Here’s an eight-minute clip from Bill Maher in which he touts a new rule: 2024 is supposed to be “The Year of Sanity”.
Maher gives several examples of pervasive insanity, the most prominent being the likely reelection of Trump as President. He also mentions tolerance of shoplifting, pro-Palestinian activists, admiration for the Houthis, frantic rumors that Taylor Swift is gay, claims that men can get pregnant, recent laws preventing abortion of fetuses that won’t live, and sundry other insane things.
After hearing all this, I decided that Maher is right: we need a Year of Sanity. Will we get one? I’m not holding my breath.
h/t: Mary
Modern Monetary Theory is totally insane, IMHO.
Yet NPR still gives it credibility: https://www.npr.org/2024/01/03/1222600843/the-national-debt-tops-34-trillion-a-record-high-how-worried-should-we-be
Is Maher planning a sabbatical? Because some of the things he says …
Has the world ever been in a nuttier place? I suppose it depends on how you define it. The last century was not exactly a shining example of reason and stability.
But even without any world wars going on (at least of the 20th century kind), somehow the world feels more unhinged now than ever. It’s probably just the bias created by living in the present moment without a “crystal ball”– the future is very uncertain. But we seem to heading down a pretty dark rabbit hole and I don’t like the look of it.
My crystal ball is murky inside, but I can make out some inchoate shapes. I see human societies more partitioned than even now. I see the schisms among us cleft deeper. I see lines of communication severed, resulting in more violence, death, and destruction.
We must prepare for the worst, as there is no hope for the best.
There is no question, that Mr. Maher was stating a stark truth. With the advent of electronic media, insanity is a disease that is spreading from person to person. It threatens to destroy the entire planet like a raging molten lava. Facts and values no longer matter. Reality is distorted.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I paid to see Bill Maher in concert about 5 years ago. He’s turned into a cartoon character of his former self… with his bitter, anti-woke crusade. At least MAX still has Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to make the streaming subscription worth it. When John goes, and he will eventually as I still can’t believe he clears each episode’s hurdles with Warner-Discovery’s corporate lawyers, my reason to be a subscriber will go as well.
I don’t think he’s bitter at all. Sure, he’s anti-woke, but in my view that’s what we need. Also, he is on a FUNNY anti-woke crusade. I had dinner with him and his girlfriend a few years ago at a meeting (and other people at a small table), and he was funny as hell. I have to disagree with you on this one. And of course he’s as popular as ever.
Awesome piece!
I’m in 99 & 44/100 agreement with Maher.
Regarding Maher’s comment about people wearing masks in their cars, is it unreasonable that people would be about their daily business, perhaps going to the grocery store, the post office, the dry cleaners, the bank, etc., and either simply forget to take off their mask or decide to leave it on until the various and sundry visits are completed? Apparently, this low fruit is too tempting for Maher. (Or should someone say, “Oh, for the love of humanity! At all costs I must remember to take off my mask, for one can never know when Bill Big Brother Maher is watching!”)
He also has a thing about sweater vests and people who still use AOL email. (When did the AOL statute of limitations run?) At such time as I may again see his show, I think I shall wear a sweater vest with a big ole AOL button on it, my Covid shot record in a lanyard labeled “COVID-19”, and of course a mask.
He should rather focus on, e.g., those human primates obsessed with and hypnotized by their sacred digital demigod device dummies (as the Brits say) who can’t be bothered to look both ways before crossing a street. (Re Gollum: “My Precious!”)
It’s odd how some people get angry or derisive when they see people with surgical masks. (Maher is not the only one; a family member of mine has a similar deficiency.) It’s like a red flag to a bull. But they have no idea why a person would be wearing a mask. Maybe the wearer likes to use a baby sucker, and the mask gives them cover. Whatever.
Also, while I have no love for AOL, I continue to use it because it remains a useful searchable database going back almost as far as the Cretaceous, before my current evolved self. It even still contains my love notes to women before my marriage. I use Gmail, too, but it also forwards to my AOL account. However, I draw the line on sweater vests.
I agree with a lot of what Maher says, but I also disagree with his Covid rants. His pandemic polemics are misguided.
Re: likelihood of Trump reelection….
Against what Democrat ticket?
I love this. Each side in the endless political and cultural debates seems to be represented in the media by their most extreme version. But most people are actually somewhere in the middle, so you’d like to think sanity and reason could prevail.
Bill’s on excellent form! It’s his birthday, too.
You can “age” a person by their preferred internet provider very accurately.
I, 52, have an ancient yahoo a/c I only use for business, personal is gmail. AOLers are usually older than I am.
Kids today use gmail or nothing b/c they text emojis b/c they can’t read. 🙂
Amazes me the internet is so old. I got my first account at uni in 1990!
D.A.
NYC
I started way, way back with Compuserve, one of the pioneers (founded in 1969) in electronic mail services (now owned by AOL since 1998) I can still remember my 11 digit e mail address and hear the clanging modem using the telephone network. Compuserve were the first provider in Europe. It seems sooo long ago and like you amazes me that the internet is that old!
Not quite as old as me though.
Sometimes common sense makes a lot of sense.
I just want to throw in a comment supporting the inclusion of these funny and timely videos from Bill Maher. There truly is an exhausted majority in the U.S., with centrist Republicans and centrist Democrats. People who think Trump is a deranged and horrible person and that Biden has been a poor president and is certainly too old to run again. It’s frustrating that one feels one has to vote against someone rather than for someone.