Why does Bill Maher constantly minimize slavery?

Shit happens, OP.

Ironic when Bill and the two people on his panel, all college graduates, talk about that there’s no need to keep pushing college. Bari Weiss pathetically injects that when she sees a resume of someone applying to her website for a job without a college education, it makes them more interesting.

Sure, Bari, I’m sure you’ve hired tons of high school graduates to run your website.

[Quote] Shit happens, OP.

That’s what white people always say, don’t they?

Yes, shit happens but don’t pretend you’re the country of “everyone is born equal” and “everyone has the same opportunity” as you continue to shit

And he, a multimillionaire with a trainer and a cook, bangs on about obese people every other episode. It's all about his fucking brand. And he's looking old.

OP, you're watching the wrong show. You need to change the channel for shows which maximize slavery.

He’s going insane. Quite far along.

Tonight's entire episode was full of broadly painted statements being portrayed as absolute truth by Bill and the two panelists. A full on gripe session, and a weak "New Rules" and editorial ending.

R3 I am part Maori.

R4 I am not American. My point has man has a huge appetite for destruction, and loves to kill other men. Every group in history has at some stage been hunted and killed. That is human nature. Max sums it up well.

Right wingers are going to minimize slavery, some are even Holocaust deniers or minimize it too.

A lot of white Americans have been minimizing slavery for centuries. There’s never been accountability for it.

A lot of white people who have the “slaves are dead” mentality don’t see them as human or a group of people. It’s like mythology to them.

Like for example, there was a thread in here where a black woman re-enacted the slavery era for historic purposes. It was about how a slave woman got dressed and her daily routine. It annoyed a lot of white people and they were angry she did it.

But they fail to realize it’s apart of black American history. I remember saying in the thread why can white people reenact the Civil War and celebrate Thanksgiving and visit Plymouth and celebrate or find their American history fascinating but black people cant see their American history?

And that’s what the whole issue is. Whites dismiss slavery as a “bad spot” in American history that’s now gone, not the birth and American history of the black American.

But a lot of white Americans see black Americans as foreigners and immigrants. You’ve got white people who’s families have been here since the 1920’s telling black people who’s families have been here since the 1600-1700’s to “go back to Africa”.

It’s just delusional.

But yeah.

R8 Stop watching.

R8, that's his format every week. I turned this old wizened cunt off long ago.

And R11, that's exactly what I've done.

He has the temperament of a teenage contrarian, he loves to harp on anything that might be technically true if it makes people uncomfortable. I love his club random show, he irritates the fuck out of his guests and just generally has no awareness.

R13 Stop watching.

I don't know, but I LOVE Tim Ryan and want him in me deeply all day, every day.

Progressives minimize slavery. They totally close their eyes to the millions of slaves of 2023 in Africa and the Middle East.

It's so much more politically profitable to take a stand against the people of 1859.

R8 I usually love his New Rules, even if the show was meh.

But tonight's was just off. Bragging about how great private jets are wasn't enlightening, funny or otherwise insightful. It was just smug and rather facile.

I wonder why Tim Ryan didn't talk exactly like he did on the show when he ran his campaign. I thought he was so on point. Even that nut job Bari Weiss was in love with what he was saying.

R16 Absolutely. Wokes are worst piece of shit. They are making victims out of uber privileged celebrities lrich African Americans and will cry over Michelle Obama's haircut, but don't give a shit about millions of Middle Eastern people killed and bannished to refugee camps when Obama was bombing their countries to oblivion.

And Obama and his destruction of Middle east is the living proof that people of any color can be equally evil towards others if you give them the power.

I meant "uber privileged and rich African Americans"

A better question is, why is Datalounge obsessed with Bill Maher?

And, why are you surprised when a wealthy, elderly, straight, white libertarian man seems out of touch?

He's basically a mainstream Republican who likes pot and believes in climate change. Stop acting like he's remotely progressive otherwise.

Fuck bill maher he's a pompous ass who pretends he knows everything. I used to watch "Real Time" religiously but I stopped being a fan because I realized he's in love with the sound of his own voice. I think he would freak out if someone said something similar about the holocaust being taught in schools so he's a hypocrite on top of other negative traits. If I don't respect your opinion then its not going to affect me personally.

[Quote] Progressives minimize slavery. They totally close their eyes to the millions of slaves of 2023 in Africa and the Middle East.

Ahh, the typical right wing whataboutism.

Yesterday, he and his panel made broad statements about issues that are much more complex and Pat themselves on the back for somehow being right about everything.

When they were decrying gastric bypasses in kids, Tim was going on about how diabetes can be reversed with nutrition—No, fucking DUH—as if doctors are doing gastric bypass willynilly on every kid because docs make tons of money on them. On actuality, gastric bypass is reserved for the kids where they’ve tried everything else and they’re at high risk for organ failure and such.

[Quote] . My point has man has a huge appetite for destruction, and loves to kill other men. Every group in history has at some stage been hunted and killed. That is human nature.

Yes, we know. But Maher loves to complain about how we talk about slavery but never broaches other such destructive events like, say, the Holocaust. We’re inundated with Holocaust references in the media. Has it “gone too far”?

Whenever Maher brings on a Black person as a guest, it is often a conservative Black person who will agree with all of Maher’s BS

At least he FINALLY got off his “everyone is too WOKE” kick. My God, that whining went on for a year at least

[Quote] ] I am part Maori.

And, let me guess, your best friend is Black

Whites dismiss slavery because it indicts them.

[Quote] Progressives minimize slavery. They totally close their eyes to the millions of slaves of 2023 in Africa and the Middle East. It's so much more politically profitable to take a stand against the people of 1859.

And yet conservatives only mention modern day slavery when it’s convenient to refute the importance of historical slavery. We all know very well that it’s the currently wealthy who create slaves and those wealthy tend to be conservative

[quote]Fuck bill maher he's a pompous ass who pretends he knows everything.

Thank goodness there's none of that here on DL.

I think that a lot of people have started going to the slavery well way too much. The issues this country faces in regards to race and racial inequities is a direct result of anti-black laws and policies post slavery or the era post Reconstruction that lead into Jim Crow. Slavery ended 150 years ago, Jim Crow 60. Slavery was horrific, but no one alive today remembers that. But there are many people alive today who still remember Jim Crow and many places are still trying to unwind from policies that began during Jim Crow.

Gave up on him eons ago. He’s a thirsty crackpot who no longer makes any sense. Smug, arrogant and condescending to some of his guests. He’s a massive failure as a provocateur. Just an idiot now.

The expansion of human liberty (individual, civil and human rights, economic individualism) is one of the driving forces of American history. The dirty underside (or flip side of the same coin) is that slavery was enmeshed in that drive for much of our early and not so distant history.

We cannot minimize either.

I'm an optimist. I believe that the expansion of human liberty will outrun the racism that is the legacy of slavery. It's frustrating that it is so fitfully slow. Every time we think there's progress, something happens that pulls us back.

We did turn a corner with George Floyd.

But then..Tyre Nichols was murdered. He was beaten to death because of his Blackness. That is the horrific legacy of slavery. Dehumanization legitimized slavery. And slavery was synonymous with Blackness and worthlessness.

Sadly, Bill Maher does not understand history.

R29, you believe that whites dismiss slavery cause it indicts them? I see a bit of problem in your statement.

The vast majority of US whites’ ancestors had nothing to do with slavery (even if you believe that one is liable for sins of his forefathers). They don’t come from rich or powerful background that enabled slavery and kept slaves. Many of them are descendants of Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish etc. immigrants who came after the abolishment of slavery and were treated as racially impure themselves.

Whereas, most African Americans carry 20-25 %, some much more, of European DNA from pre civil war period, that unfortunately comes from slave owners and male members of their family or white foremen on plantations.

So, the most direct and certain descendants of slave owners, except for some small percentage of white people coming from rich southern backgrounds, are in fact black people, African Americans. So, be careful with this theory about being guilty for the ancestors deeds.

Because he's a racist conservative? He was NEVER progressive. He loathes progressives. He's a libertarian which means he's a conservative who likes weed and paying for his girlfriend's abortions. Wake up. This asshole was never on our side.

OP, watch The View to get your daily dose of slavery discussion.

What happened with the palimony lawsuit that his ex girlfriend filed against him?

[Quote] millions of Middle Eastern people killed and bannished to refugee camps when Obama was bombing their countries to oblivion.

Um, when Obama moved to end the war, the GOP-led Congress said no

Minorities have to constantly advocate for themselves and point our the wrongs the majority has done to them—or else the majority will not care.

Thus, slavery and the Holocaust much continuously be brought up. Jim Crow must continuously hammered. Comparisons to currently policies must be continuously made.

Again, or else the majority will willfully forget

ery is an ancient institution that goes back to the beginnings of civilization.It is a way of one people to show their superiority to another.Especially if one country and people decide to conquer another people. Slavery and all forms of discrimination are about power by "othering" people not of your ethnic people.

The reason people don't want to deal with slavery, the holocaust, war, and a forms of inequality is we don't like to admit we are SELFISH and our selfishness is what causes conflicts.

[Quote] The vast majority of US whites’ ancestors had nothing to do with slavery (even if you believe that one is liable for sins of his forefathers)

Please stop.

It’s not about guilt or liability; it’s about accepting that this country was built on slavery and that the racism in thinking that slaves weren’t human trickles into the modern day

[Quote] The vast majority of US whites’ ancestors had nothing to do with slavery (even if you believe that one is liable for sins of his forefathers).

And yet the entirely of Christianity believes that we are liable for the sins of our forefathers

[Quote] I think that a lot of people have started going to the slavery well way too much. The issues this country faces in regards to race and racial inequities is a direct result of anti-black laws and policies post slavery or the era post Reconstruction that lead into Jim Crow. Slavery ended 150 years ago,

Hmm, where do you think the attitudes that led to Jim Crow came from exactly? Do you think that just because Jim Crow is officially over, we’re not seeing the descendants of those laws? The GOP’s entire policy to obstruct Black votes now come directly from Jim Crow. The fact that so many infractions became felonies and that felons are not allowed to vote come directly from Jim Crow. And on and on and on

[Quote] I think that a lot of people have started going to the slavery well way too much. Slavery ended 150 years ago, Jim Crow 60. Slavery was horrific, but no one alive today remembers that.

Hmmm, so a Jew was wasn’t alive during the Holocaust can’t complain about it. Gay who weren’t alive during the times gays were jailed can’t complain about it. Once all those have been made illegal, the country changed completely?

R35, if you benefit from living in this country, you benefit from its history of slave labor. If you’re white, no matter who your ancestors were, you benefit from a class system that subsequently keeps Blacks on the bottom

In case anyone is interested, the race discussion begins around the 16:00 minute mark.

Not to defend Maher, but a real discussion requires that you look at the entire argument he's making, not some simplistic and limited one you've invented.

Saying that the US is not the only country to have engaged in slavery is not "minimizing slavery." Acknowledging the full factual historical situation, including the fact that tribes in Africa sold conquered Africans into slavery, is necessary to have a complete discussion. Slavery has been a fact of human history across time, not limited to the few hundred years in America.

It's not as simple or straightforward a situation as many people would like to believe it was and requires a much more in-depth discussion than most people are capable of having. It's easy to say "slavery is wrong" in hindsight. It's much more difficult to look at the historical forces at work at the time.

R46 most whites in US are on the bottom along with blacks. If someone did benefit on slavery it is rich and privileged. So, Will and Jada, Oprah, Whoopy, Obamas etc etc. Along with rich woke white liberals who despise "white trash".

What kind of person still watches Bill Maher? Why give it the ratings?

[quote]Hmmm, so a Jew was wasn’t alive during the Holocaust can’t complain about it. Gay who weren’t alive during the times gays were jailed can’t complain about it. Once all those have been made illegal, the country changed completely?

i didn't say that. Know the history. Acknowledge the horror. But keep focus on what the real issue is. The real issue is not slavery. The issue is discriminatory laws and policies, that we've been living with for so long, that have kept people trapped in a system and cycle of poverty and abuse.

And it doesn't help when some dumb ass says, but my family didn't own slaves. Go somewhere and sit down, you're too stupid to comment.

R48 Exactly, and while privileged white liberals , so called wokes along with privileged blacks were getting richer on exploitation of destructed Middle eastern countries rich with oil in wars led by "victim" Obama, they can shed a crocodile tear or twp on atrocities that happened few centuries ago.

While African criminals are still selling new slaves to rich western countries, sex slaves. Nigeria is the world biggest source of sex slaves. Wokes will cry over it maybe some hundred years from now, when they get over from Jada and Michelle hairstyle problems.

Slavery, schalvery.

I enjoy watching his show every week. I don't always agree with what he says, but his conversations are always interesting - his 'New Rules' are usually spot on.

That said, last night's show was a waste of time. I don't know why, but I couldn't get into it - not even 'new rules'.

Because it isn't just "slavery" as some abstract concept that happened here, happened in ancient Rome and Greece, happened in Africa, happened in Asia, happened everywhere. The real poison was the marriage of slavery and skin color. Slavery was just the cognac. Racism was the little drops of poison slipped into the cognac. And that's why the "legacy of slavery" isn't over in the U.S. (and not just us, the Caribbean, Brazil, etc, etc, etc), but we're talking about the U.S. here. We STILL can't quite get over this notion that Blacks are somehow different and somehow lesser and somehow more dangerous and somehow all this other shit. Not because of slavery itself, but because of the way we did slavery in this country, and the way we decided to import people from Africa, and the way we had to incorporate a whole mindset that people from Africa and their descendants all bear some terrible stain that they just can't erase.

I was waiting for his promise to never personally use a private jet again, but then realized it would never make headlines. And no one would care.

Aside from slavery there were two interesting things on the show. When Tim Ryan said that he was told the Democratic establishment just couldn't invest in his campaign because there weren't enough college grads in his state. That showed a really bad mindset. The RNC is a joke and a zoo and going through shit right now, which is entertaining. But at some point we all need to look at the DNC and why it does what it does and the whole nitty gritty reality of why some campaigns are encouraged and some are simply allowed to wither. And some of that is going to be about college grads in D.C. despising non college grads.

The other moment was when they very, very briefly raised the subject of work and how obsolete so many jobs are going to be, and what do we do when the entire economy is NOT built around everybody going to work every day five days a week. Everybody danced away from that in a panic almost as soon as it was raised, which is inevitable in our current society, but this is a question on the horizon that will become urgent at some point. What if the 19th century workweek itself is obsolete? What do we do?

[quote] when Obama moved to end the war, the GOP-led Congress said no

Obama was getting off on it

The 542 drone strikes that Obama authorized killed an estimated 3,797 people, including 324 civilians. As he reportedly told senior aides in 2011: “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

R55 If you knew something about history you would know that throught history slaves have frequently been members of different, defeated tribe, they were barbarian, not "one of us". By chance, since African kings and chieftains were willing to sell surplus of their subjects to Arabic and European slave traders, in US they were black Africans.

Maher is constantly identifying with the aggressor because he is a piece of shit coward. He promoted cannabis when it was convenient to him, until he decided that “the only thing people that I date want is pot” because maybe that’s the only way to get through a date with him..

He is a whining boomer. He dated specific women just to talk shit about them. Watch the episode of his show when he tried to chat up a girl (Bella?) on his show in a super cringe worthy way.

Considering how many Black women he bangs, he really ought to hold a more nuanced and informed view of slavery in American history.

The dude's one slap away from being MeToo-ed, and no one will rush to his defense. He's been pig-adjacent since the 90s, and his edgy schtick wore thin long ago. He's just an asshole now.

He’s right that slavery was all over the place still in the 19th century. And it’s still relatively common in certain parts of the world.

He’s wrong that that means it’s not a big deal. It was, and is, monstrous no matter where it was, or is, practiced.

What R1 said. JUST LIKE THE UK, after a while the effects of being enslaved will wear off.

[quote]So, the most direct and certain descendants of slave owners, except for some small percentage of white people coming from rich southern backgrounds, are in fact black people, African Americans.

I'll bet those temptress slave women were just begging their massas to rape them... right R35?

[quote] What kind of person still watches Bill Maher? Why give it the ratings?

You don’t know how ratings work.

Jews were slaves for how long? You don’t hear them whining about it.

No need to be mean R64, everybody knows that sexual abuse was one of the ugliest faces of slavery and they all were ugly, but if you read with comprehension you would have noticed that I stated the fact that the blood and DNA of these slaveowners run in black Americans. Sexual violence was frequent in marriage too these days and girls have frequently being married off to men they didn't want, so who knows your grait grandfather might have raped your grait grandmother when she conceived, yet it doesn't make him less of your ancestor. Your don't inherit your grandpa genes only if grandma was in love and had an orgasm.

What I meant to say is that these slaveowners are part of black Americans and live in them.

[Quote] Saying that the US is not the only country to have engaged in slavery is not "minimizing slavery." Acknowledging the full factual historical situation, including the fact that tribes in Africa sold conquered Africans into slavery, is necessary to have a complete discussion

You obviously didn’t see the show. He didn’t just mention that slavery was everywhere. It was specifically that because slavery was everywhere that we shouldn’t be so concerned about it here.

WTF???

What we created was chattel slavery—that not only were you a slave but all your kids and their kids would continue to be slave. The volume of slaves to the New World was unprecedented. And worst of all we keep trumpeting that we’re the country of freedom and equality.

[Quote] The real issue is not slavery. The issue is discriminatory laws and policies, that we've been living with for so long, that have kept people trapped in a system and cycle of poverty and abuse.

No DUH. And it is in that exact context that slavery is mentioned today.

[Quote] Considering how many Black women he bangs, he really ought to hold a more nuanced and informed view of slavery in American history.

I know two white men who are married to black women but the men are both politically arch conservative and racist as hell. I don’t get it

[Quote] Obama was getting off on it. The 542 drone strikes that Obama authorized killed an estimated 3,797 people, including 324 civilians

This was far better than sending in a massive army and killing an estimated 1 million that GWB did.

The right has to decide—was this war worth it or not. The right says that under GWB it was because he was a Republican. He killed massive amounts or people. Under Obama, it suddenly becomes a terrible war to the right…because he started using drones and killed a few thousand.

[Quote] He’s right that slavery was all over the place still in the 19th century.

Sure, but the context he said it in was that we shouldn’t keep harping on American slavery because the world had slavery. Well, that slavery mentality still affects how Blacks are treated today

If you were to categorize him, I would say he's a libertarian with a few liberal views.

They were also going in about Biden’s loan forgiveness and how blue collar workers will apparently pay for it.

Um pay for what. When the government forgives the loan, no one is paying anything. Any shortfall will be made up in taxes, which white collar workers may more of anyway.

Plus, the government, with a snap of a finger, forgave billions more in Covid PPP loans and not one person said a thing.

[Quote] If you were to categorize him, I would say he's a libertarian with a few liberal views.

Which seems very specific to white people

[Quote] Jews were slaves for how long? You don’t hear them whining about it.

Seriously? You need find more Jewish friends

[Quote] What [R1] said. JUST LIKE THE UK, after a while the effects of being enslaved will wear off.

The effects only wear off if they fight and fight and fight for equality. Whitey doesn’t just give it away

What we created more than anywhere else in history (not just us, but the New World and the 16th century generally) was RACE-BASED SLAVERY. That made a difference, and no amount of mooing about Roman slavery or Israeli slavery or African slavery or Asian slavery has left the kind of legacy that the RACE-BASED SLAVERY of that era left us. Nothing. That is the legacy, and that is part of the world we inhabit now. It does not matter that some tribes conquered other tribes a thousand years ago. it simply does not matter to our modern world in the way that black people were created as a category in the 16th and even more the 17th centuries, and that category was "slave." That category was "lesser." That category was "subhuman." And those categories didn't simply evaporate with the Emancipation Proclamation. They didn't evaporate with the end of Jim Crow. They are still there. They still exist as a thing that many, many white Americans still fall into, very easily. That is the actual problems we have.

(Also, the whole myth of Jews being slaves in Egypt is bullshit. It's a separate issue, but it's bullshit and that is a thing people need to stop pretending was real. There were a number of Israelites who were slaves, but mainly slaves to other Israelites when there was actually a kingdom of Israel and a kingdom of Judah.)

R78 Louis Farrakhan has entered the conversation.

Really, that is your idea of what Louis Farrakhan says and stands for r79? And nobody has ever noticed that the Book of Exodus is bullshit? Really? Not every serious archeologist of the past 50 years? You don't know very much about history, do you, r79?

R80 Triggered much?

R78 - weren't the kingdoms of Israel and Judah short lived? And weren't Jews slaves under Persians and Babylonians.

No not really r81. Are you triggered at the thought that the Bible is wrong about something? Why?

In the earliest colonial days, indentured servitude was not color based. People of various colors and backgrounds toiled together without the degree of 'otherness' that came later. But the landowner class realized the usefulness of pitting the lower classes against each other. We should all be banding together against the corporatocracy who keeps us all in economic bondage, but we will just to continue to squabble inanely. Ah well, humans are greedy and we've destroyed the Earth, so we are going to get our just desserts.

In the Overtime. segment, Weiss says all the straight people she knows identify as queer. Really?

I thought Ryan came across as a sore loser jerk.

Doesn't Maher hate colleges because he was once cancelled from a gig because he was too controversial?

[quote]I thought Ryan came across as a sore loser jerk.

Really? how so? He seemed like he was pissed at some people in the party, but I think he should be. JD Vance is a complete asshole liar whore who could easily have been exposed. That was a winnable seat but in so many ways, the DNC had given up in advance. Same with Santos. Same with a lot of people. Professional Democrats in DC often fuck up and they do seem primed to give up in advance. I wish they wouldn't, and at some point we really need to confront that.

Because he's a contrarian douche OP.

[quote]In the Overtime. segment, Weiss says all the straight people she knows identify as queer.

I wish you were joking but this sounds exactly like something she would say. My eyes may never unroll.

It does seem like she would r88. I love that Bari began the show talking about being on a university board, and the rest of the show nodding like a bobblehead about how useless universities are.

And Bari is oh so interested in employees who never went to college… what a load of bullshit she spews.

I can’t imagine she’s even hired one person who doesn’t have a college degree

[quote] I think that a lot of people have started going to the slavery well way too much

Do you think the well has run dry, R32?

There are 8 billion people on this earth. When they apply all apply for the same jobs, employers have to use SOMETHING, ANYTHING to cull those applications. College has become the minimum bar for many of those jobs. Employers don’t have the time to go deep down into every person’s soul to understand what kind of person each is. They need ways to quickly eliminate some applicants.

The entire point of college isn’t to train you for a job. That’s such a capitalistic way to think of education.

College is to teach people to become well rounded individuals, to have them meet and interact with a diverse group of people rather than just people in their neighborhoods or home towns. A traditional liberal arts education is to expose you to languages, art, history, science, etc, so you can dissect and analyze to make sense of the world for yourself

[quote] Sure, but the context he said it in was that we shouldn’t keep harping on American slavery because the world had slavery. Well, that slavery mentality still affects how Blacks are treated today

Wrong.

Yes, Maher is suddenly anti-college because he’s angry comedians can no longer say racist, sexist, and homophobic jokes without being called out, especially on the college circuit

R94 = white guy

[quote] College is to teach people to become well rounded individuals, to have them meet and interact with a diverse group of people rather than just people in their neighborhoods or home towns. A traditional liberal arts education is to expose you to languages, art, history, science, etc, so you can dissect and analyze to make sense of the world for yourself

Except now they don’t. It’s groupthink, echo chambers, propaganda machines churning out woke morons who can’t think for themselves and don’t get nuance.

[Quote] I think that a lot of people have started going to the slavery well way too much

Like the Holocaust well? Or does that still have water?

[Quote] Louis Farrakhan has entered the conversation.

If that’s what Farrakhan says, no wonder white people hate him. He seems to tell the truth

No group has been discriminated against or treat more inhumanely than Jews. Everything was taken from them, they were kept out of jobs, were exterminated, yet them still prosper. The conspiracy to keep blacks down is a bunch of bullshit. People who were slaves are long dead. Stop your whining and get your shit together. There’s money in being professional victims and people like Al Sharpton have made millions off it. The black community doesn’t value education and continues to kill one another. That has nothing to do with the white population which is brutalized by blacks far more than whites against blacks. This is why people tune out. They’ve heard it all before. It’s baloney.

Yes, there’s very little, if any, evidence that Jews were slaves. Even Jewish historians say Egyptians didn’t hold Jewish slaves

Slavery vs. the Chattle Slavery the United States practiced. I advise anyone to look up the difference. Black people were literally considered cattle and not human from the first arrival of slaves in 1619 until 1865 - 246 fucking years. We're only 158 years out from slavery. You do the impact math. Hebrews were slaves, but they had families, married, lived as humans, they were not cattle. Slavery is not the same all over the world, all through history.

[Quote] No group has been discriminated against or treat more inhumanely than Jews. Everything was taken from them, they were kept out of jobs, were exterminated, yet them still prosper. The conspiracy to keep blacks down is a bunch of bullshit.

Yes Jews have been discriminated against throughout history, particularly by Christians.

And yet you try to pretend that blacks haven’t because slavery has been over for a while?

You know they both can be repressed groups simultaneously, right?

Wanted someone to ask Ryan why Sherrod Brown wins in Ohio. And I wished he had pushed back on some of Maher's and Weiss's bs. I'll bet he employs lots of college grads.

I don't know about anybody r100, but no doubt, the history of Jews in Europe and the Middle East and most of the world where there have been Jews is terrible. The U.S. has been comparatively better, but even here, of course, antiSemitism was very much a thing and if you haven't, everybody should watch the Ken Burns documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust.

R100 My pain is bigger than your pain.

[quote] Ken Burns documentary

Ken Burns tearjerker.

Meaning you didn't believe it was true r107? What did you not like about it?

[Quote] There’s money in being professional victims and people like Al Sharpton have made millions off it. The black community doesn’t value education and continues to kill one another. That has nothing to do with the white population which is brutalized by blacks far more than whites against blacks. This is why people tune out. They’ve heard it all before. It’s baloney.

Are you trying to put discriminated groups against each other? There’s tons of money wrapped up in Israel-literally $4 billion annually in direct monetary aid for the US along with a ton more from private contributions.

Poor people commit the most crimes. Whites have repressed blacks and ghettoized them to keep them poor. When blacks became self sufficient and prosperous in Oklahoma, Florida, and Virginia, as examples, whites rioted destroyed their communities. Yes, whites are responsible for all of it.

[Quote] My pain is bigger than your pain.

Both pains caused by white Christians

Hebrews were not slaves, generally speaking r102. That is Bible based bullshit for the most part. There were some Hebrew slaves, mainly owned by other Hebrews. The idea that Hebrews were ALL slaves in Egypt is completely made up nonsense.

[Quote] Stop your whining and get your shit together.

Of course, todays biggest whiners are white men who claim they’re the most discriminated against.

R100 My pain is longer than your pain.

DL's resident klan granny brigade his been drawn to this thread like flies to shit.

the fuck are you talking about r114.

[quote] drawn to this thread like flies to shit.

Drawn to what, R114? What kind of metaphor is that?

R102 Slavery started in America in 1619?

I don't know what you people are faffing about.

Slavery in the colonies that would ultimately become the United States started with the arrival of a cargo of African slaves in Jamestown in 1619, r117. I assume that is what they meant.

R118 Oh wow, did not know that.

[quote] granny brigade

I don't know grannies

Until only the last few years, America had more time with slavery than without

I guess, according to the reasoning here, gays should stop complaining about discrimination too.

It all went away with gay marriage, right?

[quote] gays should stop complaining

Shirley Bassey says 'Life too short for mixed emotion'.

[quote]No group has been discriminated against or treat more inhumanely than Jews.

That is why so many of them changed their names and pretended they weren't Jews, like my husbands family. His grandparents changed their name and just became White. Something that black people can't JUST do.

[quote] That has nothing to do with the white population which is brutalized by blacks far more than whites against blacks.

This person REALLY, REALLY doesn't know their American history. Talk about not valuing education. Sweetheart I suggest you take a look at America post slavery during the reconstruction period. There were thriving black communities, senators, congressmen, politicians, landowners, business owners, entrepreneurs educators. The first female self-made millionaire was black. Then over the course of 100 years one black person was killed once a week through lynching terrorizing, suppression, land stolen, communities burned to the ground by US military. 100 years! Anyway, it is what it is. I just hate these Johnny-come-latelies to this country who profess to know how things are, how they should be. Your family probably came over in 1920s. Mine has been here since the early 18th century. And with all of that, my Dad made more money and probably achieved more than anyone else on this thread. Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit. There is nothing worse than an uneducated white person who thinks they are informed. I'm looking at you r100.

R125 Humble slave brag.

R125, you're talking about history but the person you quoted (not me) is taking about current day.

80% of the population do not dwell in constant maundering over the past.

They live for the now.

It is true, white southerners should stop maundering about some past before Lincoln took the darkies away. They really should stop whining about that shit and try to catch up to the modern world.

R127 While repeating the same mistakes over the past in the now.

R127 That’s not true at all. White people have always played victims. They say the same things today (like you) as they did in the 1800’s.

[quote] While repeating the same mistakes

R129 I'm guessing you're one of those holier-than-thou moralists who pronounce that certain things are "On The Right Side Of History.

An expression which is so amorphous as to be meaningless.

Slavery & Capitalism are the twin cancers that will prove fatal to U.S.A.

[Quote] you're talking about history but the person you quoted (not me) is taking about current day.

Today, in the US, most crime is committed by poor white people

When the state of Florida rejects an AP African American History course by claiming that it doesn’t have educational value, it is saying we don’t want our kids learning about how whites have repressed blacks throughout American History. It’s a white supremacy stance—white have always been benevolent to minorities stance

R131 White people live in the past. That was literally Trump’s biggest selling point in his campaign. Male America Great Again was about 1950’s revival.

And no I’m not one of those but you’re just another hypocrite. Racist too.

[quote] Slavery & Capitalism are the twin cancers that will prove fatal to U.S.A.

Can you give us a date as to when this fatality will occur?

Exactly, r135, he wanted to make America Great Again, like in the 1950’s

No, he wanted to make America Great Again, before China stole all our manufacturing.

[Quote] Can you give us a date as to when this fatality will occur?

How’s capitalism working out for all the tech company employees losing their jobs? How about the huge upheavals of the last two recon rcesssions? How about the high inflation? How about the out of control college costs? How about 8% of the country being uninsured for healthcare and the rest barely affording it?

[Quote] No, he wanted to make America Great Again, before China stole all our manufacturing.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

More like American capitalists sent to China willingly.

[Quote] No, he wanted to make America Great Again, before China stole all our manufacturing.

Or when Nazis were “fine people”

Bill is a close friend. He gets me.

White people live in the past.

I don't know about that, but a lot of US history is designed so that white people are almost always the heroes and saviors. Everything they've done was for the right reasons. It is not easy undoing all of that, without pushback. If you're white and you've grown up believing that you come from heroes and saviors, you're not going to take too kindly to learning that those heroes and saviors were complicated and flawed and weren't always honorable.

Look at this History textbook that was used in Virginia from the 50s through the 70s. This is the kind of shit our parents were taught.

It's been over 150 years ffs.

Like Trump wants to make anything great again. Bitch wants to steal and grift and lie and have everyone tell him how awesome he is. That is all Trump wants to do. Ever.

[quote] before China stole all our manufacturing.

With a bit of support

Because he’s an entitled white male libertarian, i.e., Republican.

[quote]If you're white and you've grown up believing that you come from heroes and saviors, you're not going to take too kindly to learning that those heroes and saviors were complicated and flawed and weren't always honorable.

That goes on today with anyone, of any race, anointed as a hero. No one wants to hear about George Floyd's checkered past and it's certainly verboten to suggest that MLK had any flaws.

George Floyd’s checkered past had nothing to do with why and how he was killed. The right keeps bringing it up to make it his fault, not the cops’. He wasnt a saint and no one particularly revers him. He’s become a symbol of a movement because it was the last straw—not that he was a hero.

[Quote] it's certainly verboten to suggest that MLK had any flaws.

White people constantly want to show all of MLK’s flaws and downplay his strengths.

Floyd’s checkered past was never relevant to what happened to him that day. It wasn’t about his life and how he lived, it was about his death and the way he was murdered.

It’s totally irrelevant what MLK’s or Floyd’s “flaws” were. THEY WERE MURDERED BECAUSE THEY WERE BLACK. If you don’t get that you are a racist asshole and you are not fooling anyone.

[quote] White people constantly want to show all of MLK’s flaws

He will find it difficult to live down the appalling monstrosity in his name in Boston.

[quote]80% of the population do not dwell in constant maundering over the past.

R127 is another example of how the education system has failed people. He is a perfect example of playing into a system that doesn't want you to know the past because that then makes you much easier to control, to manipulate. He is actually lauding ignorance as a way to live. The system knows the past and has learned from it how to maximize its future. And what it has learned is that an uneducated populace only caught up in the "now" can be used in whichever way they choose. I really do think the decade of the 60s with all of it's rebellion convinced them we have to dumb people down and it's best if they don't know their rights or what they are capable of.

In my day this saying rang true - "If you don't know your past, you don't know your future."

Oh, R154, you must be an historian!

Are you a qualified historian?

And what R127 and a lot of other White People don't realize is that if this nation actually confronted its history of slavery directly, took a good couple of decades to address it, admit to the mistakes, build bridges to move on from it - THEIR lives would be 100% better and slavery would truly be in the past instead of bubbling up every generation in some new manifestation. But that will never happen. So down the tubes for the US.

Slavery was a trauma the entire country went through and never dealt with, recovered from.

Now r155, I just have two eyes that can see attached to a brain that can interpret and I have lived for a while.

He doesn't minimize slavery. The Maher-haters just keep repeating that, hoping it will stick.

[quote]The Maher-haters

Oh grow the fuck up. You look ridiculous.

And he does minimize slavery, he has a long record of public comments doing. You're just another old racist like your washed up Libertarian idol.

[Quote] He doesn't minimize slavery. The Maher-haters just keep repeating that, hoping it will stick.

And you’re trying to gaslight us.

Just watch his shows and you’ll see

Not r154, but I'm curious r155, what do you mean by "qualified historian"? Do you mean, have piece of paper from accredited university saying "allowed to discuss history"? Would only history professors be allowed to read history in your world? What exactly are the rules for being allowed to discuss history in any way, in any context?

[quote] no one particularly revers him

Oh, dear!

But if he wasn't a violent criminal he wouldn't have been in that position to begin with r151.

How can you even put MLK and George Floyd in same context, you woke idiots. MLK was a great man, killed because of his struggle for human rights, while Floyd was a small time criminal who had the misfortune to end his life tragically.

They're somewhat, not much, but somewhat in the same context r163, because both died in part because of their skin color. MLK obviously was much more important in everything he did, but part of the reason some white people hated him enough to want to kill him was because they hated the idea of black people being anything other than a miserable, poor, powerless person. HATED that idea, and actually go kind of crazy at the idea of actual equality between white and black people. For some white cops that same idea translates into a right to kill black people if they just give an excuse to be killed, any excuse will do.

[quote]But if he wasn't a violent criminal he wouldn't have been in that position to begin with

He wasn't the most upstanding citizen. But using a counterfeit $20 bill is hardly a violent criminal. Hell, Bernie Madoff did it for years.

George Floyd did not deserve to die. GTFOOH.

Even God thought George Floyd was scum who needed to be blasted off the Earth

Gaslighting, R159? Really?? To paraphrase Inigo Montoya: "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

Just because I disagreed with your assertion (as OP) that Bill Maher minimizes the effect of slavery in America, doesn't mean I'm "gaslighting" anyone. It was ONE, two-sentence post. And I think it was only the first or second time I'd ever posted in a Bill Maher thread? "Gaslighting" would imply repeated posts, telling you how wrong you are & that you're imagining it. That's not me, Dumbass, it's YOU! You're the one who has posted 50-fucking times in this thread.

He had previously held a gun to the stomach of a pregnant woman. This was no loss.

R156 is such a naive fool.

[Quote] Just because I disagreed with your assertion (as OP) that Bill Maher minimizes the effect of slavery in America, doesn't mean I'm "gaslighting" anyone.

He has minimized slavery a number of times on the show. If you saw them and keep insisting he doesn’t, you’re gaslighting us.

The other possibility is you haven’t seen the shows and you’re just lying

[Quote] He had previously held a gun to the stomach of a pregnant woman. This was no loss.

So the police should kill Herschel Walker next?

[Quote] [R156] is such a naive fool.

You seem like a “traumatized” white guy

[quote]Slavery was a trauma the entire country went through and never dealt with, recovered from.

People who want to somehow revisit this are not doing what they do because it was never dealt with or because we haven't recovered from it. They understand like everyone else that it was dealt with and we have recovered from it; however, it wasn't dealt with the way they wish it had been. They want to resurrect the issue from its grave and keep it alive like a zombie for their ongoing purposes, specifically, to milk money from it.

Just like Meghan Markle.

[quote] They want to resurrect the issue from its grave and keep it alive like a zombie for their ongoing purposes, specifically, to milk money from it.

That has been noted before

Because Bill Maher is a racist, OP. Like many here on the DL.

r174, I would like to know how the country has directly dealt with it's history of Slavery other than sweeping it under the rug. I am serious. I would like to hear how people think the country has dealt with its history of slavery, so I can better understand their thinking.

BTW, R174 just so you know, the country, as a nation, never even apologized for slavery until 2008.

At least Germany is making an effort to deal with its Holocaust past. Interestingly, German people refuse to talk about it on a personal level, but the government mandates education, memorial markers, etc.

[quote] They understand like everyone else that it was dealt with and we have recovered from it;

By banning African American studies classes? But banning discussion labeled CRT?

The extent of education on the subject is laughable, considering how much damage it has caused it. But as we head into Black History month, I am sure some schools are blowing the dust off of their pictures of George Washington Carver, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King. That's the summation of Black History. And it's taught that way, whereas in actuality it's just American History.

Darn, I was waiting to hear from R174 to learn how this country has addressed its history of slavery. I really wanted to see if I had missed something.

I watched that Real Time episode and my takeaway was that Tim Ryan is a hottie. Blue collar stud.

Ryan is a fatty