I think for all Maher's insistence that he is a Democrat, he's one in name only. I didn't go into detail in this article (I've written far too much about Maher in the last year and a half, if you really want to punish yourself you can look) but in addition to this he thinks Hollywood is too graphically sexual, that teenagers are clueless (possibly true but from a man who is anti-children ridiculous) and that childhood trauma, like everything else, in an invention. He seems to believe in his heart of hearts that for centuries and centuries the world was absolutely fine and its only recently that people have started to think they had problems. He is a one-note comic and that the note is I'm okay but everyone else is messed up beyond repair. I considered writing that his entire schtick has been almost note for note the kind of raport of the conservatives he has spent his life rampaging against.

I think Maher's philosophy is that of A hOBBESIAN. (Again wrote and article on this.) Except its a special kind of Hobbesian philosophy in which only he has this self-awareness and only he is allowerd to talk about it and if you think this way just shut up and suffer in silence. His entire attitude towards everything single problem in the world is that if it doesn't bother me, it's not a real problem. Which again, rich cis white man.

I have tried to give Maher the benefit of the doubt because he is right about certain things when it comes to the left's approach towards pushing awy moderates and their own self-righteousness. But even that's just a case of a broken clock. He's never been one of those middle class, middle income voters and he doesn't have much use for them any more than he does the right or the left. The only reason he wants Democrats to hold office is to stop the Republicans: at his core, he doesn't think its the government's job to even try to solve the bigger problems of society because they will just make things worse. His attirude towards to all the people suffering from inequality and bigotry has never been anything more than: stop making it so bad for the rest of us who have REAL problems.

Maher may believe that he is a truthteller. But its only his truth and it has no conjunction with reality.