Bill Maher Still Doesn't Understand Causality

This is what Maher thinks of causality.

So...yeah...apparently Bill Maher has made zero progress in terms of his understanding of causality over the past few years. I'm not asking him to be a social scientist or anything, but damn. Even after Glenn Greenwald schooled him a year or so ago on his Islamophobia, the guy still doesn't learn. He apparently equated actions by extremists with all of Islam again this past week when discussing the horrible situation with the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria. More importantly, he still doesn't get that if religion and other factors, like politics and institutions vary together pretty closely in certain countries, than religion probably isn't the causal channel. Not recognizing that leads to potential xenophobia, and more importantly, policies that don't solve the issue. Yet plenty of so-called liberals defend Maher on this stuff. This has nothing to do with political ideology, people...it is a basic understanding of causality. Argh. Its sad that I can literally re-post something I wrote 3 years ago about Maher and this topic and have it be 100% relevant, but this is what happens when comedians pretending to be political journalists don't critically evaluate their positions on contentious topics, and instead just double down on their own ideology (in this case, religion is simply stupid to Maher, and Islam is hands down the most reprehensible one around). Read more...

Bigotry, Omitted Variable Bias, and Bill Maher

Bill...can we have a word?

I've been entertained by the comedian (he's not a journalist, people, he just follows some mainstream media news and talks about it with some celebrities, fake experts, and [occasionally] actual experts) Bill Maher for many years. I appreciate his show, enjoy that he uses his name and stage to bring about discourse on politics, and often find myself agreeing with what he says. However, on one specific topic, Maher makes me very angry...and, as Mr. McGee learned many years ago, don't make me angry; you wouldn't like me when I'm angry. You see, when it comes to discussions about Muslims and/or Arabs, Bill Maher is a bigot, or at the very least, bigot-ish. He's bigot-ish because he uses a level of analysis that would make most high schoolers uncomfortable. He uses this preposterous thinking to come to some really dangerous, reductionist conclusions that smell of the worst kind of Orientalism. And the audience ("liberals" who seemingly don't get it and enjoy cheering on their hero) goes along with the sham. Except it's not just a sham. It's quite dangerous. See the impact of Islamophobia on Muslims in America today? See the overt venomous racist discourse we see and hear so often right now? Well...Bill Maher is part of the problem. And somebody needs to call him on it and knock his discourse straight out. Enter (stage left): me and my foot to break off in Maher's ass.