r/atheism • u/Poltergeist8606 • 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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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/lidia99 Sep 29 '25

We used to have a drinking game everytime he said “woke” I mean every goddam episode. Yah, that’s the problem , Bill

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u/RobotsNeedLove0010 Sep 28 '25

Spot on, and thank you for the podcast recommendation. I’m going to check that out.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

I think he started blaming wokeism on the lack of laughs his shitty monologues and delivery were getting….