Maybe every other American movie shouldn't be based on a comic book. Other countries will think Americans live in an infantile fantasy land where reality is whatever we say it is and every problem can be solved with violence.
Bill MaherRead
Freedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that 'Oh, I don't get involved in politics,' as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Freedom requires active participation and awareness; ignoring politics is irresponsible.
This quote emphasizes that in a democratic society, individuals have a responsibility to engage with political matters. Maher argues that claiming ignorance or disinterest in politics is not a virtue but a failure to uphold civic duty, allowing dishonest leaders to thrive by taking advantage of a complacent electorate.
Themes
FreedomPoliticsCivic DutyIgnoranceResponsibility
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civic engagement, one might use this quote to encourage audience members to vote.
More from Bill Maher
All quotes →If conservatives get to call universal healthcare 'socialized medicine,' I get to call private, for-profit healthcare 'soulless, vampire bastards making money off human pain.'
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If we go back to the beginning, we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm, or deceit adorned them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them and that custom, respect and tyranny support them in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interests. If the ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.
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When I hear from people that religion doesn't hurt anything, I say really? Well besides wars, the crusades, the inquisitions, 9-11, ethnic cleansing, the suppression of women, the suppression of homosexuals, fatwas, honor killings, suicide bombings, arranged marriages to minors, human sacrifice, burning witches, and systematic sex with children, I have a few little quibbles. And I forgot blowing up girl schools in Afghanistan.
Bill MaherRead
When it comes to religion, we're not two sides of the same coin, and you don't get to put your unreason up on the same shelf with my reason. Your stuff has to go over there, on the shelf with Zeus and Thor and the Kraken, with the stuff that is not evidence-based, stuff that religious people never change their mind about, no matter what happens.
Bill MaherRead
I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws?
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