Sorry, it wasn’t meant as an example of over-sensitivity, it was just the first thing that came to mind when I thought about the various things Maher was complaining about. Personally I’m pretty much neutral on the Israel-Palestine conflict and I agree that Israel has engaged in major human rights violations, but idiot students demonstrating in support of recognized terrorist organizations is still naive and stupid.
Here’s a short transcript of part of the show to give a flavour of it, especially for those who aren’t going to watch it. I hope you do, and tell us what you think. But anyway, here’s a short bit from it:
I think a lot of people are just tired of trying to pretent that things that are crazy, aren’t. Tired of being bullied by the most un-fun people in the country. Tired of walking around on eggshells because of the hyper-fragile and the over-sensitive. These people who have such a sense of entitlement about never having to feel a moment’s discomfort from encountering a thought they don’t already have, or a joke they don’t like. Fuck off, you fucks.
Is there anything more cringe-worthy than the apologies we have to listen to from people so often, that sound like they’re right out of a Soviet re-education camp, where you thank your accusers: “thank you for the opportunity to learn what a repulsive shit-bag I am. I will try to do better”. Oh, fuck off, it’s a Halloween costume, nobody died, OK? So much of this is just posing. Liberalism is supposed to be uplifting. This is just posing.
… I know when people hear the word “woke” it triggers them and I understand that. It started out as a great thing – alert to injustice – we’re all for that. But words migrate. I can’t control that. And now it’s been taken over by stupid white people.
Then he cites the example of the “woke” crowd going after Dr. Seuss (as he put it, author of such controversial works as Green Eggs and Ham) because when he made his drawings back in the 1930s, he drew Chinese people with pigtails. Possibly because many Chinese people then wore pigtails. He then suggests to all cartoonists that if you’re going to draw anybody ethnic, be very very careful!
Right here on this board, in a thread discussing vinyl records and how they’re made, someone was apologetic about having to use the word “master” to describe the metal die that’s used to stamp vinyl LPs, an industry term that’s been in use since records existed. There may be some who have to head to the fainting couch on hearing that the original final mix from which all other recordings are made is called the “master tape”.
It’s in fact very common usage for any object used to make reproductions. It’s also in common use to denote an overall control element, such as the “master drive” in the days of daisy-chained IDE disk drives, or a “master warning” in an airline cockpit. These have been in use for many decades, and as Maher would say, nobody died. Yes, other words can be substituted. There are always other words. The new words are often contrived and ridiculous, and I wouldn’t be surprised if after some period of time they’re declared offensive, too. This is the kind of bullshit Maher talks about.