It’s not enough that you embarrass yourself with your lack of perspicuity regarding the movie and the events with which it deals?
Now you descend to attacks on Moore’s physical appearance and indulge in amateur psychologizing.
I don’t believe I’ve had much to say regarding his movie, only him as a person. I’d very much like to see a cite as to where I demonstrated this lack of perspicuity (Damn, i love it when people have a good vocabulary.) regarding his movie and the alleged events with which it allegedly deals.
Yup.
I agree with everything Moore is quoted as saying in that article. It’s sad but it’s true. Americans are, by and large, self-absorbed idiots. Most of them can’t name their own congressperson, find Iraq on a globe or correctly name which century the Civil War occurred. 70% of them believe in angels and they think “Proud to Be an American” is a helluva song.
This is not a nation of geniuses and critical thinkers, nor is it particularly well informed. The news is provided by branded corporate franchises who cover a very narrow and carefully selected spectrum of McNews to consumers who simply want to be entertained rather than informed.
I think almost anyone who knows anything about film would tell you this is entirely wrong, but I don’t think you’d listen to them. Instead, I’d like to ask for an example of a wholly unbiased documentary. I know for a fact that I’ve never seen one.
Because it’s not an informed opinion if you haven’t seen the film. This applies to any film, from Farenheit 9/11 to Freddy Got Fingered. You do have an informed opinion on what Christopher Hitchens thinks of Farenheit 9/11, although considering how little you apparently knew about Hitchens before you started this thread, I’m puzzled as to why you place so much trust in his perception of the film.
Starving Artist: I seem to recall reading a recent thread in which the possibility of you being an idiot was advanced. I don’t have an opinion about it one way or the other, but since people were discussing the possibility, clearly it must be true.
Or does that only apply when you’re discussing liberals?
Zhen’Ka: Thanks for the correction. I could’ve sworn Hitchens was a Clinton supporter. Must’ve gotten him confused with someone else.
Ah, so you admit that you’re resorting to irrelevant (and frankly uninformed) ad hominems for lack of any argument against the movies themselves.
When the bushistas have no argument they insult.
Always remember…
“Great people talk about ideas
Average people talk about events
Small people talk about other people”
As someone once said to me in a thread like this one: “What a stupid motherfucker you are.”
Reeder, that is worth repeating.
Small people talk about other people.
Resorting to personal attacks based on an individual’s physical appearance definitely does seem small to me.
Itty-bitty people get squished underfoot, so we don’t really know exactly what they talk about.
Isn’t Chris Hitchens the same guy who savaged Mother Teresa in a hatchet piece after she died?
Well, if he took her on over the issue of her preaching against birth control to impoverished non-catholic women who could not afford children from either a financial or healty point of view, more power to him.
Noone’s above legitimate criticism. But let us criticize their words and their deeds. Not the things they are powerless over, like their physical appearance, nationality, gender, or sexual identity.
Actually, I sort of agree. I at least admire the balls on a guy who’s willing to rip Mother Teresa while her body was still cooling on the slab. I don’t know enough about the substance of his claims to comment on them but it sure did take a pair to go after arguably the most revered human being (fairly or not) on the planet. I can’t wait to see what he says about the Pope.
I agree completely. That’s why I never call attention to GWB’s distinctly simian facial expressions. Poor slob can’t help it if he looks like a chimp.
If you go all the way back to post 17, I linked to an interview with Hitchens where he lays out his accusations against Mother Theresa. If what he says is true, its pretty damning, but I’m not quite prepared to take what he says at face value.
Yeah yeah, the sainted Mother Theresa was no saint, she held kids and prayed for the souls while they had to die. whatever…
I did hear of the Bin Laden escape, first from a rabid hippie oldster who also preached that Bush is gonna be aAMerica’s first dictator loony, so i am now hearing this Binladen story is true and being defended here as well?
Um who is in charge in that House anyway?
And trembling Binladen family is in fear for their life? Ask any average ArabAmerican how safe they felt in the hours after the towers fell?
WHy did I an average American Housefrau not believe a shred of the WH lies back then and still don’t beleive it now.
Laura it’s time to start packing, Oh yeah she never unpacked!
A few months ago I saw Michael Moore speak at a local college. I went there as pretty much pro-Moore (although I didn’t like the academy awards speech–they requested that people not get into political issues). I left with a first-hand idea of how he distorted things.
Oh, he was funny. And he’s making people think about issues they might otherwise not be thinking about. But he’s far from objective and mostly what his discourse pointed out is that Americans are sheep, willing to follow a strong but misguided leader–including Moore himself. That’s what he’s exploiting, our willingness to follow and not think for ourselves.
Case in point. Toward the end of the evening he called for a couple of straight-A students to come to the stage–people who were on the honor roll. Then he asked if there were any Canadians in the audience, and he specifically asked for “dumb Canadians–maybe some hockey players.” He got a couple.
He then asked the straight-A American students to name the head of Canada’s government. They couldn’t. How about the second-in-command? Well, no. Okay, could they at least come up with the title by which this person was called? Hooray, one of them got it: prime minister.
Then, of course, he asked the dumb Canadians to name the head of Canada’s government and the second in command. Of course they could. He then finished off by asking the Canadians to lead us all in the singing of the Canadian national anthem.
This was supposed to prove that Americans dumb, even though on honor roll, Canadians smart, even if hockey players. (BTW they were not hockey players.) But it left me with a bad feeling because (1) the Canadians, for whatever reason, are living here (2) Bush is in the news, was a big player thanks to the war, while Chretien was at that time quietly stepping down and handing things over to Martin–and yes, people who were keeping up should have known . . . but anybody plucked out of an audience, anywhere, probably would have known Bush’s name.
Oh, and of course about five people in the audience could sing the Canadian national anthem. But I notice Moore didn’t offer to let the Canadians lead us in the singing of the tune set to that old English drinking favorite now known as The Star Spangled Banner.
Now I agree that more Americans than should be are abysmally ignorant. But I think, for the most part, that Moore’s audience is not among that ignorant group and is pretty smug about the fact. (Oh–he doesn’t mean us.) And things like this point out that yes, in certain respects, he does mean us, and I think that’s good.
BUT, at the same time, I think it was intellectually dishonest, for the reasons stated above. Is there any particular reason why the average American, or the average college student (Dean’s list or otherwise), should know the name of the prime minister of Canada? Or how to sing that country’s national anthem, for god’s sake? (And why did he focus on Canada, I wonder? Why not Mexico? I’ll bet there were Mexicans in the audience too. We’re a lot closer to Mexico here, than to Canada.)
That’s just one instance. I was not (unfortunately) taking notes. The general subtext I got from Mr. Moore was: “Okay, you’re ignorant, and I’m gonna rub your noses in it and make you laugh, and flog you a bit, and you’re Americans so you’ll love it! Oh, and you can pick up copies of my book on the way out. It’s number one on the best-seller list–go, me!–so I know you’ll each want a copy.”
. . . so of course this dumb amurkn hits send instead of preview. He asked the Canadians to name the head of the U.S. government.
That WAS what he took her on over, IIRC. I don’t think he said a word about her sex change.
So what do you want from me…a second opinion? Okay, I think you’re a stupid motherfucker, too.
No, it tends to apply when liberals are discussing me, and usually after their having failed to address the salient parts of my posts, assuming they even tried to address them at all. Frequently my being an idiot is the premise of their rebuttal. You know…kind of like you. 
You know, I’ve heard this of and on for years, but I’ve never agreed with it. (Big surprise, I know. :D)People are what make the world go 'round, so to speak. They are the ones who do things. They fall in love, get married, have children – and often have reason to be proud of them, eh, Qadgop? – build cities, etc. Others rob banks, beat the wives, do drugs, etc. Still others create beautiful works of art or practice medicine, while still others try one thing after another, fail, and fall by the wayside of life.
People create most of the interesting events. Is it really a sign of average intelligence to know, observe and have an opinion about the happenings around oneself here on Earth? I don’t think so. To ignore them in favor of what you perceive to be the loftier realm of ideas, would not only be undesireable but stupid. One has to be aware of events in order to take the appropriate action, if any, that those events dictate should be taken in order to preserve one’s safety and well being.
And all the lofty ideas in the world won’t make your life very pleasant if you’re sitting alone on a desert island with nothing to do but think. You work around people all the time, Qadgop, who have plenty of time to think. What is your opinion of the superiority of that kind of circumstance?
In short, people are what add interest and life to our existence here on this planet, and I believe it’s specious to pretend interest in their comings and goings to be an indicator of small-mindedness.