Bill Maher - Doing about as much good for his cause as Bill O'Riley does for his.
 

Sheesh!

Unfortunatly what Bill fails to recognize in this article is that many or even most people who are trying to get involved do have a pretty good understanding of the process.

The people who don't care and don't get involved becuase they don't care(most people) are more likely to fall into stats like:

He has some valid points but then again, so does O'Riley every now and then (I imagine? In truth I pay very little attention to either of them beyond how they present themselves).

It's just... Not effective to be an ass. It doesn't make people listen except to argue with you. And I understand that people like Maher (and I AM grouping him in with O'riley's ilk simply by virtue(?) of his general attitude and dismissivness) get a pass like some sort of bizzarre 'douche license', but that doesn't actually make him less of an ass.

I trust this has something to do with their sharing of the name "Bill".

So does Bill Clinton. I think your argument needs work. :J

Well, Bill O'Riley called Maher a pinhead after Maher said that America is stupid. It's more like they're just sort of the same person in many ways, just with different viewpoints neither of which justifies their behavior. Both being named 'Bill' is just sort of a convienient coincidence.

Bill O'Reilly is a douche on FOX News and Bill Maher is on the board of PETA.

I'm pretty sure this puts both of them in the "Ignore completely" column.

Besides which, some of the things he says in that opinion column are patently false, such as the majority of Americans being unable to name a branch of government. Yes, they might not say "Executive, Legislative, and Judicial", but if they say "Supreme Court" or "Congress" or so forth they are technically correct, Billy boy.

Anyway, I believe Americans are probably somewhat smarter than he thinks they are. For one thing, they would quite probably still recognize and eat fish even if they were called Sea Kittens.

Well, for one thing, Bill Maher is a comedian, so it's sort of in his job description to say things that are typically considered inappropriate in a manner many would consider shocking. Secondly, he's right.

In 2004, John Kerry lost for a number of reasons, certainly, but arguably the chief among them was the sentiment among a large share of the voting populace that he thought too much. "While, he's busy thinking, our enemies will get the drop on us" was considered a valid complaint that I heard on more than a few occasions. The fact that he was the sort of guy to stop and consider the consequences involved in any course of action and selecting the best idea among them before acting on it was deemed a negative. He lost because his opponent had already proven that he was the sort to rush in half-cocked, shooting first and never asking questions, and even though it didn't work and got the country into this gigantic mess that we're still clawing our way out of, the American people found it preferable to the guy who was waiting to get all the necessary information on the situation before taking action.

A few days ago, my father, a man 59 years of age, says to me, "You know, there's always been partisanship my whole life, but I have never seen anything like this." We have senior citizens who have honestly been led to believe that, if this laughable measly little health care bill passes, government workers will come to all of their homes and ask them to decide who they wish to die. We have a growing movement of people who believe that a "Certificate of Live Birth" is not a birth certificate because the words "birth" and "certificate" are not in the right order. Before that, we had people who believed that Obama was secretly working with al-Qaeda and that, upon his election, he would order the military to lay down their arms and allow the terrorists to take over the nation.

Our national dialog has devolved to middle school-age ramblings. An example from a grown man in his forties. FORTIES:

"who the hell is david sedgwick and does he know the arsenal of fire power he just insulted???? dont you have a tolerance rally to goto or a spread the wealth meeting to attend? dis us if you will but when the shit hits the fan you all will be calling us, b/c we have the guns, the brains and the nuts to do what faggity little liberals wont....stand up and fight!!! geez started out fucking with sasha and fucking ted kennedy sedgwick has to step in and open his mouth...chris go take of this guy he is getting on my nerves"

He then spent the next hour calling me gay over and over again. I never once said anything about politics. It was in the replies to a Facebook status update about planning a birthday party.

As far as Maher is concerned, he has a strong point, and getting mad about it is totally okay. But getting angry at him isn't the solution, in my opinion. What we really need to do right now is stop and think about the possibility that maybe we as a country really have become as dumb as he says we are, get mad at ourselves, and try to do something about the problem we've all created.

But, of course, that would require us to stop and think, and we voted that down about five years ago.

He's not a comedian in this venue and he's simply being too insulting, rude, and disingenuous for his point, however valid, to be taken seriously. He's accomplishing nothing except exacerbating the mudslinging.

And insults too, apparently. He's not better than that guy - he just knows bigger words.

Um, except just this past November we voted for Obama. Or aren't you paying attention to the here and now?

I suppose even a broken clock is right twice a day (this applies to both Maher and the American public), but this assumption that people are just simply stupid is absurd. Gullible and misinformed, maybe. Stupid, no.

My basic point is that saying that people you disagree with are stupid is pretty much the dumbest, easiest, lamest argument that can be used. You'd be better off just saying "they're wrong" and not even providing any examples illustrating why.

On a side note, Bill Maher has yet to say anything funny ever, so his status as "comedian" is tentative at best.

I mean, I'm probably like 100% in agreement with his political views (outside of his being a vegan and me not, I guess), and I'm still not going to say that anyone should listen to the man, because he is dumb as a rock, because he thinks that "most Americans are stupid" is some sort of valid argumentative point.

I pretty much agreed with the whole article, actually.

The only point that came to mind was already mentioned, which is, at least we hope, that these Americans caught in these embarrassing statistics aren't really the ones in power, seeking power, and are just random dudes/gals off the street, caught off guard, don't give a shit, whatever.

This has bothered me for a while.

...And it's hard to stay immune to it. Even among the reasonably intelligent, I don't know many people who aren't guilty of playing a bit dirty. This includes me--I mean, as much fun as it is to make fun of Sarah Palin or libertarians, it's not really helping to further said national dialogue, you know? So I usually steer away from heavy debate nowadays because I know there's a good chance of one or both parties veering in that direction. There has to be a better solution, but I'm not sure what it is.