Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Michael Moore* Is (Still) A Big Fat Idiot

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Michael Moore plays too fast and loose with his facts to be my kind of guy. This time around, he's whining that Disney has shut him down for political reasons. But there's a much easier explanation for why Disney has pulled their backing for the Bush Bashing, and it's the title of today's blogentry.

In trying to see why Moore is both stupid and, ultimately, dangerously so, we need only look at this current silliness more closely. Here's some cut-and-paste from the end of the CNN article:

Moore said he believed the protection of tax cuts was the reason for the media conglomerate's position.

"I would have hoped by now that I would be able to put my work out to the public without having to experience the profound censorship obstacles I often seem to encounter," Moore said in a statement Wednesday.

Moore's response to Disney is telling: in typical Moorean fashion, he throws the word "censorship" as them, making it seem as if he is entitled not just to be heard, but to be promoted. Moore seems to have confused the concept of the right to free speech with some sort of right to be published, promoted, and paid. Automatically, as if a company that stands by and for the whole family should somehow be obliged to support the work of any idiot with a camera and a budget -- where in the constitution does it guarantee Michael Moore's right to get cash from the Mouse? In trying to twist the tables on Disney, he only demonstrates why Disney could never ally themselves with his work.

Note, of course, that the news is primarily focusing on Moore's complaint, not Disney's reponse. The bloggosphere cannot help but groan with those decrying Disney. It helps that big business is so tempting a target; it's easy to imagine Eisner and Bush sitting in those huge photo-op armchairs, plotting the downtrodding of the "little guy."

And people listen to the Moore/Disney meme as it passes by. It joins the growing pile of what-can-we-do at the foot of the stairs, making it just that much harder to get over it and out into the world each day.

Eventually, self-righteousness over accuracy becomes the rallying cry of a doomsday generation. Problems are presented as both solvable and never solved, engendering a generation of, and in, despair and disempowerment.

I'm not going to go so far as to suggest that Michael Moore is the most dangerous man alive. Sowing distrust doesn't hold a candle to those who prey open that distrust, or take advantage of its dark alleyways and vigilante justice. But he frames this world, he and a hundred hundred like him on every side of the political spectrum, blowhards all, from FoxNews to Howard Stern. The real world as it really is -- beautiful and complex and demands caution and trust as a mere premise for survival itself -- fades in the face of the distrust and impotence which are the inevitable result of his manipulation.

In my own private wished-for utopia of media literati and savvy, intuitively best-practice consumers, everyone would see through Moore. Instead of the crown jewel of the sorrowful ranting farleft, he'd be some unheard of blowhard. But as long as he continues to tap into the emotions of the scared, impotent, and insignificant-feeling man on the street, I'm afraid, people will listen -- for who else have they got? Don't worry, though: I'll keep the light on for you.

* Moore has content on his own site about this issue, but here at NAWWAL it is against our link policy to provide easy access to the home pages of crazy, stupid, and/or dangerous people. If you wish to pursue Moore's side more closely, you'll have to find it yourself.