Tim Blair: The awful truth? It's a crock (Bowling for Columbine)

The Australian ^ | Dec 30, 2002 | Tim Blair

[BillyBoy]

Good to know that some conservative Aussies know the truth about Moore's depiction of America.

[driftless]

I haven't seen BFC, but I have read the first chapter of Moore's "Stupid etc". The guy needs to be institutionalized. In the book he tries to make the argument that in the space of less than a year under Bush we have gone from being the richest most powerful country in the world (thanks to Clinton of course) to a third-world trash heap populated with jobless, starving citizens and hapless minorities suddenly oppressed by a few thousand terrible, white Republican males who want to reintroduce slavery and make church attendance compulsory.

The movie and the book appeal to America-hating foreigners because this is what they want to believe about the U.S: we're all just a bunch of gun-toting, tobacco-chewing, bible thumpers who lucked or bullied are way into our current wealth and power. If we were actually as stupid as Moore would like gullible lefties to believe, we'd still be living in log cabins and trapping squirrels for dinner. Moore knows this, but it is very profitable for him to play the anti-America game. We can expect more of this drivel from him as it has made him a multi-millionaire.

[E Rocc]

Millionaire Moore – who is to working class as French is to resistance, despite once spending one entire day on the Buick assembly line in his hometown of Flint, Michigan

It wasn't an entire day. Ben Hamper wrote that just before Moore-on left for San Francisco he visited the line. Showed up in his Honda, hung around for a bit, and left. This is his (at least former) friend talking.

-Eric

[dday76]

Bowling for Columbine... I was just led by the hand to the movie by an extremely liberal friend of mine. She brought me along with a big smile.
Afterwards, I had a few questions for her, like, "should the US have let the USSR take over Afghanistan?"
"Do you think instructions on flying jumbo jets or US air traffic schedules were included in the Afghan rebel training program?"
"Would the mother of the 6 year old that shot the girl been a better role-model if she had turned down an opportunity to work, or if she had lived on the street?"
"Do you think good business ideas like preventing consumers from buying handgun ammo had anything to do with KMart recently filing for bankruptcy?"
... someone already made the point about the whole "we don't use titans as weapons any more" thing.

I must admit, I doublechecked this stuff. I know it's cheating to cite actual Facts. I hope everyone can forgive me.

[Bonaparte]

Sounds like you know as much about missiles as you know about Hitler.