August 19, 2015
Is @BillMaher a bigot? #tlot Retweet
Bill Maher pretends to be godless. But he’s not. He has a god. He even believes in magic. His god is The State, and his magic is initiated force. Notice what Maher says in the attached Facebook meme.
“We have this fantasy that our interests and the interests of the super-rich are the same — like somehow the rich will eventually get so full that they’ll explode, and the candy will rain down on the rest of us. Like they’re some kind of pinata of benevolence. But here’s the thing about a pinata: it doesn’t open on its own. You have to beat it with a stick.“
– Bill Maher
Maher clearly wants The State to take things from rich people, using violence. He thinks this will deliver “candy” to the world. It’s a classic example of someone who wants to violate the Zero Aggression Principle, which says…
“Don’t threaten or initiate force against others, or ask politicians to do it for you.”
You see, Bill Maher is what I call a Chickenhawk Statist. Traditionally, “chickenhawks” are people who want wars to be fought, but who aren’t willing to do the fighting themselves. Bill Maher is the same way when it comes to violence against rich people.
He isn’t willing to take his stick and beat rich people himself. He’s not brave enough for that. He wants politicians and their armed goons to do it for him.
This makes Bill Maher morally reprehensible. But he’s also wrong about the “candy.” Here’s what he doesn’t understand…
Rich people consume very little of their wealth. In fact, most of them got rich through delayed gratification — by saving and investing. Nearly everything a rich person owns is constantly engaged in socially beneficial activities, both productive pursuits and philanthropy. This means…
The rich are NOT a pinata that delivers candy when beaten, but rather a cornucopia that rains benefits on all of us.
Look around your home. Every good thing you see was produced because some rich person provided the funds to manufacture it. They did this NOT by consuming but by saving.
And when you take this wealth away, you also reduce the good things that wealth was producing. The wealth can’t do two things at once. If you take it from one activity to fund another, the first activity stops.
Now, what does Maher’s statist stick actually deliver?
He assumes it will transfer “candy” from the wealthy to the less affluent. But in fact, The State has wealth transfer programs that go in all directions. Some transfer wealth from the rich to the poor (poverty programs), while others send wealth in the other direction (various forms of subsidies and corporate welfare). This sounds more like a game of musical chairs than a pinata than only rains candy on the poor.
But Maher also seems to assume the rich don’t deserve their wealth. After all, beating them with a stick could only be justified if the wealth was ill gotten. If there’s really evidence of such criminality then a case should be brought in court. Then, if a conviction results the ill gotten wealth should be returned to its rightful owners. The fact that Maher, and people like him, don’t promote this approach tells me that something else is going on here. I can sum that up in one sentence…
Hatred of earned affluence is the bigotry of the Left.
Yes, I think Bill Maher is a bigot.
Perry Willis
Co-creator, the Zero Aggression Project
–END–
AMEN! An eye opening treatise to read and help articulate the concept of ‘plunder’ is ‘THE LAW’ by Frederic Bastiat.
Perry, I am sure that you, as a fellow libertarian, are aware there are two ways to become rich.
1) to offer a good or service at a lower price than a competitor and receive more demand for that service to society. [Maybe Walmart example applies.] …. Or 2). steal or extort wealth from them who have earned it. Government immediately comes to mind.
The hypocrisy is when the ‘moral’ liberal demands more benefits to be given to government dependents under a guise of compassion. It is usually a MO to build a government empire.
Which is what you have written.
We have to many gas lighting gas bags in the New York Media. To many list here.
The other way to become super-wealthy is to know the right people, specifically as it concerns the music industry & the sports industry. How many lame musicians command ridiculous lifestyles because someone @ a record label was able to posit them in the spotlight & drive them, as repulsive & non-talented as they may be, but perhaps solely because they’re physically attractive or just operate by shock & awe. There’s also having an ability that few people have, like athletic ability. How many professional athletes live ridiculous lifestyles because they have genetic traits the rest of us don’t. Just a quick reminder of how ignorance & absurdity feed exorbitant lifestyles in our country. But, also, a reminder of how much money you can make by being an “entertainer”. Let’s not even get into YouTube’s monetization policy…
I would also state that Bill Mahar HIMSELF is rich (rich people on the left NEVER seem to think of themselves as rich). Would Mahar beat HIMSLEF with a stick, or better yet VOLUNTARILY give his wealth away? I’d like to see HIS tax returns!
His Hypocrisy is his biggest fault, even exceeding is “proven wrong throughout history” Philosophy
Don’t forget how rich people hire others – even modestly rich people usually hire maid and other services – and usually tip more. Everything they spend money on helps other people’s businesses and its employees.
Also, I have two sisters who don’t save money well and both have contempt for the super wealthy. They are all for the income tax because they look at it as a Robin Hood system, and they don’t realize how those tax laws are dodged like mad.
The question that needs an answer from Mr Maher, is why he thinks an oligarchy of people like himself, should have the power to attack everyone with whom they disagree.
A century ago the Wilson Administration bought into the Eugenics philosophy, arguing that democracy can’t work because some people are “insufficiently-evolved” to vote correctly. Mr Maher seems to associate the curiosity humans have about our origins and our place in this universe, that gave rise to the world’s religions, with that trait of being “less-evolved”.
Wilsonian Eugenics policy is nowadays understood to be racist
Disguising it as candy to be rained down upon the many, in a one day jubilee when all debts are repudiated, is just as racist as the original version of the story. This version accuses the productive of being inferior, because we didnt fight back yet.
Gosh, I would have thought Bill Maher would be rich. He’s had a very successful career. How much is enough?
There’s another point here. If the online report I found is correct, Maher is worth $100 million. So he is one of the super-rich. So is he planning to beat himself with a stick? It’s always fascinating when celebrities talk about justice as if their own means and lifestyle don’t fall with the people they are attacking.
Above all else, Leftists are projectors of their own guilt.
Look around your home. Everything good you see was made in China. Capitalism failed when the objective of management became “maximize shareholder / investor wealth” instead of profits through customer satisfaction and sales. Made in China because China achieves profits by satisfaction and sales to their customers who are USAmerica management. But Perry Willis is still correct about hatred of earned affluence is the bigotry of the Left. So now we hate the Chinese belt and road initiative. Space City Speed Gospel
The piñata analogy only applies when the rich, bipartisan consensus, Democrat&Republican leadership of Law Schools, Judges, Law Makers, and Law Enforcement order a spy crime, such as Space City Speed Gospel denial, then refuse to pay for it.
Space City Speed Gospel denial is worse than Holocaust denial in 1944, and such cover-ups are terribly expensive as evidence is destroyed and witnesses are destroyed.
The cost is far more than what the politicians budgeted, thus the rich, bipartisan consensus are beaten like a piñata until money to pay for the cost over-runs falls out their wallets.
They employed criminals to censor Space City Speed Gospel in mainstream mass media until, ultimately, the lunatics take over the asylum, as happened with Holocaust denial in Nazi Fascist Vichy, World War 2, Europe, paticularly1944.
Excellent article. Thank you.
I found your insights both more reality-based than *anything* Bill Maher has to say, but also (in someways) funnier. I especially enjoyed your use of the term- Chickenhawk Statist. This was memorable enough, since I remember the bitty Chicken hawk from the old Warner Bros. cartoons. But connecting it to the war on the wealthy was genius. (Frankly, I’m likely to be using it for a variety of left and right statist activities, including the war on conscience in relation to aid to dependent dictators- another one of either your or Jim Babka’s catch phrases- and the war on conscience in relation to funding for-profit abortion providers)