As everyone knows by now, Milo Yiannopoulos has finally become, for now at least, persona non gratis. Was it for his harassment of people, his bigoted and transphobic views or his just general desire to be an asshole at every opportunity? Well, no, it was after video surfaced of him defending pedophilia. A video eerily similar to a video of Bill Maher taking the same position, and acting generally surprised that none of his panel agreed with him:
And now he wants credit for Milo’s downfall? That takes some chutzpah. Everyone tried to tell Bill Maher that booking Milo was a bad idea, but Bill also likes stirring shit up just for the sake of stirring shit up. I’ll admit I am late to opposition of Bill Maher. I don’t watch every week, but last week was the first time I intentionally didn’t watch. Usually I’d just turn the channel when he went off on one of his islamophobic rants. But apparently Bill is still defending Milo’s transphobic views. Saying it is legitimate for a woman to not want to share a bathroom with a transwoman is like saying it is legitimate for a woman not to want to share a bathroom with a black woman. And you could have found women to tell you that, too, 75 years ago[truth be told if you know the right people you could probably find someone to take that position today].
Will this be fatal for Bill Maher’s career too? Late as I may be to the party, I no longer think it is worthwhile to watch his show. But it is also interesting that when clips like these surface, they weren’t hidden mike jobs. They were intended for public consumption, but for whatever reason didn’t spark significant controversy when they first aired. So maybe Bill will be able to lean into this, play himself as the victim as he likes to do, and survive.