It’s Oscar nominations week and a jovial Bill Maher has pulled off a few Hollywood jabs to kick off the second realtime of spring. But later in the show, a cranky Maher revealed a dirty little secret about travel, which he and other celebrities do all the time
“I can’t wait to see who beats who,” Maher said of this week’s Oscars revelations, noting that the nominations leader is All everywhere at once” a title that He likened it to “what you see when you shine UV light on a hotel duvet.”
Avatar: The Way of Water was a sore point for Maher, who has stated that he opposes being nominated for the Oscars so blue.
With that out of the way, Maher turned to Ukraine and this week’s decision to send her tanks. “Biden said they were the deadliest weapon in our arsenal – if you don’t count the gas stove.”
For his one-on-one segment, Maher brought out Frances Haugen, the social media activist and author of the upcoming book The Power of One: How I found the power to speak the truth and why I got busted on Facebook.
Maher lamented the rise of the TikTok generation and how “young people can’t watch a movie thanks to shorter attention spans.” “We seem to be doing an experiment on young people’s brains.”
Haugen is best known for being a Facebook whistleblower, and Maher asked if that service was “the least of your worries” given its older audience.
“What we use in the US is the cleanest version,” she countered. “Facebook is the product most used in the most fragile places.”
Maher also launched a jihad on the phone apps, which Haugen agreed “allows us to be more insensitive,” saying the fabulous lives portrayed on Instagram encourage social disruption and anxiety. The sleep deprivation that comes from taking your phone to bed with you is also “a major cause of depression,” she said.
In the panel discussion, Maher brought out Bari Weiss, the founder and publisher of The free pressand former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan.
They engaged in a wide-ranging discussion that ranged from the police beatings in Memphis, to malnutrition in the US causing more disease, to the failure of the Democratic strategy that is taking the party from its traditional working-class base toward the radical fringe.
One of the more interesting segments was a brief talk on the rise of artificial intelligence threatening to take over office jobs.
Ryan noted that his biggest round of applause during his campaign was, “We need to bring back the store class.” Construction, nursing and policing are seemingly immune to the AI takeover, he hinted. “We’ll think of something.”
The Democratic Party also needs to figure out what’s wrong with its approach, the panel decided. “Most people, especially post-Covid, look at a party that has school closures, puberty blockers and other issues. “They want to walk the other way.”
Maher said schools are to blame as kids “don’t learn about the American Revolution and a thousand other things.”
Ryan agreed. “We need aspiration and direction for the country to be united,” he said. “And it’s not about all that bullshit.”
The New Rules segment offered Bill Maher a confession: He flies private. And so do most other prominent climate preachers.
“I know what didn’t work,” Maher said when it came to fixing the environment. “Ask people to be good.” He pointed out various mistakes, including recycling. “When you tell most people” about climate issues, “they say, ‘What’s in it for me?’
“I still believe that climate change is an emergency. But I don’t think we’re going to win with linen shopping bags or with no gas stoves.”
Maher compared private flights to heroin use. “Once you do it, you’ll never stop,” he said. “There are two types of people: those who fly privately and those who would if they could.”
The host pointed to his lack of children as a positive in the environmental wars, then mentioned that he once owned a Prius and a Tesla. But no one followed suit, and now 80% of new vehicles are SUVs and trucks. “It’s what people want,” he said.
“It’s fun to laugh at powerful people,” concluded Maher. “This way I can afford to fly privately. But we have to get serious,” suggesting nuclear power and more money for research.
But ultimately, the way people are wired decides whether they stick to it. So it’s not really Taylor Swift’s fault that she has a private jet. After all, “You want to be stuck in the Southwest with a pissed off Taylor Swift?”