>the carping, hyper-critical lefty reaction to F9/11
My posting on the blog <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/07/i-am-so-furious-right-now-mama.html> is two thirds praise, one third criticism, and the criticism is not so much that of Michael Morre but of the weakness of the anti-war and other social movements in the USA. I don't call that a "hyper-critical" reaction to F 9/11. unless you think that a couple points of criticism in an otherwise positive review count as "hyper-critical" and that we should simply accept the film as all good, true, and useful for movement-building.
BTW, if you want to use F 9/11 as a tool for movement building, one way you can use it is to discuss it critically, rather than offer it as truth.
> >What distinguishes Michael Moore's conspiracy theories about oil
>>(especially the UNOCAL angle), the Saudi Connection, Big Tobacco,
>>etc. from the sort that you would normally be the first to hold in
>>contempt?
>
>I don't like the pipeline angle.
That "it's a war for oil" was probably already on the mind of almost all viewers of F 9/11 even before seeing it, and that will be the idea that the film reinforces.
>The Saudi connection is *not* conspiratorial - Unger refreshingly
>and explicitly makes the opposite point that the Bush-Saudi relation
>is not a conspiracy, but a money-making venture.
Sure, there are business connections between the Bushes and Saudi businessmen, but what's the special significance of them, compared to business connections between the Bushes and other foreign businessmen, between other Republican politicians and Saudi and other foreign businessmen, between Democratic politicians and Saudi and other foreign businessmen, and so on?
F 9/11 makes a big deal out of the George W. Bush-James R. Bath-Salem bin Laden triangle, the George W. Bush-George H.W. Bush-the Carlyle Group-Harken circle, and Saudi investments into US economy, without saying exactly what the big deal is all about while hinting at something sinister about "the big-deal Saudi Connections," the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq: "Okay, so let's say one group of people, like the American people, pay you $400,000 a year to be President of the United States. But then another group of people invest in you, your friends, and their related businesses $1.4 billion dollars over a number of years. Who you gonna like? Who's your daddy?" That's conspiracy theory.
>an amazing talent for making entertaining, radical agitprop that has
>considerable aesthetic and dramatic complexity
I agree that Moore has an amazing talent, but if conspiracy theories clumsily sold by those who have little talent or public exposure are worth criticism, shouldn't conspiracy theories popularized by those who have immense talent and mass popular audiences worldwide at least concern us? -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>