I ask this in particular after this particular cognitohazard dropped:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWuNv6cv27o

smurf-cursed is the most condescendingly toxic kind of Reddit New Atheist and has made that part of his brand for decades, so that already rules out most religious people that don't just see religion as some sort of country club gathering.

He has the same creepy misanthropic view of children, where he holds them in contempt and clearly wants to violate them too, that a lot of kiddie-creeping boomers do, so that probably rules out most people significantly younger than him unless he's directly throwing money at them and they're accepting it.

He believes in (or at least professes belief for profit) a lot of Qanon shit, in particular against trans people, so that even rules out a lot of wine liberals that I assume would otherwise clink wine glasses to his smuglord quips.

He's just about definitive Blue MAGA, which red MAGA despises anyway, so he isn't likely to have much a fandom there outside of fickle "he is one of the good ones" gimmicks where he might show up on a chud podcast or something sometimes.

I truly don't know and I'm sincerely asking: what demographic is left with all of that (and more) carved out that might like that particular piece of shit? What's his revenue source besides being rich already?

  • dannoffs [he/him]
    ·
    20 days ago

    People who don't regret their Harry Potter tattoos

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      20 days ago

      It's even worse when you knew one person that had one agony-4horsemen

  • Weedian [he/him]
    ·
    20 days ago

    In the case of my dad who still watches this shit, lifelong Democrat shitlibs who think "the far left", ie: anything left of Obama, are hysterical children. This gives them a good first impression of people like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapino who go on bills show and complain about woke. He has no idea who these ghouls are outside of seeing them once with Bill and when I push back telling him their abhorrent views I'm dismissed as hyperbolic because they appear civil in a 15-20 min guest slot on bills show

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      20 days ago

      In the case of my dad who still watches this shit, lifelong Democrat shitlibs who think "the far left", ie: anything left of Obama, are hysterical children. This gives them a good first impression of people like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapino who go on bills show and complain about woke.

      My biological family is for the most part full blown MAGA chuds, so this is interesting to know about for me. I can see the clout appeal of being "as liberal as they come" and then sitting down with fascists and thanking them for their logic and reason in the face of the woke menace. the-boys-lthe-boys-r

      • Weedian [he/him]
        ·
        20 days ago

        Exactly this. He watches MSNBC and takes their word as gospel for what a good liberal should think, anything outside of that is unserious to him. I remember his contempt for the Bush administration but once Obama stepped into office things were "back to normal" despite Obamas policies being a continuation of GWB, then Trump broke his fucking brain and thought brandon brought things "back to normal" despite being a continuation of Trumps policies.

        He gets more upset with people protesting the US' involvement and reminding him of the genocide in Gaza than the fact it's actually happening. He views it as a strictly religious conflict and "dumb" in his words. He's the definition of a civility lib.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          20 days ago

          He views it as a strictly religious conflict and "dumb" in his words. He's the definition of a civility lib.

          I had some downright ghoulish coworkers at my old district that would cackle about bloodshed in the middle east as a bunch of (slurs slurs slurs) killing each other nonstop because they are (ableistic slurs slurs slurs) and found it "funny" and even said it was "popcorn" for them while watching CNN.

          Ghouls. Fucking ghouls.

          • Weedian [he/him]
            ·
            20 days ago

            Thankfully my dad isn't this bad. He doesn't like the fact that it's happening but having to see and hear about it is bad and protesting is going too far. He has 0 material analysis of why its happening, only that it should stop by way of Hamas being destroyed for being "terrorists". He doesn't like the Israelis either but he would never call them terrorists

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              20 days ago

              but having to see and hear about it is bad and protesting is going too far

              Treat interruption is a high crime and misdemeanor for brunch liberals, that's for sure.

              "What if BLM made me late for work? I would (tacticool fantasy of murder revenge here)" so went one conversation after the George Floyd protests.

          • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            19 days ago

            Sometimes I think I should take my lunch in the staff lounge as the tech guy instead of our office, but I don't need to know how incredibly reactionary some of my piers are.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
              hexagon
              ·
              19 days ago

              I wanted to eat my lunch in my own classroom, but there was some petty school-specific rule against it so I had to hear, for years, about which murderfucker was on the Iron Throne that week, or about how epic this one SV moment was. Totally not condoning it while gobbling it up and oinking all the while, of course.

              soypoint-1 awooga libertarian-alert hypersus soypoint-2

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    20 days ago

    jaded, nihilistic 35-55 white male fuckups who confuse being smug with being clever. they are responding to the foreclosure on the promise of the Obama campaign in '08 by literally wiping their ass on everything. but of course dutifully supporting Team Blue because "no alternative is possible."

    too busy getting high and watching Rick and Morty to read anything, but watches cable news a lot "to be informed".

    they are exhibit A in "what no theory and constant capitalist propaganda does to an em eff".

    it breaks your brain.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      20 days ago

      jaded, nihilistic 35-55 white male fuckups who confuse being smug with being clever. they are responding to the foreclosure on the promise of the Obama campaign in '08 by literally wiping their ass on everything. but of course dutifully supporting Team Blue because "no alternative is possible."

      In my experience, South Park's rise and persistence coincides with people around my age, old enough to have consumed it as their primary source of entertainment (and propaganda) in their impressionable teenage years and definitely became those jaded, nihilistic white male fuckups who confuse being smug with being clever that you mentioned.

      And it shows. Some of my former coworkers quoted that shit nonstop as if college never ended. doomer

      too busy getting high and watching Rick and Morty

      In their own words, some of them "upgraded" to that, yeah. doomer

      they are exhibit A in "what no theory and constant capitalist propaganda does to an em eff".

      They call themselves "nonpolitical" "centrist" or sometimes "as progressive as they come" (which to them means they like weed and talk about le sexy sex constantly, including to deeply uncomfortable audiences) which does sound like a bunch of smurf-cursed sporelings, now that I think about it.

      • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        20 days ago

        i know a guy that is in the demo. we used to be closer and talk about all the things as newly minted young adults, but his life slowly, over the period of a decade, began to revolve exclusively around consuming cable TV. because it requires no effort, unlike using the internet or a streaming service. power on: channel flip until haha or booba.

        eventually, talking to him became like interfacing with a random generator of CNN talking points and smug bill maher rejoinders.

        i remember vividly once, we hadn't seen each other in a year and the topic veered into the realm of nostalgia as a consumer product (not just a marketing strategy) and i was asking if he had heard of Hauntology (the latter music application), but he cut that off to ask if i had seen some episode of South Park "about this" and i said i hadn't seen it and had not kept up with the show much at all. and he just said, "oh, it's really funny" but couldn't really explain why it was funny or what the connection was and seemed too upset by this revelation--that i don't watch south park--to talk about it anymore. i didn't even say it sucked (though it does). i just said i had been more focused on grad school studies and stuff going on in my community (we live several hundred miles away from each other now).

        anyway, i think what bill maher does for these people is give them the satisfaction of feeling superior to people who are a.) republicans and b.) people who expend effort to make the world less shitty. it does this by loading them up with thought-terminating cliches to regurgitate smugly when their ignorant confidence is challenged by unfamiliar framing.

        and, i could be wrong, because i actively avoid hearing bill maher's voice, but i seem to recall his shows are always recorded with an audience of clapping/laughing fools. that's how TV personalities cement themselves as having mass appeal. never under estimate the power of a scripted "... and then everyone laughed" on the viewers at home.

  • sexywheat [none/use name]
    ·
    20 days ago

    My father-in-law is a Bill Maher "liberal". He's the type of guy that in literally any other developed country would be considered a conservative, but USA political discourse is so incredibly right wing that they're able to tell themselves without a hint of irony that they are "left leaning" yea

  • CarmineCatboy2 [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    20 days ago

    people who watch television

    it is possible we'll never understand them