"Having more people isn't green." - Bill Maher

[GuessTheAltAccount]

"They always wanted to, like, send more checks to people who have kids. Well, part of this bill is, anybody making $400000 gets $2000 a kid. So baby bonuses . . . isn't having kids just a choice? Aren't we picking winners and losers there . . . it's supposed to be a bill that's a green bill. Kids aren't green. Having more people isn't green." - Bill Maher, from this past Friday's Real Time episode.

I haven't found it available online, and I'm not sure if it'd run afoul of rules against piracy to upload that excerpt myself, so I figured I'd just quote it for now.

On the one hand, I'm glad someone finally just said this outright on-air. I'm a little worried people might strawman the "kids aren't green" part as singling kids out as somehow especially bad for the environment even though they obviously aren't necessarily worse for the environment than everyone else... but you know how it is, pronatalists would look for any excuse to smear the other side.

On the other hand, I'm not sure making parenting prohibitively expensive is the most ethical way to deter it anyway... or if not, what if anything the alternatives are. (Not that $2000 comes close to remedying the $233610 price tag of having kids.)

With baby urges, we're dealing with something so powerful, so overwhelming, that when told people are bad for the environment, pronatalists won't even attempt to refute it rationally, they'll just tell the people who say so to kill themselves. This is not the behaviour of someone who believes they have reason on their side. This is the behaviour of someone who doesn't even care whether or not reason is on their side.

So why would people not expect baby urges to eventually reach a tipping point; at least for many women; in which they would no longer care whether they can afford kids and instead take turns getting pregnant off guys rich enough to owe the aforementioned $233610 in child support?

. . .

I don't know for a fact that Bill Maher's just opposing this to get into low-income women's pants, I just know it's true.

[Cannot think of a name]

They really should rename Real Time "Old Man Yells at Cloud"

[GuessTheAltAccount]

They really should rename Real Time "Old Man Yells at Cloud"

Eh, he still dissents from his own generation on other matters. He's not a generic old man in every sense of the word. He does strike me as a little misguided in his opposition to baby bonuses, but those of us with reason on our side should not be afraid to compete with dissenting voices, especially if they come from a place of actual independent thought.

[The Holy Therns]

What Bill Maher says is still considered worthy of discussion?

Huh. Fancy that.

[Cannot think of a name]

They really should rename Real Time "Old Man Yells at Cloud"

Eh, he still dissents from his own generation on other matters. He's not a generic old man in every sense of the word. He does strike me as a little misguided in his opposition to baby bonuses, but those of us with reason on our side should not be afraid to compete with dissenting voices, especially if they come from a place of actual independent thought.

I've watched enough Bill Maher to last a lifetime. He's an ass. If he occasionally makes a glancing blow against an actual point it's not cause to take him seriously in any regard. It's not a matter of being 'afraid to compete with dissenting voices', and it's glib to categorize his sensationalist blatherings in a desperate bid to hold onto relevance as 'independent thought'. I'd sooner debate a child banging pots together then consider anything Bill Maher says with any degree of seriousness.

I mean, I'm guessing in the same episode where he unleashed his tone deaf classist attack against working people from the smug safety of his highly paid HBO desk, he also used the death of a woman to launch into an even more tone deaf bullshit 'kids these days' attack on young people who've managed to carve out a niche for themselves traveling in vans while, without a hint of irony that his entire career is built around mugging to a camera and farting out his own unsolicited opinions as he pursued his own stardom (too bad Jungle Women of the Avocado Jungle of whatever the fuck didn't launch him to movie stardom). Fuck that dude. I don't give a tiddly shit what that mouth breathing knuckledragging albatross sneers into his camera wishing he had half the gravitas of a third level Daily Show graduate with a higher rated, better researched show.

[Senkaku]

Richard Dawkins may be the same class of dickwad but at least he has some actual achievements in his life, why the fuck anyone listens to Maher or how he ever became so convinced of his own brilliance is totally beyond me

[Cannot think of a name]

Richard Dawkins may be the same class of dickwad but at least he has some actual achievements in his life, why the fuck anyone listens to Maher or how he ever became so convinced of his own brilliance is totally beyond me

He was able to martyr himself when he was barely an also ran in the late night wars at the turn of the century and now fragile white dudes who still want to fancy themselves liberal minded can use him as cover to sneer at culture.

[GuessTheAltAccount]

Richard Dawkins may be the same class of dickwad but at least he has some actual achievements in his life, why the fuck anyone listens to Maher or how he ever became so convinced of his own brilliance is totally beyond me

He was able to martyr himself when he was barely an also ran in the late night wars at the turn of the century and now fragile white dudes who still want to fancy themselves liberal minded can use him as cover to sneer at culture.

Define "liberal minded."

[Cannot think of a name]

He was able to martyr himself when he was barely an also ran in the late night wars at the turn of the century and now fragile white dudes who still want to fancy themselves liberal minded can use him as cover to sneer at culture.

Define "liberal minded."

No.

[The Holy Therns]

He was able to martyr himself when he was barely an also ran in the late night wars at the turn of the century and now fragile white dudes who still want to fancy themselves liberal minded can use him as cover to sneer at culture.

Define "liberal minded."

It's really not about what they are, but what they want to be perceived to be.

[Zapato]

Who's this guy? Can't say I've heard of him.

[Antipatros]

Who's this guy? Can't say I've heard of him.

Liberal political commentator/boomer funny man.

I personally don't like him. I'm more of a George Carlin man myself.

[Immortan Khan]

What are we even supposed to talk about?

[Cannot think of a name]

Who's this guy? Can't say I've heard of him.

Liberal political commentator/boomer funny man.

I personally don't like him. I'm more of a George Carlin man myself.

No one asks that question sincerely, everyone knows how to do a web search...there's even a section for it in the browser. It's a way of being dismissive about the person in question.

[Heloin]

What are we even supposed to talk about?

That some asshole with diminishing relevance to the world is still an asshole.

[Antipatros]

Liberal political commentator/boomer funny man.

I personally don't like him. I'm more of a George Carlin man myself.

No one asks that question sincerely, everyone knows how to do a web search...there's even a section for it in the browser. It's a way of being dismissive about the person in question.

Ah. I didn't detect the sarcasm.

[Kowani]

Richard Dawkins may be the same class of dickwad but at least he has some actual achievements in his life, why the fuck anyone listens to Maher or how he ever became so convinced of his own brilliance is totally beyond me

there's always going to be a market for the "contrarian" who just happens to re-affirm the hierarchy

[Resilient Acceleration]

This sounds familiar.

[Saiwania]

Sure, children aren't green in that they need resources to survive like other people do. But the future of the country isn't going to be secured from nobody having kids ever either. Relying on just immigration isn't a solution. At some point for the economy/society to continue, people will need to decide to reproduce. It can't just all be old retired people.

I'm not all too worried about the fertility rate being too low, if it just means that the national population will shrink by half down to a quarter but not more than that.

The burden should not be on young people working to provide pensions/subsidy to retired people. They should keep working a job until death or failing that, to do a reverse mortgage or some spending down of their accrued assets/wealth if older people want to retire or be financially independent before dying. Japan's elderly population is rumored to live so long in part because retirement isn't a thing or expectation for them.

Why not embrace the model of people staying involved and never stopping their work if they're physically/cognitively capable still?

[Postauthoritarian America]

"They always wanted to, like, send more checks to people who have kids. Well, part of this bill is, anybody making $400000 gets $2000 a kid. So baby bonuses . . . isn't having kids just a choice? Aren't we picking winners and losers there . . . it's supposed to be a bill that's a green bill. Kids aren't green. Having more people isn't green." - Bill Maher, from this past Friday's Real Time episode.

I haven't found it available online, and I'm not sure if it'd run afoul of rules against piracy to upload that excerpt myself, so I figured I'd just quote it for now.

On the one hand, I'm glad someone finally just said this outright on-air. I'm a little worried people might strawman the "kids aren't green" part as singling kids out as somehow especially bad for the environment even though they obviously aren't necessarily worse for the environment than everyone else... but you know how it is, pronatalists would look for any excuse to smear the other side.

On the other hand, I'm not sure making parenting prohibitively expensive is the most ethical way to deter it anyway... or if not, what if anything the alternatives are. (Not that $2000 comes close to remedying the $233610 price tag of having kids.)

With baby urges, we're dealing with something so powerful, so overwhelming, that when told people are bad for the environment, pronatalists won't even attempt to refute it rationally, they'll just tell the people who say so to kill themselves. This is not the behaviour of someone who believes they have reason on their side. This is the behaviour of someone who doesn't even care whether or not reason is on their side.

So why would people not expect baby urges to eventually reach a tipping point where women no longer care whether they can afford kids and instead take turns getting pregnant off guys rich enough to owe the aforementioned $233610 in child support?

. . .

I don't know for a fact that Bill Maher's just opposing this to get into low-income women's pants, I just know it's true.

Typical Maher. BIll Maher doesn't have kids so no one should have kids. Bill Maher isn't overweight so it's overweight people who are to blame for COVID (he got it anyway). Bill Maher and his mostly white, mostly male buddies all believe the same about how things should be so that's the way things should be. It all gets so tiresome after a few years.

They really should rename Real Time "Old Man Yells at Cloud"

Nah, we can save that for things like Trump spouting off at Pulitzer Prize winners.

[Diahon]

well, at least he ain't tucker

[Socialist Republic of Mexico]

Bill Maher is an idiot. One second he's for M4A and the next he's saying it's the roadway to communism. Keeping people from having children isn't going to make a huge dent in climate change. It's another way of trying to blame individuals for climate change rather than corporations and 1st world nations who are mostly responsible for this

[Saiwania]

"They always wanted to, like, send more checks to people who have kids. Well, part of this bill is, anybody making $400000 gets $2000 a kid. So baby bonuses . . . isn't having kids just a choice? Aren't we picking winners and losers there . . . it's supposed to be a bill that's a green bill. Kids aren't green. Having more people isn't green."

I don't quite understand why so many laws passed by the US congress include such generous income qualifiers in bills/programs. Someone making $400,000 a year in most places is solidly rich, they shouldn't need any government subsidy or help compared to the more typical situation of someone who makes say- $40,000 a year or less. How many people do people know who really make six figures regularly who's not considered beyond the middle class in lifestyle?

If someone lived off of only a fraction of a lucrative $400,000 job or total household income for just 10 years or less in purposely living below their means, they really could retire early indefinitely if $3.6 million isn't spent too fast. It could fund a $50,000 a year lifestyle for 60+ years which is perfectly stable/good in most locales.

[Vadterland]

Bill Maher says some really dumb shit for the Nth time. This isn't news, this is just typical from his irrelevant next-to-literal-who talkshow. After his disrespecting the dead in Stan Lee's case and putting forth vaccine skepticism I don't see why anyone should take him seriously at all.

[Lady Victory]

Bill Maher isn't even a memorable asshole. He's just an asshole you kinda forget exists until someone reminds you of his existence.

Like 2 hours ago when I forgot he existed until I saw this thread. And then now 2 hours later when I forgot he existed again until I once again saw this thread. That's how boring and forgettable he is.