I've been trying to give Michael Moore the benefit of the doubt about his appearances at Occupy Wall Street even though it went against my better judgment (since I'm well and truly tired of watching him try to position himself at the front of every movement). Maybe he just wanted to help by bringing out more media coverage with no thought for his own ego, right? C'mon, it was at least theoretically possible.
Then on last night's local newscast I saw him say this after speaking at Occupy Oakland: "I made the movie. It was called 'Capitalism: A Love Story' and I called for this rebellion. And I'm just thrilled."
Good grief. Even when he's trying to help, Moore can't help but try to make it all about him.
I PRESUME: And furthermore:
[Moore] said the movement has already had "a number of victories in our first six weeks," saying, "We've killed despair across the country and we’ve killed apathy."
Not to be a grammar nazi, but I have this rather strong conviction that people who haven't spent a good portion of those weeks freezing their asses off in a tent or risking brain damage in a police riot should think twice before cavalierly tossing out pronoun forms like "our" and "we" around people who have.
(Yeah, sure, "we are the 99%"—but inclusive slogans don't change the fact that it's just .00099% of us out there right now making the sacrifices and taking the risks.)
The Distant Ocean 
Spirit fingers.
Look, I get that Moore has generated a lot of headlines for us, especially during those first crucial weeks when no one could be bothered to take notice. That’s not something to be understated. And to his credit, he does tend to conclude his interviews by saying he’s just one voice and everyone’s a spokesperson, blah blah blah. But it would be nice if the guy could be bothered to sit in contently during one General Assembly or Working Group meeting and abide by the principles of Progressive Stack and Stand Up, Stand Down. His demo gets more than enough attention (I say this as a straight, white male myself.) Even Jesse Jackson at least answered a call to put his body on the line and lock arms defending the medical tent. Hell, I watched Russel fucking Brand during a GA one night without calling for People’s Mic or giving interviews, and that guy’s not exactly an introvert. Honestly, last time Moore showed up, all I thought was “Well that’s going to push the GA start time back half an hour.”
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Moore and Elizabeth Warren should have a public pissing match over who founded OWS.
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C’mon, Dan, it’s Moore’s rebellion more than anyone’s. Show proper gratitude or he won’t let you come anymore.
(Funny how he “called for this rebellion” in a 2009 movie. Is his theory that people watched it, got riled up, then waited two years to do something about it? Maybe it’s somehow tied to the DVD release date….)
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Add Chompers to that pissing match, too. It’ll keep him from his usual hemming and hawing, his Tevye hand, his reductive and endless qualifications; eventually he’ll get back to warning leftists away from actually causing Israel the sort of harm which would damage its capacity to routinely murder Palestinians, but it might be a happy break.
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I’d appreciate it if you’d keep your Chomsky animus to your own blog (or at least off of mine), Jack, especially when it’s just trolling like this. Thanks.
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Warren and Moore deserve just as much credit for OWS as Algore does for inventing the Internet.
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Isn’t Michael Moore part of the 1%, in terms of income and assets?
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It’s like Digby claiming she dragged the Democratic “leadership” screaming and kicking to the left. Of course these are the days when nobody can tell the difference between left and right which is because there is no difference. Okay, I gotta go consult Dibbgy about what I should think and why because she knows things beyond the ken of mortal kind.
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Shh, Rob, if you say “Digby” three or more times the dejected “progressives” doing mental acrobatics to still find ways to support the Nobel Peace Warrior will show up and skewer you for loving Republicans or not thinking that ending DADT was the political equivalent of the Second Coming.
I’m never sure how I feel about a lot of celebrities who are “on ‘our’ side” these days. I hear them say things that make sense, but then slips out some tired old trope of American Empire or idiotic support for an oligarchy’s electoral play. Bill Maher is a good example.
I don’t know how to describe it–it’s like they haven’t put all the pieces together yet; it’s all there, mostly, but the image just hasn’t quite taken full shape.
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Elissar, What they do is section their brains off. In one section kiling is bad, in another The One is good even if he kills like some people drink water.
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“I called for this rebellion”?!?!
Fap fap fap fap fap….
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I think the people who can really claim credit for this rebellion are Barak Obama, Madoff, Bill Clinton, Countrywide, Greenspan, and other Wall Street creatures.
Honestly, though, of things to get outraged over, Moore does not register much.
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Caruso are you occupying wall street???
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Nope, though my occupation of my street has passed the 5400-day mark.
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I called for the rebellion over 40 years ago when I was in high school. I said, “Fuck the establishment.” Someone musta overheard me and it caught on.
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