# Thomas Sowell goes to the movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 26, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-sowell-goes-to-the-movies/632695 "2012-08-26T06:12:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-sowell-goes-to-the-movies/632695/41 "2012-08-27T12:40:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > If anything, Bush and Clinton were far more friendly to third world interests than Obama has been. How are you defining third world? If you mean low economic development, then Bush did much to ensure that Iraq remained [that way](http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/2047411/global_life_expectancy_on_the_rise/). If you mean unaligned to a capitalist or communist ideology, then Clinton was extremely opposed to such a notion, imposing free trade treaties on Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-sowell-goes-to-the-movies/632695/42 "2012-08-28T16:13:59Z")
> [@gamerunknown](#): > > How are you defining third world? If you mean low economic development, then Bush did much to ensure that Iraq remained [that way](http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/2047411/global_life_expectancy_on_the_rise/). If you mean unaligned to a capitalist or communist ideology, then Clinton was extremely opposed to such a notion, imposing free trade treaties on Mexico. I think he was referring to Sub-Saharran Africa which is more than a little questionable. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-sowell-goes-to-the-movies/632695/43 "2012-08-28T19:28:51Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Thomas Sowell is anything but a right-ring crackpot. I dunno about “Uncle Tom” or “house nigger,” but [this dude](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell#Controversies) . . . > [@](#): > > **Controversies** > > Sowell compared President Barack Obama’s actions to Adolf Hitler’s in a June 2010 editorial for Investor’s Business Daily titled “Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?”[32] Sowell described the role of uninformed citizens (“useful idiots”) in the rise of Hitler and Vladimir Lenin, arguing that the U.S. was on a “slippery slope to tyranny” because citizens weren’t thinking about the issues. The example he gave was the creation of a relief fund for the BP oil spill, which he said gave the President an unconstitutional “authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation.” This comparison was criticized by liberal groups such as Media Matters[33] and the Democratic National Committee, who said that the article would be considered “ridiculous if it weren’t so vile,” noting that “it deserves to be marginalized.”[34] However, some conservatives endorsed Sowell’s comparison. Sarah Palin recommended it to her Twitter followers, prompting the President of People for the American Way, Michael B. Keegan, to ask whether Palin “agree[d] with Sowell that President Obama’s work to hold BP accountable for the worst oil spill in American history can be compared to the actions of Hitler?”[34] Republican Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas’s 1st congressional district recommended the column on the floor of the United States House of Representatives shortly after the publication of the article.[35] . . . is definitely a RW crackpot; and so is Dinesh D’Souza. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-sowell-goes-to-the-movies/632695.md?page=2)