[Scape]

[xerxes]

Short answer: almost everything. I used to like him, but in the last few years, he's become increasingly insufferable. He's essentially a vulgar Andy Rooney now. Always complaining about the kids and their pronouns.

He's barely a "liberal" to begin with. His only real lefty bona fides are that he smokes pot and is an atheist. Other than that, he just another out of touch boomer.

[raydan]

The real question is... he's a comedian and entertainer, why would he be right about anything?

[Tricks]

raydan raydan:

The real question is... he's a comedian and entertainer, why would he be right about anything?

I mean so is John Stewart and he was right about a lot of things.

[Scape]

I don't think he has changed all that much. It's just now his insufferably isn't masked by the corporate overreach like it was back in his politically incorrect run. He is embraced by the elites on both sides now. His populism shtick is waning.

[Thanos]

Twaddle. Just because Bill's anti-woke and against all of the neo-totalitarian insanity that goes along with political correctness doesn't mean he's not a liberal.

[Scape]

He is as much a liberal as HRC is.

[Thanos]

Clintons are liberals, period. So are the Kennedys. So is Bill Maher. I can't even imagine the mental gymnastics it takes to believe otherwise.

BTW, you're also engaging in the same sort of lunacy that the hard-right and Trumpists do when they say that stalwarts like John McCain, Mitt Romney, or Liz Chaney aren't "conservatives" because the refused to bend the knee to the other totalitarians that have taken over the Republican party. Is that what you want to be, a mirror image on the left of what the nauseating right has turned into?

A person's own actions and contributions determine who and what they are. Slanders and smears and defamations from those disappointed in them for not using the "correct" language mean less than a stream of piss in an ocean.

[Scape]

Neoliberal and liberal diverge.

$1:

Neoliberalism, on the other hand, is a revival of 19th century ideals based on economic liberalism that gained popularity in the 20th century. Liberalism believed in the fundamental importance of liberty and equality, while neoliberalism placed great emphasis on the liberalist concept of government involvement in economic policymaking.

[Thanos]

All the conservatives embraced neo-liberal economics with a fervor. Does that mean they're not conservative even though every single other one of their actions, from being harsh Cold War troopers to relentless social conservatism, was done exactly according to every single conservative policy playbook?

[Scape]

Neoconservatism is a right wing political movement that opposes liberalism in political, economic and social fields while neoliberalism is a political movement that espouses economic liberalism as a means of promoting economic development and securing political liberty.

The tools they use are the same, the ends and the reasons for using the tools are not.

[Thanos]

I never said that. I said all the conservatives embraced neo-liberal economics. They have since Reagan, at the very least. Neo-conservatism in this discussion is merely a distraction.

And speaking of Reagan, this is what he said about moderate conservatives. And conservative Democrats who voted for him in elections and broke party ranks to support his policies:

$1:

“The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally – not a 20 percent traitor.”

Today's right-wing radicals who've hijacked conservatism certainly don't agree with that, not with all their RINO crap about anyone in the GOP who didn't spend all their time trying to cripple the Obama Admin. Or their CINO bullshit they aim at the anti-Trumpers. By today's "conservative" standards even Reagan couldn't be one of them simply because he got along too well with too many people of opposite opinion.

Is that what the harsh woke who've hijacked the label of "liberal" want to do as well? Say out loud like some cretinous Bolsheviks that Bill Maher, who's entire life has been nothing but liberal secularism lived large, or anyone like him isn't "one of us" because he fights against political correctness, tone policing, and virtue signaling?

$1:

"People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems (excepting morals) come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Refuse to learn this at your own peril.

[Scape]

Neo-conservatives embraced neo-liberal economics as long as they are the ones in control. Conservatives embraced economics that focused on minimizing the role of government save that of the military.

The radicals (like Rand Paul) who are in control now are even more radical than any previous iteration and will and have gone full tea party to all comers who dare negotiate with them They have shown this by repeatedly shutting the government down unless ALL of their demands were met. That is terrorism. There is no middle road with terrorists.

[Zipperfish]

I quite like Bill Maher. He's insufferably smug. Also, I like comedian-philosophers that are more anarchist, like George Carlin. Bill's very much a protector of institutions, other than region. But the fact that people argue whether he's left or right means to me he's in the right spot.

[Scape]

George Carlin would wipe his ass with the material Bill uses. The argument is not that he is left or right it is poor vs rich and he is an elitist hands down.