiannopoulos had his invitation to speak before the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, as well as a book deal with Simon & Schuster, cancelled. Yiannopoulos subsequently resigned as an editor at Breitbart News. When asked whether Yiannopoulos’s interview on his show was among the causes of his resignation, Maher concurred, saying, “As I say, sunlight is the best disinfectant. You’re welcome.”

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…Bill Maher is a racist, misogynist, a bigot and an Islamophobe.

Yep. Still true as far as I’m concerned.

His track record speaks for itself. The anti-#metoo campaigner just adds icing to the cake.

oooooooo. Eddggggy.

I think its absolutely fucking hilarious that you weren’t expecting an opinion piece as a cite for an opinion. I mean you do understand that we are talking about opinions right?

And the Intercept is a respectable news outlet. I do have big problems with it: especially around Glenn Greenwald. But its not as if its the onlypeoplecallingMahera bigot.

None of these things are a shield for his opinions.

It wasn’t Maher’s interview that got his invitation cancelled or that got his book cancelled. It was because footage came out where he was “discussing the merits of gay relationships between adults and boys as young as 13.” Maher can try to claim credit for that: but rather than give him credit lets just add disingenuous liar to the list of things Maher is guilty of instead. The real credit belongs to a 16-year-old high school student in Canada.

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I’ve watched his show. I don’t find him to be a bigot in any sense. We don’t need to agree about this. Let’s just drop it.

The “white guilt” thing is actually I thing that I’ve seen on a message board that my wife used to follow. It’s not as big a thing as Maher makes it out to be but it’s a thing exactly as absurd as he describes it. That he gives it prominence is part of his schtick and it deserves to be called out because it’s actually cringe inducing and insulting to minorities for the reasons he correctly described. So yeah, real thing, but marginally worthy of mention, and fully deserving of ridicule.

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I don’t think any labeling of the virus - xenophobic or not - will have an affect on whether China eliminates its wet markets or not. The wet markets put China *itself *at risk, since they would cause China to be Ground Zero for another such viral outbreak.

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You totally miss my point. Bill Maher is often deliberately provocative – that’s his schtick – but only very rarely does he seriously say something that I disagree with. I can live with that. I find that the good (the informative discussions and the often-insightful creative humor) outweighs the bad by a factor of 1000 to 1. You, OTOH, have a string of invectives describing him that seems to get longer each time you mention it, implying that he’s completely uninformed and all manner of other horrible things and is not worth listening to. I’m just saying that some very respected high-profile critics disagree with you, as do I. I watch very little TV but Real Time is one of my favorite shows, along with John Oliver’s show. You’re entitled to have a different opinion but I find it completely unpersuasive.

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Chinese governments on several levels reacted badly. The US government at the federal level reacted badly. We in the US can’t modify Chinese governments, only our own.

Quite. Casting blame is handy PR but otherwise not much for problem solution. US federal leadership sees this as a PR problem, not a medical crisis. And Asian-blaming HAS resulted in violence and discrimination against those thought to be East Asian. Words have effects.

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I am very very sorry for starting the inane Bill Maher hijack. :frowning:

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Maher went off the rails decades ago.
The only real target for blame lies much closer to home.

100

You forgot intensely, virulently transphobic.

Hmm, if we’re playing the dictionary game let me raise you the Merriam-Webster usage note on “racism”.

Anyway “Chinese Virus” or “Wuhan fever” or whatever you wanna use is utterly pointless. Coronavirus has a common name, widely understood, correct or not. Using “Chinese virus” is just a sinophobic dogwhistle. Also wet market doesn’t mean what you think it means. Your local Trader Joe’s is a wet market, and most do not engage in live animal trading. And honestly a lot of US farmer’s markets are of similar levels of cleanliness and animal density, there’s just fewer of them in less constant operation.