Real Time with Bill Maher guests - Friday, January 29, 2021
Real Time with Bill Maher continues its 19th season Friday, January 29 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT), with a replay at 11:25 p.m., exclusively on HBO.
This week features a one-on-one in-studio interview with evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein, co-hosts of The Dark Horse podcast, and co-authors of the forthcoming book A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century.
This week's in-studio panel discussion will include Van Jones, CNN political commentator and CEO of REFORM Alliance, a group working to dramatically reduce the number of people who are unjustly under the control of the criminal justice system; and journalist James Pogue, contributing editor at Harper's Magazine where he recently wrote about the monopolization of gun culture by the political right.
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And I doubt she'd let him get a word in edgewise. 
Bill Maher does push the envelope with his guests....but that is ok. I don't think he is racist and I would hope he is not sexist. He is a comedian who pushes it. But he will always be controversial.
It isn't a bad thing if some liberal comedians push the boundaries a bit. It is better than having the alt right do it.
He is not a right winger-I am quite sure. And he is a sincere advocate of animal rights and environmental issues.
He did call the election for Biden:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bill-maher-calls-election-biden-052921203.html
His views seem to be in line with DU's because he slams third party voters. His whole schtick is to bash everything and so he is bound to be more unpopular than Noah, Colbert or Stewart.
I think what a lot of people forget is that Bill Maher's a comedian, not a journalist, and the name of his previous show was "Politically Incorrect." He likes to push the envelope. And unlike the weeknight late night guys, he doesn't make an effort to be likable - yet he does have the same priorities as most of us - like you said, he's big on the environment and is a huge supporter of animal issues. He's often critical of what a lot of Americans choose to eat.
And in his position, I don't think he feels he has to craft his message to be popular. He's always got his comedy appearances to fall back on. He says what he thinks. And he may have RWers on his show in order to take them on, but he can't go too far or none of them would ever appear again. And didn't he contribute a million dollars to Barack Obama? I agree that he's "one of us," whether we like him, or not.
I am not white but I am not black either. So I am out of my depth here-though looking over all that it is racism towards black people, Islamophobia etc. I respect your opinion and I have nothing further to add on that-that is not an empty statement. I just cannot dissect his comedy or politics beyond a point on this. I mostly focus on science,environmental and animal issues so I rarely get into anything outside those areas beyond being generally supportive of the most progressive stances.
But as to Maher's contributions as a whole, I have a sort of defense. Not sure if you would buy it-maybe it is too convoluted. I look at the world through the eyes of an environmentalist all the time so it is the best I can do:
He is an animal advocate, an environmentalist and generally sides with sane view points big picture. The poorest people-who mostly tend to be people of color across the globe will pay most heavily when climate change and other forms of ecological collapse impact us. And yet I have routinely seen environmental issues at the bottom of people's priority lists. We are not particularly far-sighted as a species. The here and now obsess us.
I am a procrastinator too but I can see what is in front my eyes wrt the big picture. I see our species overtaking the planet in insane ways and if someone has a higher level of awareness on that head, it is hardly something to dismiss as "liberal cred" or "oh he wuvs cats and doggies" (that is not a passive aggressive swipe at any DUers...but an overt criticism of all humans, including myself- I should be finding better ways of channeling my activist energy but I am lazy and prefer virtual interactions with people wrt politics or making donations over boots on the ground). His is a genuine awareness that cannot be ignored and in the long run, people with these views are likelier to support decisions that are better for people and especially people of color, who are disproportionately poor-I don't have stats to back that up. But that has been my sense impression.
Bill Maher is not a bad guy. He has all sorts of issues possibly or he puts them on display or I don't know what. But his priorities are not bad. Of course, I haven't watched his show in over 12 years-it is a sense impression . It is roundabout defense but you can make your call.
As a species we are not good at seeing that issues that we deprioritize are actually connected to issues we prioritize. That is why I am a liberal, even if I take what bread crumbs of compassion to animals or concern for the environment one can get out of conservatives.
I am a liberal because it is a world view that is logically consistent-respect for scientific facts over superstition; concern for the biosphere we all rely on; concern for other human beings-racial equality, gender equality, LGBT rights; concerns about poverty, class and human rights/democracy; keeping conflict and war to the bare minimum required for survival and finally not being cruel to non-human life. They are roughly interconnected. It is just that we are a fairly crass and opportunistic species. I hope we change because the ways in which we mostly think right now [not to mention perverse attempts to milk our current diseased state as a species/planet (surveillance capitalism for instance)], will not get us through the challenges presented by ecological collapse, rising fascism etc., with democracy and human rights actually intact.
Ugh long post...oh well..
Not so sure about the first two guests, but I still find the line up interesting enough to watch.
He often pisses me off, but I still find enough of his show to be entertaining and compelling enought to tune in to. I'm still a bit on the fence here, but I do look forward to your post of his show. Thanks again for checking in with this! 
And of course Bill has some controversial guests. There have been a couple that I disliked so much back in the day that I also skipped the show. But he also always has a few that I really like and I always come away learning something. So I've learned to "take what I want and leave the rest." I like most of his "funny bits" and New Rules is always worthwhile, my take on it is that it's whatever's most important to Bill at the time.
But I guess we'll find out!