>snit snat wrote:
> >
> > I fucking HEART Michael Moore for this. Would someone set up a
> > coaching/consultancy that would teach people how to deal with these
> blowhards?
> >
>
>And do you really believe there is one chance in 10k that a single
>viewer of the show changed his/her mind as a result of this
>conversation?
yes. FAUX doesn't only attract rightwingers. It, and especially O'Reilly, attracts people who see themselves as Independents looking for a no-spin zone.
Here's another thing: people NEED this sort of thing. Now, Liza, Doug, (co-author's name forgotten, shame on me) wrote about how the left too often spent time blowing smoke to impress themselves. OK. So, marches and protests, etc. are just for them. But, this is actually important to _any_ social movement. It builds solidarity. As the pople in my research said, it's a form of "talking back" and it is just a delimited as the kind of speech the called "talking at". Nonetheless, they needed it. They needed it to feel empowered, like they were part of something bigger than themselves. They knew that it didn't change things where it mattered, but they needed it to restore their spirit.
People like Lila Lipscomb listen to people like Michale Moore. Remember what I said about Lila's inarticulateness at the end of F9/11? She's just finding her voice. She needs to hear people speak out and engage with the O'Reilly's of the world so she can learn how to do it too. I'm sure you think this is a hoot, but that's exactly how I learned. I read other people making arguments. I listened to other people making arguments. It helped me learn how to articulate a budding, albeit inchoate, left consciousness.
Poo Poo it all you like. But, peole aren't sprung from the head of Zeus flapping their gums like a proper leftist. They need role models. Mass communication can provide that for them. do they have to be involved in political practice. NOT AT ALL. for someone like Lila Lipscomb, living her daily life in a place like Flint, she gets it from what others would call _social practice_.
When I was sixteen, I was shown a weird abstract art cartoon film about Marxism. At the end of this short piece, I said to my history teacher, "So what's wrong with Marxism? Sounds like a good idea to me?"
I didn't get that because I was some big political activist at the time. I got that from growing up in a place like Flint. I didn't get that because my parents with liberals or leftists. I got that from growing up and seeing one neighbor after another get laid off. I didn't get that because I was born into some leftist social milieu. I got that from watching the humliation on the faces of men who ended up pushing brooms, barely eking out a living.
I also got that from growing up with the promise of feminism incorporated into popular culture. I got that from all kinds of things and would continue to move leftward, as I met people with left leaning values, as I read people with left leaning thoughts and theories, as I discovered music and art and literature that gave me a different perspective.
All of it matters. No one thing changes peoples' minds.
Kelley
"We're in a fucking stagmire."
--Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'