Bill Maher In Hot Water
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- tgb
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Bill Maher In Hot Water
for saying ni**er on the air.
Context is everything. It's not like he used it against somebody. He made a stupid joke and a once-common phrase slipped out.
Interesting that the Times article not only included the word completly spelled out, but imbedded the clip as well, yet it doesn't appear to be getting the paper in trouble.
Which just proves my point that context is important.
Context is everything. It's not like he used it against somebody. He made a stupid joke and a once-common phrase slipped out.
Interesting that the Times article not only included the word completly spelled out, but imbedded the clip as well, yet it doesn't appear to be getting the paper in trouble.
Which just proves my point that context is important.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
I've never really understood the taboo against using a verboten word while discussing the word itself. It seems profoundly Kafkaesque.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
Agree, off color and unwise but that is who he is.
As long as he isn't using it to name call someone it seems like a big nothingburger.
As long as he isn't using it to name call someone it seems like a big nothingburger.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
Context is everything, yes, and so printing the word while discussing the incident is one thing... Actually using the phrase as a joke is uncool. Not as uncool maybe as using the term to insult someone, but uncool nonetheless..tgb wrote:for saying ni**er on the air.
Context is everything. It's not like he used it against somebody. He made a stupid joke and a once-common phrase slipped out.
Interesting that the Times article not only included the word completly spelled out, but imbedded the clip as well, yet it doesn't appear to be getting the paper in trouble.
Which just proves my point that context is important.
- tgb
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
It was definitely uncool and a stupid slip, but I don't think it merits all the backlash he's getting for it.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
What is so ridiculous is it is acceptable to say "the n word" where everyone knows exactly what you mean.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
Maher's brand of persistently smug dickery is as much to blame as the bare use of the word itself.
Nebraska's Sasses invited him to come to Nebraska and "work in the fields," a clearly non-racial bit of canned folksiness about being from an agricultural state.
Maher's brain leaped from fields to slaves for some reason, and then decided it would be funny to call himself a "house n-gger" as a joke on avoiding physical labor. He surely knows the cultural history by which that full term is loaded and derogatory in all kinds of special ways, and the whole chain of association and mis-application here is just full of ick.
Nebraska's Sasses invited him to come to Nebraska and "work in the fields," a clearly non-racial bit of canned folksiness about being from an agricultural state.
Maher's brain leaped from fields to slaves for some reason, and then decided it would be funny to call himself a "house n-gger" as a joke on avoiding physical labor. He surely knows the cultural history by which that full term is loaded and derogatory in all kinds of special ways, and the whole chain of association and mis-application here is just full of ick.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
This.Holman wrote:Maher's brand of persistently smug dickery is as much to blame as the bare use of the word itself.
Nebraska's Sasses invited him to come to Nebraska and "work in the fields," a clearly non-racial bit of canned folksiness about being from an agricultural state.
Maher's brain leaped from fields to slaves for some reason, and then decided it would be funny to call himself a "house n-gger" as a joke on avoiding physical labor. He surely knows the cultural history by which that full term is loaded and derogatory in all kinds of special ways, and the whole chain of association and mis-application here is just full of ick.
- Zarathud
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
Meh. I'm pretty sure he was aware of the context and thought the ick was funny. It's not particularly funny, but I see how it was intended to be.
While words are important, I think intent and context matter. Here that helps Maher even though he's being a dick.
While words are important, I think intent and context matter. Here that helps Maher even though he's being a dick.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
Yeah. When I first watched him all those years ago I tricked myself into thinking he was funny. It turns out I was wrong. It's been years since I've enjoyed his bit.geezer wrote:This.Holman wrote:Maher's brand of persistently smug dickery is as much to blame as the bare use of the word itself.
Nebraska's Sasses invited him to come to Nebraska and "work in the fields," a clearly non-racial bit of canned folksiness about being from an agricultural state.
Maher's brain leaped from fields to slaves for some reason, and then decided it would be funny to call himself a "house n-gger" as a joke on avoiding physical labor. He surely knows the cultural history by which that full term is loaded and derogatory in all kinds of special ways, and the whole chain of association and mis-application here is just full of ick.
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Re: Bill Maher In Hot Water
Maher can be funny, but he gets unfunny when he's smug and gets to be a dick about it.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon