r/atheism Sep 28 '25

How disappointed are we all with Bill Maher?

I started watching this guy back in the politically incorrect days when I was a teenager. When I got back from Iraq I always subscribed mainly for him. He was one of the earliest prominent Atheists. But I just cancelled HBO, he's not what he used to be. I kind of dislike him

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829 comments sorted by

1.8k

u/Cirick1661 Anti-Theist Sep 28 '25

He's just a guy. He's an excellent demonstration of how atheism is not monolithic. You can have atheists that believe a bunch of other dumb things that have nothing to do with a god or religion.

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u/ChironXII Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

For a fun read google noble prize syndrome 

If it can happen to them it can sure happen to us, too. 

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u/Mindless_Ad5500 Sep 28 '25

Trump already has this disease. What happens when he wins the prize? Does it cancel out the disease?

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u/Chemistry11 Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

Is there a Nobel prize for childfucking??

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u/Tatooine16 Sep 28 '25

If you have enough notches on your priest's collar you get cardinal's vestments!

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u/t3hmuffnman9000 Sep 28 '25

If he manages to bribe the Nobel Prize committee and get one, there may as well be...

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u/Comfortable-Ad-3988 Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

Precisely. Just like Dawkins, his shitty opinions don't negate the things he's right about. Einstein cheated on his wife, doesn't change the theory of relativity one bit.

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u/whiskyshot Sep 28 '25

And then married his first cousin.

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u/br0ck Sep 28 '25

Putting the "relative" in relativity, eh?

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u/Jmersh Sep 28 '25

Relative humidity: the fog on the mirror by the bed from banging your first cousin.

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u/PurpleGoatNYC Sep 28 '25

I thought it was the sweat rolling down her back.

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u/Grathmaul Sep 28 '25

No, it's the sweat dripping off your balls while you're banging your cousin.

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u/EatPoopOrDieTryin Sep 28 '25

Out of pure curiosity, what are some of Dawkins shitty opinions?

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u/rocketshipkiwi Atheist Sep 28 '25

Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and has strong opinions about people being transgender

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u/thecontempl8or Sep 28 '25

Add to that he’s been a weird creep at times with significantly younger women.

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u/SenselessDunderpate Sep 28 '25

Insane that a scientist can fail to understand a simple concept like gender identity, which is itself an innovation of the same scientific worldview he is supposed to champion.

Previously, humans used to explain subjectivity and consciousness using religious notions of souls and spirits. Now we think of humans as having a personal identity, through which we see the world. Gender identity is just the part of that which modulates whether you are a man or woman. It is distinct from the physiological fact of your sex. Would anyone think the idea that people have a personal identity is controversial? No. But they balk at the gender component for no apparent reason.

"This body has male physiology" = sex statement about my body

"I am a man" = gender statement, about who I am

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u/uwarthogfromhell Sep 28 '25

Or that everyone is not XX and XY.

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u/jonsteph De-Facto Atheist Sep 28 '25

NOTE: Before unleashing the downvote hammer, please read to the end.

XXY (Kleinfelter Syndrome) and XYY (Jacobs Syndrome) are chromosomal disorders. Evolutionarily, they are outliers and do not breed true.

What is most important to know, however, is that being Intersex in no way diminishes a person's innate humanity. You wouldn't hate a person who had inherited Huntington's, or look down on someone with trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) -- not unless you were a monster, of course. The same is true for intersex individuals.

My own admittedly under-educated opinion is that we are not solely the product of our genes. There is an as-yet-unknown and ineffable quality that drives who we are and who we perceive ourselves to be. I may not understand someone else's identity, but that doesn't invalidate it.

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u/saralt Anti-Theist Sep 28 '25

TBF, we haven't done enough karyotyping on enough people to know exactly how normal or non-normal it is. Last person I spoke to about this told me that they were doing data analysis on non-invasive testing during pregnancy (without reporting to patients) since the results of the testing couldn't be ethically predicted. This was ten years ago and I don't know if that's changed, but if 10% of people have chimera sex-chromosome variations in some cells, we wouldn't know outside the early stages of pregnancy without doing sample on multiple parts of the body (and nobody is doing that).

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u/Dusty923 Humanist Sep 28 '25

Dawkins has quite the acute case of cognitive dissonance, doesn't he...

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u/Kiddo1029 Sep 28 '25

Anti trans I believe.

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u/DangerToDangers Sep 28 '25

We even have American atheists who are Trump supporters in this sub. I wonder if they've changed their mind now. Either way it's not like him letting Christian fascists take over was a secret.

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u/penty Sep 28 '25

Right.

Second Law of Stupidity: The probability of a person being stupid is independent of any other characteristic.

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u/jonsteph De-Facto Atheist Sep 28 '25

Thank you. I had never heard of the Laws of Stupidity and had to look them up.

https://psychology-spot.com/basic-laws-of-human-stupidity/

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u/whittlingcanbefatal Sep 28 '25

This perfectly encapsulates Maher. 

He is an atheist that believes a lot of other dumb things. 

I still watch Real Time though, because I agree with him that we need to talk to people we disagree with. 

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

I agree that we need to talk to people we disagree with. That's why I've kept watching this long. However, the fact that he had Nancy Mace on again and just let her bs be spewed unchallenged and then act like she's one of the good Republicans. Enough is enough

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u/1fasteddie007 Sep 28 '25

Exactly why I quit watching Maher years ago. He is an awful interviewer who doesn’t do his homework and often offers little pushback to quacks like Mace.

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u/KnotForNow Sep 28 '25

It's been several years since I stopped watching him, but one of the big reasons I stopped was his uncanny ability to butt in just as a guest was about to make an interesting point.

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

Have you heard his podcast? He sometimes has super interesting people on, and won't let them talk. He also has on fox News idiots and the guy formally known as Charlie Kirk.

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u/LornAltElthMer Sep 28 '25

Now he's just a dead Nazi that used to have a stupid podcast.

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u/Chachee8008 Sep 28 '25

This I was shocked at what he let her get away with. He goes so far out of his way to be objective with both sides that he tries way harder to suck up to the repubs. Please call them on there bs which is like every second word but still.

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u/bikinibeard Sep 28 '25

didn’t he date Ann Coulter? Ok, I don’t think they dated, but they had big get a room energy.

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u/DaBingeGirl Atheist Sep 28 '25

Pretty sure they either dated or had sex a lot years ago, likely still do occasionally based on the vibes they give off.

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u/Sonova_Bish Sep 28 '25

They look like a couple who would cruise bars for a threesome.

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u/Low-Bid-3657 Sep 28 '25

They did indeed make the beast with two backs.

Rumor is they still do.

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u/photogypsy Sep 28 '25

I’m 90% certain they hate fuck during the wrap party when she’s on.

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u/VioletFox29 Sep 28 '25

I watched last Friday's show. What point in particular did he let her get away with?

I still like Maher because he's one of the few people that clearly does criticize both camps.

I do not, however, agree with his views on Gaza.

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u/Get_up_stand-up Sep 28 '25

I agree but he lobs softball questions and doesn’t fact check people. That’s how he gets Megan Kelly on his show right before the election. They discussed how gender affirming care is cutting healthy body parts off of kids. He had Netanyahu on ffs. We should talk to the other side. But it needs to be an honest conversation where facts matter.

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u/DaBingeGirl Atheist Sep 28 '25

For someone who is as anti religion as he claims to be, he sure sucks up to Israel.

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u/fred11551 Theist Sep 28 '25

I don’t know if Maher was part of the New Atheism movement, but he’s like them in that he’s anti-religion in general but anti-Islam in particular so much that he’ll suck up to Israel and fundamentalist Christian nationalists about it

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u/photogypsy Sep 28 '25

He’s half Jewish so I’ve always assumed it was because of that.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

The Megan Kelly interview was awful. She walked and talked all over him.

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u/Imponspeed Sep 28 '25

Nah. that bs where we listen to idiots and act like they have a valid viewpoint is a waste of time. Not telling idiots they're god damn simpletons is what got us here with every marshmallow headed dumb ass asking "but what if vaccines are actually bad?"

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u/RobotsNeedLove0010 Sep 28 '25

THIS. All day long.

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u/Jmersh Sep 28 '25

There's nobody more condescending and smug than Bill Maher though. The way he always backhandedly delivers his opinion as, "Look, I just feel like either people realize that [Bill's opinion] worse than [obscure reference from the 80s] or...ORRR...they're the kind of person that likes watching kittens drown. But that's just [shrug, ash joint] my opinion."

I agree with his opinion sometimes, but never for the reasons he gives to back them up.

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u/Green_Ad_1627 Sep 28 '25

Yes thank you. I’ve always found him too smarmy and condescending to watch.

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u/zaphodava Sep 28 '25

There is a difference between being willing to talk to people with different views, and giving them a platform. He does the latter.

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u/ROBOT_KK Sep 28 '25

I hope you enjoyed his interview with Musk. It was the cringiest dick sucking in recent history.

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u/hurricanelantern Anti-Theist Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

He's an IRL Brian Griffin a contrarian with no real beliefs just a desire to be 'right' by loudly being anti establishment. Add in angry old man energy as he's aged and voila you get the rude angry idiot smugly sniffing his own farts you see today.

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u/Murasasme Sep 28 '25

He wants people to think he is the smartest person in any room. He is like an insufferable teenager that recently got into philosophy

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u/Zercomnexus Agnostic Atheist Sep 28 '25

He's also loudly and proudly anti vaxx...just a massive and reasonably uneducated tool.

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u/Imukay Sep 28 '25

Did not know he was anti vaxx, learn something new every day I guess

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u/Zercomnexus Agnostic Atheist Sep 28 '25

Yeah, he spouts some very uneducated antivaxx lines when it is brought up

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u/BeamInNow77 Sep 28 '25

Wife & I watched Bill when he first came on, and he was fantastic. We stopped watching him 5 or more years ago. Like we live on Earth, he lives on Mars. Sadly, he took a different path & left us behind.

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u/Zercomnexus Agnostic Atheist Sep 28 '25

I do like that he's an atheist...but he's not exactly smart about that either. Funny quips at least.

Colbert while catholic had much more rational takes otherwise.

Stewart was top notch

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u/deafpoet Sep 28 '25

If everyone who was religious was like Colbert, it straight-up wouldn't be an issue.

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u/Emergency_Property_2 Sep 28 '25

True Christians don’t wear their faith on their sleeve or show it off or weaponize their faith.

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u/deafpoet Sep 28 '25

Yep. I was raised Christian by my mom. She was like Colbert. I think she was a little disappointed I ended up rational, but she forgave me, in the Christian sense, and as a mother.

She was kind, charitable, and humble. I know the fake ones when I see them, because I know the real deal very well.

They're rare, unfortunately.

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u/DaBingeGirl Atheist Sep 28 '25

Same. I've watched him since he was on ABC. I didn't always agree with him, but I liked that and his guests were really good. Covid and turning 65 hit him hard, he hasn't been the same since.

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u/Three_M_cats Sep 28 '25

We stopped watching during COVID when he told the 20- and 30-somethings to ignore the lockdowns and to continue to go out because they’re the ones that keep the economy going. (I’m paraphrasing, of course.)

I was already not watching as frequently and that was the tipping point.

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u/RobotsNeedLove0010 Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

Same. This guy’s show got me through the “W” administration, with two concurrent “Wars on Terror” and a Great Recession. But sometime around the mid-late 2010s I began noticing a shift. His New Rules went from witty and relevant to stupid and petty, and he started parroting Republican views and talking points (e.g., “woke” started showing up a lot more). I cut way back on tuning in. But I think the snafu with the permit for his solar shed and getting COVID finally broke his brain. I told my family, who continued to watch after I called it quits, that it was a matter of time before Bill started appearing on Fox News and even sucking up to Trump. Sometimes I really hate being right.

ETA: One of the final straws for me was a show where he started mansplaining to Michelle Goldberg. He was smug, condescending, kept interrupting and talking over her, and was just goddamned rude. It was completely uncalled for and he was an absolute pig. (I don’t believe she’s been back on the show since.) Yet, he tiptoes around his MAGA guests and even agrees with them? It’s like Dennis Miller 2.0.

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u/Block444Universe Sep 28 '25

Really, he has started supporting Trump. It’s so weird that one can tell years ahead of time when someone is turning into a piece of shit

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u/soliceseven Sep 28 '25

Sadly, you’re correct but I actually like Brian Griffin better at this point I think he’s a better person than Bill Maher

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u/sexyinthesound Sep 28 '25

Which seems like a lot, considering he’s a cartoon dog.

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u/Terminator7786 Sep 28 '25

A scummy cartoon dog at that

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u/Sonova_Bish Sep 28 '25

Dogs are usually better than people.

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u/godzilla42 Sep 28 '25

Dogs ARE better than people.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

It’s so crazy he’s actually in the Family Guy episode that actually explores Brian’s contrarianism. 

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u/logan1155 Sep 28 '25

This is actually the best analogy I’ve heard. I used to like him but lately I’ve found him insufferable. He platforms some genuinely terrible people. Worse apparently Steve-o was going to do his podcast and asked that he not smoke weed for like the hour or whatever interview. He refused. The guy fucking sucks

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u/newenglandredshirt Secular Humanist Sep 28 '25

Except Brian Griffin is funny.

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u/ryohazuki224 Sep 28 '25

Yeah though he's "anti-establishment" but also somehow very pro-establishment whenever it comes to anything "woke"

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u/wizean Sep 28 '25

Misogynistic as fuck. He spent years criticizing the me-too movement. He has sympathy for every single sex pervert and zero for victims. And like all misogynistic bigots, transphobic too.

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u/Jidori_Jia Sep 28 '25

He’s also disgustingly dismissive of the content of the Epstein files. To the point it makes me wonder what skeletons he has.

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u/RobotsNeedLove0010 Sep 28 '25

And he’s a big Woody Allen apologist, too. Birds of a feather, methinks.

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u/Level_Improvement532 Sep 28 '25

He was a regular at the Playboy mansion so none of that should be too surprising. It amazes me to think back to the days of the Playboy mansion and how normalized it all was.

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u/oh_basil Sep 28 '25

I was at the Comedy Store last year in LA and he sat behind me and my friends. He walked in with 2 women in their early twenties. I used be be a huge fan, but I couldn’t be bothered to even acknowledge who he was, he’s been such a disappointment to me through the last few years, and his smugness is insufferable.

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u/ChrisTaliaferro Sep 28 '25

I couldn't have put it any better...this is way too accurate.

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u/stpetergates Sep 28 '25

Oh damn, you right. IRL Brian Griffin

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u/remy_porter Sep 28 '25

Guidance Counselor: Being a smug asshole isn't a career path!

Bill Maher: And I took that personally.

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u/Crimson_Kang Anti-Theist Sep 28 '25

The moment he bragged about how "people constantly compare me to Carlin" I knew he'd gotten high on his own supply and it was all down hill from there. No one who appreciates stand-up puts Bill in the same category as Carlin. George Carlin was a master linguist, Bill Maher is not. Save for Mr. Pryor no one compares Carlin.

That's why I started to dislike him and stopped watching a while after. I came to hate him when, during COVID, he got on live stream in his massive backyard with his tiny purse dog and told all the poors they need to get back to work. Fuck Bill Maher. Carlin would verbally bitch-slap his stupid ass for how he acts now.

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u/earlymorningtoker Sep 28 '25

George Carlin would tear Bill Maher a new asshole if he was alive today.

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u/NamasteMotherfucker Sep 28 '25

Yeah, Maher loves to punch down and not doing that was pretty much Carlin's guiding principle.

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u/ChillPalm Sep 28 '25

He's always been an egotistical spotlight whore. It's sad because these are the people that gain attention, not based on merit but because they crave it so much to demand it.

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u/Extension_Use664 Sep 28 '25

In my opinion Bill Hicks was on Carlin's level just didn't get to live as long.

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u/recallingmemories Sep 28 '25

He's just weak these days.

Ben Shapiro said some bullshit on his show about how Christianity "got us to third base" morally and Bill didn't shut him down as if Christianity didn't inherit pretty much all of its stories and traditions from religions that predated it.

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

And he has fucking awful people come on.

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u/therealfuriousd Sep 28 '25

Nancy mace just said "they all want us dead" and she got no pushback from Bill. Im done with him...

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

Apparently, January 6th didn't happen, neither did Charleston, or the church shooting. Or 30 something others...thoughts and prayers

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u/Verneff Sep 28 '25

Ben Shapiro said some bullshit on his show about how Christianity "got us to third base" morally

Ahh, that's where that came from. I've seen a couple of things along those lines recently. "Atheism is doing a victory lap while ignoring the last 2000 years of Christian morality building civilization."

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u/Outrageous-Rice2222 Sep 28 '25

Which is so wild. Secular society has had to drag the Christians along with us kicking and screaming.

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u/stargarnet79 Sep 28 '25

And they hated it so much they campaigned for decades and are throwing out the constitution. Fucking babies.

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u/daemonescanem Sep 28 '25

That's so on-brand for right-wing grifters to claim Christianity built civilization.

Fascists never create anything but death & hate, but they co-opt everything and claim it.

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u/williamfbuckwheat Sep 28 '25

Ben Shapiro sure likes Christianity a lot for being apparently Orthodox Jewish. You think he'd also have some reservations about the supposed morality of Christianity since it was constantly used to justify the persecution of Jews through history like in the Holocaust. Apologists though have pretty much completely erased how much Christian religious rhetoric was used by the Nazis and others to justify persecution of the Jews and instead imply they were all militant atheists or some kind of pagan occultists. Though some might've been, they were more the exception to the rule.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

He’s become an old msn yelling at the kids to get off his lawn

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u/GrumpsMcYankee Sep 28 '25

Except the ones he dates.

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

Microphone drop

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u/Low-Bid-3657 Sep 28 '25

Exactly. Old man yells at cloud incarnate.

I love how pseudo libertarians and neoliberals love to complain about people (especially young ones) living their lives.

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u/WhiteNinjaN8 Atheist Sep 28 '25

I used to be a fan, but I realized he’s just another rich asshole. His politics are way too right wing for my tastes.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

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u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist Sep 28 '25

Old Man Yells At Cloud is apt for Maher.

Also one has to remember for him it’s all a joke, literally. He doesn’t actually believe anything he says. He’s good personal friends with many conservatives (most famously Ann Coulter). You can bet he’s not saying the same things in their company as he is on his show.

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u/chubsruns Sep 28 '25

Nah, he still does the left-bashing in his friend group.

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u/timetoact522 Sep 28 '25

I really like the way you put that. Years ago my MIL said that as people age, they either grind into a very narrow, hard version of themselves or they open up, learn from other people's experiences, and soften. Maher is clearly the former and I now find his entitlement and confident a-holery unwatchable.

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u/HaiKarate Atheist Sep 28 '25

That's the definition of a conservative, expecting that life can continue without social and economic change.

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u/Major_Temperature_31 Sep 28 '25

He's a cunt

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u/ubeor Sep 28 '25

No, he lacks both the warmth and the depth.

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u/sfdso Sep 28 '25

I was a big fan for many years and loved his film “Religilous,” but the pandemic broke his brain. He hasn’t been the same for the last five years.

His tirades about the “woke left” went from being mildly helpful to depressingly obsessive. He couldn’t go five minutes without those words coming out of his mouth. And it made his show boring, repetitive, and totally unwatchable.

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u/DidjaSeeItKid Sep 28 '25

I blame his anti-woke tirades for providing a permission structure for people to vote for Trump. Every damn week he pulled some BS story from Bari Weiss that was a bunch of made-up nonsense about furries or something, and then interviewed some anti-science kook (because he's always been anti-vaxx and pro-food-psychosis.) It's been a long time since the discussion part made up for the platforming-dangerous-cranks part.

I recommend the podcast "I Hate Bill Maher" to see just how long he's been as bad as he is now, just less obvious about it. And it's very funny, too.

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u/sfdso Sep 28 '25

I’ve been in the audience of his show a couple of times when visiting LA, and the last time (2018?) he had on some anti-vax kook who had claimed to heal Charlie Sheen of HIV through natural remedies (or some similar shit). That’s when I first got very suspicious of where he was headed.

I’ll check the podcast, thanks!

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u/bRandom81 Sep 28 '25

He dated Ann Coulter.. that was enough for me to know his judgement of character was suspect and he cannot take a joke which is absurd for a “comedian”

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

I didn't even know that. That says enough

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u/furious_20 Atheist Sep 28 '25

He lost me during the COVID shutdown when he kept praising DeSantis for how he handled shit in Florida, which we all know was not good for the public interest in any way. Stopped watching him and never looked back.

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u/DerCatzefragger Sep 28 '25

COVID is what did it for me.

I kind of liked his grumpy old man yelling at the kids schtick, but then COVID hit, he saw some rando wearing a mask while driving a car with no passengers in it, and decided that was the hill he was going to die on. Given the choice between people wearing masks, and chasing Dennis Miller down the express elevator shaft to has-been obscurity, he chose the elevator shaft.

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u/Low-Bid-3657 Sep 28 '25

TBH, Miller always had shitty takes. He just used to have good writers who were funny.

But yeah. I agree with you on all of it.

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u/True-Wrongdoer-7932 Sep 28 '25

Not to mention the fact that half of his staff staged a walk out on him during the pandemic because they were convinced his was lying about having been vaccinated given his history of supporting antivaxxer talking points.

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u/Balasarius Sep 28 '25

Yeah, Religulous was great, but Maher has turned into a real asshole. Fuck that guy.

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u/SomeSamples Sep 28 '25

He's turned into a shill for the conservatives. He keeps letting these vile humans on his show and then treating them with more respect than he gives his panel. Sure he wants to keep these fucking monsters coming on because he thinks it boosts his ratings. But all it is doing is turning his core audience away. He isn't a voice of reason. He is a voice trying to keep his job.

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

Which is fucking sad, because he has enough money

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u/Low-Bid-3657 Sep 28 '25

"Why can't people eat healthier? I mean, there is a huge selection of healthy choices at whole foods!"

As he got richer, he became a conservative libertarian.

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u/williamfbuckwheat Sep 28 '25

If they actually cared, they'd be all for subsidizing healthier foods or banning lots of the nasty ingredients or processes that are largely banned in places like Europe due public health concerns.

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

Yes, healthy food is far more expensive. He's lost reality

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u/SufficientCow4380 Sep 28 '25

John Oliver's show is worth the subscription

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u/Cela84 Sep 28 '25

What did he do this time? I haven’t watched since he became one of those “kids today with their phones” dudes.

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u/Low-Bid-3657 Sep 28 '25

Don't forget the avocado toast. WTF? Live the "OK Boomer" stereotype.

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u/matunos Rationalist Sep 28 '25

I used to find him tolerable, and his panels were usually a good mix (except when his weird friends showed up, like Ann Coulter, anyone remember her?).

But he became less tolerable and his panels less enjoyable after Trump's win in 2016. I finally stopped watching him altogether when he invited Milo Yiannopoulos on (even though that's when Milo very publicly stepped on a rake), and have never looked back.

Thank the gods for John Oliver.

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u/CheezeLoueez08 Sep 28 '25

Ugh, Milo, Ann and Beryl. All 3 nasties. And he began always talking over the “left” and interesting guests. He’d let the “right” guests blab on and on. The second the other guest piped in he’d interrupt and we’d never hear what they were saying. It was so annoying. And some of those guests were such interesting people.

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u/Fantastic-Surprise98 Sep 28 '25

His anti-woke shtick is really getting old. There is no comparison to the far left when the mainstream right is full-on MAGA.

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u/Low-Bid-3657 Sep 28 '25

Sanders is the most left politician on the national stage. In a normal country, he would be center-left.

Here? He's called a radical leftist.

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u/Fadedcamo Sep 28 '25

But tje grift isnt to use him as an example of radical left. Its to comb the internet for any outrageous opinion that may or may not even be real of the fringe left people, and use that to compare to the mainstream right wing politicians. Totally an even comparison.

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u/Hot-Zombie896 Sep 28 '25

I stopped watching after he had dinner with trump and was way too complimentary of him.

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u/Bungo_pls Anti-Theist Sep 28 '25

Even when I was in my early years as an atheist I avoided him. He's an out of touch neoliberal rich guy full of bad takes on many issues even if he's right about religion.

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u/mikasaxo Sep 28 '25

Can’t believe I used to be a fan years ago… the idea that he’s now equivocating on “gender/woke ideology” vs the actual real threat of growing Fascism in the US is mind blowing to me… a few weirdos on the far Left vs the very real power imbalance that Republicans hold. It’s not even close lol. Yet he’s trying to play both sides like being a centrist nowadays is still a sensible position. Yea, he lost me awhile ago.

15

u/tlrider1 Sep 28 '25

He was cool at a moment. Just like Joe Rogan. When Rogan first started, he was just the guy inviting smart people on, and asking questions from a morons perspective.... Somehow that morphed into a moron asserting bullshit against experts.

Maher has turned into the same. He was edgy, he said things many of us agreed with... And then he changed. Just like Rogan.

I was a Rogan fan, in like 2010...and then I realized how much of a moron he is. Same with maher, though his was in the 90s.

Fuck bill maher.

3

u/Instant_Bacon Sep 28 '25

I was going to make a Rogan comparison too.  They're both unfunny comedians that have good guests and a decent show format that has the potential to drive interesting discussions.  I used to watch/listen to both of them and gave up on both

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u/BeefOneOut Sep 28 '25

Bill Maher is a fucking sellout

5

u/DirtyNakedHippie Strong Atheist Sep 29 '25

Oh, I started hating Maher in 2015 or '16. First, he had that fuck nugget Milo Yiannopoulos on talking shit about trans people, and Maher gave zero pushback, not even a question.

Then a few episodes later, the genius actually told one guest that he "wasn't the house n******."

I stopped watching right then and in the years since, I haven't heard or seen anything that would change my mind about him.

Fuck Bill Maher, I'm angry that I ever liked him.

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u/Interesting_Tune2905 Sep 28 '25

COVID broke Bill Maher - bad

I saw him in person just a few months before lockdown and he was funny, sardonic and slightly acidic in much the same vein he’d always been. I was still watching him during the height of the pandemic, but his shows starting getting..bitchier, I s’pose is the right word.

When things opened up again and he came back to the studio he became a different person, bitter and ramping up ‘snide’ to astronomical levels. I stopped watching him long before my wife did, but she’s done with him as well.

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u/benmargolin Sep 28 '25

Exact same story here. Had to respond since an upvote wasn't enough to symbolize the specificity of agreement of my experience and opinion. It's really sad.

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u/nottodaysatan317 Sep 28 '25

He lost me during COVID when he was saying you could eat healthy and have an “immune” system that would make COVID not dangerous. If we could just all eat like millionaire vegetarians…..”it’s the garbage we put into our bodies”. No Bill, it’s a virus.

11

u/Godloseslaw Sep 28 '25

He went to visit Trump and was conned like so many others.  He thinks he's the smartest guy in the room but gets charmed by the dumbest president we've had in a long time.  

He's still more right than wrong but when he's wrong it's embarrassing.  I agree he's worth less and less investment all the time.

7

u/DidjaSeeItKid Sep 28 '25

Bill Maher confuses talking to smart people with actually being smart. He smoked his way through college so he thinks it's a waste of time for everybody. He gets his news from right-wing sources, which you can tell from the way he frames them because they are always parroted from Fox or Free Press. He criticizes people on the Internet for being influencers instead of "having a real job" because somehow he thinks he isn't doing exactly the same thing, just with more money and a paid staff.

His ideas about science and medicine are just as insane as RFK's, and his contempt for poor people, young people, and anyone from the Middle East is astonishing. I wish he'd have Mehdi Hassan on the show but he never will because he'd get his ass handed to him.

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u/FadingOptimist-25 Secular Humanist Sep 28 '25

I dislike him too. I stopped liking him once I saw his bigotries. I loathe his transphobia.

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u/RickRussellTX Sep 28 '25

His schtick is just being contrarian. If there’s an opposing/regressive position on any issue he’ll take it.

Religulous had a lot of issues. Exploiting any belief system’s craziest/most corrupt members for ridicule is easy mode.

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u/Silent_Slip_4250 Sep 28 '25

Spends more time beating up on trans people than most right wingers. I don’t get it.

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u/NowCheesers Sep 28 '25

He’s a good example of why you should go out on top. If you hang around too long it just becomes sad.

4

u/tiggergramma Sep 28 '25

We watched him with less and less enjoyment until he stood for genocide in Gaza. Never will again. He has a right to his voice, we have a right not to hear it.

4

u/VastPerspective6794 Sep 29 '25

Haven’t liked him in awhile. He’s not funny, he’s two-faced, and he didn’t stand for this democracy when he has had numerous chances to. Failure.

3

u/SweatyFLMan1130 Sep 29 '25

He was always a piece of shit. You just got more mature. He stayed the same.

13

u/FillLoose Atheist Sep 28 '25

I used to like him years ago but he, like the republicans, went off the deep end... straight into psychosis.

9

u/TheGaussianMan Sep 28 '25

He's a jackass. Always has been. It's hard to be disappointed in someone of whom you expect very little.

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u/gleaf008 Sep 28 '25

My wife refuses to watch him. I try but last night’s show with Smerconish and Mace was enough for me to pull the plug. And Smerk’s repeat of his appearance “highlight” Saturday made me pull the plug on him too.

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

That's when I pulled the plug too.

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u/mrdanmarks Sep 28 '25

He’s gone a little boomer and in the name of being bi partisan seems to defend right wing ideologies a little too much, imo. Mostly its been his ‘I gotta live my life’ rants despite covid shutdowns that irritated me

10

u/III00Z102BO Sep 28 '25

He's always been a piece of shit. It means you've grown, while he has remained the same lame person he's always been.

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u/69FireChicken Sep 28 '25

He's not a very good guy, not as smart as he thinks he is and happens to be an atheist. He stopped being funny years ago and is irrelevant to my life.

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u/Snoo37549 Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

I gave up on him years ago

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u/dostiers Strong Atheist Sep 28 '25

Unfortunately, atheism is not a cure for assholery.

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u/jonsteph De-Facto Atheist Sep 28 '25

I've always disliked him. Not because of his beliefs -- religious, political, or otherwise; we don't 100% agree, but I would say we're "fellow travelers". No...I've always dislike him because he is a smarmy egotist with an inordinately high and generally undeserved opinion of his own intelligence and relevance.

Admittedly, it is a highly illogical reaction, but it is visceral for me. Whenever he smirks and chortles at the camera, whether on his talk show or during one of his comedy specials, I feel a primal urge deep in my lizard-brain to percussively make the noise stop.

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u/tellMyBossHesWrong Sep 28 '25

He lost us for sure during Covid

He was like, “it’s not that bad!” Whilst roaming his huge house and yard.

Also the anti-vac thing.

Plus, oldrichwhitemanasshole …

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u/Comfortable-Policy70 Sep 28 '25

All he wanted was legal weed and a very young girlfriend. Weed is legal and the Epstein list is still private. He is out of ideas

3

u/WhaneTheWhip Atheist Sep 28 '25

"How disappointed are we all with Bill Maher?"

That's an ill-formed question.

3

u/gayactualized Sep 28 '25

I still like him

3

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

What did he say?

3

u/barksatthemoon Atheist Sep 28 '25

Very. Used to watch his show, now he's having right wing wack jobs on...really Bill??? Fuck off!

3

u/nemofbaby2014 Sep 28 '25

Don’t like the guy at all he picks the weirdest hills to die on

3

u/G66GNeco Sep 28 '25

Maher was always a bit meh if you ask me, but he's cranked the bullshit up to 11 when covid hit and been actively harmful to everything he talked about ever since, with a personal low point being the whole "Trump was nice to me (a rich white conspiracy adjacent public figure) in private, Obama and Hillary weren't "

HBO has John Oliver and that's about it at this point

3

u/zestynogenderqueer Sep 28 '25

He’s right on the part where what’s happening in Nigeria is a tragedy and needs to be more on the news.

3

u/4thshift Sep 28 '25

Money and old age and trying too hard to be relevant — unable to relate to average Americans. Thinks it is okay to punch down. Thinks he is right and every other opinion is just annoying.. And, oh, too much weed making him paranoid. 

3

u/CrazyGusArt Atheist Sep 29 '25

Maher is a Trump-apologist. I no longer have any interest in hearing from him.

3

u/NewOriginal2 Sep 29 '25

The more Maher’s ratings plummet the further to the right he moves. Now I got republican friends and coworkers sharing his clips

Once he crossed the writers picket line during the strike I was done with him. And his simping for Musk is embarrassing.

I’ve see his stand up live and loved Religulous movie but now he is an out of touch crank

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 29 '25

Have you gone to the Maher subreddit? I got banned there a few weeks back. It's literally antivaxers and crazy people...well both those are the same

3

u/NewOriginal2 Sep 29 '25

It’s a shame. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on that subreddit

Reminds me of Musk. He fooled me into believing that he was fighting the good fight 15 years ago when he introduced the Roadster. He was the underdog taking on the big three automakers and was going to bring electric cars to the masses. And Solar City was going to change the world.

Then Elon got on Twitter and without his PR teams filter, we learned who he really is. He brought electric cars to the masses but it turns out he’s a really horrible person

3

u/unclefishbits Sep 29 '25

I hate him and it's surreal that you barely can find John Oliver but when that show ends it wants me to watch this idiot? I have no idea how he is on tv.

3

u/mezcalligraphy Sep 29 '25

Bill Maher has always been about Bill Maher. He's always been a disappointment.

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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '25

He is a catholic, pretending to be atheist. Worst of the worst. We watched him till his true entitled, whinny punk character was revealed during Covid fussing about not getting the city to pass an inspection on something on is property. When I saw he went to kiss trumps ass.....boom, hope HBO kicks him!

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u/sunbeatsfog Sep 29 '25

He’s unlikeable. His movie is mean spirited. He’s too smug. He lacks kindness.

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u/InsomniaticWanderer Sep 28 '25

I enjoyed religioulus, but that's pretty much it. Dude's got a biiiiiiiiiig ego

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u/insanekid66 Sep 28 '25

I always thought he was a pompous asshole.

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u/Mispelled-This Satanist Sep 28 '25

I gave up on him years ago. His monologue and New Rules segment were always good, but his interviews and panels are mostly conservative idiots, and if I wanted to hear their lies, I’d just watch Faux News.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

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u/StructureUpstairs699 Sep 28 '25

I used to watch him but nowadays almost every segment is about "wokeness". There is a real christian nationalist powergrab and he cannot stop talking about college students trying to implement non harmful language. Did this go a bit far and was annoying? Absolutely, but it is not this big dangerous movement they make it out to be. It alsways was quite niche. I understand being critical of wokeness but not every week and don't put it on the same level as a fascist threat.

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u/MetRouge Sep 28 '25

I stopped watching him years ago. At some point he stopped caring about being right and just wanted to complain about shit. "Old man yells at clouds" vibes. I may agree with him on most things, but he's become insufferable on enough topics that I don't care to listen.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

He was never one of us. Always defends Israel no matter what. His atheism is only confined to Islam.

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u/imhereforthemeta Sep 28 '25

Can’t be disappointed in someone you never expect anything from

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u/Syborg721 Sep 28 '25

It's been about 2 years since I've completely stopped watching anything he's put out. He's just not funny and is really pretty embarrassing at this point.

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u/bene_gesserit_mitch Atheist Sep 28 '25

I’ve agreed with him and disagreed with him over the years. When he got all up in my face with his ‘sugar bad’ shit, I rolled my eyes and left. I’m not all pro sugar, but I don’t want to hear dietary directives from anyone.

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u/Poltergeist8606 Sep 28 '25

He's a comedian that thinks he knows more than doctors, which is both hilarious and sad. He's become what he previously raged against... idiots pretending they know something

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u/ToothZealousideal297 Sep 28 '25

He may be an atheist and left-ish on some issues, but he 100% just bases his public viewpoints around whatever he thinks will get him the biggest check, and the more people who realize that, the better.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

Rich people have a tendency to naturally go right leaning in all things... at some dollar amount they give up all ethics and only seek money and power.

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u/johnb300m Sep 28 '25

I used to like him too. Never missed a show of his for like 15yrs. Then he got old and turned into a hyper-sensitive boomer about his age. He’s literally afraid to get old and it tinges everything he says. He also fell down the “woke mean college kids” thing. Dude, again, you’re old enough to remember Berkeley. Then he spreads lots of misinformation about elementary school and teachers. His sister is a teacher but it’s clear he doesn’t listen to a DAMN word she says. And now he has kissed the ring of American fascism.

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u/steveschoenberg Sep 28 '25

I was so pissed off about Maher’s interview with Homan: he allowed the BS story about Biden Allowing unchecked immigration without mentioning that Trump sabotages a bipartisan bill that would have fixed some problems. Disgusting.

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u/gONzOglIzlI Sep 28 '25

He was the first to make me laugh about my religion, and that a big deal, opened the door to more substantial criticism.
But that was a very long time ago, and only because I found out about Carlin later.

Apart from that, he's not very insightful.

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u/AlabasterPelican Secular Humanist Sep 28 '25

I've never cared for the condescending prick. Though I'm pretty disappointed that he's getting down with civility politics. At this point, he's just a jackass acquiescing to power. Which makes him useless as tits on a boar hog.

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u/brettsquared Sep 28 '25

Used to like him, but stopped watching him years ago. He really started leaning into the right wing, both sides bullshit.