The Declining Influence of Moore
The Telegraph is putting together a rundown of the 100 most influential liberals and conservatives in the US. And who is that at #91?
A reviewer of Moore’s 2007 movie Sicko, about the American health system, summed up his career as being “a multimedia attempt to undo Reagan’s great achievement: persuading blue-collar factory workers and other members of the working class to embrace his heady brew of jingoism, anticommunism, contempt for government and admiration for the virtues of unfettered capitalism”.
By that standard, the university dropout from Flint, Michigan has failed miserably. But his Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) on the war on terror (the highest-grossing documentary of all time) and Bowling for Columbine (2002) about the gun lobby became the far Left’s contribution to key debates. But with liberalism now mainstream and in the White House (where Moore is unlikely to be a guest) the filmmaker’s influence seems to be on the wane.
They ranked him #7 two years ago. I have to agree with them that his influence is declining. Capitalism did not produce nearly the buzz and hysteria that his past movies did. And, with a box-office take just above $14 million, it was his least successful film in the last decade.
So does that mean the end of Moorewatch? Not when he still has so many followers. And not when his twitter feed contains such pearls of wisdom as this:
Thank God the first troops in the surge to Afghanistan got there in time to stop a Nigerian man on a flight to Detroit.
Apparently, the idea of layered defense doesn’t make much sense to Mikey.
Comments
Mikey’s thrashing around like a gaffed fish, trying to recapture those dear dead days when he seemed to be at the head of American left-wing activism. Unfortunately, he’s now got a President that all but made him cream his trousers, and that President’s numbers are falling like a stone kite---and Mikey’s followers are increasingly disillusioned and remembering the wisdom of being careful what you wish for, for you may get it.
Not sure where else to post this, so bear with me.
Has there been a public fleecing of Capitalism yet? Have any of the owners/main contributors of this site seen it?
I did see the “documentary” a while back and recall most of it was, as you’d expect, based purely on emotion. ("How could they throw out these poor, innocent families?") Indeed, the end of the film mentioned one family of squatters was still living in a home despite not having paid rent/mortgage for months. You got the feeling we were supposed to praise them.
But there were some facts thrown around I wondered if anyone had debunked. Sadly, I really don’t recall what I wanted to know as it’s been a while. Something that went through it, though, would certainly refresh my memory.
Does anyone know if this exists? I know not too many people saw this hard-hitting piece of journalistic integrity, but I’m hoping some of the folks here did. Thanks!
Has there been a public fleecing of Capitalism yet? Have any of the owners/main contributors of this site seen it?
Neither Jim nor I got the chance to see it. It was only in theaters in our area for a couple of weeks and we weren’t able to find a copy online. I totally wanted to go through it with a fine toothed comb but I never got the chance. I did watch “The Corportion” in preparation for it - if you haven’t seen that yet watch it… it’s… eye opening. And familiar. ;)
As soon as it comes out on DVD I’ll watch it and give thoughts then. :)
I’ll try to snag one from the library (I refuse to add one nickel to that man’s sizable coffers) to refresh my memory later on as well.
That said, I’m sure folks here noted the Oscar nominations have come out, and we have further evidence how far the “mighty” have fallen.
A few years removed from deciding if he just wanted to take the “gimmie” Oscar for Best Doc or go “all in” for a shot at Best Picture, Mikey can’t even get his latest tripe nominated.
Man, that’s gotta hurt.
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The only thing layered that makes sense to Moore is cake.