i found this to be an awkward little bit of moralizing from Mr. Maher.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Remember that term Moynihan coined, "defining deviancy down"? These movies are mainstreaming deviancy. Deviancy now opens nationwide in 3,000 theaters. How can you expect a nation to abide by the Geneva Conventions when 80 percent of our teenagers spend their idle hours playing ultra-gory video games?
it reminds me of O'Reilly talking about the "coursening of society" and all that.
i'm sure Bill -- the Irish Bill -- no. i mean mean the irish Bill Maher isn't suggesting any sort of censorship, and in some ways I can't say I disagree with his central thesis. On some level, America is viewing the Iraq war, and torture through the lens of a movie or a video game. Or a TV show, whether it be "24" or "Battlestar Galactica."
But cinematically speaking, keep in mind, the "Saw" movies are the direct descendants of the David Fincher movie, "Seven". A movie that designed appropriate punishments for people who were not only sinful in the eyes of God, but sinful in the eyes of also a secular society. Greed is bad. Vanity is bad. Sloth is bad. Gluttony is bad. How many of us felt sorry for the victims in "Seven."?
I simply haven't the self-restraint to NOT post this from an earlier Bill Maher transcript:
That is sad, when smart people have to pretend to be so dumb to get elected.
Hillary - Hillary Clinton is all upset about flag-burning. Really? The valedictorian at Wellesley? The graduate of Yale Law School and the first female in outer space? Is upset about flag-burning?! And not just flag-burning. She's also come out hard against sexy video games and easy access to abortions. Great. What am I supposed to do now on Saturday night?
hmmm.
the rest of this diary should be devoted to comments explaining how Bill Maher coming out against the Saw movies is any different than Hillary coming out against a video game. i hope he's not pretending to be dumb for ratings! nah. he might not be pretending.
have at it kids.