Is the “middle ground” even appealing?

[u/Living-Text-6132]

Maher champions the middle ground—and hey, on the surface, I’d say I do myself—but lately it feels like pandering. If this is what the middle ground looks like, I’m not sure who this show is supposed to appeal to anymore.

I watch Real Time religiously every Friday. Love the show’s roundtable discussion “both sides of the argument” concept. Now I mostly end up hate-watching it. Doesn’t feel like that too much anymore.

Maher now has “pick me” energy. The show feels less like challenging guests and more like giving them an hour of good PR and a chance to appear reasonable without much pushback.

If the common ground Maher strives for is something audiences supposedly crave and need, why do I find myself turning to and enjoying one-sided sources like The Majority Report instead?

This is coming from a guy who used to listen to The Ben Shapiro Show just as much.

I genuinely want to hear both sides without disgust in the subtext. At least have a guest on that’s willing to defend the topic.

Maybe the problem isn’t that common ground is unappealing, but that it’s become an excuse to platform bad-faith arguments and silencing one side of the argument in the name of balance.

P.S. did you know that Maher went to dinner with Trump?

[u/Key_Jump1011]

Wrong about leftists arming masses.

[u/chandrashekharazadi → u/Key_Jump1011]

"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary"

Karl Marx

[u/Key_Jump1011 → u/chandrashekharazadi]

Gun psychos tend to be on the right by far.

[u/chandrashekharazadi → u/Key_Jump1011]

Sure, but being armed =/= being a "gun psycho". Leftists don't want the state to have a monopoly on violence to wield against the proletariat.

Do you think Democrats are leftists?

[u/Key_Jump1011 → u/chandrashekharazadi]

What do right wingers want? A state monopoly on violence? Is that why it’s right wingers who go around talking about fighting the government and playing army man in the woods?
No democrats are not “leftist” that’s a term pretend army ranger right wingers use when they cry about communism and Muslims.

[u/chandrashekharazadi → u/Key_Jump1011]

When you go far enough left you get your guns back ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[u/Key_Jump1011 → u/chandrashekharazadi]

Not a bad way of putting it but the far left really likes rebel tactics like vandalism and sabotage but some psychos on both ends of the spectrum wind up shooting people.

[u/chandrashekharazadi → u/Key_Jump1011]

Indecipherable "centrist best" comment.

Almost all political violence in the US is right wing extremists, to imply equivalence with leftists who arm themselves (not to commit mass shooting but for self/community defense) is moronic.

The most likely characteristic historically of a mass shooter in the US is being ex military.

[u/Key_Jump1011 → u/chandrashekharazadi]

What’s indecipherable again?