First off, Tavis Smiley is obviously a dishonest and immoral moral relativist and Bill Maher is exactly right in smacking him down with this epic piece of wisdom: “When you tolerate intolerance, you’re not really being a liberal.”
Listen, I know Maher can be intellectually dishonest and unfair and vulgar and that his evangelical crusade to spread his disbelief in God makes an airport Moonie look like the picture of restraint. However, unlike Jon Stewart, Bill Maher does not hide behind a clown nose, he comes to wage political war and says so. You never hear Maher say, “Hey, I’m a satirist, don’t hold me accountable.” Unlike Jon Stewart, Bill Maher also doesn’t try to dictate the how the rest of us speak. While I can certainly see Maher holding a rally to mock Glenn Beck, I cannot see it ending with a sanctimonious speech in favor of political speech rules.
Now to the point:
Finally, can you imagine the same Jon Stewart who considers the most tolerant country in the history of world Islamophobic, standing up to Tavis Smiley in this way? Can you imagine Jon Stewart having the sand to speak the politically incorrect truth about the treatment of women throughout much of the Muslim world? I rarely agree with Maher, sometimes I don’t like him very much, but I know where he stands because he’s man enough to fly his partisan flag and carries no clown nose. Most of all, he’s willing to say out loud that it’s a contradiction to believe in human rights while denigrating Western Civilization. That’s worth something to me, whereas I see Mr. SmugFaceClownNoseSuperiorSpeechPolicer for exactly what he is.
Below is not a full transcript, it’s pull quotes courtesy of our friends over at NewsBusters. Be sure to read Noel Sheppard’s full write up:
Maher: “Really, Tavis? Muslim men don’t have a problem with women?”Smiley: No, I’m not going to argue that.
Maher: Good.
Smiley: Let me say up front, I agree with you.
Maher: I was going to cut your head off.
Smiley: No, no, no. Better my head than what Kevin. I was going to say that first of all, obviously what happened to Lara Logan is reprehensible, horrific, we can’t find a language to describe what happened to her. But having said that, if our democracy, Bill, if, if, if our readiness for democracy in this country is based upon, determined by, demonstrated by our respect for women, then we ain’t ready for democracy…
Maher: That is a false equivalence.
Smiley: No, no, no, no, no.
Maher: Please.
Smiley: Absolutely not.
Maher: Are you serious? You think this country, the men in this country have an attitude that even comes close to…
Smiley: I’m suggesting to you if you think that the way we treat women in this country, with patriarchy still alive and well, sexism still alive and well, is determinative or demonstrative of how well our democracy runs, I think you don’t understand how maltreated women are still in this society. That’s all I’m saying.
Maher: What I’m saying is you have no perspective. You have no perspective.
Later:
Smiley: “I don’t disagree with the fact that they got a long way to go. What I’m trying to suggest to you is that when we have these conversations about how they treat women, as if somehow we treat women better in this country, it demonizes Muslims.”Maher: “It’s not demonizing. That’s saying I’m prejudiced. I’m saying I’m not prejudiced. That’s pre-judging. I’m not pre-judging, I’m judging. I’m judging. They’re worse. What’s wrong with just saying that? You’re a cultural relativist. It’s not relative.”
After a heckler lost his mind, Smiley doubled down on his relativist, anti-American nonsense:
Smiley: “It might surprise us to go into our papers in this country every day and to see stories just like this of how women are maltreated in this country every single day.”Maher: “It’s such bullshit. I mean, in this country, we treat women badly because they don’t get equal pay, or someone calls you sugar tits, or something like that. I don’t think it’s comparable to cutting their heads off, not letting them drive, not letting them work.”
Smiley: “I would rather have us stop acting like that we know the answers to everything, that we’re always right, that our way is always better, that we don’t make mistakes.”
Maher: “We don’t know the answers to everything. But I do know we treat women better. You know what? When you tolerate intolerance, you’re not really being a liberal.”
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