Bill Maher and Tim Tebow

[MarcusOfLycia]

Just found this article. Not sure how many of you are familiar with Tim Tebow but he's a football player here in the US that is famous for kneeling and thanking God during football games. Bill Maher, if you don't know who he is, is an extreme atheistic liberal who moonlights as a comedian and actor.

***Mod Edit (August): Strong language warning at the link***
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/20 ... es#content

As trash like this becomes more popular, I often wonder what will happen if people like this take control of political movements. They don't seem to be the type to respect the religious rights of anyone. I would suspect they'd be out to murder people who oppose them under the warrant of 'they're too stupid to benefit society'. Just wanted to point out this article; there are some terrifying examples of depravity out there.

EDIT: Sorry about posting the link without a warning - didn't mean to offend anyone with the language. That was part of what offended me about it...

[August]

I saw that Marcus, and it is just shows how immature someone like Maher is.

[DannyM]

Nice guy.

[zoegirl]

Maher is a fool...nuff said

[Rob]

Maher is a scumbag and nothing more.

[Callisto]

What's also shocking is that people watch him. It might be helpful that he's on HBO and most people don't have HBO.

[Ivellious]

Can't say I know too much about Maher himself, but he sounds a bit extreme...I generally don't read into things like this too much. Without any background info, I just read his tweet as someone saying something dumb and insensitive, but probably harmless enough. I mean, it's just a tweet.

I don't know...I really don't like the trend of ultra-left or ultra-right media pundits taking over tv and radio and (now) the internet. They typically don't represent the majority even of their audience and, sadly, people who do listen to them tend to get a really awful and often twisted/skewed opinion of reality. Plus they just act as fodder for people who disagree with them to label their followers as the same crazy, extremist losers.

Take Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. Those three, to me, are among the worst offenders. I listen in occasionally, but most of it is just trash and uninformed propaganda. They are allowed to be insensitive bigots because they veil it with nice words and charisma, but under it all it's really just nothing but a few puppets working for ultra-conservative motives. There are liberals who are like this that bug me too, but most are less in the spotlight or not in the big-time media directly (i.e. Richard Dawkins).

[Rob]

Can't say I know too much about Maher himself, but he sounds a bit extreme...I generally don't read into things like this too much. Without any background info, I just read his tweet as someone saying something dumb and insensitive, but probably harmless enough. I mean, it's just a tweet.

I don't know...I really don't like the trend of ultra-left or ultra-right media pundits taking over tv and radio and (now) the internet. They typically don't represent the majority even of their audience and, sadly, people who do listen to them tend to get a really awful and often twisted/skewed opinion of reality. Plus they just act as fodder for people who disagree with them to label their followers as the same crazy, extremist losers.

Take Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. Those three, to me, are among the worst offenders. I listen in occasionally, but most of it is just trash and uninformed propaganda. They are allowed to be insensitive bigots because they veil it with nice words and charisma, but under it all it's really just nothing but a few puppets working for ultra-conservative motives. There are liberals who are like this that bug me too, but most are less in the spotlight or not in the big-time media directly (i.e. Richard Dawkins).

Agreed. Though, honestly, I don't think too many people take Fox News and the like seriously these days. Subtlety is not something the ultra-conservatives are good at. However, the ultra-liberals are masters of sneaky propaganda and subterfuge. The ultra-cons should pay more attention. You gotta get at the kids, not the adults and elderly!

[Gman]

Maher is a fool...nuff said

Agreed... The guy is wacko.

[Murray]

what worse, this or the SNL skit of tim tebow

[RickD]

what worse, this or the SNL skit of tim tebow

Murray, I saw that SNL skit. It was horrible. It wasn't the least bit funny. Give me the good ole days of SNL, with Belushi, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, etc. Even the good not so ole days of SNL with Chris Farley.

[Ivellious]

I don't really see the massive uproar over comedy sketches...First of all, SNL isn't out to insult the majority of America. Most of America might be Christian, but most of them weren't offended. The skit was simply poking fun at the notion that Jesus was helping Tim Tebow win football games as some people have speculated. Seriously, if you can't laugh at that, you have the problem. It's just in good fun. I don't see much outcry from Christians when those among them make fun of or stereotype Muslims or Jews, and often those caricatures are worse than anything you'll see in this country about Christians.

[Rob]

I don't really see the massive uproar over comedy sketches...First of all, SNL isn't out to insult the majority of America.

Agreed.

Most of America might be Christian, but most of them weren't offended.

You might be right.

The skit was simply poking fun at the notion that Jesus was helping Tim Tebow win football games as some people have speculated. Seriously, if you can't laugh at that, you have the problem. It's just in good fun.

Agreed.

I don't see much outcry from Christians when those among them make fun of or stereotype Muslims or Jews, and often those caricatures are worse than anything you'll see in this country about Christians.

Oh please... This is a pretty thin argument, but besides that, what's the purpose of it? We're not allowed to be offended because there are Christians out there (not us) who are being offensive? Do you see threads or pages on this site that condone the mocking or stereotyping of Muslims and Jews? If not, then what is your point in bringing this up to us?
We know there are bad Christians out there. We're not perfect either. But kind of a major point of Christianity is that we don't have to be.

[Ivellious]

I wasn't poking fun at Christians, I was saying that it's silly to get really worked up over an SNL skit that has something to do with your faith. And, to be fair, I have in fact seen overtly stereotyped descriptions of Muslims and Atheists on this site, simply for mockery or to make a point (albeit a point based on stereotypes). So yes, I think it's hypocritical for anyone to make a big deal out of something that pokes fun at one Christian guy (Tebow) when no one would possibly point out the gross stereotyping of atheists among the posts here.

[Rob]

I wasn't poking fun at Christians, I was saying that it's silly to get really worked up over an SNL skit that has something to do with your faith.

I know and agree.

And, to be fair, I have in fact seen overtly stereotyped descriptions of Muslims and Atheists on this site, simply for mockery or to make a point (albeit a point based on stereotypes). So yes, I think it's hypocritical for anyone to make a big deal out of something that pokes fun at one Christian guy (Tebow) when no one would possibly point out the gross stereotyping of atheists among the posts here.

I agree that I have seen stereotyped atheists being made fun of on some threads of this site, but not everyone here condones it. Personally, seeing this often leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even though it's done to us all the time all over the internet. (Usually in a more vulgar and offensive way.)
And your first statement said these caricatures are often worse than anything you'll find about Christians in this country. Do you think that the stereotypes you've found on this site are really more foul, more offensive, more profane than the rest of the internet? Even if we limit do it to American websites?