Bill Maher

William "Bill" Maher, Jr., (born January 20, 1956; last name pronounced "mar") is an American comedian, actor, writer and producer. He is most well-known for his television show Politically Incorrect and is currently the host the HBO talk show Real Time with Bill Maher. He is known for his liberal and, to a lesser extent, libertarian views, while he personally identifies primarily with the left-wing worldview. In fact, many libertarians consider him to ideologically be a member of the far-left.

Worldview

Political views

Maher describes himself as a libertarian and celebrates libertarian figures such as Larry Elder and P.J. O'Rourke. He favors partial privatization of social security, ending corporate welfare, and legalizing drugs, gambling, prostitution, and pornography. He supported Bob Dole in the 1996 U.S. presidential election. He has expressed disdain for many of the liberal positions regarding hate crime, sexual harassment, etc. as being "things that make women nod". However, Maher does support many stances which are in direct opposition to libertarian ideology and/or associated with liberalism, including government regulation of corporations, foreign aid, public schooling, a ban on homeschooling, campaign finance reform (which he has since repudiated, saying "OK, we tried it, it didn't work"), environmentalism, affirmative action, minimum wage laws, gun control, income redistribution through higher taxation and government funding for abortion. He supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

Related Topics:
Libertarian - Larry Elder - P.J. O'Rourke - Social security - Corporate welfare - Drugs - Gambling - Prostitution - Pornography - Bob Dole - 1996 U.S. presidential election - Hate crime - Sexual harassment - Liberalism - Government regulation - Corporation - Foreign aid - Public school - Homeschooling - Campaign finance reform - Environmentalism - Affirmative action - Minimum wage - Gun control - Income redistribution - Taxation - Abortion - Ralph Nader - 2000 U.S. presidential election

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Maher publicly supports PETA, a controversial animal rights organization, and has expressed his distaste for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in general, on the grounds that they make their money out of curing people who are made sick by consuming the unhealthy food that society urges upon the public. On the August 11, 2005, episode of Larry King Live, Bill Maher announced he is not a vegetarian and eats meat rarely. He claimed he is still a board member of PETA and supports animal rights.

Related Topics:
PETA - Animal rights - Pharmaceutical - Healthcare - Unhealthy food - Vegetarian

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Prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election he became very forthright in his opposition to the reelection of George W. Bush and his support for John Kerry as the best candidate to defeat Bush, rather than the candidate most in agreement with Maher's views, going so far as to publicly kneel on his show, with director Michael Moore, and beg Ralph Nader to drop out of the race. As a result, he is generally considered a liberal. Maher often says that the word "liberal" has been unfairly demonized, and during the elections he criticized Kerry for being ashamed of the word. Maher himself seems comfortable with being called a liberal, though he is sometimes called a "libertine socialist" by political commentators such as Jonah Goldberg. Maher also supports the death penalty (though most liberals don't) and abortion and euthanasia (though most conservatives don't), often stating his position semi-humorously as "I am pro-death". In expanding on this statement, he reveals his concern that the size of the human population has already led to significant damage to the earth's ecology, so that he is in general in favor of anything that would tend to reduce the size of said population.

Related Topics:
2004 U.S. presidential election - George W. Bush - John Kerry - Michael Moore - Ralph Nader - Liberal - Socialist - Political - Jonah Goldberg - Death penalty - Abortion - Euthanasia - Conservative - Human population - Ecology

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He was originally opposed to the war in Iraq, but has become less skeptical of it since the Iraqi election of 2005. He continues to criticize the administration for using bad intelligence leading up to the war, and for what he perceives as mis-management of the war.

Related Topics:
War in Iraq - Iraqi election of 2005 - Bad - Intelligence

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Maher responded to the claims that liberals are "out of touch" with conservative morality and the idea that this led to George W. Bush's re-election and the success of the Republican Party in the 2004 general election by saying "Stop saying that blue state people are out of touch with the morals and values of the red states. I'm not out of touch with them, I just don't share them."

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Religious views

Maher is opposed to organized religion. He has described religion as a neurological disorder that spreads guilt and hatred among people while offering nothing in return. In two separate appearances on Real Time, atheist comedian George Carlin and Maher alleged that organized religion is a cause of many of society's problems, and that the practices of organized religion are mired with hypocrisy. Maher credited Carlin's views as inspiration for him to speak out against organized religion.

Related Topics:
Religion - Atheist - George Carlin

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Maher has said many times that religion works under the guise of morality, but that its tenets generally have nothing to do with morality; that religious prohibitions are being confused with moral law. In Maher's view, just because a religion prohibits the consumption of pork or decries homosexuality, that does not mean that consuming pork or being homosexual are immoral acts. Instead, Maher argues that an immoral person is one who harms others; an activity which harms another individual such as murder or rape would be an immoral act. This is also a traditional libertarian position.

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Maher opposes religious monuments such as The Ten Commandments being placed in or near court houses, saying that this would violate the separation of church and state. He has countered the assertion of conservative Christians who claim that American law is based on the Ten Commandments by saying that of the ten, only two (the prohibitions on murder and theft) apply to American law. The other commandments, he argues, such as honoring no god before the Judeo-Christian God, keeping the Sabbath holy, or honoring thy mother and thy father, are not American laws at all. In answer to the suggestion that a divine moral authority is necessary, he suggests "Couldn't we just get together and agree on the few basic that are laws? Like 'Don't take my stuff, and I won't kill you'?"

Related Topics:
The Ten Commandments - Separation of church and state - Sabbath

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Maher has stated on several appearances of Larry King Live that he does, indeed, believe in God, but that organized religion is nothing more than tradition and superstition. He asserts that organized religion provides answers to questions that "cannot possibly be answered". Questions such as "Where do I go when I die?" or "Is there a heaven?", he says, are impossible to answer. By claiming to have the answers, Maher argues, organized religion is dishonest and it "stops people from thinking".

Related Topics:
Larry King Live - God

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On Maher's most recent appearance on Larry King Live he said he was an agnostic, implying that he may be an agnostic deist.

Related Topics:
Agnostic - Deist

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