Boomers like Maher spent their whole adulthoods learning nothing and passively absorbing propaganda that told them they were on the right side of history simply by virtue of where they were born, and now they want younger generations to treat them like wise elders simply because they've aged into it.
And it steams their hams like nothing else when the youths refuse to go along.
Huh. I think that actually describes all the boomers I know. My boomer relatives especially. I know for myself I'm constantly learning new things regarding stuff that happened during my lifetime (especially when I was little). The boomers around me decided everything they learned in the 50s and 60s was correct and there's nothing more to investigate.
It's frustrating hearing them go on about something but can't name any members of the Black Panthers, what organization Malcolm X belonged to, don't know anything about J. Edgar Hoover's bullshit, which presidents backed Pol Pot, Hussein, bin Laden, Marcos, or Pinochet (if they know who any of those people are), etc. It's like "You literally had a 30~40 year head start over me to learn this. What were you even doing?"
It's no wonder their parents hated them lmao
Every boomer I know has said something like "everything is too political these days. When I was younger there wasn't any of this politics stuff." And yet these are people who were alive for the Kennedy assassination, the civil rights movement, Vietnam war protests, the stonewall riot, at least two waves of feminism, a whole bunch of airplane hijackings. I could go on. I mention this stuff to these boomers and they respond with like "yeah but I never heard about any of it."
How tho
No social media and I assume they weren't sitting down to watch the evening news (which wasn't great anyway).
I think it's more than passive. When I saw the video going around I only read the subtitles of the first few seconds and thought "oh cool the boomer has another take", but once I sat down and went through all of it, he brings up the usual hasbara points. I haven't looked into his backers and sponsors but I wouldn't doubt he's on AIPAC or similar.
The frustrating this is, libs from Bill Maher to Hillary Clinton think THEY are the ones who have a deep understanding of the situation, while "the youths" are just repeating slogans they heard on TikTok without any thought. While the opposite is actually the case: all they know are hasbara talking points and narratives they picked up 30 years ago; while so many in the pro-Palestine movement have a solid, materialist understanding of not only the most recently developments but the whole history stretching back a century +.
All the media and Hollywood libs are pro hasbara, not because muh jewtron nexus control network but because its part of ruling ideology and the ideology of working space. This basically ensures that most celebrity have to be pro-Israel in some sense.
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.
The limits of comedy talk shows tbh. It's just one step removed from being Vaush; even with an entire team writing your jokes and scripts beforehand, you still end up having to put comedy first. He's a good speaker, he has cadence, timing and inflexion. And good speakers often are able to create a following with that.
He's part of an older disappearing breed I think of the "overly snarky commentator". People are moving away from that, it's just not trendy anymore.
Also he's getting old and inshallah he will not see many more birthdays
He's probably more mad that Jon Oliver's style is now more popular. Not really funny (at least in my opinion), but at least well-researched.
(Yes, I know that, at least how he presents, he has problems seeing the main problem as capitalism. But when it comes to domestic issues, he is definitely well-reseaeched.)
No one will laugh at my gay king joke! This is obviously because of woke. I will never let this go.
