Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

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The Romulan Republic
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Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by The Romulan Republic »

https://ew.com/movies/2018/11/12/bill-m ... -reaction/
Bill Maher clarified — yet also doubled down — on his controversial comments about the late Marvel legend Stan Lee.

The HBO Real Time host told Larry King in an interview posted Wednesday that he didn’t intend any offense to Lee’s memory, but that comic book fandom culture’s explosive reaction to his diss “proves my point.”

“Talk about making my point for me,” Maher said. “Yeah, I don’t know very much about Stan Lee and it certainly wasn’t a swipe at Stan Lee…I am agnostic on Stan Lee. I don’t read comic books. I didn’t even read them when I was a child. What I was saying is: A culture that thinks that comic books and comic book movies are profound meditations on the human condition is a dumb f—ing culture. And for people to, like, get mad at that just proves my point.”


The talk show host claimed he didn’t even realize people were mad because he doesn’t “follow social media like that, every stupid thing people lose their s— about.”

Originally, Maher wrote on his Real Time blog, “The guy who created Spider-Man and the Hulk has died, and America is in mourning. Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I don’t know, watch a movie, I guess,” he wrote in the post, which he titled “Adulting. “Someone on Reddit posted, ‘I’m so incredibly grateful I lived in a world that included Stan Lee.’ Personally, I’m grateful I lived in a world that included oxygen and trees, but to each his own.

“Now, I have nothing against comic books — I read them now and then when I was a kid and I was all out of Hardy Boys,” he explained. “But the assumption everyone had back then, both the adults and the kids, was that comics were for kids, and when you grew up you moved on to big-boy books without the pictures.”

Maher went on to write how, in the past 20 years, “adults decided they didn’t have to give up kid stuff” and “pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature,” while “some dumb people got to be professors by writing theses with titles like Otherness and Heterodoxy in the Silver Surfer.

“And now,” he continued, “when adults are forced to do grown-up things like buy auto insurance, they call it ‘adulting’ and act like it’s some giant struggle.”

Maher concluded his blog post by claiming our culture hasn’t “necessarily gotten stupider,” we’re just “using our smarts on stupid stuff.” He added, “I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important.”


Lee’s team previously slammed the comments in an open letter as “frankly disgusting” and replied, “countless people can attest to how Stan inspired them to read, taught them that the world is not made up of absolutes, that heroes can have flaws and even villains can show humanity within their souls … Our shock at your comments makes us want to say ‘ ’Nuff said, Bill,’ but instead we will rely on another of Stan’s lessons to remind you that you have a powerful platform, so please remember: ‘With great power there must also come — great responsibility!'”
So, a beloved cultural icon passes away, and a washed-up second-rate comedian decides to demean him with tired old cliches about comic books being just for kids, and go so far as to suggest that Lee is responsible for the election of Donald Trump, in order to presumably show everyone how edgy and sophisticated he is. :wanker:
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

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I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by mr friendly guy »

To be fair, he seems to be implying that comic book readers are stupid or had misplaced priorities rather than Stan Lee caused people to elect Trump. Personally I don't think comics were mainstream that much until may be the 2000s, and had a large help from the Iron Man film. I don't think that potential Trump voters were much different than what they are before comics became mainstream, although there is some misogyny in geekdom.
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by Broomstick »

Sounds like yet another case of someone disrespecting what someone else likes for entertainment and/or relaxation and claiming that what they like is more sophisticated or something. Liking comic books or comic book movies is no more dumb than liking to watch professional sports - games are for kids! Grow up! - or any number of other activities people engage in.

And yes, Bill Maher is a dick.
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by ray245 »

Is it hard to teach people not to be snobby about their personal preference? Like try teaching it to kids in schools? Because the world can be a better place if people don't try and demean people for their taste in entertainment.
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by U.P. Cinnabar »

What did you people honestly expect from a psuedoliberal anti-vaxxer fuckwit?
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by Civil War Man »

Maher went on to write how, in the past 20 years, “adults decided they didn’t have to give up kid stuff” and “pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature,” while “some dumb people got to be professors by writing theses with titles like Otherness and Heterodoxy in the Silver Surfer.
C.S. Lewis wrote:“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by The Romulan Republic »

mr friendly guy wrote: 2018-11-22 05:11am To be fair, he seems to be implying that comic book readers are stupid or had misplaced priorities rather than Stan Lee caused people to elect Trump. Personally I don't think comics were mainstream that much until may be the 2000s, and had a large help from the Iron Man film. I don't think that potential Trump voters were much different than what they are before comics became mainstream, although there is some misogyny in geekdom.
There's misogyny in the culture in general, but perhaps concentrated more in some aspects of geek culture, particularly superhero comics.

However, I wonder how much that's because of attitudes like Maher's. There is a general perception that comic books are for adolescent boys... so the companies cater primarily to (horny insecure) adolescent boys. Pretty much nobody writes and markets superhero comics for women, at least not on a large scale.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by U.P. Cinnabar »

The Romulan Republic wrote:attitudes like Maher's
In particular, as expressed by Werthram and SOTI, which helped sell more comics than it helped suppress.

I wonder if Maher also thinks if Superman's a fascist and Wonder Woman's a lesbian.
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Maybe. Mind you, I don't actually think there'd be anything wrong with a lesbian Wonder Woman (personally I see her as bisexual).
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: Bill Maher is a douchebag. In other news, water is wet.

Post by U.P. Cinnabar »

The Romulan Republic wrote: 2018-11-22 10:54pm Maybe. Mind you, I don't actually think there'd be anything wrong with a lesbian Wonder Woman (personally I see her as bisexual).
Nor would I, but Werthram's observation(and Maher's other comments about lesbians) incorporated the most negative stereotypes.
"Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone amongst God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him, drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of Death.."
—29th Scroll, 6th Verse of Ape Law
"Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter. The uproarious laughter between the two, and their having fun at my expense.”
---Doctor Christine Blasey-Ford
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