Oh, goody. More (“Moore”?) false equivalencies. The greatest tool of the Republican-controlled-everything is now being espoused by chummy slam documentarian and human punch-line Michael Moore. False equivalencies are a great tool for the wicked because they dictate “as long as your side did anything wrong, ever, it’s all equal; what are ya, a hypocrite?” It’s the same place we get to when one side has a bunch of possibly sensitive emails that were not adequately protected for the sake of expedience and custom while the other side actively recruits a hostile foreign power to interfere in a presidential election. Yeah, those things are totally equivalent. With Fahrenheit 11/9, Michael Moore attempts to explain how we got to President Trump and blames almost everybody (yes, to an extent, we all do deserve blame but some FAR more than others), inadvertently fueling the false equivalency fire in the process.
For what he is, Moore continues to be an exceptional filmmaker. Here I am watching his work and questioning the motives of President Barack Obama, a man who is not perfect by any stretch, but one I know to be committed to the just side of history. This is the magic of false equivalency delivered through hitman style editing – as you probably know, Flint, Michigan has a water crisis. The source of Flint’s water was Lake Huron. Thanks to some shady dealing, cronyism, and office profiteering, Governor Rick Snyder set up buddies to build a new Huron-to-Flint pipeline while ignoring the functioning old one. In the meantime, Flint’s source of water would be the toxic Flint River; this source sickened and continues to sicken the entire Flint population. After setting all this up, Moore captured Obama’s Flint visit. President (at the time) Obama was told that the problem was fixed (a moment left out of the film) and makes a spectacle of drinking “clean” Flint water during a press conference while addressing local problems.
Yes, it looks bad. Really bad. Obama look callous, stupid, and uncaring all at once. Yet, let’s look at the bigger picture: One side takes clean water away, selling out to private interests, sickens an entire city for over a year, lies about it repeatedly, feels no remorse and finally channels clean water to Flint – but only to the GM plant cuz, you know, new cars need that clean water. The other side, told the problem had been fixed, comes in, has two sips from a glass … and these things are equivalent. No, Obama didn’t handle it well and deserves bad press for his role in the Flint circus but geeeeeeez, this is exactly how you get zillions of Americans saying Trump is no worse than Hillary. The HELL he isn’t. Hillary is a standard politician; Trump is barely a human being. Do you hate Hillary? Ask yourself, “Why?” Does it really go back to anything she actually did or the feelings that came from conservative politicians and Fox news? W had at least a dozen Benghazis. Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice had unsecured emails. Trump favored Putin ahead of our own intelligence agencies on live cameras. Still think Hillary belongs in jail? Well, she should have a lot of company.
Fahrenheit 11/9 opened with the horror of the 2016 election night. It is still very painful. Michael Moore, of course, was just about the only person to predict the outcome correctly with an infamous: “Discount Middle-America at your peril” taunt. Yes, he was right about the outcome and the rationale behind the mind-set that favored Trump in 2016. And I like that he didn’t crow about it; instead he seemed more embarrassed than anything else. But what he got wrong is what we all got right – Trump still lost the popular tally by almost 3 million votes. Calling him more popular than Hillary Clinton is factual error. Trump’s improbable and extremely narrow victory took some ugly Electoral College manipulation, some classic voter suppression, Citizens United v FEC, an avalanche of free Trump network publicity, Russian interference, and James Comey’s last-minute illegal scale tilt. Any one of those things doesn’t happen and Hillary wins. There are no equivalents on the Democratic side. None.
You know what strikes me most about Michael Moore? Is it the folksy humor? Is it the hit-and-run style? The outrageous encroachments? The manipulative editing? No. None of that. To me, Michael Moore is the guy who sets the tone for a public discussion that will invariably go the other way. Let’s look at his work:
- In Roger & Me, Michael attacked corporate greed and lack of responsibility. For three seconds, we all considered his POV. Today, however, corporate greed is stronger than ever and real wages for Americans have stagnated since the 1980s. Anyone who believes that the low unemployment figure represents worker strength has clearly not looked for a job lately.
- In Sicko, Moore looked at health cost insanity and compared the US with social medicine systems found in Canada and European countries. Yes, we all think health care costs are a problem; yes, we even passed the ACA. And who’s winning now? Are your health costs anywhere near reasonable? One would think that MAGA would understand that America contains Americans, but for Lord knows what reason, too many people in this country see health care as a privilege, not a right, and remain content to see the terrible results continue.
- In his best film, Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore shaped the gun debate by examining why Americans are so gun happy. Again for a brief time, we considered his POV and did nothing. As school shootings and mass shootings have become more and more common, the NRA has won every single battle there has been. Most everybody I know incorrectly interprets the second amendment to mean gun ownership is a universal right. The current debate in this country is about arming school teachers. Only in America could a populace come to the insane conclusion that solving a gun problem requires more guns.
At this rate, I freaking want Michael Moore to come out with a case for detaining immigrants, building the wall, and stuffing the Supreme Court with women-haters; maybe policies will finally start going the way they ought to.
For much of Fahrenheit 11/9, Moore examined the politics of West Virginia. This is both the perfect representative state for what’s wonderful and awful about Michael Moore’s work. When we look at the results of the Democratic primary, Moore correctly points out that Bernie Sanders won all 55 West Virginia counties. Yet at the Democratic National Convention, the West Virginia delegation offered 19 votes for Hillary Clinton and only 18 for Bernie Sanders. Yes, this is a problem. Yes, this, like the Electoral College, seems to be a bad case of failed or misleading representation. I don’t know what the DNC rules are, but promoting a stronger Hillary contingent from West Virginia in 2016 was wrong. And yet again, Moore -almost deliberately- misses the bigger picture. For one thing, nationwide, Hillary beat the tar out of Bernie. I voted for Bernie in the primaries, too, so don’t go looking at my bias on this score. Nationwide, Hillary collected 16.8 M million primary votes to Bernie’s 13.2 M; don’t pretend Dems wanted Bernie more. They didn’t. Whatever went on at the 2016 DNC convention, fair or unfair, reflected the will of Democratic voters.
The even bigger picture, however, is that in the main election, West Virginia was the reddest state in the union. So the six blue people in Charleston wanted Bernie? Well guess what? Those folks wouldn’t have made a scratch of difference. The biggest problem with this documentary is not that it didn’t spread blame around, it’s that it didn’t spread enough blame around. In the presidential election, West Virginia voters clearly bought into some of the biggest snake-oil salesman lies of the Trump machine: 1) Their jobs were safe. 2) There’s a future in coal as an energy source. 3) He’s going to “drain the swamp” of all the politicians who keep West Virginians down. You want to know why Trump carried West Virginia? It had nothing to do with Bernie Sanders. It had entirely to do with the fact that the populace listened to a child instead of a grown up. I’m sorry there’s work ahead. And I’m sorry life’s not easy. I wish it were easier for me, too. But I guarantee Republicans are not going to do a single thing to save unions or fight climate change … and they’ll be the first ones to tell you that. West Virginia’s economic game plan has no future. It doesn’t matter how many ways you vote Republican; that’s still going to be true.
Michael Moore didn’t leave himself off the list of culprits responsible for putting an unqualified dolt in the Oval Office; in his own mea culpa confession, he highlights a televised lunch a decade ago with Trump and Roseanne Barr in which Moore intended to probe Donny Orangeman about a serious issue, but instead presented glib. I’m sure this didn’t help matters any, Michael, but it’s hardly ticking the meter. Trump isn’t President because shock documentarians weren’t hard enough on him; Trump is President mostly because the Republican Party decided thirty years ago that winning was far more important than integrity and have rarely since strayed from that conclusion. And before I get a single “Dems do that, too!” I want you to consider the cases of Merrick Garland and Brett Kavanaugh, because that is yet another false equivalency from the country currently trailblazing a new path in the way of inequality.
Mike’s mic brings troubles to the front door
And leaves everyone feeling a bit sore
While his fight seems just
The results always bust
Perhaps it’s time to say, “No Moore.”
Rated R, 128 Minutes
Director: Michael Moore
Writer: Michael Moore
Genre: Our screwed present
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Michael Moore
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Those tired of the Moore act
