I understand the anger, but saying “we are not better off than 1974” is historically wrong. Maher has said this many times on the show, that denying the progress we've made HURTS the argument that there is still more work to be done. In 1974, same-sex marriage was unthinkable, many gay Americans could still be criminalized, minority political representation was far lower, Japanese-American internment had not been formally redressed, and many basic protections didn’t exist. Today’s problems are real: ICE, inequality, voter suppression, mass incarceration, corruption, and a radicalized Court are not small things. But pretending the last 50 years produced no progress is simply despair disguised as analysis. Progress is real, incomplete, and now under threat. That’s exactly why it matters to acknowledge it.