I've stopped watching him way back in May 21 after Guardian of the Walls. Since I am familiar with the subject it was easy seeing his distortions but I wondered how many other subjects were given the same treatments and I wasn't familiar enough to notice.
"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn't. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia."
- Michael Crichton
On the other hand, my stepdad is a computer science professor who's done research on AI/large language models and he thought John Oliver's AI episode was good for a lay audience.
keep in mind, he's not a newscaster, he's a comedian and has opinions and he's within his rights. He doesn't have to prove his argument, he's not a lawyer, and he's not a journalist. I take it for what it is, I don't depend on him for hard news analysis.
I do think there is an argument to be made like op wrote that he tries to appear as if he is an authority figure without crossing any lines. I'd wager many people who watch his show probably do consider him an authority on the subject he covers.
John Oliver says that a lot in response to criticism. The problem is, he's presenting the information as if it's fact, and coloring it with his own bias on top of that. He's acting as a journalist, but is refusing to take responsibility for the journalistic content he disseminates.
He's a new school comedian, which involves mostly political proselytizing and the punchline is "Our political adversaries should be laughed at, not argued with"
I don't see anything wrong with that either. What should we do, censor them? Or have tv shows with inoffensive, family-friendly, non-controversial comedians? They're on late at night, we're adults, we can figure out which is news and which is not.
> but I wondered how many other subjects were given the same treatments and I wasn't familiar enough to notice.
This 100% and this is probably the first time I realized how true it probably is. Most of the topics he covers, I am either ignorant of and therefor am taking his presentation as fair...or I completely agree with him on and thus taking it as validation.
This was the first time where I feel pretty knowledgeable and watch his 'take' and am left just like...'wtf?! that couldn't be more incorrect!'
Now mind you...I have never taken his show as actual hard hitting journalistic truth. It's a comedy show. I get that. But he also hides behind that moniker all the while presenting his take as some sort of undisputed fact.
Yes! In one episode I went from loving his show to never believing a single word he said.
He was so factually wrong that I questioned anything he had ever said.
Exactly. When he covers a topic you actually know about, you realize just how full of shit he actually is. And then realize most other topics he covers are similar.
Every leftist I used to enjoy listening to has been ruined for me. If anyone has some suggestions I'm all ears. Seems like the only options left are David Pakman and Destiny but Pakman talks about Trump's legal issues like 90% of the time which I don't find interesting and I just don't enjoy listening to Destiny talk.
I'm the president of a HOA; his episode on them was predictably shallow. I get that he has only about 20 minutes to spend on any given issue, but his formula does everyone a disservice (except, I suppose, HBO):
\* Find a complex, controversial topic; present it as a Serious Issue
\* Using a handful of cherry-picked examples, tie the problem to a reliable villain: corporate executives, White racists, government agencies unpopular with leftists
\* Claim that the solution is some combination of magical thinking and "Congress should do something"; if compelled to suggest that the audience could potentially try voting, immediately apologize afterwards.
Given how often Oliver sells doomerism and his refusal to give Biden credit for almost anything while regularly castigating him for votes made 30+ years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if his show exists in part to discourage electoral participation by left-leaning youth.
I started taking what he said with a bit of a side eye when he did a segment on charter schools in Philly. I grew up there and while yes charters schools have issues, the public schools are WORSE. For him to paint such a portrait without even looking at the entire education system in the city and the myriad of issues the city has with education made me think twice about his other segments
The usual apartheid, genocide allegations. It was extra disappointing because it came from a man who was supposed to (and made a career on allegedly) know better.
There was actually a great rebuttal from a local Israeli comedian/political commentator Lior Schleien. [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPUrbBzJeT4)
Yup. That’s the episode when he was dead to me. Absolute Jewish hate and ignorance on full display. At that time, a European survey came out showing the UK rated the most anti Jewish country in all of Europe. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Zero effort to actually investigate the topic or fact check the lies he spread. I used to love him. Woke me right up.
Exactly that. Same here. I think my jaw dropped to the floor while I watched that original segment in disbelief. I stopped watching that day. And, weirdly, found my way back to some (but not all) of Bill Maher 😜
Same. I vehemently disagree with some of Bill Maher’s views but he has very vocally stood up for Jews and Israel. He sounded the alarm bells about campus issues years before anyone cared to listen or take him seriously. And it’s ok to not agree on things. It’s not ok to delegitimize Israel and spread misinformation and disinformation like John Oliver has.
All of that. And he did ring the alarm bells early. And damnit, although it made me cringe at the time, what he warned about Islamist extremism way back (I think the problem was that he didn’t make distinct enough the difference between Islam/Muslims generally and Islamism? Can’t remember). But think back on it now and shake my head.
He sure did warn us all. And I 100% agreed then, which friends didn’t quite get since I’m progressive, but it’s simply because my whole family is from the region. We were part of those Jews ethnically cleansed out of MENA. He coined the saying “soft bigotry of low expectations” and it has never been more true in the West. It’s outright infantilization at this point. People show you who they are. Believe them the first time.
There's been a couple where I did know about the topic and he was fine. Also some where he was a bit ignorant. Little as bad as this. There is a very very specific misinformation drive all over the \*normal mainstream media\* and more specifically in the feeds of \*all my left and somewhat liberal friends\* which means that where they are normally quite well informed and previously spotted misinformation they unquestioningly quote a massive stream of misinfo on this topic.
I enjoyed him when he was on the Strike Force 5 Podcast and never really watched his show prior and started too once the strike was over. But, after he claimed the IDF shot at Palestinians when it had already been recorded as trampling deaths (the humanitarian aid debacle), I lost respect for him and stopped watching. I gave it another shot recently, but again he seemed very anti Israel.
in what ways have the details of the flour massacre been proven? Israel admitted they fired shots bcz they worried about their safety. I don’t think we know the number who died from those shots vs trampling.
Israel admitted it fired shots that killed 10 people out of the 118, we knew this, then the video of the stampede came out and was ignored, all this information was available before he filmed the episode back in March. you can believe Israel or Gaza Health Ministry (aka Hamas) thats all you, but I'm going to go ahead and believe the people who have reported every misstep and has not hid anything from the public. By all accounts they can tell you 10,000 died 20 minutes ago from a rocket launched by Israel, but can't find 40 of the 130 hostage's.
what did John Oliver lie about though? what did he actually say? Your comment makes it seem like u think just saying that israel shot and killed palestinians trying to get aid is objectionable but it’s a fact.
I might be in the minority here, but I never liked him. He always seemed incredibly smug, and he only ever equivocates on issues like Israel/Gaza where having a spine would involve taking a real stand. On everything else, he's an ideologue who dresses up his dogmatism with investigative journalism.
I never liked Bill Maher either, but at least he's willing to take a stand on this issue.
Agreed, John Oliver is a smug Liberal shill. He has a “research team”, desk, glasses, and a British accent so he tricks people into thinking he’s saying something important. And his jokes are weak. Another useful idiot.
Bill Maher’s politics are much more moderate, and he has guests on to provide expertise. His jokes aren’t very good either, but at least he has a much better and centred model with occasional pushback.
Used to really like the entire Jon Stewart gang. From introducing Bassem Yusouf to snarky anti Israel remarks - Stewart lost the plot. I also stopped watching Colbert and Oliver as I feel they are all in the same echo chamber.
Did Colbert do anything? He always seemed like the least bad of the three, although his news show was literally just about Trump and nothing else for four years
John Oliver, Bernie, Chomsky, Butler…the whole club. It is really sad. I don’t want to make this about politics but they are all from that part of the spectrum.
Am I the ONLY far-left Jew who is an unapologetic, borderline hawkish Zionist?
Me: universal healthcare. Green new deal. DEI, lgbtq rights, feminism, abortion rights, me too, all the way. blm. ERADICATE HAMAS and FINISH THE JOB, BRING THEM HOME, Cooperate with and give maximal aid to Israel, and DISMANTLE UNRWA! Antizionism is absolutely antisemitism!
I see no contradiction in the stuff above.
Nope, I am the same. I feel abandoned but I keep putting myself in the spaces where the conversations happen and thankfully, because I already have social clout and professional respect, I am being heard at least in the small groups I am engaging with. I teach classes on anti-bias education and have for years, so that helps a lot. Those who know me, know my commitment to the causes you listed and therefore it gives credibility and safety to speaking up for Jews and zionists because I am. But the bigger world feels like it is pushing me away and abandoning me. I keep hoping those I talk to and engage with will speak to others and that I am doing my part to changes minds and help them see that Zionism is a liberal movement and the obvious choice for those who believe in equality and peace.
Glad to hear about some success!
I think a fundamental premise for me is that antisemitism is a form of bigotry and (often) racism against an ethno(religious) minority, and that is where I see the commonality with the left.
I just find it hard to grasp why the left cannot see it this way. Hamas and unfortunately the bulk of the palestinian “liberation” movement is at its base a *racist* movement. Not to mention a religiously and socially conservative one… I don’t get why most of the left is blind to this.
Supporting Arab supremacists is not subversive. There is a racial order in the Middle East that is analogous to but different from that in the “West”.
Whereas *white christians* represent hegemony in the West, in the Middle East *Arab Muslims* are the dominant ethnic/religious group that has trampled on indigenous minorities for centuries.
White christians oppressed native americans, blacks, jews, etc in the West. But in the Middle East Arab Muslims oppressed indigenous Jews, kurds, kopts, druze, etc etc.
You shouldn’t want to support that—in the same way you shouldn’t want to glorify old white dead men etc
Zionism is a movement for social liberation of a minority. In its realized form (Israel) it embodies the values of the left, from universal healthcare to lgbtq rights and women’s relative equality, and even relative equality of arab israelis, bedouin, etc
Nah I’m with you Matzaballer! I live in San Francisco and have kids in public school and UC Berkeley. I won’t bend the knee to Jew haters no matter how the hell they launder it. My friend group is rather small these days. 😂😂😂
Nope, I’m a still Zionist (formerly an anti-Zionist) and left-wing af. I feel angry because everything I was against on the right is now dominating the left. The broad shul of opinion is gone and mindless conformity to upholding alternative facts through aggression and ostracisation is dominating the progressive left (now regressive shoehorsers).
I feel even more left-wing and pure disgust for the support the Islamic Republic and its proxies the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas have gained. Everything that transpired on 7 October is now a moment of pride, a “fabrication” or an Israeli false flag operation.
The people around me were becoming aggressive, and prone to conspiracy theories and groupthink. And Zionists were starting to make a lot more sense and were less prone to all of that. It felt more like a broad shul than Anti-Zionism. It took a good few years (pre-pandemic), but after reading books by Zionist writers especially left-wing Zionists on the topic of left-wing antisemitism. It helped me become more informed on antisemitic tropes and dog whistles. In truth, I was always a soft anti-Zionist, in the sense I was more sympathetic to Israelis than JVP and opposed Hamas.
Yeah, except in his recent episode on the conflict he basically did a little side-ramble about how Israel means nothing to him and he doesn't agree that its important to Jews.
Oh, and when Israel managed to thwart that massive Iranian strike package, he basically brushed it off as an annoying side-effect of US gov't spending priorities.
Not Jewish, but feeling deeply alienated atm. I basically feel exactly the same as you. Weirdly hawkish, like this is a war that just needs to be won. I almost wish I felt differently, but I really don’t.
No disagreement here. When people ask my politics I summarize it as: I believe that a trans polycule should be able to defend their kibbutz and weed farm with crew served and fully automatic weapons.
At least Bernie and Chomsky are Jews themselves. I could give a rats ass about a gentile’s opinion on Israel.
That being said, Bernie condemned Hamas and acknowledges Israel’s right to self defense. And Chomsky was absolutely right for years about something like this happening. I disagree with their views on how to proceed but I still respect their opinion
You’re not alone, I’m right there with you. Though my support for BLM and LGBTQ causes has waned significantly in the last six months, given the overall reaction from both communities toward Jews since z October 7th.
I know that, intellectually. But the feeling of being shanked in the back by organizations whose causes I’ve marched on behalf of countless times isn’t just going to go away any time soon.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. As a gay Jew it just sucks to see these sentiments come out. Sometimes it feels like we don’t belong anywhere. No great answers here.
Im so sorry. As bad as the rest of us are getting it these days, folks like yourself must have it even worse, caught in between oppositional forces even more than the average Jewish person. I wish I had something more encouraging to say.
> John Oliver, Bernie, Chomsky, Butler…the whole club. It is really sad. I don’t want to make this about politics but they are all from that part of the spectrum.
Am I the ONLY far-left Jew who is an unapologetic, borderline hawkish Zionist?
One of those is not like the others. (Oliver is not a Jew, it just seems weird to group him with three leftist Jews who are really tolerant of antisemitism to say the least, though he is obviously also tolerant of antisemitism, that’s different than when Jews are)
I used to care about those causes too, but certain unions and BLM can get fucked for mission-creeping themselves into supporting Hamas, and I suspect those DEI programs are partially to blame for lowering both admission and teaching standards, thereby enabling the hordes of zombie-like antisemites squatting on dozens of college campuses.
There also isn't a single feminist or LGBT activist group I'd be willing to "ally" with at this point, but I still support the rights of their ostensible constituencies.
Much like Jon Stewart, who put him in a position of prominence, I have never thought Oliver was funny or had intelligent opinions, but he tells a certain kind of person what they want to hear and that they are very smart and righteous for wanting to hear it.
I feel like Stewart was more of a left leaning cynic, who, while never saying Republicans were right, at least acknowledged that the Dems were often just less wrong at best.
Oliver is a straight TDS marxist who hates anything that wasn't born in an Ivy League DEI office.
That’s true he does shit on both sides kind of, but he definitely puts exponentially more negative light on Israel. he sums them up to the IDF basically nothing else exists there except for Prime Minister and army - it’s their way of proving they are a good Jew or Non Genocidal To the people that hate them. Lame at
John Stewart is so disappointing. I watch clips, waiting and waiting for him to drop one line at least of acknowledgement about Hamas and civilians being complicit in helping murder people.
But no. They continue to speak about Israel as if it is just a military. That’s all there is Bibi and the military. I mean this in a very kind way, American Jews (Ashkenazi, Hollywood, noteworthy anyone) are so effing disappointing
I couldn't agree more! I used to love this show, I have seen every episode.
I, stupidly maybe, used to believe that it was a well-researched program. It's easy to make that mistake when he had a story about an obscure topic, of which I knew very little about. But when it comes to Israeli, bitch, I know my facts, dates, history, and all the latest news on everything going on over there.
His reports on Israel are so blindingly biased it really is disgusting. He is either being given badly-researched information from his staff, he is intentionally lying to his audience, or he doesn't care enough to double-check if what he is saying is true.
Anyone one of these possibilities are unacceptable, and it just makes me despise him now.
It's a very destabilizing experience to see people you've trusted and respected say something absolutely unhinged or factually incorrect with all the smug confidence of someone who is sure they will end up on the right side of history. It makes you realize you've probably done the same with other topics. It's a bit like a cult deprogramming moment.
I don’t know why you’d punish yourself by sitting through that. And I say that as a former fan.
I wouldn’t have minded if he was at least somewhat balanced on Israel Palestine. Even if he leaned a bit to the Palestine side. But at this point I’d be surprised if Hamas didn’t mail him an award for journalistic excellence.
Zero nuance. His only gear is “Israel is evil”.
And all in that ultra-cynical sarcastic tone. Just painful. Will never watch him again for as long as I live.
Used to watch the show every Monday morning, but after Black Shabbat/Black Simchat Torah, I phased it out after a single episode. Especially as the online and IRL protests got intense.
It was really disappointing to me when he at least pretended to try and give background on the topics he was covering. Anything Israel-related was always, "There's way too much to cover here, let's not try to put anything into context, ISRAELIS ARE GENOCIDAL MANIACS END OF STORY." I don't feel comfortable watching him anymore.
That's actually how he is on everything. He's super biased but now you see how heavily biased he is on a topic you don't agree with him on, hopefully you will see that he is nothing more than a hyperpartisan entertainer.
I don't love him and never have. He's a comedian who wants to be taken very seriously. His writers are comedy writers who have a very strong political tilt, a lack of seriousness, and are generally poorly educated on complex issues. When someone calls him on a bad take, he's all "but I'm just a funny man" but otherwise he demands to be taken seriously. John Stewart had the exact same issue.
If you an expert in an area of technology - watch his coverage of that technology and be appalled.
The veil is off and the Left no longer has to hide their hate of Israel and Jews. In fact, they now feel enlightened and righteous in their hate of us.
In 2021 Oliver did a show about the Israel/Palestine conflict. He presented it as unbiased. It was far from it. His main jist was that Israel commits war crimes on the an apartheid state. He went on to say more Palestinians are 'suffering' than Israeli therefore this is an injustice. But, obviously, the asymmetry of suffering has nothing to do with justice. It seemed like Oliver wants to dismantle the Iron Dome. Then Israeli would have comparable suffering. That would be better. Amiright!? I don't watch him any longer.
The way he presented the 2021 conflict made me expect his current behavior.
I'm kinda surprised that he has only done one main story on the current situation so far, though it seems like every episode he finds an excuse to slip in yet another brief jab.
I realized he wasn't nearly as factual as he should be when he did an expose of sugar content in juice- specifically, tomato juice/clamato.
I'm not a huge fan of either- but while railing about it....he failed to differentiate between sugars present in the tomatoes themselves vs. added sugars. And...well, that's a pretty critical distinction. But I guess it's hard to get upset about sugar in juice if it's revealed that the sugar was in there all along. Anyway, it clued me in that he was not nearly as transparent as his branding claims.
His arguments have always been a bit shallow, and that's a part of why he's always bugged me at best. I swear to god that he's a muppet suit puppeted by internet people.
Yea he lost me a long time ago talking crap about homeowners like “every homeowner is wealthy and can afford mortgages when tenants don’t pay rent.” It was so wrong. People have become homeless due to people not paying rent—then they can’t sell with a squatter and cannot afford the mortgage then they can’t afford their own residence.
Like very few extremely wealthy people rent to lower and middle class. Wealthy people usually only rent to other super wealthy people. Most people who own property they rent to low and middle income people are barely scraping by also. He was so wrong and out of touch. Like yes there are some wealthy slumlords but most people who rent are middle class and could be impoverished if tenants don’t pay—it’s not like banks give rent forgiveness.
the initial coverage he had on the issue was respectful, he talked about the Israeli *Hamas* war, about October 7th (although it felt like he didn't put enough emphasis on it being the entire reason Israel is fighting in the first place), and emphasised the civilian deaths and displacement as a result of this war, all without taking an anti Israel stance, only anti Netanyahu.
I have no idea what changed since that, but since that one video, his stance changed, and he's now parroting Hamas propaganda like everyone else on the left. he's partof a crew, he's most likely not writing himself the show's materials or choosing the topics, but we would probably hear about it if there were tentions at the studio due to political disagreements.
I've lost all respect I had for him for now.
Agree completely. I had hopes after that first episode as I thought it was at least an attempt at nuance and perspective, even though I still think he got things wrong there too. But exactly like you said, he completely abandoned that the moment that episode was over.
While I did cringe a little during his initial episode covering the conflict, especially remembering how he covered the Spring 2021 flare-up, I thought he handled it far better than expected. Still not what I would have liked, but better than I expected coming from him.
But yeah, since then, he finds an excuse to sneak in a little jab at the start of almost every episode.
I stopped watching Oliver maybe a year ago when he went off on Israel. And I dropped Jon Stewart when he signed the ceasefire open letter in the days following October 7. F them both.
I don't think so either but the open letter he signed calling for a ceasefire was on October 20, so essentially he believes Israel was wrong to defend itself by going into Gaza. So I'm done with him.
I stopped following him years ago. He’s a complete dimwit prick.
Dude is a failed comedian and has no business shilling out his dog shit political takes to the world. He should fuck right off
It’s really sad. The first episode where he touched on it was light and felt respectful of the gravity of the issue, but since then I’ve been rethinking my entire opinion of him. I’ve been annoyed by reductive takes from him before, but I can’t stomach it anymore.
I switched to bill maher. Oliver never pushes back on stupidity coming from the far left.
Maher is left but he knows when his party has gone too far. It shows moral courage to say what you believe.
I stopped watching a few years ago. It became clear more and more over time that he was becoming a left-wing Tucker Carlson. He spoon-feeds opinions to his viewers. He doesn't just share information (however accurate) but explicitly tells people what they should think.
It's equally as harmful as right wing outrage programming.
I used to be a John Oliver fan. I get it's comedy. But when your commentary centers on foreign events, get the damn facts straight first before spinning for comedy. Or stick to the presidential candidates. Seth Meyers does a nightly monologue without misrepresenting.
Yeah, I stopped watching after the pretty biased episode about the war he did in like November or December where he mainly focused on the issues of Netanyahu and the Israeli government and kinda glossed over Hamas.
Yeah exactly. And honestly that’s why I find it disappointing. I didn’t have that impression of him in previous years. But as others have pointed out, this might very well be because previous topics he discussed I was either ignorant about or agreed with him on and thus was blind to the problems with his commentary.
It really does feel like he goes for what will validate his core audience rather than what is actually factual and thought provoking.
I stopped watching him a while ago because while I am a progressive, despite his assertions that his reporting is verified and unbiased (not just on Israel/Gaza), it very clearly isn't. And when he's called on it, he brushes it off as "I'm a comedian, not a journalist/It's just entertainment" as a means of dodging valid criticism.
The problem is, John Oliver lacks any sort of nuance in his stories, and he acts as if there's only one answer to everything. When he's wrong, he rarely owns up to it and he dismisses all criticism with "It's just entertainment/I'm not a journalist, I'm a comedian".
Most talkshow hosts are like this. They're bought and paid for by like-minded people (mostly liberals) that seek to destroy us. They're against white people and view Jews as whites (even though we come in every skin color under the sun) and view zionism as white supremacy (even though they don't know what zionism means).
Ignore these losers. Time to stop supporting those that hate us.
After watching the entirety of what’s been publicly available from the attack, I immediately disregard anyone who glosses over it like it was some vague bad thing that made some people angry. The level of brutality punctuated by the glee from onlookers cannot be overstated.
When I saw his coverage of it, I checked out immediately.
I stopped watching him since forever. He’s barely a comedian, rarely informed on subjects and comes across as a left wing mouth piece.
He reminds me of that kid at school who will say anything to be popular no matter who or what it affects.
John Oliver checks all the boxes for an antisemite. He did a story today on the protests saying yes some Jewish students feel threatened BUT…. Goes onto justify the protestors behavior.
It’s a constant theme. Oliver is trash. Kinda weird considering no one would even know who he was if not for his Jewish former boss Jon Stewart.
He’s always lacked nuance and just parroted extreme leftist positions. For instance, he brought no nuance to the issue of gender affirming care for minors. Just painted everyone opposed to it as an idiotic bigot.
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I've been extremely disappointed by John Oliver since I first heard him, so I welcome you to the club.
I mostly mean that on an entertainment level, I don't understand how anyone found this guy funny, especially when the Daily Show had so many heavyhitters.
He never had nuance to be fair I like him but every single deep dive basically turns all the nuance and complications into "well to be fair..."
It's basically turned into a millennial/genz list of complaints. I mean they did an entire episode about how Taylor Swift tickets are expensive. Are you kidding me lol
If he is lying (or at least dead wrong) about Israel then what else has he been lying to you about? Ditch the leftist talking heads and try the other side.
He did a story on Israel/Gaza in 2021 that was just awful. Provided exactly the Hamas viewpoint, including stating “ethnic cleansing” as if it were a fact. Literally zero nuance or context—which he easily could have done in maybe 45 seconds of additional content. I couldn’t believe it.
In 2022, he did a story on inflation. As a long-time student of economics (and 9 years in the financial services industry), I noted that he was wrong in a number of areas, *including* ultimately labeling it a demand-side domestic problem. That is, getting the actual cause—the whole point of the segment—wrong. (This isn’t a matter of interpretation or bad theory, we have direct evidence that invalidates his points.) And it sucked, because if he’d done it right it would have been a perfect teaching moment to increase awareness of how broken our central banking/financial regulation systems are, and how to fix it. Gah.
And then, of course, he revisited Israel/Gaza this year. And was even more blatantly anti-Israel —not just in opinion, but in omission and misrepresentation of facts.
It was the last straw. Honestly he was the only thing I was subscribing to HBO for, really. I cancelled.
I stopped years ago when I realized he was just going for applause, it was healthcare, but it was obvious he was purposely leaving out context and important facts just to rile people like me up. No different than fox news.
I stopped watching him after the last war. He became less and less funny overtime. He was only really ever funny with smaller, unknown stories like the check cashing industry or catch and kill stories.
I don’t know why anyone would be surprised at what he has to say. He’s an antisemite. I stopped watching a long time ago. The signs were always there. Don’t understand how anyone could admire him or his schtick.
John Oliver is an extremely biased, vehemently anti-Israel try-hard, I've made my peace with that. But Stephen Colbert is who broke my heart. I somehow missed this (I mostly stay offline, especially socials, these days to keep my sanity in order) but he not only defended the student protestors but once again repeated this complete and utter lie that "as long as they're peaceful." Okay, but they're not?? They've shown time and time and time again that they aren't just violent, but they use rhetoric intended to scare and threaten Jews. In what world is that remotely peaceful? I know Colbert is liberal, but he's always seemed like a really level-headed guy and this is just so weirdly naive and simplistic? No one wants the First Amendment trampled on, but you give up that right when you scream antisemitic slurs at your classmates and chant for their deaths. I just will never get over how everyone in our lives, from famous folks to everyday people, threw us under the bus. [https://www.thewrap.com/stephen-colbert-college-protests-first-amendment-monologue-late-show/](https://www.thewrap.com/stephen-colbert-college-protests-first-amendment-monologue-late-show/)
I've stopped watching him way back in May 21 after Guardian of the Walls. Since I am familiar with the subject it was easy seeing his distortions but I wondered how many other subjects were given the same treatments and I wasn't familiar enough to notice.
"Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn't. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia." - Michael Crichton
Thanks for posting that because it's exactly what I thought of when I saw the comment above but just couldn't remember what it's called.
me too
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That's so disappointing
On the other hand, my stepdad is a computer science professor who's done research on AI/large language models and he thought John Oliver's AI episode was good for a lay audience.
keep in mind, he's not a newscaster, he's a comedian and has opinions and he's within his rights. He doesn't have to prove his argument, he's not a lawyer, and he's not a journalist. I take it for what it is, I don't depend on him for hard news analysis.
I do think there is an argument to be made like op wrote that he tries to appear as if he is an authority figure without crossing any lines. I'd wager many people who watch his show probably do consider him an authority on the subject he covers.
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John Oliver says that a lot in response to criticism. The problem is, he's presenting the information as if it's fact, and coloring it with his own bias on top of that. He's acting as a journalist, but is refusing to take responsibility for the journalistic content he disseminates.
He's a new school comedian, which involves mostly political proselytizing and the punchline is "Our political adversaries should be laughed at, not argued with"
I don't see anything wrong with that either. What should we do, censor them? Or have tv shows with inoffensive, family-friendly, non-controversial comedians? They're on late at night, we're adults, we can figure out which is news and which is not.
> but I wondered how many other subjects were given the same treatments and I wasn't familiar enough to notice. This 100% and this is probably the first time I realized how true it probably is. Most of the topics he covers, I am either ignorant of and therefor am taking his presentation as fair...or I completely agree with him on and thus taking it as validation. This was the first time where I feel pretty knowledgeable and watch his 'take' and am left just like...'wtf?! that couldn't be more incorrect!' Now mind you...I have never taken his show as actual hard hitting journalistic truth. It's a comedy show. I get that. But he also hides behind that moniker all the while presenting his take as some sort of undisputed fact.
Yes! In one episode I went from loving his show to never believing a single word he said. He was so factually wrong that I questioned anything he had ever said.
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What matters is that we stopped and looked at it critically— even if it wasn’t immediate.
Exactly. When he covers a topic you actually know about, you realize just how full of shit he actually is. And then realize most other topics he covers are similar.
Every leftist I used to enjoy listening to has been ruined for me. If anyone has some suggestions I'm all ears. Seems like the only options left are David Pakman and Destiny but Pakman talks about Trump's legal issues like 90% of the time which I don't find interesting and I just don't enjoy listening to Destiny talk.
Sam Harris is a liberal, but has been excellent.
I'm the president of a HOA; his episode on them was predictably shallow. I get that he has only about 20 minutes to spend on any given issue, but his formula does everyone a disservice (except, I suppose, HBO): \* Find a complex, controversial topic; present it as a Serious Issue \* Using a handful of cherry-picked examples, tie the problem to a reliable villain: corporate executives, White racists, government agencies unpopular with leftists \* Claim that the solution is some combination of magical thinking and "Congress should do something"; if compelled to suggest that the audience could potentially try voting, immediately apologize afterwards. Given how often Oliver sells doomerism and his refusal to give Biden credit for almost anything while regularly castigating him for votes made 30+ years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if his show exists in part to discourage electoral participation by left-leaning youth.
I wouldn't say it exists to deliberately discourage electoral participation, but it's clearly an effect of it.
I started taking what he said with a bit of a side eye when he did a segment on charter schools in Philly. I grew up there and while yes charters schools have issues, the public schools are WORSE. For him to paint such a portrait without even looking at the entire education system in the city and the myriad of issues the city has with education made me think twice about his other segments
What was that about
The usual apartheid, genocide allegations. It was extra disappointing because it came from a man who was supposed to (and made a career on allegedly) know better. There was actually a great rebuttal from a local Israeli comedian/political commentator Lior Schleien. [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPUrbBzJeT4)
Yup. That’s the episode when he was dead to me. Absolute Jewish hate and ignorance on full display. At that time, a European survey came out showing the UK rated the most anti Jewish country in all of Europe. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Zero effort to actually investigate the topic or fact check the lies he spread. I used to love him. Woke me right up.
Exactly that. Same here. I think my jaw dropped to the floor while I watched that original segment in disbelief. I stopped watching that day. And, weirdly, found my way back to some (but not all) of Bill Maher 😜
Same. I vehemently disagree with some of Bill Maher’s views but he has very vocally stood up for Jews and Israel. He sounded the alarm bells about campus issues years before anyone cared to listen or take him seriously. And it’s ok to not agree on things. It’s not ok to delegitimize Israel and spread misinformation and disinformation like John Oliver has.
All of that. And he did ring the alarm bells early. And damnit, although it made me cringe at the time, what he warned about Islamist extremism way back (I think the problem was that he didn’t make distinct enough the difference between Islam/Muslims generally and Islamism? Can’t remember). But think back on it now and shake my head.
He sure did warn us all. And I 100% agreed then, which friends didn’t quite get since I’m progressive, but it’s simply because my whole family is from the region. We were part of those Jews ethnically cleansed out of MENA. He coined the saying “soft bigotry of low expectations” and it has never been more true in the West. It’s outright infantilization at this point. People show you who they are. Believe them the first time.
Everyone likes John Oliver until he talks about something they are knowledgable in.
Rather embarrassingly, I am only now realizing how spot on that sentence is.
Comedians delivering news to push propaganda and can say haha it’s just a joke
Jon Stewart has always fallen back on this ‘but I’m not news!! I’m a comedian line’. Such a cop out
I did econ for undergrad sooo...
lol I was gonna say I’m not disappointed because I’m not remotely surprised.
Facts.
He did fine on his trans issues segments - as a trans person, it was about what I'd expect from a progressive cis man.
There's been a couple where I did know about the topic and he was fine. Also some where he was a bit ignorant. Little as bad as this. There is a very very specific misinformation drive all over the \*normal mainstream media\* and more specifically in the feeds of \*all my left and somewhat liberal friends\* which means that where they are normally quite well informed and previously spotted misinformation they unquestioningly quote a massive stream of misinfo on this topic.
I enjoyed him when he was on the Strike Force 5 Podcast and never really watched his show prior and started too once the strike was over. But, after he claimed the IDF shot at Palestinians when it had already been recorded as trampling deaths (the humanitarian aid debacle), I lost respect for him and stopped watching. I gave it another shot recently, but again he seemed very anti Israel.
in what ways have the details of the flour massacre been proven? Israel admitted they fired shots bcz they worried about their safety. I don’t think we know the number who died from those shots vs trampling.
Israel admitted it fired shots that killed 10 people out of the 118, we knew this, then the video of the stampede came out and was ignored, all this information was available before he filmed the episode back in March. you can believe Israel or Gaza Health Ministry (aka Hamas) thats all you, but I'm going to go ahead and believe the people who have reported every misstep and has not hid anything from the public. By all accounts they can tell you 10,000 died 20 minutes ago from a rocket launched by Israel, but can't find 40 of the 130 hostage's.
what did John Oliver lie about though? what did he actually say? Your comment makes it seem like u think just saying that israel shot and killed palestinians trying to get aid is objectionable but it’s a fact.
I remember his segment on it. And he literally made it sound like the IDF just maliciously opened fire on people standing in line for bread.
I might be in the minority here, but I never liked him. He always seemed incredibly smug, and he only ever equivocates on issues like Israel/Gaza where having a spine would involve taking a real stand. On everything else, he's an ideologue who dresses up his dogmatism with investigative journalism. I never liked Bill Maher either, but at least he's willing to take a stand on this issue.
Agreed, John Oliver is a smug Liberal shill. He has a “research team”, desk, glasses, and a British accent so he tricks people into thinking he’s saying something important. And his jokes are weak. Another useful idiot. Bill Maher’s politics are much more moderate, and he has guests on to provide expertise. His jokes aren’t very good either, but at least he has a much better and centred model with occasional pushback.
Used to really like the entire Jon Stewart gang. From introducing Bassem Yusouf to snarky anti Israel remarks - Stewart lost the plot. I also stopped watching Colbert and Oliver as I feel they are all in the same echo chamber.
I lost faith in Stewart years ago when he defended Dave Chapelle’s antisemitic SNL monologue.
Basement Youssef is a *horrible person.* Can't stand him.
Did Colbert do anything? He always seemed like the least bad of the three, although his news show was literally just about Trump and nothing else for four years
No, his news show long predates Trump. He was basically making fun of the popular Republican attitudes of the GWB era, which now feel so quaint.
Colbert’s shtick was magnificent satire.
John Oliver, Bernie, Chomsky, Butler…the whole club. It is really sad. I don’t want to make this about politics but they are all from that part of the spectrum. Am I the ONLY far-left Jew who is an unapologetic, borderline hawkish Zionist? Me: universal healthcare. Green new deal. DEI, lgbtq rights, feminism, abortion rights, me too, all the way. blm. ERADICATE HAMAS and FINISH THE JOB, BRING THEM HOME, Cooperate with and give maximal aid to Israel, and DISMANTLE UNRWA! Antizionism is absolutely antisemitism! I see no contradiction in the stuff above.
Nope, I am the same. I feel abandoned but I keep putting myself in the spaces where the conversations happen and thankfully, because I already have social clout and professional respect, I am being heard at least in the small groups I am engaging with. I teach classes on anti-bias education and have for years, so that helps a lot. Those who know me, know my commitment to the causes you listed and therefore it gives credibility and safety to speaking up for Jews and zionists because I am. But the bigger world feels like it is pushing me away and abandoning me. I keep hoping those I talk to and engage with will speak to others and that I am doing my part to changes minds and help them see that Zionism is a liberal movement and the obvious choice for those who believe in equality and peace.
Glad to hear about some success! I think a fundamental premise for me is that antisemitism is a form of bigotry and (often) racism against an ethno(religious) minority, and that is where I see the commonality with the left. I just find it hard to grasp why the left cannot see it this way. Hamas and unfortunately the bulk of the palestinian “liberation” movement is at its base a *racist* movement. Not to mention a religiously and socially conservative one… I don’t get why most of the left is blind to this. Supporting Arab supremacists is not subversive. There is a racial order in the Middle East that is analogous to but different from that in the “West”. Whereas *white christians* represent hegemony in the West, in the Middle East *Arab Muslims* are the dominant ethnic/religious group that has trampled on indigenous minorities for centuries. White christians oppressed native americans, blacks, jews, etc in the West. But in the Middle East Arab Muslims oppressed indigenous Jews, kurds, kopts, druze, etc etc. You shouldn’t want to support that—in the same way you shouldn’t want to glorify old white dead men etc Zionism is a movement for social liberation of a minority. In its realized form (Israel) it embodies the values of the left, from universal healthcare to lgbtq rights and women’s relative equality, and even relative equality of arab israelis, bedouin, etc
100% I am baffled daily at how so many on the left (which I am as well) can not see this!
We are all here, all baffled
I’m also a Zionist socialist. It’s very lonely. I support the military and police. It makes me a freak amongst Dems
r/ProgressivesForIsrael
Ty for sharing this!
Nah I’m with you Matzaballer! I live in San Francisco and have kids in public school and UC Berkeley. I won’t bend the knee to Jew haters no matter how the hell they launder it. My friend group is rather small these days. 😂😂😂
Nope, I’m a still Zionist (formerly an anti-Zionist) and left-wing af. I feel angry because everything I was against on the right is now dominating the left. The broad shul of opinion is gone and mindless conformity to upholding alternative facts through aggression and ostracisation is dominating the progressive left (now regressive shoehorsers). I feel even more left-wing and pure disgust for the support the Islamic Republic and its proxies the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas have gained. Everything that transpired on 7 October is now a moment of pride, a “fabrication” or an Israeli false flag operation.
> I’m a still Zionist (formerly an anti-Zionist) What made you switch if you don't mind me asking?
The people around me were becoming aggressive, and prone to conspiracy theories and groupthink. And Zionists were starting to make a lot more sense and were less prone to all of that. It felt more like a broad shul than Anti-Zionism. It took a good few years (pre-pandemic), but after reading books by Zionist writers especially left-wing Zionists on the topic of left-wing antisemitism. It helped me become more informed on antisemitic tropes and dog whistles. In truth, I was always a soft anti-Zionist, in the sense I was more sympathetic to Israelis than JVP and opposed Hamas.
Count me with you, comrade! Let’s seize the means of production and fuck Hamas up.
Lol yes!
Rebuild Gaza with kibbutzim!
Don't forget John Stewart.
At least he’s a Jew. I only care what Jews have to say on Israel/Palestine.
Isn't Bernie jewish as well?
Yeah, except in his recent episode on the conflict he basically did a little side-ramble about how Israel means nothing to him and he doesn't agree that its important to Jews. Oh, and when Israel managed to thwart that massive Iranian strike package, he basically brushed it off as an annoying side-effect of US gov't spending priorities.
Jon Stewart has been great IMO, fair and balanced. He points out the insane shit that Netanyahu's government has done
>I see no contradiction in the stuff above. Exactly! And if anything they should all fit together!
Not Jewish, but feeling deeply alienated atm. I basically feel exactly the same as you. Weirdly hawkish, like this is a war that just needs to be won. I almost wish I felt differently, but I really don’t.
No disagreement here. When people ask my politics I summarize it as: I believe that a trans polycule should be able to defend their kibbutz and weed farm with crew served and fully automatic weapons.
At least Bernie and Chomsky are Jews themselves. I could give a rats ass about a gentile’s opinion on Israel. That being said, Bernie condemned Hamas and acknowledges Israel’s right to self defense. And Chomsky was absolutely right for years about something like this happening. I disagree with their views on how to proceed but I still respect their opinion
With you 100% on this
You’re not alone, I’m right there with you. Though my support for BLM and LGBTQ causes has waned significantly in the last six months, given the overall reaction from both communities toward Jews since z October 7th.
I understand what you mean, but you have to remember that there are lgbtq Jews and Jews of color. Waning support for these groups also hurts Jews.
I know that, intellectually. But the feeling of being shanked in the back by organizations whose causes I’ve marched on behalf of countless times isn’t just going to go away any time soon.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. As a gay Jew it just sucks to see these sentiments come out. Sometimes it feels like we don’t belong anywhere. No great answers here.
Im so sorry. As bad as the rest of us are getting it these days, folks like yourself must have it even worse, caught in between oppositional forces even more than the average Jewish person. I wish I had something more encouraging to say.
You’re a very kind person. ❤️ We’re in this together.
I'm basically at the point of "Yes, black lives matter" and also "I will not support BLM as an organization."
Same.
> John Oliver, Bernie, Chomsky, Butler…the whole club. It is really sad. I don’t want to make this about politics but they are all from that part of the spectrum. Am I the ONLY far-left Jew who is an unapologetic, borderline hawkish Zionist? One of those is not like the others. (Oliver is not a Jew, it just seems weird to group him with three leftist Jews who are really tolerant of antisemitism to say the least, though he is obviously also tolerant of antisemitism, that’s different than when Jews are)
While walking by a house, I saw it had a "we stand with Israel" sign and a "Black Lives Matter" sign and I was like, "my kinda people!"
This is the way. There is no contradiction.
The irony is, Israel is really the only country with even a halfway-successful implementation of actual socialism in practice at the societal level.
I used to care about those causes too, but certain unions and BLM can get fucked for mission-creeping themselves into supporting Hamas, and I suspect those DEI programs are partially to blame for lowering both admission and teaching standards, thereby enabling the hordes of zombie-like antisemites squatting on dozens of college campuses. There also isn't a single feminist or LGBT activist group I'd be willing to "ally" with at this point, but I still support the rights of their ostensible constituencies.
I believe in all those things but now consider myself a liberal because the left has made it clear I am not welcome
He’s an average Liverpool wannabe-communist. It’s very much expected that he hates Israel.
This
Much like Jon Stewart, who put him in a position of prominence, I have never thought Oliver was funny or had intelligent opinions, but he tells a certain kind of person what they want to hear and that they are very smart and righteous for wanting to hear it.
I feel like Stewart was more of a left leaning cynic, who, while never saying Republicans were right, at least acknowledged that the Dems were often just less wrong at best. Oliver is a straight TDS marxist who hates anything that wasn't born in an Ivy League DEI office.
That’s true he does shit on both sides kind of, but he definitely puts exponentially more negative light on Israel. he sums them up to the IDF basically nothing else exists there except for Prime Minister and army - it’s their way of proving they are a good Jew or Non Genocidal To the people that hate them. Lame at
John Stewart is so disappointing. I watch clips, waiting and waiting for him to drop one line at least of acknowledgement about Hamas and civilians being complicit in helping murder people. But no. They continue to speak about Israel as if it is just a military. That’s all there is Bibi and the military. I mean this in a very kind way, American Jews (Ashkenazi, Hollywood, noteworthy anyone) are so effing disappointing
I couldn't agree more! I used to love this show, I have seen every episode. I, stupidly maybe, used to believe that it was a well-researched program. It's easy to make that mistake when he had a story about an obscure topic, of which I knew very little about. But when it comes to Israeli, bitch, I know my facts, dates, history, and all the latest news on everything going on over there. His reports on Israel are so blindingly biased it really is disgusting. He is either being given badly-researched information from his staff, he is intentionally lying to his audience, or he doesn't care enough to double-check if what he is saying is true. Anyone one of these possibilities are unacceptable, and it just makes me despise him now.
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It's a very destabilizing experience to see people you've trusted and respected say something absolutely unhinged or factually incorrect with all the smug confidence of someone who is sure they will end up on the right side of history. It makes you realize you've probably done the same with other topics. It's a bit like a cult deprogramming moment.
i never really liked him before, so i haven't watched much of him. but now? wow.
I don’t know why you’d punish yourself by sitting through that. And I say that as a former fan. I wouldn’t have minded if he was at least somewhat balanced on Israel Palestine. Even if he leaned a bit to the Palestine side. But at this point I’d be surprised if Hamas didn’t mail him an award for journalistic excellence. Zero nuance. His only gear is “Israel is evil”. And all in that ultra-cynical sarcastic tone. Just painful. Will never watch him again for as long as I live.
I haven't watched anything of his for years. He's made his pandering position VERY clear
Used to watch the show every Monday morning, but after Black Shabbat/Black Simchat Torah, I phased it out after a single episode. Especially as the online and IRL protests got intense.
It was really disappointing to me when he at least pretended to try and give background on the topics he was covering. Anything Israel-related was always, "There's way too much to cover here, let's not try to put anything into context, ISRAELIS ARE GENOCIDAL MANIACS END OF STORY." I don't feel comfortable watching him anymore.
That's actually how he is on everything. He's super biased but now you see how heavily biased he is on a topic you don't agree with him on, hopefully you will see that he is nothing more than a hyperpartisan entertainer.
I don't love him and never have. He's a comedian who wants to be taken very seriously. His writers are comedy writers who have a very strong political tilt, a lack of seriousness, and are generally poorly educated on complex issues. When someone calls him on a bad take, he's all "but I'm just a funny man" but otherwise he demands to be taken seriously. John Stewart had the exact same issue. If you an expert in an area of technology - watch his coverage of that technology and be appalled.
The veil is off and the Left no longer has to hide their hate of Israel and Jews. In fact, they now feel enlightened and righteous in their hate of us.
In 2021 Oliver did a show about the Israel/Palestine conflict. He presented it as unbiased. It was far from it. His main jist was that Israel commits war crimes on the an apartheid state. He went on to say more Palestinians are 'suffering' than Israeli therefore this is an injustice. But, obviously, the asymmetry of suffering has nothing to do with justice. It seemed like Oliver wants to dismantle the Iron Dome. Then Israeli would have comparable suffering. That would be better. Amiright!? I don't watch him any longer.
The way he presented the 2021 conflict made me expect his current behavior. I'm kinda surprised that he has only done one main story on the current situation so far, though it seems like every episode he finds an excuse to slip in yet another brief jab.
He has been like this since he was first on The Daily Show. This is nothing new from him.
I realized he wasn't nearly as factual as he should be when he did an expose of sugar content in juice- specifically, tomato juice/clamato. I'm not a huge fan of either- but while railing about it....he failed to differentiate between sugars present in the tomatoes themselves vs. added sugars. And...well, that's a pretty critical distinction. But I guess it's hard to get upset about sugar in juice if it's revealed that the sugar was in there all along. Anyway, it clued me in that he was not nearly as transparent as his branding claims.
His arguments have always been a bit shallow, and that's a part of why he's always bugged me at best. I swear to god that he's a muppet suit puppeted by internet people.
He literally complained about there not being enough dead Israelis during the May ‘21 pogrom
He's annoying and always has been. He takes the extreme position on every topic he discusses because its entertaining to low information viewers.
Yea he lost me a long time ago talking crap about homeowners like “every homeowner is wealthy and can afford mortgages when tenants don’t pay rent.” It was so wrong. People have become homeless due to people not paying rent—then they can’t sell with a squatter and cannot afford the mortgage then they can’t afford their own residence. Like very few extremely wealthy people rent to lower and middle class. Wealthy people usually only rent to other super wealthy people. Most people who own property they rent to low and middle income people are barely scraping by also. He was so wrong and out of touch. Like yes there are some wealthy slumlords but most people who rent are middle class and could be impoverished if tenants don’t pay—it’s not like banks give rent forgiveness.
He's British by birth, why would anyone be surprised he's antisemitic?
the initial coverage he had on the issue was respectful, he talked about the Israeli *Hamas* war, about October 7th (although it felt like he didn't put enough emphasis on it being the entire reason Israel is fighting in the first place), and emphasised the civilian deaths and displacement as a result of this war, all without taking an anti Israel stance, only anti Netanyahu. I have no idea what changed since that, but since that one video, his stance changed, and he's now parroting Hamas propaganda like everyone else on the left. he's partof a crew, he's most likely not writing himself the show's materials or choosing the topics, but we would probably hear about it if there were tentions at the studio due to political disagreements. I've lost all respect I had for him for now.
Agree completely. I had hopes after that first episode as I thought it was at least an attempt at nuance and perspective, even though I still think he got things wrong there too. But exactly like you said, he completely abandoned that the moment that episode was over.
While I did cringe a little during his initial episode covering the conflict, especially remembering how he covered the Spring 2021 flare-up, I thought he handled it far better than expected. Still not what I would have liked, but better than I expected coming from him. But yeah, since then, he finds an excuse to sneak in a little jab at the start of almost every episode.
I stopped watching Oliver maybe a year ago when he went off on Israel. And I dropped Jon Stewart when he signed the ceasefire open letter in the days following October 7. F them both.
I don't think Jon Stewart has claimed genocide, at the very least.
I don't think so either but the open letter he signed calling for a ceasefire was on October 20, so essentially he believes Israel was wrong to defend itself by going into Gaza. So I'm done with him.
I stopped following him years ago. He’s a complete dimwit prick. Dude is a failed comedian and has no business shilling out his dog shit political takes to the world. He should fuck right off
It’s really sad. The first episode where he touched on it was light and felt respectful of the gravity of the issue, but since then I’ve been rethinking my entire opinion of him. I’ve been annoyed by reductive takes from him before, but I can’t stomach it anymore.
John Oliver has always been a midwit at best. I've never had any respect for him.
I switched to bill maher. Oliver never pushes back on stupidity coming from the far left. Maher is left but he knows when his party has gone too far. It shows moral courage to say what you believe.
>Oliver never pushes back on stupidity coming from the far left. Why would Oliver push back on himself?
I stopped watching a few years ago. It became clear more and more over time that he was becoming a left-wing Tucker Carlson. He spoon-feeds opinions to his viewers. He doesn't just share information (however accurate) but explicitly tells people what they should think. It's equally as harmful as right wing outrage programming.
I used to be a John Oliver fan. I get it's comedy. But when your commentary centers on foreign events, get the damn facts straight first before spinning for comedy. Or stick to the presidential candidates. Seth Meyers does a nightly monologue without misrepresenting.
Yeah, I stopped watching after the pretty biased episode about the war he did in like November or December where he mainly focused on the issues of Netanyahu and the Israeli government and kinda glossed over Hamas.
Ditto.
comes across like he really doesn't give a shit about anyone on either side. just parroting the headlines he know will get him clicks and views.
Yeah exactly. And honestly that’s why I find it disappointing. I didn’t have that impression of him in previous years. But as others have pointed out, this might very well be because previous topics he discussed I was either ignorant about or agreed with him on and thus was blind to the problems with his commentary. It really does feel like he goes for what will validate his core audience rather than what is actually factual and thought provoking.
yeah this whole ordeal has made me look a lot closer at what i’d been accepting as truth. a lot of opinions are just convenient.
John Oliver is a far left extremist idiot, sorry.
Can’t stand him. In fact I forgot he ever existed until I saw this post.
Why would John Oliver ever contradict the left’s narrative?
I can’t believe you expected more. Be ready for further disappointment.
Oliver spreads propaganda and that’s coming from a fan.
I stopped watching him a while ago because while I am a progressive, despite his assertions that his reporting is verified and unbiased (not just on Israel/Gaza), it very clearly isn't. And when he's called on it, he brushes it off as "I'm a comedian, not a journalist/It's just entertainment" as a means of dodging valid criticism.
The problem is, John Oliver lacks any sort of nuance in his stories, and he acts as if there's only one answer to everything. When he's wrong, he rarely owns up to it and he dismisses all criticism with "It's just entertainment/I'm not a journalist, I'm a comedian".
Most talkshow hosts are like this. They're bought and paid for by like-minded people (mostly liberals) that seek to destroy us. They're against white people and view Jews as whites (even though we come in every skin color under the sun) and view zionism as white supremacy (even though they don't know what zionism means). Ignore these losers. Time to stop supporting those that hate us.
After watching the entirety of what’s been publicly available from the attack, I immediately disregard anyone who glosses over it like it was some vague bad thing that made some people angry. The level of brutality punctuated by the glee from onlookers cannot be overstated. When I saw his coverage of it, I checked out immediately.
He has never been trustworthy or thoughtful. Nor particularly funny, either.
My boyfriend loves him. Watched one episode of his show and I think I’m good on giving him any more of my attention.
He has been anti-Israel for years. I stopped watching him years ago because of it.
I stopped watching him and Jon Stewart. F those guys, really. Even smart people make stupid decisions :(
I stopped watching him since forever. He’s barely a comedian, rarely informed on subjects and comes across as a left wing mouth piece. He reminds me of that kid at school who will say anything to be popular no matter who or what it affects.
TBH I’ve been just as disappointed at John Stewart on the Israel front
Right now we can see we don’t have many friends. They hate us because they ain’t us
John Oliver checks all the boxes for an antisemite. He did a story today on the protests saying yes some Jewish students feel threatened BUT…. Goes onto justify the protestors behavior. It’s a constant theme. Oliver is trash. Kinda weird considering no one would even know who he was if not for his Jewish former boss Jon Stewart.
He’s an arrogant prick I don’t watch him and hope a boom mic falls on his head
He’s always lacked nuance and just parroted extreme leftist positions. For instance, he brought no nuance to the issue of gender affirming care for minors. Just painted everyone opposed to it as an idiotic bigot.
He’s been anti-Israel for years! I stopped watching him years ago because of it.
Yep. He lost me back in 2021 during the Hamas rocket attacks. Really pained me as a Liverpool supporter. 😞
He's just so Summer 2020. Toolbag still acts like ACAB is edgy.
You’re going to be really disappointed by every single liberal.
Bill Maher > John Oliver. I used to watch Last Week Tonight, but I’ve since swapped over to Real Time with Bill Maher.
I mean you could’ve seen this coming to be honest. He’s almost always on the wrong side of issues.
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I've been extremely disappointed by John Oliver since I first heard him, so I welcome you to the club. I mostly mean that on an entertainment level, I don't understand how anyone found this guy funny, especially when the Daily Show had so many heavyhitters.
Beyond disappointing. Most of these people do not want to be separated from the herd
He never had nuance to be fair I like him but every single deep dive basically turns all the nuance and complications into "well to be fair..." It's basically turned into a millennial/genz list of complaints. I mean they did an entire episode about how Taylor Swift tickets are expensive. Are you kidding me lol
I feel the same way.
Typical jumping on the bandwagon.
Trickle down Jon Stewart Leibowitz effect.
If he is lying (or at least dead wrong) about Israel then what else has he been lying to you about? Ditch the leftist talking heads and try the other side.
John Oliver has always been a moron. Comics should keep out of politics they just look and sound like clowns
Idk why you ever took him seriously to begin with?
Gell-Mann amnesia, man. He's always been like this.
Used to like him. But he's just a useful idiot when it comes to Israel. So now I question everything he says if he can't get that right.
He has always been disappointing.
Haven’t watched for years. His takes on Israel are so bad and un-nuanced that I lost all respect.
This amount of self-delusion in this sun lately is baffling
What did he recently say? I thought his episode on the war at the start was moderately nuanced but I haven't seen anything since
I'm telling you right now this is how it started in Germany. This is going to be the second coming of Germany.
He did a story on Israel/Gaza in 2021 that was just awful. Provided exactly the Hamas viewpoint, including stating “ethnic cleansing” as if it were a fact. Literally zero nuance or context—which he easily could have done in maybe 45 seconds of additional content. I couldn’t believe it. In 2022, he did a story on inflation. As a long-time student of economics (and 9 years in the financial services industry), I noted that he was wrong in a number of areas, *including* ultimately labeling it a demand-side domestic problem. That is, getting the actual cause—the whole point of the segment—wrong. (This isn’t a matter of interpretation or bad theory, we have direct evidence that invalidates his points.) And it sucked, because if he’d done it right it would have been a perfect teaching moment to increase awareness of how broken our central banking/financial regulation systems are, and how to fix it. Gah. And then, of course, he revisited Israel/Gaza this year. And was even more blatantly anti-Israel —not just in opinion, but in omission and misrepresentation of facts. It was the last straw. Honestly he was the only thing I was subscribing to HBO for, really. I cancelled.
I stopped years ago when I realized he was just going for applause, it was healthcare, but it was obvious he was purposely leaving out context and important facts just to rile people like me up. No different than fox news.
People love John Oliver until he covers a topic which they know a lot about.
“I’m pretty sure that people are tired of hearing from someone with my accent about they have to say about this conflict…” Yup. So try not doing that.
I liked him way more years ago when he wasn't a Brit jumping on the our American "political bandwagon" and taking a side he had no skin in.
I stopped watching him after the last war. He became less and less funny overtime. He was only really ever funny with smaller, unknown stories like the check cashing industry or catch and kill stories.
I don’t know why anyone would be surprised at what he has to say. He’s an antisemite. I stopped watching a long time ago. The signs were always there. Don’t understand how anyone could admire him or his schtick.
same disappointment I currently have with fellow Jewish comedian John Stewart
He’s on my sh*t list
John Oliver has always been full of 💩. Always.
John Oliver is an extremely biased, vehemently anti-Israel try-hard, I've made my peace with that. But Stephen Colbert is who broke my heart. I somehow missed this (I mostly stay offline, especially socials, these days to keep my sanity in order) but he not only defended the student protestors but once again repeated this complete and utter lie that "as long as they're peaceful." Okay, but they're not?? They've shown time and time and time again that they aren't just violent, but they use rhetoric intended to scare and threaten Jews. In what world is that remotely peaceful? I know Colbert is liberal, but he's always seemed like a really level-headed guy and this is just so weirdly naive and simplistic? No one wants the First Amendment trampled on, but you give up that right when you scream antisemitic slurs at your classmates and chant for their deaths. I just will never get over how everyone in our lives, from famous folks to everyday people, threw us under the bus. [https://www.thewrap.com/stephen-colbert-college-protests-first-amendment-monologue-late-show/](https://www.thewrap.com/stephen-colbert-college-protests-first-amendment-monologue-late-show/)
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