Bill Maher in his rather harsh piece chastises Americans for their gullibility. He expresses the frustration of many who realize that Americans once again are being conned into war. One only hopes that the repetition will work. Many with a platform are starting to speak up. The mistakes of the past can be abated if we spread the light. Light is the best disinfectant.
Bill Maher starts his skit graphicly enough. “When it comes to being baited into war," Maher said, “America has to try a little harder to not be so f*cking easy.”
Just a few months ago, polls show Americans were sick of war. They had enough. They were anxious to stay out of the Middle East. Then they saw two beheadings and overnight they were like, oh war, we can’t stay mad at you. …
Please read below the fold for more of this transcript.
You know conservatives love to vilify anyone who doesn’t want to immediately throw down as appeasers. But when you are dealing with terrorists, whose aim is to bait us into overreaction, and you oblige them, aren’t you the appeaser? …
Well it’s been thirteen years since 9/11 when our first responders rushed into action and got all the Saudi Arabians out of the country. … But we still don’t seem to have learned that for terrorism to work, it takes two. They are selling terror and boy are we buying. Lindsey Graham, the Senates own Blache Dubois, is the scaredest person in the world. Lindsey said that ISIS is so all powerful. If the president doesn’t rise to the occasion we are all going to get killed back here at home. He actually said that.
Republican Trent Franks said that ISIS currently is on the US border and that there is no question that they have designs on coming into Arizona--Oh my God. The Brown people and the other Brown people– …
I feel bad about the journalists who were killed. And I admire greatly their courage to go to the most dangerous places in the world. But it was their choice. And when you choose to live among cut throats, you might get your throat cut. Do Americans living here really think they are going to be next? One day it happens in the desert outside Mosul and the next day you are standing in line for the new iPhone and crrr.
Would we be this terrified if ISIS didn’t make videos or wear black and have a scary name. ISIS. It sounds like they should be fighting the X-Men. ISIS. Simultaneously cool sounding and stands for pure evil. Like Monsanto. …
Monsanto who we recently learned puts an ingredient in RoundUp, their ubiquitous crop spray, called Polyethoxylated tallow amine that is far more toxic than anyone realized. Folks, ISIS isn't going to kill you. Things like Polyethoxylated tallow amine, that's what's going to kill you. But try selling that idea to the United States of Pantshitters.
Actually, to her credit last week, Hillary Clinton did try. Se said, "climate change is the most consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges we face," a statement -- a statement that outraged Republicans because it contains the two things that they simply will not abide, science and truth.
I'm not saying that there aren't people out there who want us dead, I'm just saying there are much more likely killers right here. But for us, it's only real when it on a video that Anderson Cooper warns us not to watch and then shows it ten thousand times.
But you know what, climate change doesn’t stand a chance because you cannot capture rising sea levels on a six-second Vine video. What we need to do is to get a polar bear to punch someone in an elevator.
Maher makes several important observations:
- He uses Monsanto’s chemical to show that Americans are oblivious to dangers right here at home. These are more likely to kill Americans than ISIS possibly could.
- He uses the Vine example to illustrate Americans’ limited attention span.
- He uses the polar bear example as an analogy to the Ray Rice domestic violence case. It indicates an America that hyperventilates or gives disproportionate attention to issues that it should not while ignoring others.
This is an amusingly substantive piece.