Re: [Marxism] Michael Moore decline continues

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Intense Red wrote:
>
>  > What is the evidence that he has genuinely helped 'to stem the country's
>  > shift to the right'?
>
>    Strictly anecdotal, but just take Fahrenheit 911.  IMHO, the film's failure
> to mention the peace movement or Israeli factor in the war is serious, but
> still, it was one of the few big critical pieces to focus on the war.
> Ignoring Moore's books (which basically preach to the choir) that one film
> reached millions and caused many Americans to question the war.  Moore's PR
> gimmicks during the film's runup caused more media stir.

That film was useful here in B/N in one way and in one way only: The
local anti-war group, by leafletting the theatre, was able to reach
people who were potentially friendly to us but did not know of our
existence. We ended up with several new members, and in that sense it
helped us survive the destruction of the anti-war movement by the ABBs
such as Moore. The people who merely saw the film for the most part (as
I said in my preceding post) merely burbled a bit about how terrible the
war was, and then forgot about it.

Damn it. There really are _millons_ out there already passionately
opposed (as isolated individuals) to this fucking war. To begin with,
our problem is not persuading people that the war is wrong, it is
persuading those who _know_ already that the war is wrong that it is
possible to do something about it through mass action. Moore didn't help
much with that.

 >    Here where I live (northern NH, very rural, voted for Bush) I was
simply
> dumbfounded to see the local cinema (which can only show 2 flicks) had lines
> to see F911.

Look, the vote for Bush in your area was not the entire adult
population, just a large majority. What about the large minority, who
probably made up the crowds at the film? The question is how can one
reach that minority, and involve them actively in building
anti-occupation activity.

There are millions opposed to the war. If we could involve just a
million or so of them in active opposition, we could make it fucking
difficult for the pricks in D.C. to keep the war going! Sure -- we can
use people like Moore. The more Moores the better. But by themselves
they do almost nothing.

Carrol


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