General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI watched Bill Maher for the first time in awhile last night
since he had Barbara Lee on and I wanted to see what she had to say. And in this later discussion part of the show he, yet again, whined about how educators are quitting since conservatives are treated so badly. So for those of you who have been watching him, has he said one word about what UNC did to Nikole Hannah-Jones? I am honestly curious. I will likely go back to not watching him barring his getting a guest who I normally can't see on TV (such as Congresswoman Lee).
marble falls
(56,359 posts)USALiberal
(10,877 posts)wryter2000
(46,016 posts)I havent watched him since he said tailhook was boys being boys. Every single one of his guests told him he was full of it. Women and men.
dsc
(52,130 posts)she was the sole guest he has at the beginning.
Goonch
(3,551 posts)StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)Whining that conservatives are being picked on isn't comedy.
VarryOn
(2,343 posts)Dream Girl
(5,111 posts)ratchiweenie
(7,744 posts)VarryOn
(2,343 posts)JHB
(37,132 posts)...he's left the comedy building. He may still use his old business cards, but he's not in that business anymore.
wryter2000
(46,016 posts)I never found him very funny.
Sympthsical
(8,936 posts)You're categorizing it as conservative whining.
No, he discusses how there's enforced, dogmatic conformity in academia.
As someone who recently re-entered academia, the man's not wrong. My first class - my very first class - had me do a paper about Marxism and how it is better for education.
I'm honestly not kidding here. The class has zero to do with politics or political philosophy. It's a psychology course. The professor batted around ideas in a class discussion on first paper topics. Where did he come down? BLM, AAPI hate, the LGBT community, etc. When I came home, I told my partner, "My professor is literally a walking parody of what the Right thinks college professors are."
Here's the thing. I'm sympathetic to all those movements. I'm a liberal, progressive Democrat. I'm a gay man in a relationship with an Asian man. I could churn a paper out on this stuff in my sleep.
But how the fuck does this end up in a psychology course? And as the first paper of the term? I looked at the syllabus. I've had a few discussions with him. He has . . . views. And it's very clear to me he expects students to go along with it. All the open discussions have been firmly from one ideological point of view. If you think differently, you will not be speaking up in this class. Not if you're anxious about your grade.
You know what my second paper is on?
Why capitalism is terrible.
Again, it's a psychology course I need for my master's. I've already written it off as a lost class. I'm not going to learn anything I need to from it. Just grin, pretend I agree with him, write the papers he wants, get the A, and get the hell out after 18 weeks.
Maher has a point on this stuff. He probably didn't mention Hannah-Jones because she's an outlier. People and ideas on the Left are not as routinely penalized in higher academia. It's just how it is and how it's been for quite awhile. Certainly since I've been an adult.
Maher isn't going to go in lockstep and say only things people want to hear or think he should be talking about.
That's why I watch him.
dsc
(52,130 posts)in the last year is a liberal and he has, to my knowledge, not said a single, solitary word about that.
Sympthsical
(8,936 posts)And she won her case. They offered her tenure. The whole thing left a bad taste in her mouth, so she went to Howard.
And her experience isn't systematic. The only reason conservatives got a bead on her is because of the 1619 project. She was high profile.
And it seems like you're using this one instance to dismiss pretty much the entire rest of Maher's discussion. "He didn't mention her, so the rest doesn't count."
You can do that, but I don't see how useful it is to discourse. And one example doesn't negate an entire system of mess in the other direction.
dsc
(52,130 posts)the legislature here targeted two professors before her, both were deeply entrenched so they went no where. Sorry but I am a teacher and an openly gay one in the South. And no, it isn't easy nor do anti gay teachers here get fired, or reprogramed or anything like that. The fact is the only prominent firing of a conservative professor here was of a teacher who literally stalked a gay muslim student on social media, did get fired, and ended up suing and winning. So he got rehired despite literally forcing a student to leave campus over being harassed.
StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)It's just one of the few instances of punishing a liberal minority professor that got a lot of media attention. This happens all of the time in academia and elsewhere, but doesn't fit the "war on conservatives" narrative the right wing has crafted and shoved down the throats of the mainstream media, who eagerly spit it out as if it's something unique to that end of the spectrum.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Or are they simply editorials and anecdotal evidence projected onto the whole?
misanthrope
(7,405 posts)I applaud it.
JohnSJ
(91,964 posts)for African Americans, so there is no need to discuss the history and treatment of African Americans in schools, was disgusting, along with spewing what a great guy Larry elders
dsc
(52,130 posts)again, I figured it was likely the only place I would see Barbara Lee on 9/11 weekend so I tuned in.
Sympthsical
(8,936 posts)That was an amazing categorization of that conversation.
dsc
(52,130 posts)just about verbatim.
ProfessorGAC
(64,425 posts)I heard a much broader point, and I was not expecting any one particular academic to be pointed out.
And, yes he has critically mentioned the right wing demonization of college professors.
On multiple occasions.
But, he's been a critic of any moves to limit opinions from either side.
One may like it or not, but he's been consistent in criticizing attempts to do so from left or right.
Paladin
(28,204 posts)After his 3rd or 4th lecture about how much liberals suck, I walked away from his show. Haven't missed it one damned bit, in all the years since.
ProfessorGAC
(64,425 posts)That's ok, but I don't see any such thing.
Paladin
(28,204 posts)Paladin
(28,204 posts)A direct quote from Bill Maher, on why he's trashing the left. It's the headline of an article in this morning's "Salon." He trashes the "Black National Anthem" while he's at it.
Those of you who continue to watch this asshole's show and defend him, please take this into account. He's not even bothering to hide his scorn for us.
Rob H.
(5,340 posts)He comes off looking like an even bigger ass than usual.
"There is funny on the left now as well as the right"
By BRETT BACHMAN
PUBLISHED AUGUST 28, 2021 11:40AM (EDT)
...
"I keep saying to the liberals, you know what, if what you're doing sounds like an Onion headline, stop. This is why there's an opening for conservative comedy, because, you know, when you tear down statues of Abraham Lincoln in the Land of Lincoln Land of Lincoln cancels Lincoln, it's an Onion headline. You know, three-year-olds pick their own gender is an Onion headline," Maher said.
From the article you referenced:
Oof.
Paladin
(28,204 posts)I'll give the motherfucker that much...