‘That’s what they’re being told, by people like you’: Jane Fonda shuts down Bill Maher’s critique of Democrats
Recently, Jane Fonda appeared on Bill Maher’s podcast, Club Random, where she effectively shut down his critique of Democrats.
Maher typically avoids political labels, although, in the past, he appeared to lean more to the left and endorsed Democratic candidates for President. Lately, viewers have noticed a shift in his rhetoric, which now appears more conservative. For example, much of his content has become focused on incessantly whining about “wokeness,” including raging over the Barbie movie and complaining that it was “man-hating.” He has offered a number of other terrible takes, such as claiming Taylor Swift is “too old” to date Travis Kelce, even though they’re the same age, or that the comedy industry should forgive Louis C. K. for his alleged sexual misconduct, even though it already has. When questioned about his perceived ideological shift, he has insisted that it’s “because the left changed.”
Maher recently tried to repeat the notion the left has changed or grown more extreme, but Fonda quickly shut him down.
Jane Fonda swiftly shuts down Bill Maher’s claims
During the latest episode of Club Random, Fonda sat down with Maher to discuss politics. The pair disagreed on topics like climate change and Maher’s “cynical” worldview. One moment that caught listeners’ attention was when Maher claimed that the left has gone “nutty” on certain issues. He offered a hypothesis for why Donald Trump has gained support, stating:
There’s about a third of this country that’s very hard right. Of course they love Trump. When he left office, he had an approval rating of 34%. So, he really only had those people. Why is he now, like, tied? Because the other part of the coalition are people who … they don’t really like him that much. They just think the far-left has gone so nutty on so many issues…
Fonda interrupts him at this point, retorting, “That’s what they’re being told … by people like you.”
It’s a very simple statement, but one that gets to the core of the problem. Maher is far from the only individual to push the narrative that Democrats are “nutty” or have gone to the “far-left.” On Thanksgiving Day, Trump doubled down on the narrative, calling Democrats “Radical Left Lunatics.” It has become very common for MAGA supporters to call anyone with slightly different opinions from them “deranged,” “lunatics,” and ableist slurs. However, these people, like Maher, who keep claiming that Democrats have gone off the deep end, don’t have evidence to support their statements.
If Americans are starting to believe that Democrats have turned “nutty,” it’s only because people like Maher are pushing that narrative, and they’re believing what they’re told. The only thing Maher and MAGA have as “proof” of the left supposedly changing is the Barbie movie or Trump’s completely false, hysterical claims that Democrats are transitioning children at school or aborting babies post-birth. Meanwhile, if these people want to talk about the “far-left” growing more unhinged, they need to also talk about the far-right growing more unhinged. Right-wing extremists are the ones who attacked the U.S. Capitol, tried to overturn an election, and penned an entire manifesto detailing a plan to turn the U.S. into a dystopia. That sounds a bit more “nutty” than Democrats, for example, caring about women’s access to medical care.
Americans keep getting told by people like Maher that Democrats are “nutty,” but if they actually look at the facts, they’d probably realize it’s not that “nutty” or “deranged” to care about protecting people’s rights and freedoms. Additionally, they’re trying to stir hysteria over the Democrats making “woke” movies about Barbie, whereas far-right extremists actually pose a very real threat to the country as their violence far outpaces far-left extremists’ violence. Fonda is right that people like Maher keep telling everyone that the left is “nutty.” Now, we must ask why these people are so intent on pushing this questionable narrative.
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