Michael Moore is to liberal as Rush Limbaugh is to conservative. Just as most conservatives have learned to be embarassed and hide their listening to or reading Rush Limbaugh I think liberals will soon feel soon the same way about Michael Moore.
Now I laughed my ass off at Bowling for Columbine. The cartoon in the middle was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. His points regarding fear in the media are dead-on. Of course they are dead-on for every other nation too. People are pretty freaked out and afraid in this world. Everywhere the nightly news is filled with things one should be afraid of much more than stories of say, scientific progress. That part was presented very well too. It's a very entertaining movie, so entertaining that I'll probably rush right out to watch his next one.
I don't think "Bowling for Columbine" can be taken seriously in any way though. Moore said that the belligerency of US administrations causes it's citizens to be more violent than other industrial nations. There are no statistics to back him up. My own quick analysis of the homicide rates in the US showed no obvious correlation with major military actions, for example. US homicide rates pretty much rose from the beginning of the century until 1933, then reversed and fell until 1958, rose again until the mid 1990s and have since dropped back to their lowest levels in 30 years. In fact, the homicide rate today is about the same as it was in 1913.
Moore makes such proclamations though and then shows anecdotal evidence (at times even falsified). I'm sure some of this will be convincing to liberals in the same way that Rush Limbaugh is to conservatives. Both say things that their audience already believes and want to believe.
Last edited by Colin at Aug 27 2003, 04:57 PM
|