Bill seemed genuinely penitent, but the whole blowback was so disproportionate to what he did, that it was more than a little unfair; and given the situation, he couldn't push back on some of the more spurious arguments, like the notion that words should belong only to a particular group.

Get a pass on what? A careless, but not malicious use of a bad word in a joke? Yeah, he gets a pass. We get that you don't like him, but you're making this into something it's not. True liberals believe in individual liberty and tolerance to speech we may not like, and not the policing of speech and what others can…

I think Dyson was right about Bill's unthinking use of the word. I fully take Sanders's point, although I think she gives too much weight to Maher's words, which were, after all, not an endorsement of a view, but a reference to something in the black zeitgeist (the house slave vs field slave dichotomy is common enough…

I don't get the self-serving part, but yes, Maher can be abrasive. He is one of those celebrities who are not lovable, and even I, as a fan, take issue with some things. Still, sometimes you need an asshole who can say the obvious, but controversial truth, or at least voice a concern people may be afraid to…

First of all, I don't buy that the black community at some starting point consciously decided to adopt the word in order to subvert it or whatever. That strikes me as a fairly recent rationalization. Many blacks were against other blacks using this term once it entered the lexicon of the black community, but it's hard…

Hound someone relentlessly for using a bad word in a joke you did not like? What is this, the Scarlet Letter? Grow up, will ya.

Seems my reply got stuck in moderation, so I'll try again. "Ignorant intent" is an oxymoron (and Bill clearly did not mean to insult folks or to put them down), and I don't even know what "ignorant context" is. If you meant he was being ignorant, that's something else entirely. Generally, you are taking what he said…

I felt bad for Bill, who seemed pretty down, and then having the others pile on after the Dyson segment was just overkill. Maher used a taboo word, which may have been unwise and inappropriate in this particular case, but this wasn't racism. We judge statements by context, meaning, and intent, and not by individual…