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I was watching a clip of Tarantino talking with Maher, he was telling him about how he thinks Toy Story is one of the best trilogies and how much he loves Toy Story, and bill maher interrupts with “this Toy Story is a cartoon?”
Like how pretentious do you have to be to pretend you don’t know what Toy Story is? Those are the kinda things that make Bill Maher insufferable, that he strives to be a pretentious fuck who thinks he’s smarter than everyone
This is a play on "My dinner with Andre" which I have yet to watch: https://youtu.be/ccXU7s694kg
neither Andre 3000 or Eric Andre are in this film for anyone getting excited
Bill Maher is a textbook reactionary centrist: he'd sell out any minority for the sake of his own influence and pocketbook.
From the constant digs on trans people to the time he was ready to scab (until it became clear that it would diminish his influence), he'd step on every person he views as beneath him to get powerful people to think he's smart.
And he's not half as smart as he thinks he is— he ends up platforming the absolute worst people and letting them run rhetorical circles around him.
His recent interview on Pod Save America was so off putting, so filled with his own narcissism, that I simply couldn’t finish listening to the interview. There was little of substance there; just a very out of touch very rich guy loving the smell of his own shit.
I don't listen to the show very much, but I was tempted out of masochistic curiosity.
Dude is like a boomer Joe Rogan— he buys into the dumbest bullshit because he thinks being a contrarian is a cheat code for the truth.
A bit ironic that he wrote it in/for the NYT, the Bill Maher of newspapers.
I'm a life long New Yorker. Donald Trump was also born and raised in New York.
I can tell you that getting 90 percent of New Yorkers to agree on anything is an amazing feat. You couldn't get 90% of New Yorkers to say something nice about the Yankees, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or Central Park.
Donald Trump lost his home town by 90% of the vote.
Has there ever been a person elected president who has so convincingly lost their home district/state? Besides Trump 2016 and Trump 2024, that is.
amazing what happens when you get to know a nazi on a deep level. see how petty, small, and dangerous they are
The other part of the story is that a pollster told people that Trump was hated in his hometown and MAGats loved it. The same people who watch TV and movies made in NYC; who buy everything Madison Avenue advertises; who accept New York fashion sense without question, seem to hate New York.
Same with California. They watch all the movies and TV shows produced here, buy all the tech Silicon Valley develops, and hate us.
Not to mention take our tax dollars for their welfare states.
i know. it's the rural/urban divide the capitalist class has used to divide us for as long as we've told stories about the subjugation of the people to the will of the kings, emperors, and pharoahs. they convince the rural worker they have nothing in common with those high fallutin' city folk that benefit from the fruits of the farmer's labor. never mind that the city folk are just as destitute as the rural folk, and are simply trying to survive their material conditions as well. the rural worker hates the taxes they pay, and sees construction in the city and thinks their money is being funneled to benefit the urban worker. the truth is though that the capitalist would stop maintaining the city immediately, but it's cheaper for them to keep making sure the city folk don't revolt from strictly necessary aspects of city life to maintain their workforce of cleaners, cooks, and planners.
but none of this stops the capitalist from funding propaganda to tell the field worker it's the city's fault they're poor.
it's all a great big joke when you peel back the layers. a painful, cruel, and twisted joke
To your point about where the capitalist would spend money it’s actually the other way around. Capitalists hate the countryside, and nothing makes it more obvious than the shitty state of internet and package delivery. It costs way too much money to lay a mile of high-speed cable just so two families can pay not-even-that-much for an internet plan. USPS is and Canada Post are crucial services because of how badly the private parcel companies don’t want to serve rural communities.
Something you don't hear much about is the death of the 'small town rich.'
Back in the day, a town would have a local bank and a local newspaper. The factory owners kids would go to the local high school. Sure they were capitalists, but they saw the town as their home. Those days are over. Even if a rich person lives in the town, they send their kids to a private school and would love to move out.
The locals can go hang.
oh i know. i'm speaking on this as a rural citizen who's seen how my neighbors are manipulated. per capita, rural tax payers get more back from their taxes as benefits than city dwellers. the rural voter sees that it's not enough though and seeths with anger. being isolated by the land around them, they're easier to manipulate into blaming someone in an apartment than in a penthouse or mansion. the best way to resist fascism is to go out into the world and talk to people. the rural voters who fuel fascism are less able to do this thanks to their material conditions, making them more vulnerable to bullshit propaganda. urban voters meanwhile, are not immune to fascism, but are far more likely to encounter perspectives other than their own by the nature of their lived experience in a large community.
the most terrifying in all this are the suburbs. the places where people actively choose to tune out of being connected in favor of a 1950s vision of america that would be easier to manipulate a la brave new world and 1984 into working against their own best interests.
fuck. i'm gonna have to go listen to nazi by chumbawamba now…
For those interested here is the letter.
It is a good read and not that long.
Text for those that do not have nytimes subscription
Larry David: My Dinner With Adolf
Imagine my surprise when in the spring of 1939 a letter arrived at my house inviting me to dinner at the Old Chancellery with the world’s most reviled man, Adolf Hitler. I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. “He’s Hitler. He’s a monster.” But eventually I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn’t change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity.
Two weeks later, I found myself on the front steps of the Old Chancellery and was led into an opulent living room, where a few of the Führer’s most vocal supporters had gathered: Himmler, Göring, Leni Riefenstahl and the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII. We talked about some of the beautiful art on the walls that had been taken from the homes of Jews. But our conversation ended abruptly when we heard loud footsteps coming down the hallway. Everyone stiffened as Hitler entered the room.
He was wearing a tan suit with a swastika armband and gave me an enthusiastic greeting that caught me off guard. Frankly, it was a warmer greeting than I normally get from my parents, and it was accompanied by a slap on my back. I found the whole thing quite disarming. I joked that I was surprised to see him in a tan suit because if he wore that out, it would be perceived as un-Führer-like. That amused him to no end, and I realized I’d never seen him laugh before. Suddenly he seemed so human. Here I was, prepared to meet Hitler, the one I’d seen and heard — the public Hitler. But this private Hitler was a completely different animal. And oddly enough, this one seemed more authentic, like this was the real Hitler. The whole thing had my head spinning.
He said he was starving and led us into the dining room, where he gestured for me to sit next to him. Göring immediately grabbed a slice of pumpernickel, whereupon Hitler turned to me, gave me an eye roll, then whispered, “Watch. He’ll be done with his entire meal before you’ve taken two bites.” That one really got me. Göring, with his mouth full, asked what was so funny, and Hitler said, “I was just telling him about the time my dog had diarrhea in the Reichstag.” Göring remembered. How could he forget? He loved that story, especially the part where Hitler shot the dog before it got back into the car. Then a beaming Hitler said, “Hey, if I can kill Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals, I can certainly kill a dog!” That perhaps got the biggest laugh of the night — and believe me, there were plenty.
But it wasn’t just a one-way street, with the Führer dominating the conversation. He was quite inquisitive and asked me a lot of questions about myself. I told him I had just gone through a brutal breakup with my girlfriend because every time I went someplace without her, she was always insistent that I tell her everything I talked about. I can’t stand having to remember every detail of every conversation. Hitler said he could relate — he hated that, too. “What am I, a secretary?” He advised me it was best not to have any more contact with her or else I’d be right back where I started and eventually I’d have to go through the whole thing all over again. I said it must be easy for a dictator to go through a breakup. He said, “You’d be surprised. There are still feelings.” Hmm … there are still feelings. That really resonated with me. We’re not that different, after all. I thought that if only the world could see this side of him, people might have a completely different opinion.
Two hours later, the dinner was over, and the Führer escorted me to the door. “I am so glad to have met you. I hope I’m no longer the monster you thought I was.” “I must say, mein Führer, I’m so thankful I came. Although we disagree on many issues, it doesn’t mean that we have to hate each other.” And with that, I gave him a Nazi salute and walked out into the night.
Very helpful of you thank you. I even have a subscription and is just easier to read it here, ha. Many thanks.
Is there a non-paywall/no-sub version anywhere? Maybe paste here?