Support NeoGAF

[B-Dubs]

How in the ever-loving fuck does Bill Maher still have a show on HBO?

What a fucking disgusting piece-of-shit human being.

No idea, he's a piece of shit. HBO has Oliver now, they don't need that shitstain.

 

[Foffy]

Doesn't work out too well for you if you get get sick, hurt, etc. Refusing to get health care due to budgeting your life for the rest of your days by having little to no money outside of the bare bare essentials is a recipe for disaster.

Shit ALWAYS happens.

Isn't the problem that we've made healthcare a product and package one has to guzzle up and not directly this mans intention to live a minimalist lifestyle? Or are we going to ignore that stupid social bugbear which makes even wanting to live simply a stupid fucking problem? I mean, what do you think about those who go full on hermit and live totally off the grid in yurts? Are they idiots because they avoid the social double-bind that we've made a double-bind?

Sure, his reasons for not wanting it are dumb, because health is ever changing like all things and what he does isn't a panacea, but let's also acknowledge the social arrangement of it in its entirety is even more dumb in America. Make sure to not ignore the greater ill, here. That's the far greater offense in my eyes than the guy who goes walking and eats broccoli, because while the latter is wooly, it causes less sores than the former.

Can someone explain the fedora thing to me? I've seen them negatively associated with hipsters, atheists, MLP fans, you name it. Why are fedoras bad, and why have I never actually seen anyone wear them in real life if all these bad people wear them?

Probably has to do with the fact at one point, Reddit had Atheism as one of its main pages in the top banner, and you often get a lot of aggressive pseudo-intellectuals using their lack of belief in a creator of creation to use as a baton to mock people similarly to how heavily religious people mock those of non-faith. Of course, removing the bogey in the sky isn't a particular sign of intelligence at all, so there's a great parody found there, for many atheists have bullshit views, too.

Then there's the whole "I am enlightened by my own intelligence" meme that is absolutely linked to fedoras thanks to gifs. It's a caricature, yes, but one that has strangely sticked, even if there's a very small ghost to hang it on.

https://twitter.com/billmaher/status/672179367015931906

Pray tell what is so radically wrong there? He is making a clear distinction between the crazy crazies who want to impose Sharia law and fight all opposers, and the crazy crazies who do this stuff almost daily in America. We tend to paint the former in a much more dangerous light than the latter, even if the latter has killed more Americans than ISIS ever has.

 

[Retromelon]

 

[Orbis Tabula]

https://twitter.com/dorseyshaw/status/672167039495217153

You have to watch this NOW.

That was entertaining in a creepy way. There's something about the way that man talks.

 

[Frank the Great]

The way to prevent gun violence is to make sure everyone has a gun on them at all times.

If only the mentally ill residents at that center were armed, this never would have happened.

 

[hydragonwarrior]

Carson and Trump need to focus on Rubio pronto. We need more gaffes out of him.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Bill Maher is a white supremecist because he doesn't like Islam? If anything my problem with Maher is his knack for shitting on Islam and Christianity while acting like Judaism has no faults. All Abrahamic religions are problematic, as the kids would say.

 

[BertramCooper]

Pray tell what is so radically wrong there? He is making a clear distinction between the crazy crazies who want to impose Sharia law and fight all opposers, and the crazy crazies who do this stuff almost daily in America. We tend to paint the former in a much more dangerous light than the latter, even if the latter has killed more Americans than ISIS ever has.

The problem is that he's minimizing the threat of domestic shootings by grossly exaggerating the threat of Islamic terrorism on American soil. Because he's a bigoted piece of shit who will look for any opportunity whatsoever to bash Muslims.

Heaven forbid we compare the impact of domestic gun violence to Islamic terrorism and point out the wildly disproportionate public responses to the two.

 

[RustyNails]

Bill Maher is a white supremecist because he doesn't like Islam? If anything my problem with Maher is his knack for shitting on Islam and Christianity while acting like Judaism has no faults. All Abrahamic religions are problematic, as the kids would say.

No.

He's a white supremacist because you see him immediately perform mental gymnastics to cut the white terrorists slack. What could crawl up your ass to do that? Why cant he just condemn the domestic terrorists straight shot?

 

[Cerium]

Bill Maher is not a white supremacist, and trying to label him that cheapens the term. His politics on race in America are well known.

You could certainly make the case that he's an Islamophobe.

 

[shinra-bansho]

I don't know whether Maher is a white supremacist. He'd probably be a bigot against white Muslims too. He may have been, I don't recall.

I do know he's a massive douche.

 

[BertramCooper]

Carson and Trump need to focus on Rubio pronto. We need more gaffes out of him.

At some point I'm hoping that Jeb!'s team of Rubio smearers actually finds something really juicy on him that completely derails his campaign.

But that would require competency from someone on Jeb!'s campaign staff, which seems like a stretch.

 

[Black Mamba]

So LA Times is reporting that the suspect is likely a disgruntled employee that returned with 2 other people to commit these heinous shootings.

So sad.

 

[Makai]

So LA Times is reporting that the suspect is likely a disgruntled employee that returned with 2 other people to commit these heinous shootings.

So sad.

What about the other two?

 

[shinra-bansho]

So LA Times is reporting that the suspect is likely a disgruntled employee that returned with 2 other people to commit these heinous shootings.

So sad.

If this is the case, I also don't know if "terrorist" is the correct vernacular. Although this is probably contentious. I thought the term required some sort of broader ideological/political motivation.

I guess at a base level, these people went out and created terror.

 

[Black Mamba]

What about the other two?

I don't understand? It said he came back with 2 other guys and all 3 fired.

Why the other 2 joined in, I have no fucking clue nor does anyone else.

And just to clarify, I'm just passing along what the LA Times is reporting from a source that is a "federal official."


It is weird. If my friend was upset and said he wanted to go shoot some disabled people and their social workers, I wouldn't be all "hell yeah, let's load up!" I mean, even if I was a piece of shit person, I can't imagine anyone would just randomly agree to this...

I mean, I could understand 3 disgruntled employees...but 1 just calling 2 friends and them being down for it...WTF?

 

[Macho Madness]

New York Times saying one of the suspects is dead.

 

[Makai]

My first thought was he put out a classified on Craigslist or something.

 

[Black Mamba]

If this is the case, I also don't know if "terrorist" is the correct vernacular. Although this is probably contentious. I thought the term required some sort of broader ideological/political motivation.

I guess at a base level, these people went out and created terror.

No, it's not terrorism. The goals are personal and nothing else if this is true. It's just revenge or something in that vain, I suppose.

Dylan Roof, Dear, these guys are terrorists. Their targets had a political purpose.

A disgruntled employee or someone who has a fight with a coworker most certainly doesn't fall under terrorism. it still probably falls under a fault of our gun problems.

 

[User 406]

It's not like we haven't had white terrorists blow shit up in this country either. I'm sure white supremacists or apocalyptic Christianists suffering through their negro President inflicted thousand years of darkness would love a WMD or two. Shit, they might even have better luck getting one here considering right-wing extremist groups are pretty much using the U.S. military as their training school nowadays. Maher is a pissbrain.

So LA Times is reporting that the suspect is likely a disgruntled employee that returned with 2 other people to commit these heinous shootings.

Wow, my wife and I were just discussing it, and I kept rejecting a scenario where some pissed off dude wants to shoot up his job, and somehow has friends who are down with throwing their lives away to help. I mean, Jesus hates babykillers, America is the great Satan, Make our country white again, I get those. But Dude my job sucks, help me fuck them up is hardly a cause worth dying for.

 

[Foffy]

The problem is that he's minimizing the threat of domestic shootings by grossly exaggerating the threat of Islamic terrorism on American soil. Because he's a bigoted piece of shit who will look for any opportunity whatsoever to bash Muslims.

Heaven forbid we compare the impact of domestic gun violence to Islamic terrorism and point out the wildly disproportionate public responses to the two.

I didn't see it in that lens, but if that's that what you and others see in such a Tweet, I can get where that is coming from. I actually assumed the inverse, that the shootings were being compared to the severity of ISIS. Kind of a bad comparison in that sense, because ISIS looks less effective, even if we speak about them more.

We are all shaking in our boots over the spooky, scary things ISIS might do to us as people are constantly slaughtered here by regular Americans. Only one of those appears to be a national problem...

 

[RustyNails]

I don't know whether Maher is a white supremacist. He'd probably be a bigot against white Muslims too. He may have been, I don't recall.

I do know he's a massive douche.

White supremacists can be against whites if they're part of the "other" group, like white members taking part in black civil rights effort.

 

[Black Mamba]

It's not like we haven't had white terrorists blow shit up in this country either. I'm sure white supremacists or apocalyptic Christianists suffering through their negro President inflicted thousand years of darkness would love a WMD or two. Shit, they might even have better luck getting one here considering right-wing extremist groups are pretty much using the U.S. military as their training school nowadays. Maher is a pissbrain.




Wow, my wife and I were just discussing it, and I kept rejecting a scenario where some pissed off dude wants to shoot up his job, and somehow has friends who are down with throwing their lives away to help. I mean, Jesus hates babykillers, America is the great Satan, Make our country white again, I get those. But Dude my job sucks, help me fuck them up is hardly a cause worth dying for.

May be more tot this:

Ca shooting: Feds also theorize that one gunman was at the event earlier in the day to make sure a specific target was there, then returned

So maybe all 3 of them were looking for a specific target (reasons unknown) and only 1 came to the event to make sure that person was there, saw them, left and all 3 returned.

Just have to wait for the details.

 

[User 406]

I didn't see it in that lens, but if that's that what you and others see in such a Tweet, I can get where that is coming from. I actually assumed the inverse, that the shootings were being compared to the severity of ISIS. Kind of a bad comparison in that sense, because ISIS looks less effective, even if we speak about them more.

We are all shaking in our boots over the spooky, scary things ISIS might do to us as people are constantly slaughtered here by regular Americans. Only one of those appears to be a national problem...

I guess you're not familiar with Bill Maher then, because he's absolutely in the camp of hyping Islamic terrorism as an existential threat. That's what he means by "only one group wants to set off WMDs in the US." He's saying that ISIS is a bigger threat because of scary WMDs that ISIS doesn't have and would require an extremely convoluted Tom Clancy novel to even bring over here. He's a pissbrain.

So maybe all 3 of them were looking for a specific target (reasons unknown) and only 1 came to the event to make sure that person was there, saw them, left and all 3 returned.

That sounds a lot more plausible.

 

[danm999]

May be more tot this:



So maybe all 3 of them were looking for a specific target (reasons unknown) and only 1 came to the event to make sure that person was there, saw them, left and all 3 returned.

Just have to wait for the details.

Seems like there must be a more efficient, discrete way for three people to murder another?

Maybe I'm putting too much sane thought into that though.

 

[Veritigo_X]

So maybe all 3 of them were looking for a specific target (reasons unknown) and only 1 came to the event to make sure that person was there, saw them, left and all 3 returned.

Just have to wait for the details.

There's a lot of misinformation going around about this party. I've heard that the party required key cards to access and I've also heard it was open to anyone who walked in. We definitely need to wait for details, but it's pretty amazing the different stories each news station is telling.

 

[Foffy]

I guess you're not familiar with Bill Maher then, because he's absolutely in the camp of hyping Islamic terrorism as an existential threat. That's what he means by "only one group wants to set off WMDs in the US." He's saying that ISIS is a bigger threat because of scary WMDs that ISIS doesn't have and would require an extremely convoluted Tom Clancy novel to even bring over here. He's a pissbrain.

Maybe because I watch his show now and again, he calls it out from the position that belief drives behavior, and for a shockingly notable population, many of the views Islam presents create conflict, especially without modern interpretation. I get that his views may be seen as blanketing them all, but he does attempt to try to highlight some of the problems, such as women rights, gay rights, and even leaving the religion as being executable offenses in some countries, but of course not all; I don't recall any of the Muslim neighbors I lived near in New York having such shitbrained views like Sharia law, but those views do exist in other cultures, which promote oppression and conflict, and a spade should be called a spade in this sense. Mahers biggest weakness used to be he would criticize Muslims for not speaking out, but I'm not sure if he still does that. One cannot call out falsehoods and problems in a culture where doing so actually gets you killed, so you sure as shit better not dogpile on them even further. It's also not our main existential threat, so saying anything of the kind is missing the big problem. Maher maybe jumps between Islam extremism and climate change, for he has spoken about both to a similar degree.

I can at least concede he goes about it poorly; I think Sam Harris argues it better, but he too is painted as an Islamophobe as well in quick strokes. I don't recall Harris calling them an existential threat to the degree Maher has, but the belief that blossoms this behavior and attacking that has almost been taken off of the table because it involves religion, and that gets too many exceptions as it is. You do any of that in this climate and you risk being called an Islamophobe, and that's probably why Maher is quick to get on the defensive in his rants. You're going to get bad apples for many religions can absolutely promote bad ideas to those who confuse the symbolisms and concepts of religion to be an actual, factual "thing" of this cosmos. The fact in 2015 bad ideas get this type of social immunity is farcical. Consider for a moment not even a week ago Saudi Arabia wanted to sue people who compared their savage, stone aged lines of thought with ISIS, even if they actually have many similar views. We're of a climate that even bringing that up gets people offended.

Am I also a minority who believes Mexican cartels are a more active and dangerous problem in America than ISIS? Major banks have actually known they were smuggling cartel money, and have yet to ever be punished honestly for it. I recall the cartels also tried to subtly threaten Texan police some time ago.

 

[Farmboy]

Maher is wrong that the two are incomparable. Both are borne out of a similar mix of hatred and psychosis. Both could accurately be described as 'death cults'.

But examining the end goal of these cults can certainly be instructive and in that case, Islamic extremism does appear to be more, for lack of a better word, apocalyptic.

Maybe Maher can be accused of fear mongering for exaggerating the chances of ISIS getting their hands on a nuke. But he's not exaggerating what would happen if they do.

 

[benjipwns]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/top-fun...sons-campaign-amid-internal-strife-1449094732

One of Ben Carson’s top fundraisers told the Republican presidential candidate on Wednesday that he is quitting the campaign after he was unable to orchestrate a shake-up of its senior staff.

Bill Millis, an heir to a High Point, N.C., sock-manufacturing fortune, told the retired neurosurgeon in an email Wednesday morning that he is leaving the campaign’s three-man board, Mr. Millis said in an interview. He still believes Mr. Carson would make the best president, he said, but is no longer confident the staff values his input.

“I disagree with the campaign, but I’m hoping and praying that the concerns I have are wrong,” Mr. Millis said. “I’m one, and they are the masses. And they decided to move forward with the campaign as is.”

Mr. Millis said he first became disillusioned in late October when Mr. Giles, a Carson confidant since 1994 who was the chief executive of Mr. Carson’s pre-campaign apparatus, was forced out. Mr. Giles had personally hired Mr. Bennett and Ed Brookover, the chief strategist, among other senior officials, before leaving the campaign in May to launch a 501-C(4) organization to research and write Mr. Carson’s policy papers.

A Houston attorney with no prior political campaign experience, Mr. Giles spent the summer developing policy white papers. After a federally mandated 120-day “cooling off period” for campaign officials to coordinate with super PACs, Mr. Giles contacted the two major super PACs backing Mr. Carson and asked them to consolidate resources.

“Literally on the 121st day, Terry called me and said, ‘Let’s get together and figure out how we can work together,’ ” said John Philip Sousa IV, chairman of the 2016 Committee, one of the two leading pro-Carson super PACs.

But Mr. Giles’s efforts to get the super PACs to coordinate went for naught, Mr. Sousa said. “There are at this point not a lot of coordinated efforts between the two organizations,” Mr. Sousa said in an interview on Tuesday.

Mr. Giles then attempted a return to the campaign after severing his ties with the super PACs on Oct. 17. But the campaign’s leadership was no longer interested in his help. None of the policy papers Mr. Giles spent the summer preparing have been released.

“He had a disagreement with the campaign over priorities and messaging and who knows what else,” Mr. Sousa said. “It’s really a shame.”

Not the sock magnate!

 

[benjipwns]

Prayer Shaming After a Mass Shooting in San Bernardino
Following the murder of at least 14 people in California, the reaction against calls for prayer has been sharp.

There’s a clear claim being made here, and one with an edge: Democrats care about doing something and taking action while Republicans waste time offering meaningless prayers. These two reactions, policy-making and praying, are portrayed as mutually exclusive, coming from totally contrasting worldviews. Elsewhere on Twitter, full-on prayer shaming set in: Anger about the shooting was turned not toward the perpetrator or perpetrators, whose identities are still unknown, but at those who offered their prayers.

Chris Murphy ✔ @ChrisMurphyCT
Your "thoughts" should be about steps to take to stop this carnage. Your "prayers" should be for forgiveness if you do nothing - again.
5:12 PM - 2 Dec 2015

 

[Plinko]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/top-fun...sons-campaign-amid-internal-strife-1449094732


Not the sock magnate!

At first I wasn't on board the whole "He's just doing this for money/book deal/TV deal" conspiracy, but this move pushes me firmly in that direction.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Yeah, I think we can safely conclude that prayer is entirely ineffective with mass shootings so it shouldn't be viewed as something meaningful to give.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Prayer Shaming After a Mass Shooting in San Bernardino
Following the murder of at least 14 people in California, the reaction against calls for prayer has been sharp.

Asinine shit, and pretty organized/calculated given how many liberals on my TL were saying the exact same thing. Still I wouldn't call it shaming a religion or anything. I saw Ben Shapiro claim liberals are suppressing Christianity or something. I don't think he gets the point. Granted I don't think anything liberals say about guns is effective either but still.

 

[benjipwns]

Saying "bad things should be stopped" is of the enlightened, complex mind, not one of a phony god's blessings.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

It wasn't planned, the liberal posting has been moving in this direction over each of the last several mass shootings. Reactions on social media arise naturally and self-organize.

Praying for Paris after religious extremists blew them up and shot them to death was probably the oddest one though...

 

[benjipwns]

Just taking orders from the top of the vanguard:

America will wrap everyone who’s grieving with our prayers and our love.

But as I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in America -- next week, or a couple of months from now.

...

And, of course, what’s also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic. I would ask news organizations -- because I won't put these facts forward -- have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who’ve been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who’ve been killed by gun violence, and post those side-by-side on your news reports.

 

[ivysaur12]

Asinine shit, and pretty organized/calculated given how many liberals on my TL were saying the exact same thing. Still I wouldn't call it shaming a religion or anything. I saw Ben Shapiro claim liberals are suppressing Christianity or something. I don't think he gets the point. Granted I don't think anything liberals say about guns is effective either but still.

It's not "you cannot offer prayers, you must offer action!" it's, "you can offer prayers, but you must also offer action, and offering prayers when you have been given the chance to take action against gun violence and have not done so is a hollow reaction."

 

[HK-47]

I know its early but...if the shooters turn out to be ISIS lone wolves..we're fucked.

Seems like a weird ass target for ISIS.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

I feel like I'm single handedly influencing the polls. 3 surveys tonight. So far.

 

[benjipwns]

It's not "you cannot offer prayers, you must offer action!" it's, "you can offer prayers, but you must also offer action, and offering prayers when you have been given the chance to take action against gun violence and have not done so is a hollow reaction."

The latter assumes too many premises. Especially when there's no information about the case.

ISIS -> Anti-Abortionists -> Tea Partiers -> Aggrieved Coworkers and that's just so far.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/top-fun...sons-campaign-amid-internal-strife-1449094732


Not the sock magnate!

I was gonna make some joke about "the sock is on the other foot" or whatever, but I'm a little too floored about this John Philip Sousa IV thing. He's a person? And he supports Ben Carson?

 

[benjipwns]

I was gonna make some joke about "the sock is on the other foot" or whatever, but I'm a little too floored about this John Philip Souza IV thing. He's a person? And he supports Ben Carson?

http://www.johnphilipsousaiv.com/

 

[Dan]

The latter assumes too many premises. Especially when there's no information about the case.

ISIS -> Anti-Abortionists -> Tea Partiers -> Aggrieved Coworkers and that's just so far.

Except it doesn't? Certainly the common denominator amongst the rampant gun violence in America is the mass availability of guns. That's also the thing these assholes offering hollow prayers fight from addressing in any and all forms.

 

[PhoenixDark]

It's not "you cannot offer prayers, you must offer action!" it's, "you can offer prayers, but you must also offer action, and offering prayers when you have been given the chance to take action against gun violence and have not done so is a hollow reaction."

That's not the tone or the argument being made right now. I've been watching this, puzzled, since I got home. If this is the route liberals want to go in, good fucking luck.

As a general rule, telling people that their prayers are worthless never works out. It's an insular message that only appeals to people who agree with the message.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

http://www.johnphilipsousaiv.com/

I'm guessing John Philip Sousa the First made that website. Jiminy Christmas.

 

[Aaron Strife]

Rubio solidly in second with 17% is very troubling. I liked him a lot better when he was in single digits.

We may be seeing a situation where Rubio becomes this cycle's Romney (always in 2nd or leading early, then eventually leading for good), but a little later than Romney became that cycle's Romney.

I think Trump is this cycle's Romney. His lead has been very durable.

Carson, Cruz, Rubio, Fiorina are the flavors of the month.

 

[Diablos]

That's not the tone or the argument being made right now. I've been watching this, puzzled, since I got home. If this is the route liberals want to go in, good fucking luck.

As a general rule, telling people that their prayers are worthless never works out. It's an insular message that only appeals to people who agree with the message.

So be it. I'm really tired of the GOP throwing up the 'thoughts and prayers' line and then they go right back to doing absolutely nothing to address this, if not doing quite the opposite by being a megaphone for the NRA et al the next day.

In a broader sense, Murphy was saying the formula doesn't work. You can't just offer your sympathies to the victims, particularly if you are in the US House or Senate/running for President, and think this is an appropriate response. At this point it's about as offensive as saying nothing at all, because that's basically what they're doing. NOTHING. Anyone can offer their thoughts and prayers. Only a very small portion of Americans have been granted the rare opportunity to address the various issues plaguing this country on a daily basis, i.e. gun violence and crazy people and how easy it is for them to get their hands on one.

I am more worried about crossing paths with one of these people (I'd like to call them domestic terrorists) than ISIS. Seriously.

 

[NeoXChaos]

I think I might go to Edwards inauguration in January.

 

[Diablos]

If this one gunman was in fact Muslim the GOP is going to have a field day with this (which is disgusting)

 

[benjipwns]

I'm guessing John Philip Sousa the First made that website. Jiminy Christmas.

Check out his art: http://www.johnphilipsousaiv.com/The-Art-of-JPS-IV.html

Except it doesn't? Certainly the common denominator amongst the rampant gun violence in America is the mass availability of guns.

Or...that they happened in America. Or that they happened with guns. Or that they happened in locations with people.

So be it. I'm really tired of the GOP throwing up the 'thoughts and prayers' line and then they go right back to doing absolutely nothing to address this, if not doing quite the opposite by being a megaphone for the NRA et al the next day.

In a broader sense, Murphy was saying the formula doesn't work. You can't just offer your sympathies to the victims, particularly if you are in the US House or Senate/running for President, and think this is an appropriate response. At this point it's about as offensive as saying nothing at all, because that's basically what they're doing. NOTHING. Anyone can offer their thoughts and prayers. Only a very small portion of Americans have been granted the rare opportunity to address the various issues plaguing this country on a daily basis, i.e. gun violence and crazy people and how easy it is for them to get their hands on one.

More tiring are people who want to use the crimes of others to punish the innocent by taking away their rights through deliberate violence.

People offering feigned sympathy is endlessly common in American and it's appropriated cultures and not limited to incidents of violence. Go see, every GAF thread on a remotely negative subject.