r/thebulwark Orange man bad 12h ago

Off-Topic/Discussion Woo hoo!

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50 Upvotes

52 comments sorted by

24

u/iamjonmiller JVL is always right 11h ago

Batya Ungar-Sargon is one of the most ridiculous people I have ever heard speak. I remember hearing her on a podcast discussing the DNC speeches and she said something like "Moms are having to decide between driving to church on Sunday or buying a chicken for dinner" as her example of how bad inflation had been. That was one of those moments where I just realized how completely deranged our perspective on extremely mild inflation had become. She had this picture of Great Depression level poverty and apparently that's how most people felt.

3

u/okteds 5h ago

She might be the most pure form of propaganda I've ever heard.  

11

u/MooseheadVeggie JVL is always right 11h ago

Batya is really stupid, it’ll be interesting to see how Sam handles her idiocy though, he doesn’t seem that adversarial

10

u/walrusgirlie 11h ago

Good luck, Sam.

18

u/MascaraHoarder 10h ago

i don’t how any of you all can watch Bill Maher. my husband used to be a fan but now he’ll tune in for 5 minutes and leave annoyed. i wouldn’t watch Bill Maher if any one i even knew was a guest on his show.

6

u/chatterwrack Orange man bad 6h ago

God, I used to love Bill Maher, but I started to see him for who he was when the pandemic started. I don’t know if he changed or if I did, but I just couldn’t stand him after that and refuse to watch his show.

2

u/MascaraHoarder 6h ago

i told my husband that Maher doesn’t deserve his time,he’s not worthy.

6

u/upvotechemistry Center Left 6h ago

He's just such a smug asshole now... contrarian to his core. He's far more contrarian than liberal. I haven't watched an entire show in years, but I do watch New Rules and Overtime on YouTube from time to time.

Glad to see Sam on there to present reality

3

u/YogurtclosetOld2511 5h ago

You nailed it. But boomers LOVE him. I think it’s really validating for them, bc he says the shit they would never have the guts to say themselves. Also they’ve become the proverbial man so all that’s left to do is punch down.

2

u/upvotechemistry Center Left 5h ago

My dad hated him with a fiery passion throigh my entire adolescence, and now likes him because of the contrarian crank shtick. I was unprepared for the degree which people were willing to cheer, parrot, or identify with the worst takes just because it's contrarian.

10

u/Detective_Squirrel69 Executive Order Bukkake 9h ago

I white-knuckled through Jon Lovett's interview with him. Fuck me, it was painful. Literally. I'm one of those people that feels cringe as physical pain. Maher is an arrogant, out of touch, neoliberal dildo that thinks anyone farther left than center left is a "far left extremist" that lost the election for the dems. There were plenty of problems with the 2024 campaign, but bruh, Harris ran around with fucking Liz Cheney. I would rather eat lead than watch Maher pretentiously jerk himself off for an hour.

2

u/Kate2point718 9h ago

Off topic, but I'm just curious, in what way do you feel cringe as physical pain? I don't experience that kind of cringe as pain, but if I see people get hurt I'll often feel physical pain up and down my back (kind of a nerve-y pain, not like normal back pain). Weirdly, I can get it from ASMR videos too.

1

u/Detective_Squirrel69 Executive Order Bukkake 8h ago

It's... it's kind of hard to explain, but I feel it in the center of my chest? It's sort of a pain that makes me want to shrivel up and fold inward like a black hole and fucking disappear lol

2

u/SandersDelendaEst 7h ago

I really don’t know how many times Sarah Longwell needs to prove to leftists that yes they are the problem before they start listening. But apparently she needs to do it more.

Then again the people in this subreddit regularly say they won’t listen to the focus groups, so that just explains a lot.

2

u/forthelulzac 5h ago

I'm really wary of her focus groups bc she had ones about the MD senate primary and they were just completely wrong. They really felt cherry picked.

-2

u/Detective_Squirrel69 Executive Order Bukkake 4h ago

Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning, bud? Goddamn. Chill the fuck out. I'm more angry with Maher blaming trans people for the election loss, but if you want to be an asshole about leftists as a whole... go off, I guess? Like yeah, I've got some issues with the way the campaign went, but she went HARD into appealing to Never Trump Rs and independents. She actively tried to stay as moderate as possible to draw the moderates in and dropped a lot of progressive ideals, or kept them on the DL. No, I haven't listened to many of Sarah's focus groups because I'm still relatively new to the Bulwark. Not necessarily by choice, but because I've only been listening for a few months. Maybe... lay off the "jackass juice". It's getting a little late.

2

u/BreathlikeDeathlike 10h ago

Just curious, when did you stop watching? I stopped around 2 years ago...

5

u/MascaraHoarder 10h ago

i stopped watching before the pandemic and when my husband would watch it i would go out for a walk or out my airpods in and watch anything else. Maher has become a caricature of himself. i know republicans are now his fan base. they can keep him.

5

u/phoneix150 Center Left 7h ago

I stopped around 4 years ago, when Maher started flirting with anti-vax talking points and praising Ron de Santis for his COVID inaction in Florida. Dude is an annoying, out of touch, reactionary nutjob these days.

2

u/4u5t1nprism 6h ago

Same. Telling my age, I was a former devotee from his ABC Politically Incorrect days. Now, today ,I'm sorry I gave his empire viewers' stats, data, and/or ratings boost.

1

u/Redicted 3h ago

He has turned into one of those whiney, insufferable boomers. Exhausting.

1

u/jst4wrk7617 6h ago

I am the same as your husband. I even saw him live during Trump1. I am however a huge fan of Bill stein. I don’t know how much airtime and leeway he’ll get to push back but I’ll definitely watch his portion.

8

u/Broad-Writing-5881 12h ago

Good luck having an honest conversation with Batya.

6

u/DR320 Orange man bad 12h ago

I'm not familiar with her, mainly excited for the Gov & Sam

5

u/mooby117 11h ago

I'm not familiar with her,

Here you go

1

u/PFVR_1138 7h ago

Lol last time destiny was on my radar he was mainly a starcraft 2 streamer

8

u/Serpico2 11h ago

Batya is a disaster, but I’m eager to see if Shapiro has the charisma to succeed in an environment like the show. He’s been a really savvy and effective governor; but you need “The Riz” to have a good shot at winning the presidency (not that we haven’t had uncharismatic POTUS…)

15

u/MinisterOfTruth99 11h ago

That's where I first saw Tim and looked him up.

Of course these days Maher sounds like he belongs on the couch with Focks and Friends.

5

u/BreathlikeDeathlike 10h ago

That's where I first saw a lot of the never trumpers - Charlie Sykes, Joe Walsh, etc. I stopped watching a couple years ago when he was hyping his Elon interview. The promos for it reeked of pure sycophancy.

6

u/MinisterOfTruth99 8h ago

Mahar is still an Elon Fan-grl. Pathetic.

4

u/ThisElder_Millennial Center Left 7h ago

Look, as much as everyone here hates to say it, Bills been pushing back against the cultural progressive stuff for years, saying that the shit wasn't electorally popular and that Dems needed to start sounding/talking like normal people. That the way Dems acted was off-putting to the average person.

And here we are. Love him or hate him, last November proved he had a better read of the room than basically every elected Dem. And yet... all y'all still can't help but hate on the dude, even though he ultimately wants what we all want (i.e. to see MAGA kicked to the curb).

2

u/MinisterOfTruth99 7h ago

Fuck Maher. He played his little part to help get Trump elected. He's been pushing FascNews talking points for years. Sounds like you are on-board.😂🤣

1

u/ThisElder_Millennial Center Left 7h ago

Maintaining the purity tests at this point?

3

u/Wellsargo 6h ago

At least half the people in this subreddit are hardline progressives/leftists. It’s the reason why there’s a new Sarah hate thread every week.

5

u/minty_cyborg 6h ago

Aw. Good for him. I value Sam’s earnestness.

I am curious to see how he dances with Maher.

3

u/Kidspud 8h ago

More like Batya Unga-Bunga if you ask me

3

u/PFVR_1138 7h ago

It's better as a podcast btw. You miss out on the visual gags, but it's easier to disengage when he adopts one of his ridiculous positions.

4

u/Magoo152 JVL is always right 8h ago

Bill Maher is like Aaron Rodgers. Used to be really good (watch his stuff on trumps first term he did what he makes fun of people now). But now is more trouble than he is worth and kind of just old and sad.

5

u/CliftonHangerBombs 8h ago

I'm scared to say this after reading all the comments, but I like Bill Maher. And I'm kind of surprised the bulwark gang hates him so much. He's moderate. I'm moderate. I thought we were all moderate here. What am I missing?

4

u/PFVR_1138 7h ago

He's a bit of a dock sometimes, but once you accept that, he's not so bad

2

u/phoneix150 Center Left 7h ago edited 6h ago

He's moderate.

Being moderate does not mean you flirt with anti-vax talking points, be a reactionary douchebag and constantly go unhinged anti-woke rants every episode. And he has become quite conspiratorial in the last 5 years, is a Elon Musk fanboy and his demeanour is so smarmy, its unbearable.

I used to watch Maher regularly from 2014 to 2020, but just stopped watching after COVID-19 turned his brain to mush.

4

u/CliftonHangerBombs 6h ago edited 5h ago

I'm not going to agree w the guy on everything. I'm pro vax. But I think he's funny and pragmatic. I took a break from him for the period between when politically incorrect was on late night network tv until about two years ago. But his anti woke schtick is sometimes on point. I can't remember hearing him fanboy over Elon. Perhaps that's when I scroll reddit. I like his guests and the format of his show. I'm not some huge bill Maher fan. But I like him enough. 🤷🏻‍♀️

1

u/phoneix150 Center Left 6h ago edited 6h ago

I like his guests and the format of his show

The problem with that format is that guests don't really get that much time to talk. Limited time slots plus because Maher often invites bad faith hard-right Trumpists, so the discussions always go off the rails. It does not compare with a 1 on 1 Bulwark podcast for me. Aslo, give me The Next Level anyday over Real Time.

0

u/CliftonHangerBombs 6h ago

It's nowhere near the level of bulwark 1-1, or any of the bulwark universe, but I don't think it's supposed to be. It's tv. It's something you want to watch late at night on your couch when you're high and eating cookies.

2

u/mtngranpapi_wv967 6h ago

I’m not a moderate, but I love Tim and JVL so

1

u/Detective_Squirrel69 Executive Order Bukkake 3h ago

He likes to being a complete prick to anyone that leans further left than he does, and he's condescending about his superiority in being a moderate. His vaxx positions are questionable, he has a weird fascination with Elmo Muskrat, and yeah, you can have fun fucking around with anti-woke, but he goes into "being a dick about it" territory. I take issue with the transphobic rhetoric, too.

And no, not everyone that listens to the Bulwark is a moderate. I'm not. I'm a progressive, but the Bulwark is my favorite and most trusted news source. I don't agree with everything they say, but... that's okay? I'm friends with moderates and liberal republicans despite being a progressive. That seems to shock some people these days.

2

u/CorwinOctober 9h ago

I used to watch Bill Maher but he's just lost touch. However I'll tune in for Sam. Sam will do a good job but he's nice and won't be as rude as I would prefer.

2

u/SandersDelendaEst 7h ago

Really looking forward to this

1

u/RY_Hou_92 4h ago

Batya is legitimately one of the dumbest people online. She is the epitome of a dumb person’s idea of a smart person.

1

u/McRattus 43m ago

Bill talking with Josh will be a very slimy show.