Thursday, January 06, 2005
Politics: Belated Thoughts on Fahrenheit 9/11
Two nights ago I finally subjected myself to Michael Moore's anti-Bush propaganda piece that some out there feel is a legitimate contender for Best Picture at next month's Academy Awards.
It was... well, it wasn't good.
I'll admit that parts of it were well-constructed. Moore obviously has a talent when it comes to appealing to emotion and pandering to the lowest common denominator. But much of the film was boring and almost all of it of it was deceitful. That which wasn't was so transparent that any objective eye could see its slant. In fact I have a hard time fathoming how anyone short of the loony far left could call F9/11 remotely objective or profound.
But that's okay.
I get Fahrenheit 9/11. I understand what it's about, and it doesn't bother me. I like to listen to conservative talk radio. I love Laura Ingraham, and I think Bill O'Reilly's program is much more tolerable than his television show. Sometimes I'll even tune in Michael Savage, despite his crazed rants and shouting fits.
The point is that for me, these shows help me escape. I reside in one of the few big blue islands within Texas' giant red sea. Liberals are all around me and between the "Bush is a Punk-Ass Chump" bumper stickers, anti-Bush graffiti, and local moonbat alternative weekly, The Austin Chronicle, sometimes I just want to listen to someone on my side espouse things that I believe.
Michael Moore says that his film was made for the people that don't vote. Maybe that's true in some ways. But the real truth is that Fahrenheit 9/11 is a pep rally for people that hate the President. Like a conspiracy theorist trying to shape facts to satisfy an agenda, Moore uses any and every unflattering snippet to paint the President as a warmongering terrorist that stole and election, misled the people, and sacrificed American lives to make a few bucks for his family.
It's comical. Seriously, I laughed -- many times. Now had I seen it before the election, I might not have. But President Bush won re-election despite Moore's falsehoods and in some ways, that reinforces my faith in the American people. It shows two things: (a) people are smart enough to see through bullshit, and (b) ignorant, apathetic sloths that can't pry themselves away from reality TV to care about the political process are all talk and no action, even when coaxed by dishonest filmmakers, and thankfully need not be feared by the rest of us as ever posing a real threat to our way of life.
But let them cheer and whoop and slap anti-Bush stickers all over the back of their Prius, if it makes them feel better. Meanwhile I'll tune it to the local conservative radio station and go make plans for the Presiden't second inauguration.
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It was... well, it wasn't good.
I'll admit that parts of it were well-constructed. Moore obviously has a talent when it comes to appealing to emotion and pandering to the lowest common denominator. But much of the film was boring and almost all of it of it was deceitful. That which wasn't was so transparent that any objective eye could see its slant. In fact I have a hard time fathoming how anyone short of the loony far left could call F9/11 remotely objective or profound.
But that's okay.
I get Fahrenheit 9/11. I understand what it's about, and it doesn't bother me. I like to listen to conservative talk radio. I love Laura Ingraham, and I think Bill O'Reilly's program is much more tolerable than his television show. Sometimes I'll even tune in Michael Savage, despite his crazed rants and shouting fits.
The point is that for me, these shows help me escape. I reside in one of the few big blue islands within Texas' giant red sea. Liberals are all around me and between the "Bush is a Punk-Ass Chump" bumper stickers, anti-Bush graffiti, and local moonbat alternative weekly, The Austin Chronicle, sometimes I just want to listen to someone on my side espouse things that I believe.
Michael Moore says that his film was made for the people that don't vote. Maybe that's true in some ways. But the real truth is that Fahrenheit 9/11 is a pep rally for people that hate the President. Like a conspiracy theorist trying to shape facts to satisfy an agenda, Moore uses any and every unflattering snippet to paint the President as a warmongering terrorist that stole and election, misled the people, and sacrificed American lives to make a few bucks for his family.
It's comical. Seriously, I laughed -- many times. Now had I seen it before the election, I might not have. But President Bush won re-election despite Moore's falsehoods and in some ways, that reinforces my faith in the American people. It shows two things: (a) people are smart enough to see through bullshit, and (b) ignorant, apathetic sloths that can't pry themselves away from reality TV to care about the political process are all talk and no action, even when coaxed by dishonest filmmakers, and thankfully need not be feared by the rest of us as ever posing a real threat to our way of life.
But let them cheer and whoop and slap anti-Bush stickers all over the back of their Prius, if it makes them feel better. Meanwhile I'll tune it to the local conservative radio station and go make plans for the Presiden't second inauguration.
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