I watched him 10 years ago when he was slightly more middle just edgy. Goddamn is he gasping to stay relevant, who the hell watches him anymore? Just an annoying douche now.
The one person I know that still watches Bill Maher is a guy that says he’s a libertarian. But he’s a libertarian in the way that a college freshman in 2005 was a libertarian.
He’s really the same as he’s always been, just the more you watch and listen the more you find out about his questionable views.
I disagree with him on most things, but I respect him as a pundit because you can really tell that he’s providing opinions that are truly his own. He’s a conservative democrat that everybody hates, and he ignores the pressure to fall in line with either side. He’s pro-military, pro-gun, pro-surveillance, but also all for drug legalization, medicare for all, and vehemently supports separation of church and state. It’s a weird mix and even inconsistent at times (he loves individual freedom but hates women so abortion is tricky for him!) but you at least have to admit he’s one of the last remaining pundits that isn’t a mouthpiece for politicians.
I disagree about him not changing. He’s always had 1 or 2 topics that were a bit crazy (anti medicine, over the top islamaphobe, etc), but generally he had people on from both sides (mostly) and played a biased moderator. Now he’s a panelist as well and he has to be right. More than that he’s old man yells at cloud and gets super butthurt when anyone points it out.
I think it’s that the world has changed and left him behind. He was a racist misogynist 30 years ago, but back then the system enforced those things to his satisfaction. The systemic oppression of people he doesn’t like has been challenged more and more over the past few decades, and he takes issue with that.
It makes sense for him to be the angriest “progressive” in the world if you think about it. All the progress we’ve made has been the things he DOESN’T want (metoo, BLM, etc) and none of the things he does want (healthcare, secularism)
This is why a lot of old people “become more conservative.” No they don’t. They just stew in their shitty comfort zones while the world around them moves forward.
I gave up on political punditry in 2016 but his show is unique in that it’s love and unedited. He’s been criticized for having conservatives on, but it really did give me a feel for which struggled to respond to challenges on the panel and which were able to think on their feet. By comparison, every other show felt like rehearsed propaganda.
I watched him 10 years ago when he was slightly more middle just edgy. Goddamn is he gasping to stay relevant, who the hell watches him anymore? Just an annoying douche now.
The one person I know that still watches Bill Maher is a guy that says he’s a libertarian. But he’s a libertarian in the way that a college freshman in 2005 was a libertarian.
He’s really the same as he’s always been, just the more you watch and listen the more you find out about his questionable views.
I disagree with him on most things, but I respect him as a pundit because you can really tell that he’s providing opinions that are truly his own. He’s a conservative democrat that everybody hates, and he ignores the pressure to fall in line with either side. He’s pro-military, pro-gun, pro-surveillance, but also all for drug legalization, medicare for all, and vehemently supports separation of church and state. It’s a weird mix and even inconsistent at times (he loves individual freedom but hates women so abortion is tricky for him!) but you at least have to admit he’s one of the last remaining pundits that isn’t a mouthpiece for politicians.
I disagree about him not changing. He’s always had 1 or 2 topics that were a bit crazy (anti medicine, over the top islamaphobe, etc), but generally he had people on from both sides (mostly) and played a biased moderator. Now he’s a panelist as well and he has to be right. More than that he’s old man yells at cloud and gets super butthurt when anyone points it out.
I think it’s that the world has changed and left him behind. He was a racist misogynist 30 years ago, but back then the system enforced those things to his satisfaction. The systemic oppression of people he doesn’t like has been challenged more and more over the past few decades, and he takes issue with that.
It makes sense for him to be the angriest “progressive” in the world if you think about it. All the progress we’ve made has been the things he DOESN’T want (metoo, BLM, etc) and none of the things he does want (healthcare, secularism)
This is why a lot of old people “become more conservative.” No they don’t. They just stew in their shitty comfort zones while the world around them moves forward.
I gave up on political punditry in 2016 but his show is unique in that it’s love and unedited. He’s been criticized for having conservatives on, but it really did give me a feel for which struggled to respond to challenges on the panel and which were able to think on their feet. By comparison, every other show felt like rehearsed propaganda.