Bill Maher gives Americans a scolding as he pointed out that lazy acceptance of false equivalences could put Donald Trump into the White House.
Bill Maher gets it right
Bill Maher hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that Trump’s only path to victory is Americans accepting a false equivalence between candidates.
“When the talks turn to the election I hear some version of ‘They’re both bad.’ or ‘They deserve each other.’ or ‘There is an election?’ Bill Maher said. “Republicans have one path to victory in this election and it is called false equivalency. They can’t deny Trump is horrible. It’s on tape. So they want voters to believe Hillary is just as bad. And in pursuit of that goal they have a very powerful ally, lazy people. People who like to say, ‘They are all bad.’ Because when you say that you don’t have to do any homework. Say they are all the same, and you can sound justifiably jaded by the entire process when really you just don’t know anything. You say you are cynical about politics? Don’t flatter yourself. Cynical comes when you know too much. You, on the other hand, haven’t bothered to learn anything. Which Americans by the way, are capable of.”
Maher went on to quote Noam Chomsky who observed that the level of discourse and sophistication on call-in sports shows illustrate that people do have a level of sophistication and knowledge. Unfortunately, that knowledge is not applied to international affairs or domestic politics. It is at the level of superficiality beyond belief according to Chomsky.
“In other words,” Maher said. “We are not clueless. We just apply our brain power to bullsh$t.
Maher points out a real irony. People will scour Yelp to find the best taco for hours. He said people would use six different websites to find the best airline tickets. But sadly, they do not spend the time necessary to select the leader of the world.