[Barry the Sprout]

Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric: Then perhaps I was too hasty in my judgement. Who knows, if I ever have the time to look at his self-serving drivel and find out that he does slam the left almost as hard as the right (only not as often), I may even have to upgrade his status from "intolerable" to "somewhat tolerable buffoon". [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] In case you can't tell, I have a hard time giving Michael Moore credit for anything other than being able to tie his own shoes. And I don't have irrefutable proof that he can do that. But he has rubbed me the wrong way ever since he came into the public spotlight in the early 80's. He has always struck me as something of a whiner that likes to ridicule the policies and decisions of others, but doesn't offer any viable alternatives to those policies or decisions himself. The cold hard fact is that I cannot give Michael Moore a fair evaluation because I have never liked his sarcastic satirism or his eternal whining and I really doubt I ever would - even if he were actually making a legitimate argument. The same holds true with Rush Limbaugh. He actually has some good points in his commentary from time to time - or at least I assume he does - but he can't say "Good Morning" without spewing some hateful, vitriolic remark about the Democrats in the same breath. So his personal antics negate any valid points his commentary might actually contain.

As far as Moore not having his own solution I've seen him live and he stated there that he was a communist. If he said that openly would you feel better about him? I somehow doubt it. Personally, as another communist, I find it depressing that he doesn't come out and admit it - its nothing to be ashamed of, and its the people who try and hide it that make it seem like something to be ashamed of. But then again I've never said I don't agree with Moore on everything, just that he is often correct in my estimation and he is correct in an often humorous fashion.

As for Moore's style of satire I personally feel he is less sarcastic as he is leading. He plays stupid in order to draw people in and make them say what they really think - and it really works. Over here we have a guy who does similar stuff called Louis Theroux. Notice what Moore and Theroux do in order to make their point - they don't add any commentary of their own to any of the people they interview. Its rare for Moore, in Bowling for example, to actually take to task any of the gun nuts, despite the fact that he obviously finds their beliefs ludicrous. Instead he just nods and gently nudges them in the direction of spilling their most disturbing secretly held beliefs. I strongly suggest watching him quite closely in an interview - he is a very clever man who practices satire without actually satirising stuff himself very often. Watch it with a stress ball or something...