The problem with comedian Bill Maher is he swallowed the green pill and rejected the red one.
The green pill (capitalism) is only effective when taken in combination with the red pill. Greed, not moral clarity or cultural enlightenment, fuels Maher’s outreach to political conservatives. He’s Gordon Gekko from the movie “Wall Street.” Absent religious conviction, Maher has succumbed to the religion of money and its ability to solve all problems.
Bill Maher is not a common-sense leftist. There is no such thing. Maher is a common-sense businessman.
Remember what Gekko said: “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”
I find Bill Maher entertaining and tolerable. I don’t find him trustworthy or particularly authentic.
Monday night, the HBO talk show host participated in Greg Gutfeld’s nightly roundtable on Fox News. The cross-pollination between conservative and liberal comedic pundits was hailed as a big moment, a thawing of the ice among political rivals, a further burnishing of Maher’s brand as a common-sense leftist.
He’s not a common-sense leftist. There is no such thing. It’s the equivalent of calling me a low-calorie obese person. It’s not true. Maher is a common-sense businessman. He’s “Republicans buy comedy show tickets, too.” He wants to be the Michael Jordan of joke cracking.
So, with a new book to sell, Maher joined Dr. Drew, Kat Timpf, and Dana Perino on Greg Gutfeld’s set and repeated his middle-of-the-road, surface-level talking points.
“I can’t hate you,” he said. “I’ve said it a billion times. You can hate Trump, you can’t hate all the people who like him. It’s half the country. I’m certainly not blind to Donald Trump’s faults. I get it why people choose to vote for him. You know, somebody who’s conservative once said to me, ‘What you don’t get, you liberals don’t get about Trump is that we don’t like it either. We just see him as a bulwark against the nonsense on the left.’ And I understand that because there is a lot of nonsense on the left and that’s in my book, too.”
Nothing pleases some political conservatives more than affirmation from celebrity leftists. Whenever a simple-minded rapper disavows Biden and supports Trump, it’s treated as an epistle.
I don’t get warm and fuzzy when idiots support Trump. I warm when I see people following the truth wherever it leads. That’s what bothers me about Maher. He’s smart. But he’s unwilling to follow the truth wherever it leads. Maher still pretends that January 6 was some sort of threat to democracy. He still pretends that Donald Trump is the second coming of Adolf Hitler.
“Trump is someone who does not concede elections,” Maher said Monday night. “It’s the most important thing. You don’t seem to see it that way. That’s the most important thing that’s going on in this country. He didn’t concede the last election. He’s not going to concede this election.”
“He’s an insurrectionist who doesn’t believe in democracy … he’s also insane and a criminal.”
The truth is more important than any political affiliation. Maher is not a slave to truth. Maher and other leftists have invented a new crime for Trump. Felony election denial. When Hillary Clinton or any Democrat denies the results of an election, it’s a simple misdemeanor. When Trump does it, it’s a crime worthy of prison time.
Calling Trump an “insurrectionist” is a flat-out lie. There was no insurrection. Frustrated voters walking around the Capitol were not trying to overturn the 2020 election or overthrow the government.
This is my problem with Maher. He’s taking no real risks. He’s playing both sides. He’s found the sweet spot for entertainers and populists. He can smoke weed and party with leftists and proudly tell them he hates Trump. And he can sell comedy show tickets to conservatives and crack jokes about the liberals who believe men can get pregnant.
The truth divides and bruises. Maher is afraid of being truly divisive except with one group — people of religious faith. He’s unafraid of Christians because he knows that Christians actually practice tolerance.
We respect Bill Maher’s right to be a greedy idiot.
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