askchapo

Exactly this. He watches MSNBC and takes their word as gospel for what a good liberal should think, anything outside of that is unserious to him. I remember his contempt for the Bush administration but once Obama stepped into office things were "back to normal" despite Obamas policies being a continuation of GWB, then Trump broke his fucking brain and thought brandon brought things "back to normal" despite being a continuation of Trumps policies.

He gets more upset with people protesting the US' involvement and reminding him of the genocide in Gaza than the fact it's actually happening. He views it as a strictly religious conflict and "dumb" in his words. He's the definition of a civility lib.

i know a guy that is in the demo. we used to be closer and talk about all the things as newly minted young adults, but his life slowly, over the period of a decade, began to revolve exclusively around consuming cable TV. because it requires no effort, unlike using the internet or a streaming service. power on: channel flip until haha or booba.

eventually, talking to him became like interfacing with a random generator of CNN talking points and smug bill maher rejoinders.

i remember vividly once, we hadn't seen each other in a year and the topic veered into the realm of nostalgia as a consumer product (not just a marketing strategy) and i was asking if he had heard of Hauntology (the latter music application), but he cut that off to ask if i had seen some episode of South Park "about this" and i said i hadn't seen it and had not kept up with the show much at all. and he just said, "oh, it's really funny" but couldn't really explain why it was funny or what the connection was and seemed too upset by this revelation--that i don't watch south park--to talk about it anymore. i didn't even say it sucked (though it does). i just said i had been more focused on grad school studies and stuff going on in my community (we live several hundred miles away from each other now).

anyway, i think what bill maher does for these people is give them the satisfaction of feeling superior to people who are a.) republicans and b.) people who expend effort to make the world less shitty. it does this by loading them up with thought-terminating cliches to regurgitate smugly when their ignorant confidence is challenged by unfamiliar framing.

and, i could be wrong, because i actively avoid hearing bill maher's voice, but i seem to recall his shows are always recorded with an audience of clapping/laughing fools. that's how TV personalities cement themselves as having mass appeal. never under estimate the power of a scripted "... and then everyone laughed" on the viewers at home.