Michael Moore: 'Waiting To See If People Rise Up - And If So, I'll Rise With Them'
Michael Moore's doing a media blitz to mark the DVD release of "Capitalism: A Love Story" and after a couple of delays, I finally get to talk briefly to him Tuesday afternoon.
I first note he's a Crooks and Liars fan. "Oh yeah, it's great. I try to post whatever I can to lead to your site. It's bold and brave," he says. ("Bold and brave." I like it. Sounds like a movie review, right?)
"When you first started making movies, people were saying, 'Oh, that far-left Michael Moore'," I say. "It seems to me that with each movie, you were a little bit ahead of the curve and then people catch up with you. Has that been your experience?"
"That's exactly what happened," he says. "I haven't changed but the country has changed. People are not only catching onto the lies they've been told, they've become more progressive themselves. Now I'm not just that guy in the baseball cap."
When he first started appearing on television, that class bias in the media worked against him. "It was almost like, okay, we had this blue-collar working class guy on, and now we don't have to have another one for a year," I say.
"Oh yeah, absolutely. Let me give you an example of class bias in the media. Yesterday there were all these really serious things going on: the banking regulation proposal, what happened with Biden in Israel. And the story on NBC evening news and CBS news was ... the runaway Prius! That, and the rainstorm in New York. The announcer says, 'Let's go to the hardest hit city,' and it's Greenwich, Connecticut! Oh, the humanity!" he says, letting loose his trademark belly laugh.
Then he's serious again.
"The mainstream media is a huge distraction, and I have no doubt this is purposely done," he says. "It's a system of enforced ignorance to keep people dumb."
If liberal bloggers worked 24/7, 365 days a year, they couldn't begin to catch all the media distortions, I say - and people probably wouldn't want to hear it. Maybe our efforts would be better spent telling people not to watch television.
"If you're talking about a 50-year-old white guy, yeah," he agrees.
"Young people don't even watch the news anymore. They watch Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart," I say.
"But young people, by watching less news, are becoming more informed. Something new and good will come out of that. It was young people who put the first African-American president in the White House," he says.
I mention my pet peeve: the right-wing viral emails that go unanswered, pushing erroneous info into the less-informed voting public. "I try to talk to other liberals about it, and their attitude is, well, 'here's a white paper, these are the facts, now they'll agree with us'. Too much emphasis on the facts, not enough on the emotions."
"That was one of the criticisms people made about me from the beginning," he says. "But I'm only honoring what any good storyteller tries to do: convey the truth through emotion."
I end by asking him what's next. "Your movie kind of ended on a down note..."
"Not for me!" he interrupts, chortling. (At the end of "Capitalism" he says that if people don't take action, he won't be making another film.)
Then he becomes serious. "I want to see if people see the movie and say, 'What are we gonna do tomorrow?' You can't go home and say 'yay Mike, great film' You have to do something.
"I'm waiting to see if people will rise up, and if so, I'll rise with them."
The Right knows how to play down facts and replace it with emotion cuz you don't need a degree to have emotions...We always go on about the "facts" like Billy Bob cares about the position paper or the reconciliation procedures.
Nobody (out there) gives a sh*t about the facts.
"I can't keep doing this on my own with these...people."
I'm waiting to see if Michael Moore (and Crooks, and Media Matters) will reply to my email.
“By watching less news, the young people of today are more informed.”
That’s good …um… news.
"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."
- Mark Twain
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Perfect.
Jesse Ventura said in his last book "Don't Start the Revolution without Me"
I personally think Michael Moore has to make harder hitting documentary films to catch up with the Zeitgeist of the American people who want justice and the rule of law upheld in this Country. They are fired up for the Truth.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
In Bowling for Columbine he pointed out, very accurately, that Americans are kept in a perpetual state of fear, by the media, government (terrorist warning levels, etc.) and even about "flu season".
Never had a flu shot, and I haven't had the flu in many years, and I am in a higher risk category, exposed to sick people every working day.
This subtle truth is very important, and the reason why demagogues like Glen Beck can get the sheeple so riled up. Emotion, fear, insecurity, and now, leave your church if it actually practices some Christian values.
History will look upon Michael Moore very kindly--except in Tex-ass text books.
Often, I have heard from those on the right, and even from people that consider themselves fairly liberal, that Moore's movies are just his own propaganda put to film. Maybe.
But if you get to the end, and you allow yourself to think FOR yourself, you get the overall message. You mentioned Bowling for Columbine. Before I saw that, I heard all the chatter from the gun nuts. The movie is not really anti-gun. The bottom line was that he wanted people to take a look around and ask "why are we so violent?" Is that bad?
In Sicko, it's the same thing. "Oh, sure, he goes to Cuba and gets care for these people, but who wants to live in Cuba?" Or some such thing.
Well, I don't want to live in Cuba, but the fact that these people were able to get care quickly and properly there raises the question, "why the hell can't WE get good care here??" They get caught up in the minutiae.
. . . for somebody else to rise up first.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
...be called a teabagger.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
That's why they started it themselves, by calling it teabagging someone's office...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
They never will. 2 elections were stolen. We were lied into war. We broke international war crimes laws. We paid mercenaries to indiscriminately kill at will. We became all the absolute worst things we despised and fought against for the last 200+ years.
Nobody did shit. No uprising. No trials. We allow the criminals to raise money on television. If you can put up with that shit, you people are willing to take anything, maybe except for a President of color. Maybe that will get 20% of you so rabid you will start a secession. If you do, please make sure you take Texas and Alabama with you when you leave.
Michael, I love your movies, but if you think you are going to motivate this country... Think again.
!
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
People aren't rising up because they think they still have too much too lose if they rise up, their home, their car, their job, their healthcare, etc. Once people have nothing left to lose, then we will see people rising up. I hope it won't be too late by then...
on Sept 24, 2005 myself and another person from our little town got into my car in the middle of the night drove all night to washington and were part of the biggest anti war protest since Vietnem. Washington was full. The socalled news said there were about 10,000 people but I was there it must have been 100,000 maybe double that.
We need to hit the streets where ever there is a major corporation headquarters across the country. We need to ban together and take them out!
Most Americans have had it so good for so long, they just don't seem to comprehend what is happening to them yet.
It has been 80 years since the rich corporatists have abused the people and country so badly.
Most people don't know who their congresscritter is, and they certainly don't have any knowledge of the Great Depression - other than Grandma and Grandpa had it really tough. That's not to say the elites are not playing with fire - which would require little more than a spark from one individual or group to turn into a social bonfire. But if the revolt does come, we will have to battle the red state loons who are worried about socialism.
These would be the same folks who were fighting in 1861 for the freedom to enslave others.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
I feel the same bout Stillsickofit's post above. Most Americans are soft, overweight, tired, weak-willed, addicted to their things and their "lifestyle" and obviously too deluded or indifferent to care enough about much of anything to let doing something interrupt their daily activities, mostly watching TV.
btw - ot - Did you see that numskull Hayworth on Maddow today? What a frickin' LIAR. You don't "disagree" on verifiable, empirical facts. Unless you're a numb-skull. Or unless you're a Republican trying pull the wool over someone's eyes. It's pathetic Mr. Hayworth. Pathetic.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
If they do considerable research each day they will learn that they and their future have been plundered.
What the hell does being African-American have to do with it?
Other than LOOKING like the guy who would fight the MAN.
He is mister bailout central. Having someone that LOOKED like they would fight the man was the plan.
He is perfect for the job.
All sorts of change you can pretend in if you just look at him as the African guy who will duke it out with the Banksters.
He is bought and paid for.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I think he was cultivated, groomed, sent on a two year senatorial trial run...then immediately installed!
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
ever since I found out Moore's agent is Rahm's brother, my suspicions about him have grown.
is good reason to be suspicious, no doubt.
(I hate people in gov't with dual citizenship)
got a link? ...or should I google "Rahm Emmanuel's brother is M.Moore's agent"...?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I'm packed and ready to come to D.C. tomorrow. If it helps, you won't really be losing Rahm entirely because I'll be bringing his brother with me -- my agent, Ari Emanuel. Man, you should see HIM negotiate a deal! Have you ever wanted to see Mitch McConnell walking around Capitol Hill carrying his own head in his hands after it's just been handed to him by the infamous Ari? Oh, baby, it won't be pretty -- but boy will it be sweet!
But I did copy it,
Ari Emanuel
Endeavor Agency
9601 Wilshire Boulevard
3rd Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Phone: 310-248-2000
We haven't had capitalism since 1913.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Well we certainly haven't had caveat emptor and laissez-faire since then,
And that's what you want back?
Work real hard, save your money, do all the right things, and lose everything during a bank panic.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I don't want it back silly...
I want to know why hiring the fed did nothing to fix it! ...(in case you didn't notice there is a big and bad bank panic right now!)
(actually I just want to end the fed)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
fedthere .. fixed it
:)
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
There was no public run on the local banks
Although one might say there was a a bank run to the local bailout
Chauffeurs had to run like hell...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"'Bold and brave.' I like it. Sounds like a movie review, right?"
Or the name of a soap opera.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
AND wallstreet in big enough numbers as to be unstopable!
It is the only chance we have to fix things! The way they are right now the fix is in. But not in Americas favor.
republicanism is a mental illness!
It's time to save progress, back up the hard drive, pass the Health Care Reform, press "save", before the Republicans delete the file and clear the screen!
Kusinish! Stupidsch! I'm looking in your directions. You gotta pass the reform, take a breath, and get back to improving it. what do you say? how about that? Otherwise, it will be too long before people get some relief!
Also, Rush thinks he still needs to call the Democratic party the "democrat" party because he doesn't know the Republicans have been outed. everyone knows Republicans hate democracy now, so what's the problem oxy-Rush? Come out and say "Democratic Party" with all the contempt you hold for democracy. for America. We all know you want to. Why does the Republican hate democracy?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
I think they hate everything, but mostly themselves.
That's why being so filthy rich doesn't satisfy them. They have something missing.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Ya know, people rose up a while ago and voted for Ralph Nader. Where was ahead-of-the-curve Moore on that one? I wonder what his endorsement could have accomplished?
He endorsed Nader in 2000. In 2004, he thought it was more important to get Bush/Cheney out of office.
They watch Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart,"
Well, I'm 67 and I watch The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert religiously, and although I also read newspapers, surf the internet, and watch Countdown & Rachel, in the space of 60 minutes (minus commercials), I garner more cogent news than I have anyplace else. Don't fool yourself, those guys know their stuff, and deliver it with a lot of laughs.
Oh, yeah....I love Michael Moore and have seen all his movies at least twice. Farenheit 9/11 moved me to tears.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
It was a compliment.
A former award-winning journalist and lifelong class warrior, keeping a jaundiced eye on the Washington elite.
that old farts can know what's going on, too.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
I'm not sure there is much (any?) evidence that this country has become more progressive. Even a moderately progressive country wouldn't have wasted time on the HCR bill that Obama, et al. have come up with. A progressive country wouldn't tolerate private for-profit health insurance companies wasting precious resources while continuing to specialize in screwing the American people.
If the people have become more progressive, I'm forced to ask "more progressive than what?" I don't think Obama's election was an expression of progressivism (especially since Obama in not a progressive). Rather, the election was a response to the Worst President Ever. That's one reason why it has been so easy for polls to show waning support for Obama. I'm pretty sure there were lots of Independents who voted for Obama without strongly supporting either him or the Democratic Party. Once Obama took office, it made perfect sense -- in grand American fickle tradition -- for people's support for Obama to begin to diminish.
In order for the American people to become more progressive, I would argue that they will have to become better informed. So far, I haven't seen any sign of that happening.
Bingo!
Everyday I talk to people who are near ruin thanks to the GOP, and yet they still defend the republicans - even after I point out how republicans have destroyed the middle class and caused their misery.
What's more, they agree with me! But they still support republicans, because no one should vote for liberals (progressives).
This country is so brainwashed, that it is going to have to get a whole lot worse before anything changes. That, or father time will have to ween us from the boomers and gen-x me-first republican generations.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
and only a fraction of the people can handle it.
Marx:
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language. Thus Luther put on the mask of the Apostle Paul, the Revolution of 1789-1814 draped itself alternately in the guise of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and the Revolution of 1848 knew nothing better to do than to parody, now 1789, now the revolutionary tradition of 1793-95. In like manner, the beginner who has learned a new language always translates it back into his mother tongue, but he assimilates the spirit of the new language and expresses himself freely in it only when he moves in it without recalling the old and when he forgets his native tongue.
http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/1...
he is one of the few in america that understands the evils of capitalism.
the rest line up to vote for their capitalist politicans and then whine like babies when their job is sent overseas and they lose their health insurance.
americans capitalism is social darwinism defined, it is survival of the fittest and the capitalist are ten times smarter than you when it comes to wealth generation.
they now have 95% of the wealth and heading for 99%.
they wont relax until you will work for third world wages and no benefits.
we will be the new third world nation in the world.
people laughed at me when i told them capitalism would fail and many are still laughing.
capitalism creates a very self centered society and very individualistic.
this is not a christian nation the christian devil itself could not have devised a more evil system than capitalism.
our wars for profits cause suffering around the world, mega profits off the sick and needy by figuring out ways not to pay or insure americans for mega bonuses.
education in the dumps, teacher firings, private schools for the rich. best destroy the unions no worker rights disposable workers at third world wages is their agenda.
now corp fascism will control election process the true agenda of the capitalists.
the are ten times smarter than you they have even made you think capitalism is about your freedoms and a synonym for patroitism. pure genius on their part.
and to control the media, congress, white house, pure genius.
Pretty much sums it up alright and a relative handful of libs / progressives are pretty much helpless to stop them . To anyone with even half a brain it is obvious and plain to see ... if they are paying attention , are at all informed but eighty five percent of the country doesn't have a clue , that is the problem . It's not looking good .
You have to know how to laugh it comes from the solar plexus, The world has gone through many changes. If the human era ends so it ends. The one thing that cant be measured is love. Perhaps something is not lost.
The wickedness of pride has lost the light to understand how little grace is earned an how much given.
the mayor of los angeles is about to jack rates for the dwp in order to pay for green tech (that is already paid for)
if what some economists say comes true, there might be another huge crash by the end of this summer...and no stimulus or jobs program is gonna help
i see bread riots breaking out
who exactly are we gonna rise up against tho?
if we throw the bums out, there are just 10 more for each waiting in the wings
just give up
We need to take some of the same senseless violence to the top 10% just like they have done in other places.
Remove Michael Moore, insert Glenn Beck.
Suddenly all tea party nut jobs would agree with this film.
Just pointing out that if the tea party focused solely on the scandalous cash giveaway that took place on wall street, we'd actually have common ground.
Add in the racism, violence, lies, distortions and chalk boards...and suddenly the teapots (crackpots) seem so far away.
...I'm ready to fight, but I'm not a leader. I'm a follower and frankly, I don't know what the hell to do. I don't feel like signing petitions and calling representatives and yelling at rallies is getting anything done and I want to truly "rise up". MM's film was great, and at the end he says he's going to fight but he can't do it alone. However, what, exactly, is it that he's proposing we all do? If it's the signing and calling and yelling, I'm out. If it's pulling Teh Rich from their SUVs and hauling them to guillotines, I'm on board. A lot of people I know feel the same way- they talk of downright revolution (however, I live in a very progressive part of the country)- yet they're all like me: waiting for someone to show us what to do. As soon as I see someone leading the way with an actual idea about what "rising up" really looks like in action, you'll find me right behind them.
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