Maher's Mask Slips: Punching Down While the Republic Burns

[AStern]

41. "Fellow Democrat"?

You mean the guy who called vaccine mandates Orwellian, platformed Milo, applauded Bannon, mocked climate and trans activists, dined with Trump, and cozied up to David Zaslav while mocking writers and actors during a strike? That guy?

Maher doesn’t challenge power—he flatters it. Whether it’s Elon, Trump-adjacent grifters, or studio execs gutting the arts, he’s right there with a smirk and a punchline aimed anywhere but up.

And yes, many of us watched him. Long enough to clock the shift from sharp satire to lazy contrarianism. When he dismissed Timothy Snyder—a literal scholar of authoritarianism—for being too alarmist while Trump dismantled democratic norms, that wasn’t edgy. That was willful ignorance masquerading as centrism.

Criticism isn’t “hate.” It’s clarity. If someone builds a platform by sneering at the vulnerable and giving power a pass, calling it out isn’t divisive—it’s honest. If your version of the “big tent” requires silence in the face of that, maybe the problem isn’t the critics—it’s the tent.