A person could get motion-sick watching his head bob and weave. As if his head was trying to avoid getting struck by a honest thought, the way a boxer avoids getting struck by a punch.
It’s fine, it’s well within the ground rules of a free society to have the views on things that Moyers did. It didn’t grate on me that he was a man of the left, what was bothersome was his disingenuous “objective” persona, all the more so given that we taxpayers had to fund him whether we cared to or not.
Here’s a fun Moyers exchange with the late, great Tom Wolfe:
From an interview broadcast on PBS in 1988, reprinted in the book Conversations with Tom Wolfe
Bill Moyers: I recently did for this series an interview with Noam Chomsky. And he repeated what he and Herbert Marcuse were espousing in the sixties, that this has, as Tom Wolfe says, been the freest period ever in any society: that Americans are more free that any other people. But that in a political sense this freedom is meaningless -- no matter how much personal prosperity it brings -- it's meaningless politically because a corporate structure, private and public power, so dominates the landscape that it dictates the options from which people can choose and those options are not really that much contrasting. And therefore the personal freedom can be spent on trivial things, but is lost on politicial things. What do you think about that?
Wolfe: Well, in short, I think it's absolute rubbish. Marcuse invented the marvelous term "repressive tolerance." And this is what is known as abjectival repression. And his idea was: these people are so free it's an instrument that the masters use to repress them. And so it's abjectival fascism. In this country there's always abjectival fascism; usually concocted by writers and thinkers. I think what happened to Marcuse, was here's a guy from Europe, he ends up in La Jolla, California-- that's where he did his deep thinking -- he walked along the beach, he comes to Wind and Sea Beach. And here were these fabulous-looking young men and women, and they're bursting with vitality and power. They look like the people that Marcuse as a young man saw on the strike posters in Europe, the proletarian breaking the -- Prometheus breaking the bonds of capitalism. And he looked at them as the young rebels. Instead they were surfing. And he said, "They're free, they're strong, the masters have ruined them, they wanted to go surfing and smoke a little dope." He says it's a repressive time. That's absolutely rubbish. This is the old cabal theory that somewhere there's a room with a beige-covered desk, and there are a bunch of capitalists sitting around, and they're pulling strings. These rooms don't exist. I mean, I hate to tell Noam Chomsky this.
Moyers: You don't share that --
Wolfe: I think it is the most absolute rubbish I've ever heard. This is the current fashion in the universities. I mean, a lot of it is at -- you find it at places like Harvard and others; the notion that the masters -- and this is a term you'll hear, the masters. It's another term for the establishment, the cabal, which is never located, incidentally, but that's the term -- controls us not through military power, police power, and the obvious means, but by controlling the way we think. Frankly, I can't remember a period in which politics were more removed from corporate influence. Corporations are pussycats right now in the political arena, they're terrified....
Of course he's a fraud. Burn in everlasting hellfire, you despicable shitheel. You'll see sooner than later in that circle of the inferno serial pathological liar pedophile and senile pervert Joe Biden.
The first and last time I watched Moyer had to have been some 40+ years ago. I do not remember what the show was about or who may have been on with him. I do remember it was the first and last time I watched, listened to or read anything he had to say. What a wonderfully soft voice he had for delivering his tripe - as I remember it.
Thanks for the honest obituary of Mr. Moyers. I met him in the 60s when I worked as a very young and lowly staffer to a Southern Senator. Moyers was clearly a hypocrite.
Moyers always came across as preachy, condescending and sanctimonious. Nobody normal could watch more than five minutes of him at a time.
A person could get motion-sick watching his head bob and weave. As if his head was trying to avoid getting struck by a honest thought, the way a boxer avoids getting struck by a punch.
Well, he did have a Master's degree in divinity. He was nauseating for sure.
I recall in 77(?) Bill Moyers interviewed Ronald Reagan. It Made me A Reagan Fan and accelerated my move to The Right.
I would of course want Bill Moyers to rest in peace. But “we who are alive and remain” must reckon honestly with his legacy.
The Weekly Standard was on the Moyers case (here the articles are helpfully maintained by that magazine’s successor, The Washington Examiner:)
Moyers Family Values:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine/1083574/moyers-family-values/
PBS’s Televangelist:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine/1733370/pbss-televangelist/
PBS’s Pontificator:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine/1933692/pbss-pontificator/
It’s fine, it’s well within the ground rules of a free society to have the views on things that Moyers did. It didn’t grate on me that he was a man of the left, what was bothersome was his disingenuous “objective” persona, all the more so given that we taxpayers had to fund him whether we cared to or not.
Here’s a fun Moyers exchange with the late, great Tom Wolfe:
From an interview broadcast on PBS in 1988, reprinted in the book Conversations with Tom Wolfe
Bill Moyers: I recently did for this series an interview with Noam Chomsky. And he repeated what he and Herbert Marcuse were espousing in the sixties, that this has, as Tom Wolfe says, been the freest period ever in any society: that Americans are more free that any other people. But that in a political sense this freedom is meaningless -- no matter how much personal prosperity it brings -- it's meaningless politically because a corporate structure, private and public power, so dominates the landscape that it dictates the options from which people can choose and those options are not really that much contrasting. And therefore the personal freedom can be spent on trivial things, but is lost on politicial things. What do you think about that?
Wolfe: Well, in short, I think it's absolute rubbish. Marcuse invented the marvelous term "repressive tolerance." And this is what is known as abjectival repression. And his idea was: these people are so free it's an instrument that the masters use to repress them. And so it's abjectival fascism. In this country there's always abjectival fascism; usually concocted by writers and thinkers. I think what happened to Marcuse, was here's a guy from Europe, he ends up in La Jolla, California-- that's where he did his deep thinking -- he walked along the beach, he comes to Wind and Sea Beach. And here were these fabulous-looking young men and women, and they're bursting with vitality and power. They look like the people that Marcuse as a young man saw on the strike posters in Europe, the proletarian breaking the -- Prometheus breaking the bonds of capitalism. And he looked at them as the young rebels. Instead they were surfing. And he said, "They're free, they're strong, the masters have ruined them, they wanted to go surfing and smoke a little dope." He says it's a repressive time. That's absolutely rubbish. This is the old cabal theory that somewhere there's a room with a beige-covered desk, and there are a bunch of capitalists sitting around, and they're pulling strings. These rooms don't exist. I mean, I hate to tell Noam Chomsky this.
Moyers: You don't share that --
Wolfe: I think it is the most absolute rubbish I've ever heard. This is the current fashion in the universities. I mean, a lot of it is at -- you find it at places like Harvard and others; the notion that the masters -- and this is a term you'll hear, the masters. It's another term for the establishment, the cabal, which is never located, incidentally, but that's the term -- controls us not through military power, police power, and the obvious means, but by controlling the way we think. Frankly, I can't remember a period in which politics were more removed from corporate influence. Corporations are pussycats right now in the political arena, they're terrified....
Good riddance.
Of course he's a fraud. Burn in everlasting hellfire, you despicable shitheel. You'll see sooner than later in that circle of the inferno serial pathological liar pedophile and senile pervert Joe Biden.
The first and last time I watched Moyer had to have been some 40+ years ago. I do not remember what the show was about or who may have been on with him. I do remember it was the first and last time I watched, listened to or read anything he had to say. What a wonderfully soft voice he had for delivering his tripe - as I remember it.
Through the entire Campbell show Moyer's keeps trying to inject Christian theology.
Thanks for the honest obituary of Mr. Moyers. I met him in the 60s when I worked as a very young and lowly staffer to a Southern Senator. Moyers was clearly a hypocrite.