Bill Maher wrongly makes fun of Portland schools "wokeness"

I've watched Bill Maher for many years, most recently via his Real Time show on HBO.

Generally I enjoy Maher's blend of political humor and observations, but sometimes his tendency to criticize perceived liberal excesses rubs me the wrong way.

Not because I object to Maher making fun of extreme left-wing stances, which indeed can be deserving of ridicule now and then. Rather, I don't like it when Maher oversimplifies a complex issue just for the sake of making it a more convenient object of scorn on his show.

Yesterday Maher had a bit in his New Rules segment where he featured a headline from a story along with a quotation.

Maher didn't mention that the author of the story was Christopher Rufo. Today the Oregonian had a story about Maher's ridiculing Portland Public Schools for claiming in its elementary school curriculum:

When the United States was colonized by white settlers, their views around gender were forced upon the people already living here.

The Oregonian story describes Rufo.

Rufo, who lives in Gig Harbor, Washington, is a controversial figure who makes frequent appearances on the Fox News Channel and who, as The New York Times noted, is a conservative activist “who probably more than any other person made critical race theory a rallying cry on the right -- and who has become, to some on the left, an agitator of intolerance.”

So in no way is Rufo a scholar of our nation's early history, or a respected commentator on childhood education regarding gender issues. Maher offered a platform to a controversial conservative.

In his story Rufo shares a slide presentation that does look like an authentic product of Portland Public Schools, though whether it was actually used by teachers is another question. I didn't read all 198 slides thoroughly, but I scrolled through the slides looking for the ones that referenced colonization.

Here's screenshots of what I found, along with my comments on the slides.

Discussion of gender as it relates to colonization of our country comes in a 4th and 5th grade section. Thus when Maher combined the title of the story, which mentions kindergarten, with the content of material intended for 4th and 5th graders, that's misleading the viewer.

Maybe I'm excessively woke also, but I don't find much, if anything, to criticize in this slide. I suspect what it says would be endorsed by most reputable scholars of early American history.

I've heard about the notion of Two-Spirit but don't know much about it. Some Googling indicates that gender fluidity indeed was a part of Native American culture. For example, see here. 

This slide also strikes me as being mostly or entirely accurate. 

Here's a video of yesterday's New Rules segment. The Portland mention is at about the 5 minute mark.

Comments

[Prof. Mudpie Dickens]

What an intellectually vapid and frightening article. To wit (one of just many; why waste the time on the intellectually dishonest):

'The Oregonian story describes Rufo. Rufo, who lives in Gig Harbor, Washington, is a controversial figure who makes frequent appearances on the Fox News Channel and who, as The New York Times noted, is a conservative activist “who probably more than any other person made critical race theory a rallying cry on the right -- and who has become, to some on the left, an agitator of intolerance.” So in no way is Rufo a scholar of our nation's early history, or a respected commentator on childhood education regarding gender issues. Maher offered a platform to a controversial conservative.

Who gives a rat's azz what the leftist propaganda rag thinks about Rufo. Is one article by a biased left wing reporter "evidence?" Apparently to the writer of this article it is (quick! delete my comment!) And then you cite the NYT. Really? The paper of Jayson Blair? The paper of Pulitzer winner Walter "I don't see no stinkin' starving kulaks in Stalin's Ukraine" Duranty? The paper of Arnett's "We have to destroy the village to save it" scam? Maybe you can quote Dan "I found a memo" Rather, or Tom "I was shot at" Brokaw as well?

And so it is a rallying cry. Maybe it should be.

And then there's this gem: "So in no way is Rufo a scholar of our nation's early history, or a respected commentator on childhood education regarding gender issues. Maher offered a platform to a controversial conservative."

Maybe your authorities are the two heads of the teachers' union who had their "I stand with Ukraine" flag UPSIDE DOWN. And who is a "respected commentator?" Someone you agree with? Rather, and argument hangs on its own merit, regardless of who said it. As Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman said "Science (and by extension all else) is a process for learning about nature in which competing ideas about how the world works are measured against observations.”

People of all generations and cultures are quite aware that there is a range of masculinity and feminity within people. That's why we have words like "macho" - to distinguish men who are on the upper continuum of testosterone. But the truth is, we are ALL XX or XY chromosomes (yes, there are some rare genetic issues. And one of them is my friend, who is ALL male, and a Swedish marine). I am no more female, despite having more empathy than the average male, than I am a horse or a dolphin

I strongly encourage you to question your questions, and quit drinking the PC/Woke Kool-Aide.

Oh yes, it wasn't Kool-Aide, it was actually Flavor-Aide; and yes, Jim Jones was an ardent leftist, who actually was heavily involved in the people who brought the likes, a generation later, of Kamala Harris.

Article is a grade C, credit at least for going to research the source document.

[Janet]

Entertainers like Bill Maher are paid to generate views and buzz. They don't care what their content is as long as it does those two things. He is no better than any of the other leeches without conscience (on the left, the right, and in between) who make a living shoveling slop to the masses. It's disappointing how many otherwise intelligent people fall for the scheme. My grandpa used to describe this kind of programming as "flimflam for the witless." I was surprised to learn as an adult that he was right!