[quantified]

After 9/11, not too long after, the socially acceptable position was that the hijackers were cowards. He pointed out that taking the controls of a jumbo jet yourself and directing it into a building was not exactly cowardly. You had to take real action for a period of time and you were going to die in flames. Cowardly was paying other people to do this on your behalf. No one ever accused Japanese kamikaze pilots of being cowards, quite the opposite.

So he got cancelled. Literally, he had a network show that was cancelled, as well as socially cancelled. Social media “cancellation” didn’t exist since Facebook and Twitter didn’t yet exist. He’s the real deal.

[kcplate]

Say huh? Bill Maher is pretty far from “cancelled” at least in the 2021 understanding of the term. Politically Incorrect ran for 9 years until 2002, Real Time w/Bill Maher has been running since 2003 nonstop!

“Cancelled” in 2021 implies that you have been sent out to pasture permanently for whatever it is that offended the cancelling powers that be… Bill Maher is a man who has been providing political commentary with the exception of a brief hiatus for 27 years. His “new rule” segments are all over social media and YouTube nowadays. Almost every single week those segments get massive social media reach and often gets mainstream news organization coverage.

He is an equal opportunity offender though. Right hates him for his opinions on religion, left hates him for his opinion on a “certain” religion. Right hates him for making fun of Sarah Palin’s sone with Down syndrome, left hates him for his recent tirades against wokism and the Biden administration.

The fact that he is so successful at pissing off EVERYONE and still has a weekly show on a major network that has run for the last 18 years is pretty much testament to the fact that not only is he not cancelled, but is pretty much apparently un-cancelable.

[dragonwriter]

> “Cancelled” in 2021 implies that you have been sent out to pasture permanently for whatever it is that offended the cancelling powers that be…

Not really. I mean, it is used as if it means that, but almost invariably about someone who has lost no social prominence, or in fact gained it, from the thing for which they notionally have been “cancelled”.

[quantified]

What’s “permanent”? Give it a couple years and see. “Cancelled” means some people “cancel” you, very likely to be a passionate froth that gets forgotten. We’ll see how durable current cancellation is.

Politically Incorrect remains cancelled.

[kcplate]

Yes, politically correct was cancelled, still is. That cancellation was more to do with advertiser pressure and likely advertisers not advertising on his show but other Comedy Central show. It has in no way hurt or diminished Bill Mahers audience and social reach. It was also so temporary most folks didn’t even notice…unless perhaps you were a fan without an HBO subscription.

Does he occupy the same spot on the left? Who knows? He is unashamedly liberal, and doesn’t do a wide variety of topics in a long conversation format. So it’s apples to oranges. His show is intentionally more monologuely, political panel oriented, with short conversations with newsmakers. However like Rogan his guests come from both political leanings.

Edit: submitted accidentally before fixing an unclear sentence

[cafard]

Curious that this could have come directly from G.K. Chesterton.

[Zelphyr]

Thanks. I had forgotten all about that.