Bill Maher is a sanctimonious ass.

[Martin Eden]

38. I can no longer stomach Bill Maher

He's not nearly as smart or informed as he thinks he is, yet comes off as smug and righteous.

His platforming of mendacious rightwing vipers is not a virtue of "being willing to talk to the other side." It is normalizing the most pernicious threats to our democracy.

Years ago I was willing to overlook his obvious friendship with Ann Coulter -- a thoroughly poisonous creature whose Fox News rhetoric and books were cutting edge rightwing vile propaganda at the time. He never made much of an attempt to counter her bullshit when she was a guest on his show, but I neverthelss didn't question the sincerity of his ostensible liberal or libertarian political beliefs.

Now, I'm more inclined to assess his schtick as more of an act to maintain his career. Of one thing I'm sure; he's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. The breaking point with me was several years ago, when he had Steve Bannon on as first guest. Bill came prepared with what he thought were some "gotcha" questions, but he was totally unprepared to deal with a monster clearly more intelligent than him. Bannon would respond with a deflection of rapid bullshit that uninformed (or misinformed) viewers would swallow. Mr. Maher would just say OK then ask his next question, only to get his ass handed to him again. MAGAts watching that show were no doubt ecstatic.

I watched several minutes of his recent show with Talarico and Boebert. The latter is not what I'd call intelligent, yet Bill managed to make her look like a reasonable person by falling to call out multiple false statements.

But that's not why I left the room. I've come to detest that smug prick, in part because of his attacks on "the Left" as not liking America or appreciating what we have in this country (compared to horrible regimes around the world). This is a recurring theme with him. He likes to cite examples of what is essentially the fringe, mostly online activity of young "cancel culture" types, and use that as representative of "the Left" in general -- and by extension the Democratic Party. This was especially predominant during college protests against the atrocities Netanyahu's government was committing against civilians in Gaza.

Taken as a whole, it comes off as the old "America - love it or leave it." When our country fails to live up to its ostensible highest ideals, engaged citizens should express their criticism of both our present and our past. And it's not necessary to also call out foreign regimes while doing so.

Sure, he still has some good guests and lively conversations, but seldom if ever enough time to dive very deep on any issue. His closing monologue is occasionally spot-on, but his opening ceased to be funny years ago.

My wife still likes to watch his show, which is the only reason I'm still exposed to it. Most of the time I can't make it very far, because I've come to despise Bill Maher.