“We’re liberals … we’re trying to stand up for the principles of liberalism! And so, y’know, I think we’re just saying we need to identify illiberalism wherever we find it in the world, and not forgive it because it comes from [a group that] people perceive as a minority.” – Bill Maher

If I live long enough, then I’ll probably see crap stick to the moon. I express my surprise because I actually feel inclined to give Bill Maher credit for something other than the CO2 pollution implicit with his continued respiration. First he stopped even pretending he was a Libertarian. He’s come out and owned the other deplorable L-Word. He’s an open and unabashed Lib-rawl now and I have to say I find him less odious now that he’s at peace with what he is. Yet now that he is what he is; Mr. Maher has delivered honest and commendable challenges to others who claim the same mantel.

Mr. Maher hosted his show with Sam Harris and Ben Affleck. It was all set up to be the typical format. “Tea-Baggers Boo! Lib-rawls, Yeah! War on Women! Bin Ladin Dead, GM alive! Obama Uber Alles!” Yet then Mr. Maher got into it with Mr. Affleck over whether or not the American Left should be tolerant of certain aspects of Islam that Mr. Maher found abhorrent.

He then discovered to his dismay that in order to really be an honest person he had to make a compelling philosophical choice between honest Liberalism and the brain-dead Progressive narrative. Liberalism, as much as I disagree with it, is an anti-religion based upon a fundamental moral foundation that demands a consistency from a sincere and devout worshiper. He expressed his conundrum in the quote atop the page.

When a Liberal condemns all the back-alley abortions that will proliferate under Dark Lord Mitt Romney’s !WARONWOMEN!, he also can’t just ignore the fact that Islam won’t even let an adult woman drive a car to the supermarket. In Huntsville, AL; she’d get a ticket for going too fast. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, she’d be subject to a Fatwa and considered unsafe at any speed. When a practicing Liberal condemns the domestic abuse we all know is encouraged by the football-watching, beer-swigging Patriarchy; she also cannot ignore the fact that a raped woman gets charged with adultery in Iran and then gets publicly stoned. When a devout liberal announces cultivated disdain for the obvious and prevalent rape culture on every university campus, that same liberal is also called to condemn the practice of forced and public clitorectomy that is inflicted on 95% of the teenagers in Egypt without any particular condemnation from official Islam. In other words, as wrong as Maher’s standards and assertions may be; he’s at least honorable enough to hold to them in a consistent and thoughtful manner. Therefore, he’d never stand a prayer as a Progressive.

Progressivism is a different and far more virulent disease than Liberalism. As Steinberg wrote it is an ideology unified by a shared execration rather than a moral theme. It involves building a big enough tribe to smash !EMPIRE!* and make it give you free stuff. Therefore, if Islam is an ally of the tribe or even just a an effective enemy of !EMPIRE!, they get to clitorectimize to their heart’s content as long as they make sure they criticize George W. Bush while they do the cutting. At that point, Progressives are perfectly happy to blame it all on The Koch Brothers. Thus Good Progressive Ben Affleck is forced to call Sam Harris and Bill Maher !RACISTS!** for criticizing anyone not a part of !EMPIRE!

Ultimately Progressives will purge the Liberals the way Stalin had Trotsky chased away and then beheaded. People who hold any sort of Code of Honor; even a perverted one, are at a distinct disadvantage in Post-modern America. Bill Maher won’t be considered ideologically pure enough to continue fellow-travelling with the Left. That’s what happens to Liberals who are naive enough to actually believe in anything. Ben Affleck’s 15 IQ points will be welcomed. He nailed the role Good Progressive while the cameras were rolling.

*-!EMPIRE! is anyone too many steps to the right of Michael Moore to smell the stink of his ambergris.

**-!RACISTS! are subject to unfatwas under the Progressive anti-religion. They must be shunned.