At the time, people like The Gadfly were being warned by some of the "patriots" that Bill Maher refers to in this video, to be careful what we say and just shut up and accept their version of "reality." Suffice to say, The Gadfly didn't shut up -- and hasn't shut up to this day.
Anyhow - watch what Maher says about these people - it's not a very pleasant thing to say about someone because it gets right to the heart of personal character, but if it's true, then someone has to point it out:
Maher's harangue about the incestuous mixing of mindless symbolism, and what he failed to rightly call fascism, was basically an expanded thread of what George Carlin very seriously and astutely observed (in the vein of comedy) about this very subject a few years ago:
Comedy skits aside - these are dangerous times we live in --- and The Gadfly is unshakable in his view that not shutting up is the minimum contribution for which any one of us can offer forth in the defense of our democracy and freedoms.
“ THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated ”
― Thomas Paine, The Crisis
----TFG
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