kundalini wrote:
One thing I did hear on Air America coming home though, was that some republicans want to stop Moore from advertising his movie after July 30th, because it's a campaign add for Kerry. If they are so right about Iraq, why that the heck are they so afraid of? That people might actually look at their record and not believe their rhetoric anymore? Oh brother. (For the record, Kerry isn't mentioned in this movie at all)
kundalini
While I disagree in general principle with stopping a film for political reasons (cause, it never works anyway, and usually just creates more interest, not less). I can see why it would be viewed as a campaign ad for Kerry. Positive ads aren't the only type. This is essentially mudslinging. We've got two people running for office really (that have any chance of winning). If you've got a film running that does *nothing* but level clever seeming but really bogus claims at one of them, that does effectively end up as campaigning for the other guy.
Or would it be ok for someone to release a film documentary showing Kerry's exploits in Vietnam and afterwards in the worst light? After all, this isn't debate. A filmaker can present any point of view he wants, and is not required to have any factual treatment of the topic at all. Heck. Just look at the film JFK. That influenced tons of people's opinions about the assassination and yet was basically presenting a case that was struck down in court and totally disproven on many accounts, and had so many holes in it that it could have performed as a pasta strainer just perfectly. But a filmaker has the advantage of being able to add in information that fills in those holes, or present the information in a way so that the inconsistencies never come up.
That's what Moore's done with this film. He's examining minute details of 9/11 and looking at the normal day to day things that people do and implying that somehow they are unusual. He's then implying that those unusual behaviors must have had some sort of sinister purpose behind them. There's no counter arguement (since it's his film), so no one questions the information in the film.
I might watch it just to see a realy good example of a conspiracy theorist gone wrong. Maybe laugh at how people can be gullible enough to believe the garbage that Moore spews. Mostly, just kinda shake my head, because the unfortunate fact is that a lot of people *will* believe what Moore is saying. For the past several decades we've promoted the idea that there's always some sort of conspiracy going on, and glorified those who uncover them. It's why we have so many conspiracy theory nuts out there. And for the most part, they get ignored only because they can't get airtime for people to see them. The people tend to make the mistake that if it's in a film, or on the news, it must be true.
In our zeal to find watchdogs to find out the "secret" stuff our government is doing, we've forgotten the most important thing: "Who watches the watchers?". We trust people purely because they say they've uncovered the truth, with no regard to the person's qualifications, or potential ulterior motives. If they claim to be uncovering "the truth" we believe them, without question. It never occurs to us that these people can have just as much reason to lie to us as any government official. In many times, they've got *more* reason to do so...