← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 3436 | Posts: 18 | Started: 2002-11-07
2002-11-07 13:44 | User Profile
'Bowling for Columbine' ? It's Not About Guns Dr. Michael S. Brown Thursday, Nov. 7, 2002
"Bowling for Columbine" is the latest offering from proudly liberal-left filmmaker Michael Moore. It is generally described as an anti-gun documentary, but I found that description to be very misleading. I was expecting a brilliant and persuasive propaganda production. What I experienced was a funny, rambling inquisition that never really came to any conclusion.
Michael Moore is an amiable slob with a wicked sense of humor who has one of the best jobs in the world. He gets to make silly movies that include all his personal prejudices and half-formed ideas about how the world really works. He interviews people and edits the footage to make them look like saints, idiots or psychopaths; it's his choice. He never has to justify his positions or answer tough questions, because he has full creative control.
The best part of this movie is a hilarious three-minute animated short that offers Moore's abridged version of American history beginning with the arrival of the Pilgrims. It attributes every major historical event to racism. I never would have guessed that such an insulting oversimplification could be so funny. The only thing lacking was the voice of Homer Simpson as narrator.
Yet Moore can be right on target, as he was when he examined the way television news organizations exploit violent crimes and how this sows fear in the population. His behind-the-scenes peek at a network news reporter broadcasting from a satellite truck at the scene of a violent crime is priceless. He also managed to include his favorite topic, racism, by showing how black men are demonized as dangerous criminals.
Unfortunately, Moore devoted much of the film to demonizing harmless, law-abiding gun owners and the NRA. It was never made clear exactly why he disliked them so much, but he obviously felt comfortable denigrating certain groups while protesting the similar treatment of others. One of his odious methods was to interview people from the lunatic fringe of the gun culture, then cut to images of mainstream gun owners and their organizations.
Imagine Moore's outrage if a wacko right-wing filmmaker used the same technique to associate responsible African-American citizens with radical black racists.
It was interesting to note that Moore did not challenge the Second Amendment. Perhaps his lack of respect for American culture and history makes it irrelevant in his view. Even more notable was the fact that he failed to propose a single new gun control law.
What was most surprising was the fact that Moore never actually blamed violence on the availability of guns. I thought he would surely trumpet this axiom of liberal dogma, but he repeatedly pointed out that Canadians have almost as many guns per capita as we Americans do, while shooting each other in far smaller numbers.
One of his explanations for this difference was the influence of the Canadian welfare state, which he felt keeps single Canadian moms home raising their children. Moore believes that American welfare reform has forced many single moms to work, leaving children unattended and prone to violence. He seems to have missed the fact that violent crime decreased dramatically in the 1990s as welfare reform was phased in.
He never actually said what he blamed for gun violence in America, but he flashed on-screen a number of the most guilt-producing factors that plague the minds of hand-wringing liberals. He is obviously quite upset with each and every example of American involvement in foreign conflicts. He made several hostile references to corporate greed, fraud and profits from manufacturing military hardware. And of course all white people (except him) are racists.
Although billed as an anti-gun documentary, "Bowling for Columbine" is really a vehicle to display Moore's outrage at what he sees as an inherently violent, racist and insufficiently liberal American culture.
Since Moore does not blame guns for violence in America, it is puzzling why he takes such vicious cheap shots at people associated with guns. He seemed to wander on a haphazard quest to lay the blame for the Columbine massacre on someone other than those who perpetrated it. He blamed Lockheed for making Minuteman ICBMs not far from Columbine High School. He blamed Kmart for selling the ammunition that was used. Then he talked his way into Charlton Heston's home and essentially blamed him.
The strange logic behind these mean-spirited gambits may lie in the intended audience for the film. The people in the nearly full theater with me were all white and all liberal. You could practically smell the liberal guilt and the cloying odor of political correctness. Corporations and the NRA are among the most evil demons of their mythology and make popular targets.
There was audible outrage in the theater when Moore tricked Charlton Heston into speculating on a reason why gun violence is so much greater in America than it is in Canada. As any criminologist knows, American gun violence is highly concentrated in young black and Latino men. Violence among the white population is roughly similar between the two countries.
This sad fact is not open to discussion because it is not politically correct to mention it in polite society. Ironically, this inability to address the problem may condemn many more young men to an early death.
The film is satisfying for liberal viewers and funny to anyone who appreciates Michael Moore's sense of humor, as I do. But one does not come away with any answers. Moore is just as confused as everyone else. Perhaps more so because he is locked into a leftist ideology that fails to adequately explain human behavior.
I can't help but wonder if this lack of sharp focus is related to the events of 9/11, which occurred as Moore was finishing the film. He posted the following statement on his Web site immediately after the shocking attacks. "This started out as a documentary on gun violence in America, but the largest mass murder in our history was just committed ? without the use of a single gun! Not a single bullet fired! ... I can't stop thinking about this. A thousand gun control laws would not have prevented this massacre. What am I doing?"
I think Moore is too honest to be making political films. A good anti-gun propagandist must be ruthless, cold and calculating, like those creepy folks at the Violence Policy Center. Moore's only big lie was to imply that the United States and Canada have a similar ethnic makeup.
On the whole, I'd say Michael Moore would do better as a comedy filmmaker or even an actor. He has a good imagination, good comedic timing, and his mean streak could be put to better use writing humorous jabs at unsympathetic characters. He would be perfect as a screenwriter for "The Simpsons."
Dr. Michael S. Brown is a member of Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws, www.dsgl.org. E-mail the author at: rkba2000@yahoo.com
2002-11-10 02:31 | User Profile
I saw this sick animal this on TV. Yuck he only gets worse! [img]http://forum.originaldissent.com/style_images/1/icon8.gif[/img]
He is moron of the worst order crying "Racism!"
Having Guns is "Racist!" America is "Racist!" Sady this animal, unlike the Neocons, is too stupid to even understand the meaning of the Marxist Frankfurt School Trash he repeats.
Friday, November 1st Michael Moore will be on Oprah! [url=http://www.oprah.com/tows/tows_landing.jhtml;jsessionid%3D0G4UVVO5VKZVVLARAYHB3KQ]http://www.oprah.com/tows/tows_landing.jht...VKZVVLARAYHB3KQ[/url]
Read the transcript of Michael Moore's appearance on MSNBC's Donahue. [url=http://www.msnbc.com/news/827637.asp]http://www.msnbc.com/news/827637.asp[/url]
Michaelmoore.com [url=http://www.michaelmoore.com/]http://www.michaelmoore.com/[/url]
Michael Moore's Forum( anyone want to cause some trouble :) ) [url=http://www.michaelmoore.com/phpbb/]http://www.michaelmoore.com/phpbb/[/url]
2002-11-10 02:38 | User Profile
Yuck!
I saw this sick three-minute animated short on TV. One might call it's style Frankfurt School meets South Park!
"The best part of this movie is a hilarious three-minute animated short that offers Moore's abridged version of American history beginning with the arrival of the Pilgrims. It attributes every major historical event to racism. I never would have guessed that such an insulting oversimplification could be so funny. The only thing lacking was the voice of Homer Simpson as narrator."
I am glad Charlton Heston told the truth! :)
"There was audible outrage in the theater when Moore tricked Charlton Heston into speculating on a reason why gun violence is so much greater in America than it is in Canada. As any criminologist knows, American gun violence is highly concentrated in young black and Latino men. Violence among the white population is roughly similar between the two countries."
I am sue PBS will run sick film in a year or two.
2002-11-16 03:27 | User Profile
More stuff:
Guerrilla in the Ritz(Michael Moore) [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,839519,00.html]http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,1227...,839519,00.html[/url]
Review: Michael Moore, Roundhouse, London [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,11712,839025,00.html]http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/sto...,839025,00.html[/url]
More about Bowling For Columbine [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/Film/Film_Page/0,4061,834640,00.html]http://www.guardian.co.uk/Film/Film_Page/0...,834640,00.html[/url]
2002-11-16 03:54 | User Profile
Imagine Moore's outrage if a wacko right-wing filmmaker used the same technique to associate responsible African-American citizens with radical black racists.
I can't; I'm too wrapped up in the joyous fantasy that there's a wacko right-wing filmmaker out there with a twenty million dollar budget AND a distribution deal. No, don't wake me....let me enjoy this a little longer....
2003-05-21 19:42 | User Profile
Having never seen the movie in my life (and having no desire to) I wonder, does Moore wax eloquent on the supposed "white supremacist" connection of the Columbine murders? The outrgaeousness of the lies the media now feeds our population is incomprehensibe-gay anarchist Jewish white supremacist. ROFL.
2003-06-04 08:02 | User Profile
I read a long time ago in a newspaper that the Columbine guys were satanic anarchists or something like that and among the many things that they hated: the racism was one of the main ones. Amren also mentions this:
[url=http://www.amren.com/996issue/996issue.html]http://www.amren.com/996issue/996issue.html[/url]
Nazis at Columbine?
"In April, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and then shot themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Early reports gave the impression the two boys targeted non-whites, and there are still implications that the shootings were ââ¬Åracistââ¬Â or ââ¬Åneo-Nazi.ââ¬Â People who knew the boys think otherwise. One student named ââ¬ÅMeg,ââ¬Â says this:
ââ¬ÅI am black/white mixed. And when the media is coming up with this thing that Dylan and Eric were racist, they weren't. They were my friends. They were very nice to me, both of them. I don't get this whole racial thing that people are coming up with.ââ¬Â
When asked about their interest in Nazism, she replied:
ââ¬ÅThat is the biggest load of [expletive] I've ever heard. They never wore swastikas around their arm. Never. Not in this entire year that I've known them. No.ââ¬Â
One boy who knew the two adds:
ââ¬ÅThey're not Nazis. They didn't worship Nazis. Some kids said ââ¬ËOh I saw them reading a book on Nazis.ââ¬â¢ They read a books on Nazis because, guess what they were learning about in World History? They were learning about the Nazis.ââ¬Â
Other students flatly denied reports that when Mr. Harris and Mr. Klebold went bowling they celebrated strikes with a Nazi salute. As one boy put it rather sensibly, ââ¬ÅI don't think that it was a big racial thing. I mean, you see who they shot at.ââ¬Â (Columbine Students Talk of the Disaster and Life, New York Times, April 30, 1999, p. A27.)
Much has also been made of the rantings found on Eric Harris' web page. He does seem to have professed hatred for many people: Star Wars fans, smokers, people who mispronounce words, people who oppose the death penalty, and people who disagree with him. Never did he denounce non-whites. In fact, in answer to his own question, ââ¬ÅYou know what I hate?ââ¬Â he wrote ââ¬ÅRACISM!ââ¬Â adding that people who are biased against ââ¬Åblacks, Asians, Mexicans or people from any other country or race besides white-Americanââ¬Â should ââ¬Åhave their arms ripped offââ¬Â and be burned. (James Barron, Warnings From a Student Turned Killer, New York Times, May 1, 1999)
2003-06-04 11:32 | User Profile
Originally posted by Madrid burns@Jun 4 2003, 02:02 **Nazis at Columbine?
"In April, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and then shot themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Early reports gave the impression the two boys targeted non-whites, and there are still implications that the shootings were ââ¬Åracistââ¬Â or ââ¬Åneo-Nazi.ââ¬Â **
Sure they were. And the DC snipers were [url=http://www.cartoonista.com/cartoons/sniperprofiled.html]White NRA members.[/url] < /sarcasm> Actually, Dylan Klebold's great-grandfather was a prominent Columbus, Ohio jew named Leo Yassenoff: [url=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Leo+Yassenoff+jewish+center+klebold&btnG=Google+Search]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=...G=Google+Search[/url]
2003-06-12 14:27 | User Profile
Great Posts!
2003-09-23 15:23 | User Profile
I know this thread is old, but I just viewed "Bowling For Columbine" last night, out of pure curiosity. Although the documentary offers no solutions or ideas to stem the tide of violence in America, it's glaringly obvious to WN's what the problem is, and it might even be obvious to mainstream White Americans as well.
Moore interviews various people on gun violence and they all baffle each other as to what causes of all the violence. The US has an incredible amount of gun violence, they say. Wow! It's absolutely unbelievable and sickening that race is left out of the discussion, or more so, blacks and hispanics are left out of the equation and Whites are portrayed as the main culprits and purveyors of all violence. The real answer becomes so obvious when Moore documents gun deaths in other Western countries, which turn out to be very low per capita compared to the United States. Why?
[B]Forced racial integration[/B]! Those other Western countries, while under duress in recent years, didn't have their nations racially wrecked in such a vast, sweeping, ruthless, tyrannical, rapid and destructive way like the United States did 40 something years ago. This country has never recovered that and never will unless revolution occurs. The US government under orders from the Tribe saw to it that White America WILL NOT stay the way it was supposed to stay according to our Fathers. The disintegration of the racial majority and the elevation of racial inferiors and racial enemies breeds pathologies that are exclusive to America. While other Western countries are having problems with non-White infiltration recently, they still aren't completely overrun as we Whites are in the United States for as long as we have been. What's it been 45 years of this sh*t?
We've got to live with them, work with them, smell them, shop with them, eat with them, be nice to them, sleep with them, cater to them, tolerate them, praise them. And, the blacks don't even like us one bit more for any of it and still want us dead!!!
Did Moore even think about what Negroes on-the-loose are doing in Africa these days?
DID MICHAEL MOORE EVER CONSIDER ANY OF THIS?!?!! F*CK HIM!
2003-09-23 17:32 | User Profile
Klebold and several other school shooters have all been ethnic Jews. Jews after all have a significantly higher rate of mental illness than any other group.
2003-09-24 19:14 | User Profile
Moore tricked Charlton Heston into speculating on a reason why gun violence is so much greater in America than it is in Canada. As any criminologist knows, American gun violence is highly concentrated in young black and Latino men. This sad fact is not open to discussion because it is not politically correct to mention it in polite society. Ironically, this inability to address the problem may condemn many more young men to an early death.
I'll give you politically incorrect: the reality is that we need many more such young men condemned to an early death for civility to have a prayer of returning to American society.
It's not "welfare reform" that has dropped the violent-crime statistics, but the many thousands of Dead Homiez (at the hands of their own) which has thankfully thinned out the predator ranks. Let's hope for more such ghetto Darwinism in the near future.
2003-09-26 06:54 | User Profile
[QUOTE=heritagelost]Klebold and several other school shooters have all been ethnic Jews. Jews after all have a significantly higher rate of mental illness than any other group.[/QUOTE]
Klebold was a partial jew. What other school shooters had jewish connections?
2003-10-02 20:59 | User Profile
I'm not inarticulate, but I find it impossible to express the depth of hatred and loathing I feel for Michael Moore.
2003-10-15 23:16 | User Profile
We stick our sons in State-run Indoctrination camps, dope them up on Ritalin and Prozac when they want to be anywhere [I]except[/I] there just to chemically castrate them so they behave, then make up some bullshit mental disorder called ADD (or whatever it's called these days) to justify doping our kids in the first place... feh. Let's not forget to all marginalize the white male while all this is going on and fill his head with PC crap, revisionist history and "white guilt" whatever the hell [I]that[/I] is. The sit back and wail "Oh, how could this happen? He was such a good kid.. let's take all the guns away for the [I]chiiiillldren[/I].. bleah.
If anyone, and I mean anyone, tries to tell me my son has some bullshit made up mental disorder just to dope him, my wrath will make Carthage look like a Frathouse food fight. I'll yank him out of that school so fast we'll time-warp and pass ourselves going the other way.
A Pox on that fat, elitist, effete, condescending sonofabitch Moore. I hope he gets hit by a crosstown bus. Twice. Fatassed deep-fried Snicker's bar eating motherf*cker.
Ausonius
2003-10-16 14:18 | User Profile
Ausonius,
Great Post! :tank:
2003-10-16 15:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE=new and improved]Ausonius -
So right. I wonder if you've seen "Bowling". Judging from your tone, you had best sedate yourself before watching. If you think you loathe that fat-assed everyman propagandist now...whoa. You might come unglued. The movie is worth seeing, but you're blood will boil.[/QUOTE]
I have not seen 'Bowling' yet, but I've seen his work before. Leftist agenda, creative editing, playing tricks on people just to twist it into what he wants them to say, then play it all off as 'funny'. I'm willing to wager some serious money on my theory that he was the 'fat, unpopular kid' in highschool, and now he wants to pay us all back for his shortcomings. I don't usually resort to this kind of language, but Fck that smelly blob of shit. If the men who wrenched this country out of the mud 225 years ago were alive today, warriors to a man, they would cut that motherfckers head off and put it on a pike in the middle of the town square.
Traitorous bastard, trying to dishonor good Men and laughing the whole time. We used to blanket party guys like that. I think I'll go rent "Bowling" so I can have a whole bunch of new reasons to loathe that fat bastard.
Ausonius :wallbash:
2003-10-17 14:04 | User Profile
Fatassed deep-fried Snicker's bar eating motherf*cker.
LOL! I wonder if Elvis ever tried one of those?
I saw the fat blob of fecal matter on Larry King"berg" Live for about a minute the other night (all I could stand) and the subject of illegal immigration came up. Naturally, the human Crisco deposit was all for it, saying that a lot of our ancestors came here "illegally" and now we're just trying to quash some more hard-working illegals, blah, blah, blah.
He went on to expound that one should drive across the country and see how big it is and that we have plenty of room for everybody, so keep 'em coming!
Naturally, King"berg" didn't ask Crisco-boy how many illegals were living in his neighborhood...
I'm willing to wager some serious money on my theory that he was the 'fat, unpopular kid' in highschool, and now he wants to pay us all back for his shortcomings.
I think you're spot-on. Folks like him are the ultimate passive-aggressives. They needle and needle and needle people until they snap and attack, verbally or physically, their tormentors, at which point they fall to the ground wailing and aggrieved, complaining how they are innocents, wronged by "haters" "right-wingers" "gun nuts" or whoever the enemy du jour happens to be. Very childish, very Jewish, way to operate.