Maher: “Backlash” Banning Trans Youth Care Goes “Too Far”
Coverage of an interview with Bill Maher is highlighting some, but not all, of what the controversial news talking guy said.
by Evan Urquhart
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Bill Maher discussed transgender issues and his belief that some people are born trans, how glad he is to live in a time when trans people are able to exist freely and openly, that banning gender affirming care represents a backlash that’s gone too far, along with some grumbling about wokeness.
Maher even spoke up clearly in favor of legal protections, saying “It’s great we live in a time where people like that can freely live the lives they should live with all the dignity and protection of the law.” About efforts to ban gender affirming care, Maher said, “That’s a backlash… That’s probably a backlash that has gone too far.”
Of course, the headline CNN used to promote the interview chose not to highlight these comments of Maher’s, instead quoting ones that reinforce Maher’s long-running brand of anti-woke grouse.
screenshot from CNN
Maher’s posture in the interview is a common one among reactionaries, where he presents the core issues being debated in America as though they don’t exist, allowing him to focus on picayune nonsense in peace. In Maher’s alternate reality, trans people are real and deserve the same protections and respect as anyone else, but this is uncontroversial and not under serious threat. This is, of course, ludicrous. By building an anti-woke brand, Maher is consciously and intentionally sucking up to the people enacting increasingly harsh legislation targeting trans people’s most basic rights, legislation he claims he does not support, all while pretending that everyone already agrees it is bad.
Maher’s a grifter, but no one else is under any obligation to help further his grift. The mainstream media also makes a choice when it does. By highlighting his anti-woke schtick, and downplaying statements of support for trans people’s legal protections, they tacitly accept his false picture of what he deems uncontroversial (support for trans rights) and highly controversial (whether some comedians jokes about trans people are mean). His statements of support for trans rights would be highly controversial to most conservatives. But the coverage highlights stuff that’s controversial among Democrats, joining Maher in pretending conservatives don’t really exist.
Maher can be selectively quoted as a staunch supporter of trans rights who completely rejects the conservative conventional wisdom on trans people, or as an anti-woke grump who thinks trans people critical of him constitute a major risk to free speech. His actual statements contain both. He’s built support among reactionaries by being selectively quoted as an anti-woke grump, while saying enough supportive things about trans people to claim it’s unfair to portray him as anti-trans rights. It would completely disrupt his game to do the opposite, downplaying the anti-woke grumpery we’ve heard so many times before, and presenting his support for trans rights as every bit as controversial and contested as it actually is.