https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rvxpFrHUzso
Kudos to Glenn Greenwald for tearing Bill Maher a well deserved new one last night on “Real Time”. Sure, Maher is funny most of the time but his Islamophobic bigotry taints whatever laughs he has to offer. That’s why I was thrilled to see the always brutally honest Greenwald on the show.
The segment begins with a discussion of Benghazi, but the real fun starts around the 4:45 mark, when Maher embarks on a bigoted rant about the inherent violence of Muslims and Arabs, who he believes are incompatible with democracy because Islam is uniquely barbaric and won’t allow it. He goes on to imply that dictatorship is preferable in the Middle East, because unlike in the West, those Allah worshipers want Sharia law everywhere. As proof, he points to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syrian rebels with ties to Al Qaeda.
Then, like a boss, Greenwald puts Maher in his place, schooling him in the last four decades of U.S. imperialism in the region ranging from bombing campaigns that have killed and displacing millions, to the the installment and support of countless dictators whose brutal repression has made peace and democracy in the region nearly impossible.
Greenwald was joined by two other guests, Joy Reid and Charles Cooke. I don’t always agree with Reid, but she deserves a shout out for taking on Cooke’s assertion (around the 5:52 mark) that the American Revolution, unlike the uprisings in the Middle East, “was great”. Reid quickly fires back, “The revolution in the US was great unless you were a slave and then there was a war in which 600,000 Americans had to die to make it better.”
Reid adds, “In the middle East we’re saying that these are also imperfect revolutions. Whenever the U.S. goes in and tries to impose our vision of democracy in that region we fail. We took Mosaddegh out in Iran and we ended up with the Shah and then the Ayatollah.” Of course, Maher immediately jumped in to deny any U.S. responsibility for the state of the region. “It’s not our fault”, he said, at which point Greenwald entered the ring for an epic win.
There’s no need to jump to the civil war, one hundred thousands of loyalist had to run away to Canada after the revolution, but everybody conveniently forgets to mention that 🙂
May 11, 2013 at 12:20 pmA pleasure to behold! Wonder when Bill will have Glenn back? 😉
May 11, 2013 at 12:25 pmYes, Glenn Greenwald came out with some pep this time. He was a little silent last time he was on the show and I’m glad Maher gave him a second chance.
The entire episode can be viewed here (for free):
http://watchrealtime.blogspot.com
May 11, 2013 at 3:23 pmWow. Greenwald was sharp there. Picked his moment, drove it home…and again. Just the sort of ally truth and clarity needs in the USA. There were moments there that shone brighter than his written work, and that is saying something. Good post.
May 11, 2013 at 7:56 pmBill Maher is a sniveling little fascist pig who thinks atheism is the way. Of course, he will never bring up Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians because they are nothing but ‘dem Mooslems’ who constantly commit acts of violence. He is nothing but a zionist frontman who will protect the crimes of the left (who protects the crimes of Obama) just to keep the audience in the left/right paradigm of thinking and undermines the traitorous crimes that Obama’s administration conducts in order to have a t.v. show.
May 13, 2013 at 12:31 amGlen made some good points, and I agree with him that the US is responsible for a lot of the instability in the world because of its neoliberalist policies and military/political invasions and occupations, but Glen missed the point. Bill doesn’t single out Muslims, as is implied by the title of this post, he targets fundies of all stripes, whether they be Jewish, X-tian, or Muslim. They are all equally dangerous to democracy worldwide. His point was about theocracy and the threat they pose to a modern rational world. Richard Dawkins documentary, “The God Delusion” (aka “The Root of All Evil”) exposes this very well. I’m sorry if religionists and their apologists are offended when their beliefs are exposed as nothing more than delusional wishful thinking, but the fact remains that the ‘God Wars’ are an impediment to progress. I disagree with Bill on many things, but, here, he is right on the mark.
May 16, 2013 at 10:22 am