Ben Affleck was hot, but this time, not in the context of his cute face, charm and sexy body that girls easily swoon in. He was hot to voice out his take on what he felt was racist or anti-Islam remarks during the debate on Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday. He didn't hide his annoyance, nor minced words in contradicting panelists Sam Harris and Bill Maher's point against Islam. Even if his point was vague.
In the 10-minute video that showed part of the debate, this writer agrees to Bill Maher telling the Gone Girl star, "you are not listening to what we are saying."
The debate started with Bill Maher telling that liberalists take a serious stand on liberal principles such as freedom of speech, freedom to practice any religion without fear of violence, equality for women and minorities including homosexuals but become ambiguous when they get upset if someone says liberalist' principles are lacking in the Muslim world.
The serious Affleck was amusing to look at as Sam Harris, author of Waking Up, was stating his idea on the liberalists' failure on theocracy and the memes of Islamophobia. He hastily butted in a not-so-well-thought of question, "Wait...Are you the person who understands the official, codified doctrine of Islam?" From that point on, he was unstoppable giving side comments and making anxious gestures, touching his beard and chin that made one part of the debate gibberish.
Not holding his thoughts, Affleck blurted out, "What is your solution? That we condemn Islam? Blah.. blah.. blah..And some more garbled words that became eventually clear with... "because these are not really reflections of what we believe in."
He hit Harris's repeated mention of ISIS as threats, saying, "ISIS couldn't fill a double ball park in West Virginia and you're making it..ISIS! ISIS!" At this point, Harris and Maher corrected him patiently while controlling their mock, nodding heads as if to say, the guy lacks knowledge on the issue. To this, Affleck redeemed himself, "There is such a thing as ISIS and global jihadist..."
The seriousness of exchanges on the topics of ISIS and Islam became a circus of sorts in the end, leading the viewers to ask, what's the point now, or who's debating whom. At the end of the video, a more sober Affleck was already thinking before speaking. Finally, he got one over Maher's raw thought as the latter mentioned Filipinos capturing teenagers for white slavery as example to prove his point. In high tone, he again blurted, "You criticize the people doing it, not the Philippines!" And he was applauded for that.
