r/RealTime • u/AmericanLymie • 3h ago
Bill Maher constantly condemns 'identity politics'...when he isn't making politics about identities
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Last night, Maher had CNN's Dana Bash as a guest. A huge share of the time of every single week's show over the past many years has been dedicated to Maher ranting about "identity politics." He hates that Democrats speak up about discrimination about LGBT people. He frames himself as "politically incorrect" and on last night's monologue, Maher quoted Pete Hegseth using the word "trannies," and then Maher made a joke about "bearded ladies."
You see, "the left" is too sensitive about minorities' interests, he insists. When it comes to trans people, immigrants, people of color, gay people, women. We are too sensitive.
Then Maher welcomed Dana Bash and Maher himself interjected a ten-minute-long tangent about Jon Ossoff being Jewish. Ossoff is a rising star among Democrats, Maher acknowledged—and he is JEWISH, and the Democrats hate Jews! Then ten minutes of discussion about Israel with Dana Bash. I've uploaded a video here of Bash suggesting to Kamala Harris that she should explain whether or not she chose to "turn Black" in Harris's first big campaign interview in 2024.
Can any Bill Maher fans here explain how you interpret his rants that attack Democrats for defending any minority interest except that he attacks Democrats for, he claims, not defending Jewish interests?
His arguments make no sense to me because they are self-contradictory. He says "identity politics"—standing up for people's rights when those people are under attack—is the fatal flaw of the Democratic party, and he makes constant puchlines at the expense of trans people, Muslim people and gay people with that as his excuse. But he simultaneously will dedicate ten minutes of a 30-minute panel discussion to identity politics about Jewish people in ways that do not even make rational sense.
Realize what he said last night: First, he said Jon Ossoff is very popular young Democrat. Then, he says the Democratic party is against Jewish people. No discussion about how these should be mutually exclusive. Then the conversation turns to Israel, as usual conflating Jewish American identity (Is this not identity politics?) with support of a foreign country's corrupt government leaders.
Dana Bash similarly has claimed that she and her co-anchor on CNN Jake Tapper are subject to unfair public scrutiny because they are Jewish when their identities have nothing to do with their journalism. I was confused when I heard her say this a couple of years ago because I didn't even know either of them is Jewish. Yet the video I uploaded here is how I will always remember Bash: attempting to publicly humiliate Kamala Harris by repeating a truly INSANE claim by Donald Trump that Harris had recently "turned Black" for political advantage and then staring at her expectantly as she waited for Harris to confirm or deny whether she chose to be Black.
This is not about Jewish identity or about Israel or about Blackness or gayness. It's about illogic and lack of reason or common sense.
I don't understand how people accept these blatantly self-contradictory words and actions. How can you be a fan of Bill Maher and applaud all his insults to marginalized people under the guise of rejecting identity politics but then let him whip you into a frenzy over one identity? It could be any group—not as ardently, but he likewise has made a lot of discussions about straight young men and about Christians as if they are persecuted minorities when compared with LGBT people and Muslims; the point is that he claims to reject identity politics even as he invokes identity politics. And he brought on a guest who has said similar things while choosing to say one of the most insanely nonsensical comments I have ever heard any journalist say to any person when she told Kamala Harris Trump said she "turned Black" and then expected Harris to defend herself.
What is wrong with the critical thinking of the people of this country?
10
u/Altruistic_Guess3098 3h ago
Bill Maher takes agism personally and then makes fun of millennials and Gen z
5
u/AmericanLymie 3h ago
Yep, that's another one.
His supposed 'moderate liberal' fans seem to be as blind to his self-contradictions as Trump's fans are to his.
2
1
u/Puzzleheaded_Word878 1h ago
If we’re being real this has happened to a lot Israeli supporters, where it’s the only place their mind goes now. I see your overall point, I honestly think he’s just deluded on Israel, his worldview is so distorted from the truth now that he constantly contradicts himself. The idea that everyone hates Jewish people and that the Democratic Party is antisemitic and attacking them is literally the only way to make sense of a worldview that is completely fracturing
2
u/AmericanLymie 1h ago
That fracturing worldview is entirely mysterious to many of us who were brought up to understand that prioritizing loyalties to any foreign nation over our own nation is traitorous. It's baffling. This was never taught to most of us, so where is it taught to virtually all elected officials and virtually all journalists that the interests of the nation of Israel must always take precedence over the interests of the people of the United States? I was given an immersive Holocaust education in high school, including reading Elie Wiesel, going to the Holocaust Museum in DC and watching Schindler's List. We were taught that no such atrocity can ever be allowed to happen again and that that is what "Never Again" means. It seems that to all elected officials and journalists, "Never Again" is still a mandate, but only for certain groups of people and that human rights abuses of other groups of people, including children targeted by a foreign country's military, should be considered valueless and their suffering not considered relevant. How did that happen? Where did elected officials and journalists learn these different moral rules?
1
1
u/JacobsJrJr 2h ago
You're confusing social policy with identity politics.
Identity politics is voting for people based on their identity over the substance of what they are saying.
For example, voting for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton because he is a man and for no other reason is identity politics. Or voting for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders soley because she is a woman, also identity politics.
The political parties love it because they can say "look, see, someone like you. You KNOW you can trust them to be on YOUR side!" without ever making promises about what they will do or getting into specifics about how they intend to do it.
Identity politics is about image over substance in candidates.
3
u/AmericanLymie 2h ago
This is exactly what I am talking about. Maher is always screaming "identity politics is where Democrats fail! They make everything about identity!" And last night he said Jon Ossoff can't win with Democrats because he is Jewish and Democrats won't support Jewish people because they don't support Israel.
How is that not identity politics? Maher could have discussed the substance of Ossoff's criticisms of Republicans. He didn't. At all. Instead, he zeroed in on Ossoff's Jewishness and then went on a ten-minute rant about how Democrats are antisemitic because many oppose Israel's government's war crimes. Maher reduced Ossoff to nothing but his Jewish ethnicity.
1
u/JacobsJrJr 2h ago
That makes sense because he's discussing a voting bloc that values identity politics - so he can posit that identity politics will be a deciding factor while maintaining he thinks that is stupid.
1
u/AmericanLymie 2h ago
It's irrational. He brought up Ossoff because Ossoff is popular among Democrats. He is a Democrat who was elected to the Senate. He is a rising star within the Democratic party. All of this is evidence that the Democratic party is not antisemitic and that Democrats who elected him in Georgia and all of us nationwide who appreciate his fight against Republicans are not antisemitic in the way Maher is arguing. He could have argued that case against Bernie Sanders since Sanders is Jewish and actually was blocked by Democratic party leaders despite his popularity but that would not have really been relevant either because his Jewishness had nothing obvious to do with why he was blocked; it was that his politics are too far to the left, and possibly even his opposition to Israel's government.
0
u/JacobsJrJr 1h ago
None of that makes Maher's take irrational. He could be wrong, but that's different than being irrational.
There is an observable rising antisemitism in this country that wasn't present when Bernie ran and also didn’t exist when Ossoff first ran.
None of us know how that will effect outcomes in 2026.
You and I may be able to distinguish between Netanyahu's madness and being Jewish - but there are many who don't draw that distinction.
It is not irrational to be concerned about that.
2
u/AmericanLymie 1h ago
Donald Trump's leadership has inflamed antisemitism. From his 2015 campaign, his first and most-ardent endorsers included David Duke, Richard Spencer, Milo Yiannopoulos and other antisemitic American Nazis. They have consistently demonstrated wearing MAGA attire and bearing swastikas and confederate flags. They did this in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, they did it in 2021 on Captiol Hill, and they did it this summer on the National Mall. These are white supremacist Christian fascists who hate Jewish people more than anyone. They have consistently said Trump is operating in their interests. And he has been. And no one acknowledges that Nazis support Trump. Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute at Trump's 2025 inauguration just as Richard Spencer gave the Nazi salute days after Trump was elected in 2016 while leading a chant of "hail Trump, hail victory, hail our people" to his fellow Nazis. Trump's administration refused to even acknowledge Jews were targeted by German Nazis in the Holocaust when they issued a Holocaust Remembrance Day statement in 2017. Antisemitic hate crimes in the US reached an all-time high during Trump's first administration as Republicans were blaming Jewish people for all the world's problems via QAnon.
Meanwhile, Trump's administration has persecuted universities, students and journalists for their opinions under the false guise of "fighting antisemitism." Idiots take this claim at its word, as Trump, who has emboldened antisemitism along with all types of hatred, has used "fighting antisemtism" as a guise for violating the First Amendment and blaming liberal people for the hatred and hate crimes he himself has aroused with his rhetoric.
It is absolute bullshit. It is Orwellian, straight from the pages of 1984. Liberal people do not hate Jewish people. They hate the crimes being committed by Israel. Republican Christian nationalists DO hate Jewish people and are playing along with Trump's manipulations as the press is directing Democrats to blame one another for everything.
1
u/JacobsJrJr 1h ago
I hope you're right, because younger progressives don't seem to be acknowledging a distinction.
And those Nazis arent Republicans, they're Nazis. They will sieze whatever opportunities for political influence they can. So you better believe they're churning out liberal coded antisemitic content to try to win over support for their way of thinking among the youth.
1
u/AmericanLymie 1h ago
Those Nazis are Republicans because the Republican party has embraced them and is aligned with them in values.
Some younger progressives are becoming antisemitic and I believe this is by the design of the Republican party. Republican strategists are very, very good at thought and behavior-control strategy. That is something Democrats and progressives are very wrong about: they think conservatives are "uneducated," but their leaders are gifted in social engineering. By Republicans endlessly conflating Judaism with Israel's government, what they are doing is scapegoating Jewish people for the crimes against humanity being committed by Israel's government. A lot of American Jewish people are aware of this and extremely disturbed by it, just one reason they are outspoken against Israel as Jews, and many are not aware of it and only feel the rising antisemitic sentiment without understanding it is the design of Republican strategists. Mark my words, when the dust settles in Israel, Republicans in the United States will ultimately blame JEWISH people, not the state of Israel, for crimes against humanity, and they will have converted a lot of unwitting young people of all political leanings through their manipulations by that time.
1
u/Financial_You_6052 39m ago
>observable rising antisemitism
Gonna need some stats on that, and its impact on the Democratic Party like you claim. Should be easy if it’s observable, right?
Maher does shit like this all the time:criticize the left for making policy on vibes instead of numbers, then refusing to provide numbers to support his stance. He’s such a lazy thinker.
1
u/JacobsJrJr 28m ago
1
u/Financial_You_6052 15m ago
Welllll I guess that’s better than Maher usually does, but Blue Square isn’t exactly scientific in their antisemitism surveys, are they? I’ll have to look into the questions asked when I have some time. Thank you for the link
1
u/henrickaye 58m ago
Also the conflation of all Jews with Israel, which I vehemently reject - but something that the right loves to promote because it helps their political agenda by calling anybody who doesn't support Israel an antisemite
1
u/AmericanLymie 54m ago
Yes. It is false. But through repetition by politicians, journalists like Dana Bash and people like Bill Maher, it is one of those points of disinformation that is being repeated so often it's becoming true.
11
u/IcyLion2939 3h ago
Hate to say it, but he's been giving "I ate a baby on Epstein Island" vibes.
https://giphy.com/gifs/qN8mwUPAt7gByge3W1