Filmmaker Michael Moore recently showed how polarizing our national dialogue has become over race. Moore declared that the vast majority of whites in this country “are not good people” and that others should “be afraid” of them in an interview on The Rolling Stone podcast “Useful Idiot.”
Moore’s rant itself would seem the very definition of racism. His view of the danger presented by white people appears entirely due to the fact that many voted for President Donald Trump:
“I refuse to participate in post-racial America. I refuse to say because we elected Obama that suddenly that means everything is okay, white people have changed. White people have not changed. Two-thirds of all white guys voted for Trump. That means anytime you see three white guys walking at you, down the street toward you, two of them voted for Trump. You need to move over to the other sidewalk because these are not good people that are walking toward you. You should be afraid of them.”
There are apparently a minority of white who are not raging racists who present imminent threats of physical harm. Those are whites “like him.” He noted that one of the three white people in his hypothetical group are like him and voted against Trump. He then added “We’re traitors to our race, that’s how they see us.”
Actually, most would view Moore as simply a racist as opposed to a traitor to race. Yet, Moore’s comments have not been denounced by The Rolling Stone or the media as racist. They are still part of the mainstream dialogue because they are directed at Trump supporters — much like Chuck Todd’s recent comments about Trump supporters wanting to be lied to are considered perfectly appropriate for a journalist.
Like Moore, I voted against Trump in 2016 but I find Moore’s comments deeply offensive and troubling. It is part of a view of roughly half of this country as simply borderline psychotic racists that someone has become a casual talking point in our media.
Moore’s comments and his actual being are “deeply offensive”. He has distorted information and been part of the misinformation campaign that liberals use to gain power. Michael Moore is scary, not physically, but existentially. It’s not white people but liberals like Moore who are the existential threat to our life as we know it (reference Cuba, Venezuela, etc). He is definitely a threat – white or not.
If I m walking down the street with 2 other people you can bet your ass we all voted for Trump, I don’t hang out with anyone that didn’t.
We are grateful, thanks.
More fear mongering from the left.
“Like Moore, I voted against Trump in 2016 but I find Moore’s comments deeply offensive and troubling. It is part of a view of roughly half of this country as simply borderline psychotic racists that someone has become a casual talking point in our media.”
************
If you didn’t vote for a Trump in 2016, hopefully you did a write-in for your mom. Voting for his primary opponent was a vote for the same anti-white racism you just railed against.
One must wonder if Moore is so infected with TDS that he believes this stuff. I was traveling for the University I taught for in the year before the election. I was all over the country and spoke with dozens of people from all walks of life. What I heard was almost uniform to the extent that I could have concluded that they were all reading from the same script. Without exception what I heard was: “I’m tired of being taken for granted by the people that want my vote, Democrat or Republican. I don’t know who this Trump guy is but I’m going to give him a chance”. Several of those I spoke with had not voted in an election in several election cycles but were determined to evict the Bush, Clinton, Obama types from the corridors of power. These people felt abandoned by those they had elected and, in true American tradition threw the bums out. Racism had nothing to do with it. Racism is a cudgel used by the left to shame the right. Thing is, it has been used so many times it has lost its effect.
It’s the price Moore has to pay to be allowed to appear on corporate media. Especially MSNBC. Either sign on to the paranoid groupthink that Russians and Rednecks are the source of all evil, are omnipotent and everywhere or be banished, condemned as an evil Russian, redneck or racist or at the very least a sympathizer.
Moore has not only fallen victim to the racist notion that ethnicity is evidence of bad character, he has also participated in the smearing of dissent as “Kremliney”. But at least he will get invited to give his opinion on MSNBC.
Of course, his remarks are grossly ignorant, but do tell us something about how people like Natacha, Jill, and the Gainesville pest think. Non-hispanic whites constitute over 60% of the population, but are responsible for perhaps 30% of the violent crime in this country. If you stay out of dive bars (and out of ordinary bars around closing time), keep away from street drugs (and the people who use them regularly and trade in them), and don’t welcome blatant thugs into your home, your chances of being injured by a non-hispanic white are vanishingly small. This notion that non-hispanic whites are dangerous is an obscene slander. Keep in mind, though, that obscene slanders of ordinary Americans are perfectly acceptable to the three people named above.
BS stats as always as for your caveat that applies to all people, fool. Every group of people have the same percentage of ignorant members except perhaps Turley commenters where the level of ignorance is extremely high. You are living proof.
Note, Moore was back in the day fired from Mother Jones magazine. Ordinarily, employers are chary about answering questions about personnel problems, but, when asked, his supervisors there answered: he has personality problems that made him impossible. He has throughout his life been self-employed for this reason. He has a certain skill set, but he’s in essence a terrible human being. This has been a matter of public record for a generation.
What’s interesting about progtrash culture is there’s a critical mass of people who make his projects economically viable, even though their content is vicious and fraudulent. It tells us more than you’d like to know about the intellectual and affective properties of his audience.
he has personality problems that made him impossible. He has throughout his life been self-employed for this reason. He has a certain skill set, but he’s in essence a terrible human being
People with personality disorders, particularly Borderline PD, are not pleasant. The funny thing about PD is that their answer lies in self-management. They can learn skills through therapy to be functioning members in life
Hillary, M. Moore, Roger Stone, Trump, Pelosi, Newt Gingrich, Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, CNN anchors, many Democrats and Republican in Congress etc, might meet diagnostic criteria for Narcissist personality disorder, but at least they function and become successful. At who’s expense is another matter
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder
Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder, according to the DSM-5, exhibit five or more of the following, which are present by early adulthood and across contexts:
A grandiose sense of self-importance
Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
Belief that one is special and can only be understood by or associate with special people or institutions
A need for excessive admiration
A sense of entitlement (to special treatment)
Exploitation of others
A lack of empathy
Envy of others or the belief that one is the object of envy
Arrogant, haughty behavior or attitudes
Psychiatric labels and great leaders is not uncommon.
Winston Churchill: bipolar disorder
Princess Diana: bulimia and depression
Martin Luther King: depression
Stalin: perhaps manic depression and narcissism
Lincoln: depression
Absurd x XV,
I think it’s debatable if Moore has any real skills.
He may have a fan base, especially among those in the entertainment/ film industry, but his work is sloppy. And his work is as boring as many other really bad sermons.
Maybe it’s his good looks that have earned him something of a following.
TIA: “he has personality problems that made him impossible. He has throughout his life been self-employed for this reason. He has a certain skill set, but he’s in essence a terrible human being. This has been a matter of public record for a generation.”
You are speaking about Trump, right?
https://jalopnik.com/surprise-michael-moore-is-a-filthy-rich-hypocrite-1608888124
I believe that he was referring to Moore. Absurd x XV’s assessment of Moore was all right, but it was overly generous.
Trump came into winning the White House because of middle class America and lower income people that the Hard Left “left” behind
The Forgotten Men and Women who became tired of being forgotten about who were “left” without jobs and income
But what I will never understand is why the Hard Left like Moore begrudges those very same people Middle America the ability to earn money and acquire the better things in life just like Moore has…
Self-loathers are sick people. Race-loathers are evil people. Country-loathers are traitors in the broad sense of the word. Put them all together and you get Dims. Vote Republican.
Again, people like Moore are not self-loathing in any systematic way. They think quite well of themselves. It’s you they despise. See Thomas Sowell on this point.
Self-loathing from a racial perspective is a good modifier. He’s an arrogant dude.
He may or may not be self- loathing, but he has every reason to be.
He is an exceptionally loathsome individual.
It’s appropriate to denounce stupid and racist comments like Moore’s, but JT repeats his error from the earlier Chuck Todd column in failing to note – while criticizing him for speculating on why Trump supporters apparently like to be lied to – that is an objective and easily observable fact that Trump does not care whether anything he says is true and accurate, as long as it advances whatever short term goal he is advancing. This is neither normal or acceptable behavior from children, let alone the President.
Perhaps JT would benefit from focusing a little more on the behavior of the most powerful man in the world and a little less on media personalities and congressional back benches.
Bishop bythebook:
“This is neither normal or acceptable behavior from children, let alone the President.
Perhaps JT would benefit from focusing a little more on the behavior of the most powerful man in the world and a little less on media personalities and congressional back benches.”
************
You know, Trump is richer, smarter, more powerful and has a better looking and more accomplished family than you. Why should he pay any mind to your pedantic, moralizing suggestions given your comparatively meager achievements. Same goes for JT.
Mespo, thanks for that self revelatory post about who you think our political leaders should be, but I would note that other than being elected president without actually winning the vote, it is questionable what Trump and especially members of his family have “accomplished”, unless your judging by a Hunter Biden standard. It is true Melania came up hard and earned her position with plastic surgery and nudie pictures, but I would never have advised my daughter along that path. Would you your daughter?
Like I said, Trump runs by you in every way, yet you still criticize. Kinda pathetic. He did, of course, “win the vote” despite your lying. And btw, I want my political leaders richer, smarter and more accomplished, don’t you?
Mespo, Trump couldn’t run by Queen Elizabeth if his pants were on fire, so ,I’ll take that challenge.
Trump could indeed “run by Queen Elizabeth”.
And if Biden can brag about doing push-ups, I think Trump should tout his ability to outrun the Queen.
Maybe anonymous, but given that Joe looks like he can do those push ups while Trump brags about everything, whether accurately or not, the absence of trash talking the Queen’s 40 time vs his own says a lot. I doubt he can take Merkel or we’d have heard about that too.
bythebook – given the amount of violent statements Joe Biden has made, I think he is going to be one of those violent dementia patients.
byethebook, Trump could undoubtably take Merkel or any other woman head of state.
Biden might, Bernie is questionable. Wispy Warren would not fare well.
That Minnesota Senator, Klobucher?, would be a top contender.
“other than being elected president without actually winning the vote”
Estovir, what type of personality disorder is this? Anon cannot even recognize a lawful presidential victory.
Piece-rates-from-Correct-the-Record Personality Disorder.
Moore’s views are irrelevant. He hates all Republicans. He was no kinder to Bush than Trump. It’s exactly people like him, and most of Hollywood, that gave my vote to Trump. People like him know nothing about what middle Americans care about. They do not speak our language. They pander to those who feel they are “entitled” to have hard workers pay for their laziness and lack of ambition.
What Moore really believes as far as I am concerned is unknown. He makes a lot of money off of his schtik so I don’t expect him to appear any differently. Our corrupt leaders do the same thing. They smile for the cameras and say things that impress people but enter Congress with nothing and leave as millionaires.
I agree. That’s why I’m hoping Cruz’s call for term limits for Congress gains momentum.
Moore says most white people are Dangerous because he believes the Leftist progressives outnumber normal people.
Progressives are dangerous!
You need to vote for Trump this time.
Why align yourself with the cray crays?
Does anyone think that Moore knows the generally accepted meaning of the term useful idiot? He would be the poster boy for the definition.
Still his point abut a white person being dangerous as some merit. It would be extremely dangerous to get between him and a hamburger.
It would be interesting to ask the author of this article how he would have voted in 2016 knowing what he knows now about the candidates.
There is nothing more pathetic than a person who is ashamed of his/her race. Nothing.
Sadly I do believe Trump got his powerful base on board with his birthed claims and deportation of Hispanic rhetoric as well as build the wall screeds. The fervent supporters attracted by this might be characterized as what!!!????
True. The answer, unlike Moore / Chuck Todd / Al Green et al is dialogue
People who spout such xenophobia in my midst are often ashamed when I let them know I am one of those immigrant Latinos, especially since I have two professional graduate degrees, my English is better than most Americans and I treat sick patients like them. It is through dialogue that stupidity is often shown to be idiotic
Or you could just throw their way of a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts and see what happens….not pretty
“People who spout such xenophobia in my midst are often ashamed when I let them know I am one of those immigrant Latinos…”
Are you calling it xenophobia when citizens of a nation defend their border from those that enter illegally? I don’t blame the illegals for wanting a better life.
The US is going to have immigration with a wall or without a wall. The only difference is whether the people accept illegal immigrants that break the law or legal immigrants. Not accepting illegal immigrants is not the same as prejudice against them. What is wrong with protecting America from illegal entrance into our country?
Disclaimer: All the immigrants in my family enterred legally.
This comment says more about you than you realize.
Mar N.,
Go with “deplorable” to characterize Trump’s base. Worked well for Hillary, too. So I think it should be used more often by you and others who oppose Trump.
Mar……the birther claim was begun by Hillary’s thugs. Hispanic deportation became an art form under Obama.
“Build the wall” began with the Democrat’s Secure Fence Act of 2006, for which Obama cast his first vote as U.S. Senator.
Thoughts?
I appreciate Mr. Moore being so open.
It is not every day that a racist idiot self identifies in public.
Americans should recognize that many of the liberal commentators on this blog fall into the same categories.
Michael Moore is a useful idiot.
Strike “useful,”
mespo – useful is used here in as he is useful in reminding us normies how insane most of the Hillary voters are still.
Paul:
True dat. Restore “useful” and add after “idiot”: “yet, paradoxically useless, too.”