I've heard folks on RfM refer to Bill Maher in the same reverential tones tbms use for Joseph Smith. I hadn't listened to him before, so tonight I was pleasantly surprised to find him on t.v. as a was flipping through channels in my hotel room. However, I was pretty disappointed with what I saw.

Bill seems to be the intellectual equal of Rush Limbaugh, i.e., a very limited world view dictated by his political ideology. Bill's inability to objectively analyze issues mirrored Rush's same limitation, although obviously they fall on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

I was also under the impression that Bill was supposed to be funny. However, his humor primarily consisted of histrionics coupled with profanities, and it seemed pretty childish to me.

From messages on rfm, I expected Bill to be a font of wisdom. Maybe I caught him on a bad night. However, I must say I was not impressed. Not at all.

He's good, as a commentator, and good on his show when he moderates a panel, but I never found him particularly funny either, well except for this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8U_JveHS8E

He is an outspoken atheist. Hence he is popular here. I agree with many of his political views and he can be funny, but he just oozes superiority which I find off putting. He also has some strange views such as being anti vaccine. A little of him goes a long way with me.

Agree about the vaccine thing.

You nailed it on his sense of superiority, and I found that characteristic to be particularly disagreeable. Additionally, I have a hard time respecting people with a superiority complex since their self perception tends to be based more on a lack of self awareness than an objective evaluation of their abilities/intelligence.

I find him trenchant.

Well, you didn't catch much. But if the profanities throw you off, don't bother listening to more.

The profanities, per se, don't throw me off. It's just there didn't seem to be any substance behind them.

He's a mixed bag, and his arrogance can be tiresome, but I greatly appreciate his no-nonsense apolitical stance on free speech. It's refreshing.

My impression also.

Then I heard he was anti vaccine. Obviously he's never seen a baby die of whooping cough. Never seen a baby whose mother was exposed to measles, and never seen a child lying in a hospital bed dying of polio. That's just the tip of the iceberg. His ignorance on that topic alone was enough.

He fancies himself an expert on everything-science, politics, religion, vaccines-you name it. Hello,Bill, you are a comedian,not the final authority on everything under the sun. He is definitely a mixed bag.

Have you seen those things? That must have been awful, I'm sorry you went through that.

The two biggest threats to Joseph's Myth, Islam and all the other batshit crazy religions.

Does he speak the truth or his opinions? From the limited amount I saw of his show, he seemed to spout his opinions, but not a lot of facts. I wasn't aware previously that he was anti vaccine, but that makes me doubt his ability to recognize the truth. The case for the efficacy of vaccines is almost as convincing as the evidence against the book of Abraham being a divinely inspired, historically accurate document.

I'm all for the ethical treatment of animals, but PETA goes waaaay too far and he's on their board of directors.
They're busy fighting purebred dog breeders, while Rhinos and Elephants are going extinct due to idiots killing them for their tusks and horns, believing they have medicinal benefits, when they're about the same as your fingernails and teeth.

In his own words:

"What I've read about what they think I'm saying is not what I've said. I'm not a germ theory denier. I believe vaccinations can work. Polio is a good example. Do I think in certain situations that inoculating Third World children against malaria or diphtheria, or whatever, is right? Of course. In a situation like that, the benefits outweigh costs. But to me living in Los Angeles? To get a flu shot? No."

Mostly his opinions. Since I tend to agree with his politics,I do have mixed feelings about him.

He generally tells it like it is, although I disagree with a few things he has said. He's not right about everything, which would come as great surprise to him if he ever realized it.

I think the reason that Maher specifically is popular on RFM is due to "Religulous." IIRC, Tal Bachman was interviewed on the movie's Mormonism segment.

ETA:

(Psst, Tal. This is your cue to talk about any impressions from the interview or other behind the scenes stuff on the movie.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2015 12:09AM by Book of Mordor.

Ah yes, Religulous. I forgot about that. I'll have to watch it one of these days, especially if Tal is on there - I'm sure he had something good to say on the topic of Mormonism.

Not a fan of Bill Maher...or most of the other self important talking heads on TV who think their superior view of things trumps all others....but Maher's views of religion bear paying attention to.

Ron Burr

I'm a liberal and an atheist and I don't really care for him. There's something off-putting about him. He has a very arrogant and condescending demeanor. And I wasn't a big fan of Religulous. I liked the concept of the movie but thought the movie failed on its mission.

I like some of his material. I give him more credit than Rush Limbaugh because Maher only claims to be a comedian, while Limbaugh sells himself as a pundit.

"his humor primarily consisted of histrionics coupled with profanities, and it seemed pretty childish to me."

Yep, he's a lot like Jon Stewart. :-)

Seriously, I liked what he had to say on Jimmy Kimmel's show last week. Look it up and watch it if you haven't seen it.

In many ways, he's a "friend" to the Ex-Mormon community because in his movie "Religulous", he interviewed Ex-Mormons Bill Gardiner and Tal Bachman.

procrusteanchurch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've heard folks on RfM refer to Bill Maher in the
> same reverential tones tbms use for Joseph Smith.

Oh, stop. That's completely false. Nobody here has shown any "worship" of him, there's been no demand to accept uncritically anything he says, nobody thinks he's always right, and nobody demands you 'believe' what he says. Your statement is the rankest and most dishonest kind of hyperbole.

The guy speaks his mind, usually in a witty way. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I don't (his stance on vaccines is just stupid, for example). When he says something funny and/or poignant, it's worth sharing.

Stop pretending anybody worships him like mormons do Smith. That's ridiculous and dishonest.

+

Exactly Kolob, who exactly "worships" Bill Maher at RFM?

Me?

Others?

That's silly. He's definitely a mixed bag. He's definitely arrogant. Even insufferable.

But sometimes, he's spot on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipu0ifyC-Xc

Sometimes.

Holy cow, that's quite a reaction to what I had intended as a fairly innocuous statement. I've learned my lesson, though. If folks on rfm are so hyper sensitive, I'll avoid making tongue-in-cheek comparisons in the future. Sheesh.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2015 03:46PM by procrusteanchurch.

I don't know that I'd say the guy is popular with me as a person, but he definitely comes up with some quote worthy gems now and then.

The thing that drives me crazy is he always laughs at his own jokes.

He makes fun of Mormons and calls them out on their craziness.

He's one social commentator who's not afraid to call it the way he sees it and doesn't apologize for it afterwards.

Mahr is a mixed bag. But I wouldn't put him in the worthless category Rush Limbaugh inhabits. Mahr actually has good ideas once in a while.