Age: 53
Birthplace: Flint, Michigan
Claim To Fame: making U.S.-bashing books and documentaries
Why He’s Dumbest Liberal of the Week: for once doctoring the facts in his latest US-healthcare-bashing flick “Sickoâ€, which gets released on theaters this week (but is already available for FREE here). While Moore and his advocates would have you believe that “Sicko†takes a non-partisan attack on those supposedly responsible for the quality of US healthcare being so bad, don’t believe the hype. In fact “Sicko†contains everything you’d expect from the leftwing Moore: blaming the ills of the HMO industry on Richard Nixon, purporting solidarity between Cuban and American firefighters without detailing the poor quality of Cuba’s hospitals (or the fact that the country is run by a dictator), mocking the Cuban Missile crisis, heaping praise in Hillary Clinton, bashing the U.S. Treasury Dept. and even going so far as to showcase tort-claiming trial lawyers with their clients.
Moore supports a government-run, “single-payer†health plan like Canada, but fails to address the many problems with Canadian healthcare. For example, Canada doesn’t allow for any entrance of private money into the system. Then too, unlike other countries that guarantee floor coverage for all but allows those with more discretionary income to decide their own ceiling, Canada sets both the floor and the ceiling, capping the conceivable quality of care while the Canadian government (which is known for being cautious) while providing no space for cutting edge technologies to rapidly burst into the market.
Granted, the quality of U.S. healthcare does need to be improved (hey, I’m on Oxford, so I’m well aware of bad healthcare), but as of 2006 the WHO didn’t rank the quality American healthcare too far behind Canada’s. And the idea that socialized medicine is the solution to all our problems is a bad one because in addition to the usual fears about long waits and unavailable procedures and medicines, we would also handicap the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. So whatever your personal thoughts are regarding those, the fact is that the USA is still the leader, by far, in the development of new drugs, devices, procedures, etc. But of course, denying this is nirvana for left-wing proprietors like Moore who’ve made a fortune exploiting the have-nots of the world.
Using m.m. and sicko in the same sentance is a given.
Skul
Just like I did with “Fahrenheit 9/11″, I’d recommend that people see “Sicko”–after all you have to be aware of the lies in order to know the truth.
GG: Are we required to have a clear path to the bathroom while watching it?
I watched about 5 minutes of “Bowling for Columbine”. That was about all I could take. What I “learned” from that brief viewing (on TV, for free, of course) is that, in addition to all his other defects, MM has a seriously paranoid world view. You just don’t notice it at first, because of his fat, greasy, working-class-slob manufactured persona.
Who among you can disprove anything he’s said?
In which movie, blu? There are whole websites set up with point-by-point debunking of Moore’s many lies and mischaracterizations. Not to mention the fast-and-loose play he makes of people’s quotes.
Who among you can disprove anything he’s said?
I could. Fahrenheit 911, for example, includes a detailed analysis of the financial/oil-related reasons for going to war in Afghanistan in 2001, which ignores completely the blood-lust felt in the US after 9/11 – the wish to bomb something, to kill people by thousand, to take revenge for the terrorist attacks.
Michael Moore’s documentaries have a similiar truth value to George W. Bush’s SOTU speeches. The difference is, of course, that a moviemaker is entitled to present his own world view and skew facts to present the case he wants to make – as Moore does – while we normally expect the President of the United States to be clear, balanced, and truthful when speaking to Congress and to the country in the State of the Union. Plus, Moore hasn’t killed nearly as many people as Bush, which makes me like him better.
To compare movies, Fahrenheit 911 was far more accurate (and better made) than The Road to 9/11: and because Moore was very largely working from facts, he could use actual media footage of real events, which the makers of The Road to 9/11 had to avoid at all costs. But truthfully, what conservatives really hate about Michael Moore is that he’s successful: he knows how to present his vision of what America ought to be.
Comment in moderation, Dana.
(In further comparison: when I went to see Fahrenheit 911, the cinema was full. But The Road to 9/11 was a straight-to-TV movie, and massively unpopular at that. Moore makes good movies.)
Two comments in moderation, Dana!
Moore has a following that seems te be another subset of the cult of ugliness. While beauty may be only skin deep, ugly goes all the way to the bone.
We see it in suburban teens who attempt to mimic the antics of ghetto rats who treat drug dealers and pimps as role models. The cult includes facial and body mutilation to gain attention and seek a conformity with their fellow self-made freaks.
For a bit of fantasy relief, there is a scene in the film “Team America – World Police” in which Michael Moore becomes a suicide bomber to destroy a counterterrorism command center. The scene showing the demise of the North Korean pipsqueak dictator is also entertaining.
Jes, did Moore even need to mention the “blood lust” that served Bush and his oil buddies after September 11th 2001?
Bush and his defense industry/oil business gang had this war planned well before 9-11-01. 9-11-01 just made it easy to sell.
Google up: “False Flag Operation”
Also google up: “Operation Northwoods document”
Incidentally, the 911 truth movement is growing all the more. Over at the Patriots site, a whole new section has emerged of just architects and engineers. Many structural engineers. 140 members within this new category.
http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/engineers.html
Incidentally, the amount of Americans according to seversal polls shows that there are more Americans now that recognize the cover-up of the government than those that still buy the obvious government BS.
Talk about more propaganda to undermine Michael Moore’s highly researched work, Art, now we should listen to fantasy ideology, huh?
he knows how to present his vision of what America ought to be.
That’s very true. So sad it does’t resemble the truth, though.
Sharon: So sad it does’t resemble the truth, though.
For once, you say something I wholeheartedly agree with.
It is sad that the US isn’t the country Michael Moore would like it to be.
As Langston Hughes said in 1938: Let America Be America Again.
It is sad that the US isn’t the country Michael Moore would like it to be.
The rest of us are glad it doesn’t resemble the U.S. Michael Moore wants.
What, a bunch of 400 lb fatsos who pretend to be members of the Working Class while living like Roman Potentates? He can badmouth American medical care all he wants, but I suspect when he goes in for liposuction or the inevitable coronary, knee, and hip replacement surgery, it’ll be at some top flight American facility like the Mayo Clinic, not one of Castro’s chop shops where the doctors make less than cab drivers delivering foreign tourists to the local prostitutes.
All the Moore nutty, I suspect.
Pictures of this year’s cheerleaders, I hope …
Well, too bad for him, East Germany is no more. A perfect place for him, where minimal talent, lots of petty malice, and of course sloth, are the most valued qualities of the State. Hell, they might just have made him President-for-Life!
There’s a whole book that details his lies and fabrications, sleazy and unethical behavior, treating the “Little people” like dirt, and so on. I reviewed it in detail right here on this site. Please refresh your memory by taking a look.
You believed the book, Eric. LOL
That book is quite accurate. Too bad you won’t read it. Moore is a phony, and a thoroughly nasty person who exploits other people’s suffering for his own gain. He is a pig, Blu. Do you really want to worship a pig? Hatred is his motive. He hates Bush, and he hates America. If you want to Goose-Step and “seig Heil” to his tunes, be my guest. The rest of us are capable of actual, independent thought. You should try it sometime, Blu.
Independent thought? Why is it that when you spew “your opinion” you actually use the same exact phrase so many other Rightie have used?
You don’t even realize it, but “your opinion” is always the one that is so beneficial to the corporate powers in this country that pay the media. YOUR media.
Bush is just one of the corporate tools the big money (especially war and oil industries, in which he and his family and other WH officials own a good part of…RESEARCH IT YOURSELF if you doubt it). Of course, the media who benefit off of Bush’s policies are going to do all they can to derail Michael Moore, when he exposes Bush, their boy.
Of course now, despite what Michael Moore is trying to do for the American people, share the knowledge to help them care for themselves, and vote intelligently, the corporate/HMO/health care industry (and the medical professionals, especially nurses know only too well the truth of, which MM explains) now, MM will endure the smears of the health care (invested in media) industry that live off the corruption.
That is probably too complicated for you though, Eric. I’m sure you will just buy into the common mediocrity mindset, the way in which the corporate media programs you to, like a good Robotican.
Thing is though, America itself is waking up. The empty headed compliance to the Right wing corporatists, has proven itself to be not only corrupt, but bumbling and dangerous. It has painted an ugly face onto America, through unjust, dishonest, and unprovoked war, for example. Such is that realization world wide, but those like yourself that only catch the common folks MSM, you miss what the REST OF THE PLANET is aware of.
It is from war profiteering greed, invested into the government operators (especially the executive branch), and the media, hiding behind a flag. They use fraudulent patriotism to delude, and also destroy what they claim to revere, and that is our democracy. It is more and more a corporate dominated society, since they own the media, the government is theirs, and quite a few of the minds that can’t recognize these truths.
Sadly, many Dems are on the take as well. I’m not delusionally wearing rose colored glasses, so as to miss that reality.
Michael Moore is a true patriot, willing to accept the derision, for the sake of waking up those that are still asleep.
Incidentally after Farenheight 911 Michael Moore recieved letters from soldiers, and they thanked him, in fact he compiled a book of them, the most heart felt, and stirring letters. There were far more letters than he could have put in that book though.
The rest of us are glad it doesn’t resemble the U.S. Michael Moore wants.
“The rest of us”: the people who rejoice in the deaths of 18 000 people a year because they’re uninsured? People like you, who refer to people who are denied health care in the US as “no one”, or when you get really mad at them for existing as “NO ONE”?
Excellent article at BTC news: If national health care sucks, why do people like it?
So was Benedict Arnold.
Look, I know you’ll never read a book that’s critical of your supersized Guru, but here’s a quote:
“In Moore’s view, the world doesn’t operate by cooperation, friendship, or loyalty. It is comprised of rats clawing their way to the top; and to succeed, one must tear down the other rats.”
Moore may pose as a populist, but he’s really a cynic. He walks around thinking “Everything sucks, so why NOT make movies that exploit other people’s suffering so I can make tons of money?” His world view is bitter and nihilistic, and he doesn’t seem to have an ounce of genuine compassion in his entire body. Michael Moore only cares about what’s good for Michael Moore.
Americans look at Brits, and ask themselves “If government run health care is so great, then why can’t the Brits even manage something as simple as basic dentistry?
When you’ve got greedy bastards allowing people to die, in favor of higher profit, cynicism is more than appropriate.
The crawling rats are those with the monstrous bank accounts.