Bill Maher on What Teenage Right-Wingers Represent: Conservatism Today Is "Just Being a Dick"

[marmar]

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/990553/maher_on_what_teenage_right-wingers_represent%3A_conservatism_today_is_%22just_being_a_dick%22/


Maher on What Teenage Right-Wingers Represent: Conservatism Today Is "Just Being a Dick"


Last night in his show's "New Rules" segment, Bill Maher explored the phenomenon of teen and preteen conservative pundits, and what their success says about the maturity of their movement.

"I'm not trying to slam these kids, because being an asshole is totally understandable when you're fourteen," Maher says. "But my point is to Republican adults. When 14-year old boys sound exactly like you do... maybe you should rethink the shit that's coming out of your mouth."

And that's just the beginning.

Watch the entire "New Rules" segment below:

Pt. 1

Pt. II

[kentuck]

1. Reminds me of the quote by Winston Churchill...

"Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains."

- Winston Churchill

[The Magistrate]

13. Nonesense, Ma'am: Gallipoli Was the Right Tack

The admiral in charge on the spot ought to have been court-martialed for bungling if not cowardice in the face of the enemy, but that is a separate matter....

[The Magistrate]

22. Still, Ma'am, Had Adm. de Robeck Pressed On, Turkey Would Have Been Out Of The War By April

The whole business might have been brought to a conclusion by a drive up the Danube valley before the end of the year, with great benefit to the remainder of the twentieth century....

[panzerfaust]

37. The Turks were, I believe, down to SIX shells for their main battery

when the admiral pulled back.

Had the Brits pressed on, past the soon to be toothless forts, their only opposition would have been the battle-cruiser SMS Goeben - by then transferred by the Germans to the Turks as Yavuz Sultan Selim (but still manned by the original German crew).

The Goeben had brought Russia into the war by bombarding Sevastopol after the supposed transfer to the Turks - as when attacked by a vessel carrying the Turkish flag, the Russians came in on the side of the allies.

The Turks reportedly had resisted the initial 'gift' of the Goeben, but decided to accept it when her captain pointedly trained her eleven inch guns on the city of Constantinople.


Goeben/Yavuz 1946 in Istanbul

Goeben/Yavuz survived WW1 and WW2 and was finally retired from active service (as the Turkish flagship) in 1950, stricken in 1954. In 1973 she was broken for scrap - the West German government having declined to buy her back from the Turks.

[zeemike]

15. Firing squads are for the little people

Churchill was a part of the aristocracy and they don't shoot them.

[Honeycombe8]

41. I disagree about him being overrated. He was one of the few who saw the danger of Hitler...

while all the other leaders in his country had a more naiive view.

A very interesting person, to boot.

[FarLeftFist]

21. HERE'S FULL VIDEO:

The last 3 minutes is the best part:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

33. According to Wikiquotes, that's not a genuine Churchill quote

If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
According to research by Mark T. Shirey, citing Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations by Ralph Keyes, 1992, this quote was first uttered by mid-nineteenth century French historian and statesman François Guizot when he observed, Not to be a republican (NOTE: In this sense, it means "anti-royalist&quot at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head. (N'être pas républicain à vingt ans est preuve d'un manque de cœur ; l'être après trente ans est preuve d'un manque de tête.) This quote has been attributed variously to George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Disraeli, Otto von Bismarck, and others.
Furthermore, the Churchill Centre, on its Falsely Attributed Quotations page, states "there is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this." Paul Addison of Edinburgh University is quoted as stating: "Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie (NOTE: his wife), who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?"

[mother earth]

2. Saw this & couldn't agree more. nt

[liberal N proud]

3. Rush boy at 14

OMG!

[TalkingDog]

4. This has been my working theory for years. That the average Republican

has the mental and emotional maturity of a 14 year old.

[spooky3]

18. I'm sure you didn't mean to bash 14 year olds.

A lot of them are great kids with far more sense and heart (and brains).

[tex-wyo-dem]

31. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up...

Actually, I have my own working theory that conservatism is caused by genetic disorder resulting in narcissistic tendencies. I'm convinced that these folks just see the world differently than most and are born with the inability for rational, critical though, self-examination, compassion, empathy, etc.

Supporting this theory is my own experiences as a kid growing up. From kindergarten all the way through high school I knew a few kids who were bullies and assholes to anyone who didn't fit into their mold. The few I've kept in touch with are still to this day the most insufferable assholes you'd ever want to know and, surprise!, they are all far right-wingers and conservatives.

[Hoyt]

5. So-called "young Republicans" I've seen are really jerks. When they grow up, watch out.

[nxylas]

39. When they grow up, most of them turn out fine

It's when they don't grow up they're a problem.

[beac]

6. Obama isn't turning anyone gay, but the GOP sure is turning kids into assholes. n/t

[Bette Noir]

7. I can totally see Obama turning someone gay.

Biden, not so much. He's just not that cute.

[maddiemom]

29. Is too!

[HopeHoops]

8. The kid needs some SERIOUS doughnut intake.

[JHB]

10. Good thing his idol is Rush not Mitt, then...

...though Mitt would no doubt up his intake of foie gras.

[JHB]

9. In the late 60's being a teenage "radical leftist" was...

...a way of being a dick toward a designated target ("the Establishment", maaan), which would get you the approval of a certain part of your peer group plus make getting other things easier (weed, sex, etc.).


The young "conservative activists" like this kid are doing something similar, except the designated targets are anyone who isn't on board with the conservative movement, or just designated scapegoats, and the approval is coming from the old farts (which to a 14-year old is everyone over 30).

Added on edit: the RWnut blogger who incubated and pushed the idea that Fast & Furious was a secret plan to cause gun violence in order to crush 2nd Amendment rights says he became a radical leftist in 1967, when he was about 14 or a little younger, then went libertarian about 10 years later.

So when they're making a big show of being a radical at that age, being a radical dick may not be a temporary phase.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. The reason Conservatives are anti-gay

Is simple. They KNOW they're assholes and they take it personally.

That's also why they feel they need to be "protected" from it.

They refuse to "loosen up" over it.

They feel life's tough enough when you're full of shit.

[TexasTowelie]

25. Congrats!

It looks like you won the innuendo award for the thread.

[spanone]

16. little fuckwad. who raises a kid to be an asshole?

[Initech]

20. No one is raised to be an asshole, they just turn out that way.

My mom's an educator - you'd be really surprised at the number of assholes in middle and high school.

[Major Nikon]

35. No, I think some really are raised to be an asshole

Its just my personal observation, but when I see someone who is 14 or less and they are already an asshole, the chances are pretty good they have assholes for parents.

[tooeyeten]

17. Filling in

He'll be filling in when Rush's on vacation, or moves to Central America.

[Initech]

19. And yes, in case you were asking, there is a Conservative Teen Magazine

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/the_conservative_teen_magazine_no_this_is_not_a_joke

[marmar]

23. Kick....Pt. II video added.

nt

[meow2u3]

24. That Caiden kid sounds like a cross between Rush Limbaugh and Foghorn Leghorn

[Odin2005]

26. Emotionally stunted brats who worship Ayn Rand.

[GETPLANING]

27. Lee Doren comes to mind

[FarLeftFist]

28. "Take THAT, knowing things!"

[YOHABLO]

30. Who Are Their Parents?

These kids didn't just come up with this shit off the top of their heads. Kids this radical, have been nurtured and groomed by their parents ... interesting to see where they come from and their ''upbringing''. I find it all very scary ... I saw where a Pentecostal church ordained an eleven year old boy to be a minister, granted both the mother and father were ministers of the Fullness Of Time Church In Maryland. It's over on Huffington Post if you're at all interested. My parents did not indoctrinate me to know that Nixon was a crook, and that the Vietnam War was wrong .. I came up with that all by myself.

[tex-wyo-dem]

32. Now, if it were liberal kids doing this...

The RW pundits and media would be up in arms that this was a result of socialist indoctrination camps, or some such shit.

[nxylas]

34. Yeah, called public schools

This is what conservatives actually believe, to paraphrase South Park. Even though all major textbook publishers are under economic pressure to make their books Texas-friendly, with all that entails.

[trusty elf]

36. A quote from Jonathan Krohn....

"Does not life keep all of us alive? If it wasn't for life would we not surely be dead? Conservatives believe that life is something that everyone should have."


a real intellectual colossus!

[NoMoreWarNow]

38. I swear, Maher is one of the keenest observers of Republican psychology around, plus

he's friggin' hilarious.

[Honeycombe8]

40. Excellent. Thanks! nt

[Honeycombe8]

42. I don't need a 14 year old preaching to me about anything. I'M the adult.

This is frickin' creepy...that adults would even listen to the preaching of a child.