printThe thing that’s so awful about this YouTube clip is the manner in which Bill Maher deploys mockery to discredit Ron Paul, without attempting to counter his arguments. Paul, of course, is many times Maher’s superior, intellectually and morally. If not for this smarmy mockery in the mainstream, the patriotic Paul’s ideas would catch on.
Update: A little less sneering (although these female anchors sure pull faces, grimace, and gesture vulgarly), but still quite condescending. Here’s an MSNBC daytime interview with Paul, titled, “Flying Under the Radar.” Note that the woman wasn’t pleased that Paul didn’t rabbit on about the firing of the US attorneys, like her colleague Keith Olbermann incessantly does.
“If not for this smarmy mockery in the mainstream, the patriotic Paul’s ideas would catch on.” Yeah I think that’s the idea.
Paul came off pretty likeable but he rambled a bit. If he’s going to make it through the campaign he really has to be ready with some sharp comebacks for questions about his more controversial views.
It wouldn’t hurt if Mr. Paul had more than three and a half minutes to define himself! I think his fumbling can be attributed to the race against the clock . No doubt MessNBC has more important things to cover: we still don’t know the identity of the father of Anna Nicole’s baby, after all! Or maybe a school bus has crashed in West Cupcake,AK! Surely something is on fire somewhere!
Why don’t we rename that MSNBC segment “Swept Under the Rug”. [Great comment, but be fair; “Fox noise” deserves the same appellation.]
Bill Maher’s cocksure position on global warming reveals his epistemology. He feels comfortable in his mockery because he has carefully assured himself that others feel the same way. Thus, the fact that most people are completely unaware of the issues that gave rise to the civil war give him a comfort zone from which to mock someone who has studied the issue.
The only thing he finds newsworthy is that someone doesn’t conform to the intellectual mold of the common idiot, so he can sniff condescendingly at the naively quaint idea that anyone should actually uphold their oath of office.
He used to call himself “Politically Incorrect”. I still wonder how a smarmy, servile, plastic man could call himself that.
–John Danforth–
Bill maher is no talent schlock playing to the crowd. The fact that he is on television is a scathing indictment of the taste and discernment of the viewing audience.
Wow. Does Bill Maher even know much about what he speaks on? Some people, mostly libertarians and classical liberals, know deeply about the arguements and counter arguments of the ideas that they examine. People in the media hold ideas simply because, because well… it just feels good. It feels right to have this idea, to believe this way, and so it is done; I am right. Dumb.
It always makes me chuckle when some well meaning – and not so well meaning – person debates with me on economics or personal ethics. I’m not an intellectual, but I have arrived at my views after a lengthy search and study; I didn’t just ‘feel’ my way through things.
Paul has no chance to make any changes, nor do any of the rest of us, because Americans are stupid.
I was trying to stay pithy and pertinent. To do Fox any justice would require much more than 200 words.
But I can’t resist…
Weekdays from 4-5 p.m.one can tune in to Fox Snooze and treat themself to the nasal soughing of air escaping Neil Cavuto’s head. Every episode of “Your World” concludes with some cozy, conservative admonition. Stocks rebounded today; alas, Bush gets no credit for it. Someone holds a door open for Neil, or he spies a happy couple snuggling in the sandwich shop and he tries to derive an essential life lesson. His ‘Common Sense’ segment always leaves me thinking “Gee, that’s swell; but what has that got to do with the price of crude?” Who cares what country music duo Montgomery-Gentry think about the troop surge? Who cares about Trump’s spat with Rosie?
I’m not sure which disheartens me more: seeing explicit evil in Maher, or seeing such tepid, vague goodness in Cavuto.
[LOL. Well put]