Christians Call For HBO Boycott, Have No Idea What Is Actually On HBO

Over the weekend, Bill Maher made fun of Saint Tim Tebow on Twitter, after the Broncos lost to Buffalo during their Christmas Eve game.  Conservatives and Christians promptly lost their shit, and are now calling for a boycott of HBO, home to Maher's Real Time TV show.

Now, none of this is surprising.  Maher has always mocked religion, and the religious right has always stomped their feet and held their breath whenever anyone says something mean about them.  Got it.  But I do have a question for the people calling for the boycott.

Have any of you ever actually watched HBO?

I'm serious, because if you think a Christian led boycott is going to make any difference to HBO, then you obviously have no idea about the content they provide.  The whole point of HBO is that because it is subscriber based, their programming can be a hell of a lot more graphic than network and even cable.  Their shows can have the kinds of sex scenes and gratuitous violence that groups like yours keep off of network TV.  THAT'S WHY PEOPLE LIKE HBO.  It's where they can watch the kind of shows no one else can make for fear of boycotts.  And it's home not just to Maher, but to Ricky Gervais, another vocal atheist.  The Christian demographic has never been something HBO has concerned itself with.

I mean come on, how many of these people calling for the boycott even have a subscription to cancel?  I'm guessing few to none.  And that's what makes this call all the more irritating.  It really does come across as a child holding his breath til they get their way; a knee jerk reaction that comes about because you haven't thought things through.

Whether or not Maher's tweet was in good taste is one thing.  You have the right to be offended.  But it's not like he said this on a national broadcast.  He put it on twitter, where YOU DONT HAVE TO FOLLOW HIM (or use it, for that matter) and his show is on a channel that you SPECIFICALLY HAVE TO ASK AND PAY MORE FOR.  It is ridiculously easy to ignore him if you disagree with his views and humor and if they make your blood angry.  Why punish the rest of us by going after a channel you probably don't have anyway?  Can you really not deal with the fact that someone somewhere might be making fun of something you like or believe in? 

So Christians and conservative, please take a breath.   I know you don't like Maher, but HBO doesn't care how blue your face gets.  Time to pick another useless culture battle and move on.