Bill Maher Assails Speech Police Who 'Lay in Wait' on the Internet
It certainly feels like that sometimes.


On his most recent show, HBO host Bill Maher lamented that the internet has empowered defenders of political correctness to blow every offending statement out of proportion. Here's what he said:
I was railing against political correctness, and I feel like the internet has made that so much worse. Because people just sit there and lay in wait for somebody to say something politically incorrect, and then pat themselves on the back that 'I'm the good person and I'm going to go after this person whose the bad person because he said this thing that's wrong and this thing that's wrong,' like it's Galileo against the church."
It certainly feels like that sometimes. Thankfully, the internet also gives a platform to opponents of PC culture and permits—in theory at least—a vigorous debate over what words and ideas are unsayable.
Hat tip: Evan McMurry / Mediaite
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Lurking behind the tubes!
When Bill Maher helped elect the PC President twice, he lost the ability to complain about this.
^this.
Wake me when Maher is even half as daring about skewering the left's sacred cows as the South Park guys are.
I'd like to believe Maher is being genuinely concerned about this but his hypocrisy is hard to swallow, never mind the trained seals he keeps in the audience.
never mind the trained seals he keeps in the audience.
I did enjoy Christopher Hitchens flipping them the bird and telling them to shut the fuck up a few years ago. If only someone would have the balls to tell Maher himself to STFU once in a while.
Maher's audience. Jabba the Hut's rat.
Salacious B. Crumb was a Kowakian monkey-lizard.
Compartmentelization.
Truly.
Is this the same Bill Maher I saw on RT, telling the world that those who oppose Obama do so only because we cannot abide a Black president?
Yes, the only reason anyone could be opposed to Obama is his race. Someone who has been out of work for 6 years while he squelches job creation that doesn't come from his cronies, is racist when he complains.
"He's had to deal with things that no other president has had to deal with. It's true."
Sure it?s true - in the same way the mentally disabled have to deal with things most other humans don?t have to deal with, the President has had to deal with things other presidents haven?t - but when the vast majority of those issues are his fault, using it as evidence of the man?s accomplishments and intellect is.... well, retarded.
But that?s our Bill - based upon the little I can stomach of him anymore, his goal seems to be making himself look as stupid as possible - well Bill - chalk this is as just another accomplishment in the long journey that is being an unprincipled and irrational party hack.
"I never saw a governor stick the finger in a president's face like the governor of Arizona did. I never saw a president heckled at the State of the Union like he was. I never saw Bill O'Reilly interrupt a president the way he does. There's a kind of in your face, in your space, disrespect going on there."
Yeah, I remember his outrage when Bush got a shoe thrown at his head and was followed around by Code Pink to literally every public event he appeared for 6 straight years. Musn't disrespect the office of president, even if we don't like the man himself, right?
Jacobins traditionally complain when they are sent to the guillotine.
Because people just sit there and lay in wait for somebody to say something politically incorrect...
Whereas others lay in wait on their cable shows for a Republican to say something politically incorrect...
^^This, fuck Bill Maher in an open wound!
The ass-hat is getting a little butt-hurt over catching a little of the shit he dishes out on a regular basis.
Hoist by his own retard.
Damn it - it took me a few paragraphs to call him retard and here you did it better, and 8 hours prior, in 5 words.
Excellent (damn you)
+1 Band-Aid
We speech police LIE in wait!
If someone's a politician, it is at least a little more relevant.
I know that Bill Maher got a higher score on the Libertarian Purity Test than Tony. Tru fax.
But did he score higher than PB?
No doubt. Bill Maher is the most libertarian person ever to live.
Yes. He scored 16%. PB score 8%.
Ate pur sent!!!!1111tenplusone!!!!
It's a lucky thing for Maher that irony is not fatal.
Considering that it's a death row pardon two minutes too late, I'd say it can be fatal.
It used to be that things had a limited shelf life. They might put it on TV for a day, you'd hear it on the radio for a day, it would be in the newspaper--for a day--and then it was all over.
Nowadays, everything you do in the public eye is forever. Even if broadcast and print media stops paying attention to it, it's still out there--forever.
...and every time you show up again after that, everything you ever said or did is part of the discussion.
Didn't used to be that way.
We need a law to allow people to have unflattering things about them on the internet taken down.
Joan Rivers said that Michelle Obama is "a tranny".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et38_Ufv-Jw
LO f'n L
It's unfair for the old folks, I tell ya!
Joan Rivers probably couldn't send an email to save her life. Now all the millenials out there, who wouldn't know her from Greta Garbo, think she's a gay basher I guess?
I wonder, would they let Joan make a speech at Harvard anymore?
I wonder, would they let Joan make a speech at Harvard anymore?
As long as the rest of her political views are "correct" they're willing to let one little "lapse in judgement" slide. Now if it came out that Joan was a closet Rethuglikkkan or Libertardian, it would be a different story.
There is a truly hilarious conspiracy theory out there, chock full of "proof" that Michelle is a tranny.
Seriously, google around for it. Lulzy, indeed.
They got kids! You know...
The surgery isn't that sophisticated yet.
Even the morning network chat shows are commenting on the latest viral outrage the next morning. What Would David Hartman Do?
It's weird, but I remember him as an actor. He was in some Disney film with a zeppelin, something in the ice, and I can't really remember anything else about it.
This one?
I remember David Hartman as an actor.
This, correct?
...and every time you show up again after that, everything you ever said or did is part of the discussion.
This is actually a good defense for Shrike.
We still give him shit over "Christfag" even though he has not said it in years.
I feel for him, but I can't quite reach him.
He still calls himself "Palin's Buttplug". Dude, Palin was over, what, six years ago now?
You gotta meet people where they live, and Shrike's living in the past.
Well, yeah. Everything is still Bush's fault, six years later.
He has to live in the past. The alternative is to deal with reality.
Killing bin Laden was Obama's fault.
Nowadays, everything you do in the public eye is forever. Even if broadcast and print media stops paying attention to it, it's still out there--forever.
While everything is always around now, and due to the ease of access, many more people are using it, I don?t think this is new nor a great deal more problematic than it ever has been.
As this is mostly politics now - and they can still find things that aren?t on the internet - like college papers and such.
The intelligent of course will follow those who show a track record of being correct and will forgive a reasonable mistake from time to time (even unreasonable ones will be forgiven if said source is better than most others).
The idiots of course will follow... the herd.
They take all the possibilities the internet offers, and directly and completely shuts them out - preferring instead to live within echo chambers.
As evidenced by some of the most visited sites on the internet, a certain group chooses constantly to seek out information which they know will reinforce their current beliefs, assumptions, fears, etc... while simultaneously they can protect themselves, by down votes and the like, from any new ideas/beliefs/information which might make them seriously question their group think.
Wussies - home of the brave.
Fuck. Bill. Maher.
Speaking of speech police. DELICIOUS
They liberated the means of his production.
PWND
What a fucking moron. He doesn't even understand the implications of his political and economic philosophy.
It is odd.
I have bought and owned a computer that cost me over $2000. (yes it was a mac bitchez whoooooooot!!!!!!)
and I have bought and owned a car that cost me less then $1000 and a motorbike that cost me $200...
Yet I have to have title for the car and bike.
property = financial assets: land, stocks, bonds, &c. Has titles, deeds. Personal possessions are different.
When the IRS investigates or audits you they don't make such a distinction.
What a bizarre distinction.
Essentially, he's saying that if your ownership is registered with the state (like deeds and titles to real estate or vehicles), or if it is a financial instrument of some kind, its not a personal possession.
So, if I give my cash to someone for them to use, and they give me a note or stock, then I have property, but if I keep that cash and use it for the exact same purposes myself, its a personal possession.
I wonder what he told his friend who "owned" the car that was broken into.
That car is "property" after all, so presumably he doesn't believe his friend has any legitimate rights to it.
I wonder what he would say if somebody broke into his house/condo/apartment and vandalized it? "No worries, it was just property?"
From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Guess the proletariat needed "his" stuff.
That's what Iowahawk responded with
What Myerson is saying he advocates is socialism; the sort of full communism he argues for it the abolition of all property.
That it is his laptop and also his mean of production is just the whipped cream on top.
He probably will invoke fascism now in demanding full, pitiless retribution.
Hayek stated this idiot? problem quite clearly a long time ago:
Who imagines that there exist any common ideals of distributive justice such as will make the Norwegian fisherman consent to forego the prospect of economic improvement in order to help his Portuguese fellow, or the Dutch worker to pay more for his bicycle to help the Coventry mechanic, or the French peasant to pay more taxes to assist the industrialization of Italy? If most people are not willing to see the difficulty, this is mainly because, consciously or unconsciously, they assume that it will be they who will settle these questions for the others, and because they are convinced of their own capacity to do this justly and equitably.
After all - they are on the good side of things here.
Just ask Tony
What the fuck is the Twitter Right? Also, probably because it's him, but the fact that it was his backpack that was stolen is deliciously pathetic.
David Burge ?@iowahawkblog 1h
They liberated it for the proletariat. MT @JAMyerson Well, someone broke into my friend's car and stole my backpack, including my computer.
Dude, like, if your communism extends only to certain types of property, that's, like, really cool & everything but it's not really, like, FULL communism, is it?
Jesse,
Imagine no possessions
It's easy if you try
Especially with your backpack stolen.
I hate to defend Maher, but since he's taking a beating here on this forum, I will. He has been fairly consistent in his belief that people should be free to say offensive things, no matter how retarded. He also believes that he and others should be able to make fun of the particularly retarded things (although he often goes more easily on his fellow progs). He has been reasonably consistent on this issue, which is a welcome deviation from the more batshit crazy tendencies of the pseudo intellectual left.
Yes. Maher is good on this single issue. Maher 's day job is being a comedian. Comedians make a living saying edgy, offensive stuff. If you take that from them, you destroy their chore appeal.
Core appeal. Damn auto correct.
Liked chore better, as in "listening to Bill Maher is a real..."
I'm interested in this chore appeal and how I can use it to make my children the labor force I had imagined.
Comedians make a living saying edgy, offensive stuff.
In theory. In practice, it seems that nowadays you're only supposed to be offensive and challenging to certain groups.
No shit.
Back in the day comedians actually made jokes about President Clinton.
I remember seeing political comics as a kid lampooning Carter as well.
It has been nearly 6 years of White House disasters yet we hardly get a peep of comedians making fun of Obama.
Because it's kind of impossible to make fun of him without looking like you're doing black face.
Very difficult to pull off.
Can very easily come across as jaw-droppingly racist.
I don't necessarily think this works to his advantage either.
Obama projects this aura of sour humorlessness. He would be much better off if people could make fun of him and if he could take a joke - about himself.
Assuming he?s mostly like any other politician - he likely can take a joke in good humor, and even if he didn?t like one in particular, smart enough to know that if it?s semi-funny, he could fake good humor well enough.
Either way - IMHO - excellent point
So, in other words, "the first post-racial president" needs to be handled with kid gloves because treating him like any other politician would be "racist". You know, I dream of a day when politicians will be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
How do you make fun of perfection?
Yes, and we get to critique the content of his free speech too.
You are free to say rude things. Yet, you have no right of immunity from consequences for saying rude things.
OK, but so what? What's the essential difference between finger-wagging (the PC Left) and smarmy sarcastic mockery (Bill Maher)? Both act to shut down the opponent and neither is interested in understanding another POV.
What no one, but no one is complaining about, is that indignation is probably a multi-billion dollar industry, and completely unregulated.
*nods slowly*
He has been fairly consistent in his belief that people should be free to say offensive things
Yet if someone thinks Obamacare won't work they are racist.
Maher has not been consistent.
If you call making fun of things that everybody else makes fun of "edgy", then I guess you can call him that.
He has been fairly consistent in his belief that people should be free to say offensive things, no matter how retarded.
I think you may have exercising confused with supporting. Like others above, I might be willing to credit him this if it, or he, were in any way respectable or admirable for this.
If he were known for standing up for everyone's right to free speech or if he constantly posited himself against oppressive blowhards that's be one thing. Instead, he's overwhelmingly the blowhard and/or it's just a pissy, insensitive prick schtick.
Bill Maher supports free speech the same way Fred Phelps supported freedom speech.
Instant Internet Outrage + Twitter and Facebook + overly sensitive Right and Left advocacy groups with a computer = a nation of perpetually offended wussies. Great world this is.
Bill Maher is as loud an advocate for being an un-PC douche as any of you like. He also happens to have liberal politics. (So fuck him, of course. We prefer our anti-PC crusaders to be of the Cliven Bundy sort.)
You'll note I actually defended him, and several of my libertarian brethren joined in that defense.
Crap, how often do we ever like the people who are getting assailed for exercising their free speech rights? Hello? Illinois Nazis?
He didn't note, because he's someone's sock. Who somehow still gets people to talk to him.
Is my time a possession or property?
I'm thinking this is a new game show for MSNBC.
Well, you can use your time to make money, so it's capital and thus property, right? On the other hand, you can't get a title to your time, so it's a mere possession. This is a tough one.
"Well, Warty, do you want to check with your celebrity partner for this episode, Penelope Cruz?"
Tool of oppression. Needs to be nationalized.
"Property it is! To be distributed by the command of the local soviet."
If nationalizing time would lead to people no longer responding to sock puppets, I may have to go full Mother Russia around here.
I dunno, I always thought Warty was a real guy.
I just pray to God you're wrong.
He makes a living off of the offended. Who is really interest in anything he was to say if he's not offending someone?
What have you done when you have bested a fool?
Well, I suppose you move ahead of him in the fool hierarchy.
The alpha-fool.
I don't give a blue fuck if Maher is getting what he dishes out. I noted above he thinks all Tea Party activity is racially-based, and now we have this:
I had not idea conservatives don't like him.
Personally, I thought the Cosmos remake was corny as all hell, although I only watched the first episode.
Boy talk about calling the kettle black.
Regarding these edgy, un-PC comics, I've long ceased having sympathy when they whine about the PC Police. If they really had the world they say they wanted they wouldn't have careers without the controversies to drive web hits and press mentions. Maher himself has been in the game too long to not know and understand this.
A dispatch from the War on Women (?):
Bill Maher, liberal comedian routinely calls Sarah Palin a "c**t" and a "tw*t" and his audience loves it
Heh, Reason suppresses its own links:
http://reason.com/blog/2012/03.....andard-bec
If you get your biggest laughs by calling a woman a cunt, that says a lot about your sense of humor.
And as Hitchen?s (RIP) noted, it says a great deal about his audience: Christopher Hitchens flips off Bill Maher's audience
Bill Maher is nothing like Gallileo. Not on his best day. And his situation is nothing like Gallileo's. Not on his worst day.