Hi, all.

If you haven't seen this video yet I recommend it. It's great to see two Americans with different view points talk like knowledgable gentlemen, respectfully, and with humor, with each other. Lots of great points made on both sides. Take the time to watch in it's entirety. I think you'll enjoy it. I did.




Chris

Both of them are entertainers. They do this schtick for a living, been at it for years.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
Both of them are entertainers. They do this schtick for a living, been at it for years.

Do you not acknowledge that they do disagree with one another on political matters?

And do you not acknowledge that many other political commentators/entertainers would not be civil to each other, even if that is their schtick?

So, can't Maher and Shapiro do better by having a political discussion where they don't yell at each other and use insults?

Wouldn't this be a better model of political discourse, even if it is schtick?

Or do you advocate yelling and insults with those who disagree with you?

WHAT makes you even think I advocate "yelling and insults, 'eh? How did you even derive THAT from my little post?

BTW, it's ALL schtick.

When Geraldo Rivera and Greg Gutfeld are yelling at each other in front of cameras, and yet are joking backstage after the taping, it is schtick. When Chrissy Mathews was yelling, bursting his veins in his head, it was schtick.

Both Shapiro and Maher don't scream and yell at people, does that make them seem more informative and more genuine? I admit I don't watch any of the talking heads much, but I don't think screaming and yelling matches are the norm anymore.

Even on this forum, I can get more from an intelligent, yet angry one-sided political rant, than a calm, idiotic post about compromise, and playing nice from both sides of the political spectrum.

Y0ou did contemptuously call it "schtick." And, I think you just confirmed my point about which you prefer.

Being civil doesn't mean you have to agree or compromise. To ask you the same question, where did I suggest compromise? I suggested rational discourse.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Y0ou did contemptuously call it "schtick." And, I think you just confirmed my point about which you prefer.

Being civil doesn't mean you have to agree or compromise. To ask you the same question, where did I suggest compromise? I suggested rational discourse.

Well you *did* come into the thread and take umbrage with someone’s opinion. So there’s that super fun little derail.

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:

Well you *did* come into the thread and take umbrage with someone’s opinion. So there’s that super fun little derail.

That was the topic of the thread - that it is better to be civil in political debate. And he offered the opinion that is isn't better, or something in that neighborhood. And then my opinion . . . So it is all on the OP's topic.

And this is a discussion board, where people discuss things. That it is an opinion does not make it exempt somehow, does it?

I see that all over the internet. "Well, that is my opinion, so . . ." Opinions don't get a free pass.

At the 48min mark or so, is where Mahr really blows his position. He hates Pres. Trump because he took every word seriously. He talks a bit about how Pres. Trump said he trusts Putin more than his own gov't. That sets Maher off. Shapiro points out that Obama told their guy "I'll have more latitude after the election"(Not a direct quote.

You can audibly hear Maher's argument fall apart over the following 5 mins.

That's why I think nothing of Maher. He's not capable of critical thought.

Bill Maher is it day late and a dollar short …

Yes, reasonable disagreement is actually a thing.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Yes, reasonable disagreement is actually a thing.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888
Being civil doesn't mean you have to agree or compromise.

Bingo. Both are largely "lost arts."

I had a teacher in senior year of HS who was an unabashed liberal of the 1960s latter-day hippie mold. The specific class was "Social Justice" (which, yes, was a one-trimester high school religion class, along with Bioethics, Marriage & Family, Church History, Christian Involvement, and one or two more that I've forgotten.)

He and I could not have disagreed more on pretty much anything covered in that class, but I have no doubt he would have gone down swinging the axe at any invading hordes that might've tried to silence my opinions, shout me down, etc. Yeah, he'd have a 1960s conscientious objector speak to the class, but he'd also have a West Point graduate / Vietnam Vet come in the next week.

Give me a liberal over a leftist any time. You can at least reason with a liberal.

"Opinions are like watches: none runs the same, yet each believes his own." (One version, from Alexander Pope)

flashguy

When I was in college, it was the
Timothy Leary/G. Gordon Liddy tour.

I am of the opinion that Maher would not have been near as civil during either the Obama or Trump eras.

The Republican party certainly values civility. In fact, they are so 'civil' that they pretty much always end up losing to the leftist. Trump was different, but don't think I'm against civility in discourse...it's just manners are wasted on leftist. These people are not rational adults.

quote:

Originally posted by armme:
I am of the opinion that Maher would not have been near as civil during either the Obama or Trump eras.

I agree with this, but I'm still happy to hear Maher often be critical of leftists now.

To Maher's opening statement....just yesterday I was talking to a friend and we commented on how you used to be able to have a conversation without politics ever coming to mind. Kinda rare now.

quote:

we commented on how you used to be able to have a conversation without politics ever coming to mind. Kinda rare now.

That's what happens when the government makes laws covering every aspect of your life. Everything is political because politicians have governed it.

Maher has come up repeatedly in the Forum for a few years now, enough that I declined to start yet another thread. He’s universally reviled here, but I think it’s undeniable that he can poke fun (or a finger into the chest) at the Extreme Left, as only another Leftist can. Try this