I sw this! I was stunned! The growth of this understanding is amazing. (4.00 / 1)

He has always had insights and a wonderfully spitball from the rear seats antiauthoritarian streak that I delighted in and admired. But he thought of himself as a Republican and made deep erors of analysis, even as he made direct hits of insight and hilarity. This important speech is as big an understanding of the left/liberal/democracy/social understanding of 'village' / tribe "we are in this together"   sanity. We are working together because being without empathy community and understanding is a sign of a sociopathic dysfunction.

Thanks so much Daniel. Good catch, good find for the link and timely placement.

Watch it!

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The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky

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by: HousesofProgress @ Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 18:06:40 PM UTC

thanks (4.00 / 2)

I think something is really happening to the culture.  Liberal viewpoints are being overtly stated in a way I've never seen before, not even on Colbert or Stewart (whose liberalism is genuine, but implicit rather than overtly stated).

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by: Daniel De Groot @ Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 18:33:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yes I think thats true. Something is happening. (0.00 / 0)

Its feeding on itself too. Odd off centre proofs, like the woman on that same show from CNBC, who attempted over and over again to try sound reasonable, while pushing rightwing talking points into the discussion. Her need, and it is, of appearing 'progressive' (in its loosest "I am not actively trying to impoverish you") while discounting actual progressive policy, is actually a feed for this direction. It makes the recognition that we have been sick for a very long time even more apparent.*

Denying that we have been sick is even more obvious to almost everyone, everyone that isn't involved already in active deception. This is a building feedback loop of education, understanding and recognition. The logic for example that comes from discussing America's Right to Health Care, which is coming because it was part of the denial of that right by a Republican, and is part of the unfolding of the need to reform how healthcare gets delivered to all American's, affordably, is another good example.

* This from Kurt Vonnegut  I wrote his phrase last June about it:
"He developed what he called the Kilgore Creed: he would walk up to people, all of them, and slap them in the face, shouting, "You have been sick, now you're well again, and there's a lot of work to do!"
The diary still has a lot I'm still happy with On the Restoration Of America Sun Jun 01, 2008 -There is a fantastic book, "Timequake" by Kurt Vonnegut, which much like anything this writer ever wrote, has warm humorous instructive observations for anyone lucky enough to have a copy in their hands.

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The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky

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by: HousesofProgress @ Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 19:19:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Maher's path (4.00 / 2)

The interesting thing about this New Rules on Maher's trajectory is that he used to use the PO as an example of government incompetence.  On Politically Incorrect, when talk would turn to some evil gov't conspiracy theory, he would dismiss it by saying that the gov't can't even get the post office right, so how could they possibly, e.g., disappear all the TWA 800 evidence?

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by: Aaron Veenstra @ Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 22:59:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Maher is great (0.00 / 0)

I don't think he's been a libertarian for quite a while though.  I think he made a sharp turn left after 9/11 and never looked back.  

He believes in personal liberty, like a progressive and now he rejects conservative economic and foreign policy thinking.

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by: idratherbedrunk @ Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 19:49:18 PM UTC

He's socially a libertarian (4.00 / 1)

but cares about allocation of wealth such that the poor don't get screwed.  (That is, he's a liberal, and has been for a number of years now.)  Like so many people, the Bushies have radicalized his views, and he sees modern conservatism as intellectually and morally bankrupt.

His cynicism and anger during the worst of the Bush years was so very cathartic for me.  (Check out his stand-up bit, "The Decider.")

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by: MattD @ Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 23:28:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Peter Singer (4.00 / 1)

was on this show.  He is the most important philosopher alive today in terms of impact on public debate via clear thinking and argumentation.  (Contrast him with bullshitters like Zizek, the likes of which were so ably exposed by Alan Sokal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_hoax .)  His work on global poverty is deep and insightful, and he has a new book out on this topic.  If you haven't read him, or haven't read his stuff not related to animal suffering, I can't recommend him highly enough.  His book One World is still pretty timely and quite good.

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by: MattD @ Sun Mar 08, 2009 at 23:35:33 PM UTC

What Rock Have You Been Hiding under Mr. De Groot ? (0.00 / 0)

"These days" Bill Maher is sounding pleasantly liberal? Spoken like someone who hasn't been watching the show for the last several years.  Since its inception, certainly the funniest most cutting edge political commentary to be found anywhere on television much of the time. Bill Maher may be no professed liberal, but his show has certainly proven itself to be perhaps the most genuinely progressive statement anywhere in network broadcasting.  Bill had the guts to say things about George W. Bush and the Bush administration that many liberals never had the guts to say, things like "treason" and "traitor".  Stuff many liberals still don't have the guts to say publicly, to their continuing disgrace and shame.

I don't know where Mr. De Groot has been for the last four years, but most everybody who's anybody has been watching Bill Maher's Real Time, I'm talking a whole lot of important and powerful people in America and around the planet. I can't think of anybody, anybody who has a sense of humor or an interest in politics anyway, that doesn't appreciate Bill's show. Conservatives, liberals, moderates, libertarians, Republicans, Democrats Green party, everybody watches Bill Maher, specifically because he has the balls to tell it like it is, which continues to be a rare commodity in this country.

I have no doubt that when US historians look back on the first part of this century, they will hold up Maher's show as one of the few places in broadcasting where you could hear the unadulterated truth, without the bullshit ideological slant and corporate soft shoe coming from most everywhere else.  When Jon Stewart's shtick was already old and tired, Bill was blowing them all away.

Maher has certainly made an ass of himself from time to time, and I have criticized him harshly on HBO's own web site, but at least he has the intestinal fortitude to put himself out there, when so many were just waiting out the Bush administration in virtual silence like cowards, leaving the American people to twist in the wind. The so-called left and so-called liberals in this country should take a lesson from Bill's example, a lesson in courage, and a lesson in how to get a message across in a manner that people can actually relate to.

It's just too damn bad that so many people didn't get to see the show during the Bush administration since it's on a pay cable channel, because everyone in America and around the world should have had a chance to see it back then, while others should have been compelled to watch. I can think of a few conservatives and Republicans that should have been strapped to chairs, their eyes propped open with toothpicks and made to watch.  But I suppose that that would fall into the same category as water boarding and torture for those folks.

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by: AaronBBrown @ Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 10:24:27 AM UTC

well (0.00 / 0)

For one thing Canada only got HBO in the last 6 months.  But I did eagerly watch Maher every time Larry King had him on, and certainly clips of his stuff made their way around too.

But in past, I would generalize him as being excellently critical of Bush from the civil liberties, competence and constitutional perspectives.  However those are what you (should) expect from libertarians (though most disappoint by being more concerned with taxes and guns than torture and habeas corpus).  

As someone above noted, he used to mock the post office, and even up to a year ago I can remember being irked at things he would say.

So this is the first time I've really seen him making an emphatic case for liberal government philosophy as opposed to just "not Bush's crazy team."  Perhaps it's not the first time he's done so, but it is new to me.

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by: Daniel De Groot @ Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 11:40:34 AM UTC

[ Parent ]