I thought that was a really good read, thanks for sharing. I’ve watched way more Bill Maher than I’d like to admit, and I think one comment early on sums him up pretty well:

I remember Bill from when I was much younger. I changed; he hasn’t. He’s always been “controversial”, to put it in positive marketing terms, and he’s always been kind of stupid.

Recently I was watching a clip from his show a bit less than a year ago. His entire argument was “lots of people have suffered ethnic cleansing and genocide, the Palestinians should just deal with it.”

Not exactly the stuff of philosophy. He’s just fundamentally not a deep thinker or interested in the truth or understanding. He’s just a con man: he talks with confidence and has a comedian’s wit, and to many people that projects “intelligence”. But he’s not actually smart. He also doesn’t really ever bring anyone on who disagrees with him fundamentally or at least is able to articulate a disagreement well. This was true even on his old show. Guests could disagree with him but it usually wasn’t a fundamental disagreement. And if it was, Bill would just try and shut them down with a joke and then jump to a commercial. It’s all in the service of maintaining the illusion that Bill’s the smartest man on the stage at all times.

Also, this segment about Roan highlights how in the last decade at least he’s become a one-trick pony: anyone who disagrees with me, especially if they are young, is too soft and weak. It’s painfully obvious he can’t deal with getting old. But even more than that… this man is a Hollywood comedian. The idea that he can lecture anyone about being hard or mental toughness is a joke. Bill would probably have a breakdown if he had to spend a night in a hotel in the Global South. Even for an American he’s soft.