I don’t really agree with the tone that Bill Maher sometimes takes with religious people. But I see it less as an effort to generate backlash and increase his ratings than as a genuine sense of outrage that people both believe in Biblical literalism and take those beliefs into the political arena in an effort to impose their beliefs on the rest of us.
Maybe I am not cynical enough. Who knows?
But, either way, I think it’s wise for people to think about whether they are being deliberately baited into feeling outrage. You don’t want to be a puppet on a string. Some attention-getters are better ignored, unless you can gain some kind of advantage over them by pointing out their bad behavior. Trying to get Bill Maher fired only makes sense if it works. Otherwise, you’re just helping his ratings.
the “be nice and give hugs” to the deliberately stupid people tactic, is largely why we’re in this mess.
now that teh stupid is so deeply entrenched, the CONTRAST with non-stupid – which is what maher exhibits – is what this blog post is in effect noticing, is great.
let shit go bad for a long time, the clean-up looks rough.
the solution is not to stop the clean-up and allow teh stupid to get back to festering – no matter how much easier it is from our current shitty position.
exerting a force against inertia seems mean. that just indicates that one is too much a product of the status quo.
name & shame maher – every drop in the bucket pushing the opposite direction is needed
I don’t particularly care for Maher as he has sexist attitudes and sometimes says racist things; he’s not very much aware if his own privilege.
But as far as how he treats the fundies? Pfft I say keep going and going. I don’t think he even thinks of his ratings when it comes to crap like that; it’s purely personal. Besides, he’s on HBO; what advertisers can he piss off?
One: how many homes that have cable subscribe to HBO? Two: Maher really believes that stuff re” religion. Didn’t he make a mockumentary just a few years ago? Also, he’s been on the anti-religion kick for a while. Actually, pretty much since I’ve ever known who he was.
Indeed. I don’t know how many but Game of Thrones probably helped their subscriptions. Our house has a subscription. And yeah that’s exactly right. He’s had anti religion animus for a while, even when he was on politically incorrect which did have advertisers. And what got him knocked off? Not talking bad about religion, but saying the hijackers weren’t cowards. Nothing to do with ratings or even trolling them for responses. He’s just trolling them bc most of wha te says (IMO) is true, and he believes it.
Depends on the end goal.
Are you trying to get across to someone? Take it easy on them, give credence to anything that sounds remotely decent, and don’t focus on the strange/crazy/evil stuff.
Are you trying to piss off religious bigots and make them show their hands? Then by all means, call them on all of their bullshit in no uncertain terms.
When it comes to baiting Maher is the master…
Would it be inappropriate for me to give an Amen to this wisdom:
This reminds me about some of Giordano’s writings that discuss how bloggers and corporate media types wallow in the outrage generation industry. He later referred to poutrage in another examination of the manipulations in bloggerville. These may not make as much sense well after the time they were written:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/banality-outrage
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/white-kids-poutrage
As for Maher, I think Cooke gets it right:
Give me Stewart and Colbert any day. Maher is not as effective with the political satire and he overreaches too often. He’s seems to have a fair amount of genuine bile for religion but he also offends some of his guests on other topics that show he has a fair amount of obtuseness of his own to work through.
His anti-religion rants bore me because he picks such easy targets. IMO, making fun of fundamentalists is not hard. Just google “Jesus riding t-rex” and you’ve got a Bill Maher Starter Kit. If Maher is operating with a genuine sense of outrage, I don’t think he is using his resources very effectively.
Fundamentalists are a minority of Christians in this country and Maher also sometimes conflates them with the entire 200+ million Christians in the US. He misses a great opportunity to get an effective discussion rolling but I’m not sure he really wants one.
I agree with you on Maher for the most part. I do find him entertaining but I just can’t take him seriously when it comes to discussing religion and its proper role in society because he’s not really interested in a nuanced discussion.
To be honest, if I had more time I would probably watch him a bit. But I catch Stewart and Colbert 2 x per month and watch a very limited number of other things via broadcast and web. I don’t have cable anymore.
The big point on this post of Booman’s though is the real deal the more I think of it. We are being so played – by both the corporate media and many bloggers as well. And we’re often being rendered ineffective by it.
Joe Klein many years ago:
While, generally speaking, I probably agree with a lot Maher’s broader take on religion, I have grown weary of bombthrowers, even when I agree with many of their points of view.
Living in a Tea Party area, I have been surrounded by boiling outrage for years. I have looked it in the face when I have done political canvassing, I have had it directed at me by Right To Lifers while manning our county Dem booth at the fair and I hear it from the various “gun people” among my friends and family. And sometimes I used to get outraged right back at them. And we would end up maybe sneering at each other a little, calling each other names, lob a couple of verbal grenades after largely arguing bumper sticker type phrases and then we would move on. And I came to the realization that this was simply a waste of precious time and energy . So I have decided that the only constructive way to channel my rage is by actually doing something to try and have a positive impact on things which I believe. And I tabled much of the rage for those times where it was appropriate and likely to be effective. And I find myself a much more satisfied and calm person.
I am still surrounded by rage, but I now take the opportunity to try and calmly dissect the rage of those around me. Because so much of it really has no basis in reality or actual events. It is more a rage at perceived slights or circumstances which exist only in the minds of those rage-filled people and those they are choosing to listen to, who profit from feeding them this false reality. Sometimes I end up laughing at them, and sometimes I find myself feeling sad for them. Because they are the ones wasting the precious time that they have left, fighting demons and evils that are often nothing more than conjured imaginings in their own brains.
I don’t care bout the details. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that Maher is an asshole. I don’t even want him on my side.
Far as I’m concerned people who’s curiosity about the world around them doesn’t extend beyond the words written in a collection of Bronze Age mythology deserve all the scorn that gets heaped on them.