Why do Democrats hate Bill Maher so much?

[Devout Centrist]

Arrogant, self absorbed poseur with a gigantic ego. He’s a putrescent and preening lout, always has been.

[dw93]

I don't hate the man, and  I can appreciate his criticisms of the fringes of the left, but over the last 7-8 years, the last 3 in particular, he has platformed and legitimized some of the worst people on the right.

[Green Line]

He’s friends with Ann Coulter.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Late night comedy is boring, anyways he told Biden to drop out Biden is really not doing what he said

[ingemann]

My thought about Bill Maher is that he started out as just another smug center left TV personality, no different than every other TV personality. What changed was him trying to stay ideological coherent on Islam, while everyone bunked on Christianity, other religions were not hold up to the same standards, this shifted him away from the liberal mainstream together with the New Atheists. In practice this meant under the political talk show host boom, where we saw a monoculture of opinions, he stood out like a weed in the field.

So fundamentally we have a pretty average liberal comedian-pundit, little different from other of this ilk in obnoxiousness, smugness and arrogance, but one who doesn’t slavishly follow the liberal zeitgeist. So the reason why “Democrats” hates him, is because they’re not used to be receiving end of political humor commentary.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Ironically, for as much as he dislikes Biden, he comes across as a curmudgeonly old man yelling at clouds. Very smugly and like a constant contrarian too, which gets irritating. I used to love him in the Obama days, but he kind of lost it from the 2015 primaries on.

Anyway, generally anti-right wing (Maher doesn't really feel center-left anymore) media has grown and fragmented since the Obama administration, so Democrats now have elsewhere to get their news satire.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Maher upsets the narrative Democrats try so hard to construct.  I can't begin to accurately describe how important "narrative" is nowadays, compared to even the late 1980s, and a lot of this is because Mainstream Journalism threw objectivity and neutrality into the dumpster for good sometime in the 2000s.

Maher is not an "Islamophobe"; he's anti-religion, period.  He's fairly consistent about that.  What he doesn't do is pretend that Islamic doctrine is something other than what it is.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Because he’s a deeply bigoted, narcissistic jacka**

He’s not bigoted

He is a deeply Islamophobic bigot and honestly, his views on non-atheists in general are pretty gross

What’s the most Islamophobic thing Maher has said?

Alben has posted several times the yt clip of Bill’s “Islam treats women bad so you’re dumb for protesting Israel” segment from a few weeks ago. Come on, Bill’s deeply reactionary views towards Muslims is well documented

It’s not Islamophobic to point out that women are treated horribly in Muslim countries.

You’re ignoring a massive key point

[pikachu]

My mom's a big fan, so I was watched an episode for the first time in a while when I visited my parents a few weeks ago. What annoyed me was the arrogance and disregard to even try understanding why people might disagree with him beyond the most simplistic interpretation. (His guest were for better on this front.)

Like for some reason, he felt the need to do a 10-minute segment giving hot, confident takes on the Caitlin Clark discourse. This is despite him not even watching women's basketball (which is fine, barely anyone did before her) or, as he admits during the segment, barely any sports in general. The guest actually provided some nuance, but Bill just seems to ignore him and charges forward with the take. And he just brings this energy to everything. 

[VBM]

Maher upsets the narrative Democrats try so hard to construct.  I can't begin to accurately describe how important "narrative" is nowadays, compared to even the late 1980s, and a lot of this is because Mainstream Journalism threw objectivity and neutrality into the dumpster for good sometime in the 2000s.

Maher is not an "Islamophobe"; he's anti-religion, period.  He's fairly consistent about that.  What he doesn't do is pretend that Islamic doctrine is something other than what it is.

It’s such a strange timeline we live in where Fuzzy Bear, a conservative, evangelical Christian, is more supportive of Maher than your average Democrat

[pantsaregood]

Aside from anything related to religion, he has pretty consistently had stupid takes around COVID.

[Ferguson97]

he only agrees with them on 89% of things so not pure enough

You guys always say stuff like this, as if all “things” are equally important. The 11% on which we disagree with Maher is very important!

[dead0man]

he only agrees with them on 89% of things so not pure enough

You guys always say stuff like this, as if all “things” are equally important. The 11% on which we disagree with Maher is very important!

maybe, but does it deserve the level of hate he gets?  Progressives seem to hate him as much as they hate the My Pillow Biter guy or Dick Cheney.

[The Biggest Win Ever Isn’t Big Enough]

Why should we be expected to like him? There’s no requirement that I love every talking head who exceeds some predetermined level of “agreement” with me.

[Obama24]

He’s a transphobic and Islamophobic douche who gives people like Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos platforms

Isn't his stance to just not do surgeries on children?

As far as islamophobia, didn't he make a documentary where he basically stated that all religious superstition is illogical?

[Hindsight was 2020]

He’s a transphobic and Islamophobic douche who gives people like Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopoulos platforms

Isn't his stance to just not do surgeries on children?

As far as islamophobia, didn't he make a documentary where he basically stated that all religious superstition is illogical?

Absolutely not, he’s against puberty blockers, trans people participating in sports and even on occasions said they’re existence is anti-scientific and a result of gen z peer pressure campaign

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

People on this forum really seem to dislike prominent atheists. They dislike Neil deGrasse Tyson of all people..

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

People on this forum really seem to dislike prominent atheists. They dislike Neil deGrasse Tyson of all people..

I mean, Tyson’s a sex predator, so…

[Benjamin Frank 2.0]

I haven't read all the comments here (I'm in a bit of a rush) but he's smug all the while not really having expertise in public policy as well as being incredibly sexist (to be fair, by his own admission.)

Also, he's a free speech absolutist who refuses to take responsibility for the negative consequences. The most obvious example of this is when attacked Ann Coulter after giving her a platform for years.

Yes, I agree. He's right about some things. He's something of a realistic centrist who might be a good editor of a popular political magazine. In person though, he's often insufferable.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Who?

[ProgressiveModerate]

I tend to agree with a lot of his criticisms, but I often feel like they're on things that are really small or non-existent issues in practice to he's just helping the right with their culture wars by giving them more credibility.

Things like elective abortions at 8 months and 13 year olds getting gender surgeries are soooo rare in practice - like they matter but are relatively minor compared to other things.

[Ferguson97]

People on this forum really seem to dislike prominent atheists. They dislike Neil deGrasse Tyson of all people..

I'm an atheist and I dislike Maher because he's a bigot and Tyson because he's annoying.

[dead0man]

People on this forum really seem to dislike prominent atheists. They dislike Neil deGrasse Tyson of all people..

I'm an atheist and I dislike Maher because he's a bigot and Tyson because he's annoying.

don't you defend people who protest via standing in the road?

[Ferguson97]

don't you defend people who protest via standing in the road?

You seem to be confusing me with someone else, unless you think "don't extrajudicially murder them" counts as defending them.

I'll preface this by saying that I have absolutely zero sympathy for these clowns who block roads.

We don't need more vigilante justice or people trying to take the law into their own hands. It's just not going to lead to good outcomes for anybody.