By ~ Socrates Circa Today ~
Fahrenheit 11 / 9 is a good documentary, not a great documentary as were his films Roger and Me, Fahrenheit 9 / 11 and Capitalism A Love Story.
However it gets a B plus for effort in MANY of the topics of the day that are explored in the documentary .
There are excerpts from an interview with a Yale professor of history who accurately states “America has NEVER had a democracy.” This is because African Americans as well as other minorities, women have not always had full rights, with some groups still not having full rights, such as women earning less than men at the same jobs .
It is a shame that Mr. Moore doesn’t bring up the lack of the common law in the workplaces in the United States, which is in violation of the Seventh Amendment . Your common law rights enshrined in the 7th Amendment means that your rights are absolute at all times, that is what the common law guarantees.
How would this change our nation and how it can dialogue about the future of the USS United States??!! I will leave that question open ended for the people who read this to dialogue about.
In the documentary Mr. Moore presents statistical evidence that the majority of Americans are socialists . A majority seeks Medicare for all, public financing of education, as well as a variety of other socialist and or social democracy leaning policy initiatives are documented in Mr. Moores documentary.
Here is some of what studybreaks.com had to say about this in their article,
“We are the majority”
“Although, the left-wing activist offered a silver lining, saying that America is now a very liberal country, despite some not preferring the label. Moore found in his research for “11/9” that most Americans want Medicare for all, believe in women’s equality and equal pay, believe in LGBTQ rights, want free public education and so on.”
“The “11/9” director found it amazing how liberal America really is, saying “we are the majority,” not the big banks, not anti-immigration groups, but in those who truly want equal opportunities for all. Moore reminds Americans that despite the right-wing news stations, or even what Trump says himself, “Our choir is much bigger.” “
(Source, https://studybreaks.com/tvfilm/fahrenheit-11-9/ ) (3)
How do we as Americans fund the laundry list of social programs and entitlements that Mr. Moore documents in his documentary besides taxing the working class and the ultra wealthy at a 90 percent rate as was done with the New Deal for decades??!!
We must put a wealth limit on the ultra wealthy of 150 billion dollars, with the rest of those funds going into an “enough for everyone fund” to fund Franklin Roosevelts Second Bill of Rights, which is documented by Michael Moore in his excellent documentary Capitalism A Love Story .
In the film, Moore presents evidence of corporate collusion, in Flint, Michigan, between the Rick Snyder the Republican Governor of Michigan and former President Obama . With subtext showing, that US Presidents are nothing more, than corporate spokespersons.
Gov. Snyder, replaced the glacier fed freshwater supply of water for Flint, from Lake Huron, with water from the Flint River.
This is an excerpt from Deutche Welle the German news stations review of Mr. Moores film,
“To save money, drinking water was drawn from a nearby river in 2014 rather than being piped in from Detroit. It was channeled through old pipes into the city, and the contaminated water combined with lead from the pipes resulted in residents becoming seriously ill.
At least 10 people died of Legionnaires’ disease, likely caused by the contaminated river water, while others suffered from developmental delays as a consequence of the lead poisoning.”
Ongoing crisis
For Moore, the scandal in Flint exemplifies what happens when a government decides that money and power are more important than people. In an interview after the Flint premiere, Moore said the victims must know their deaths weren’t in vain.
Several victims of the drinking water scandal were in the audience at the evening premiere. Their reactions to the film were emotional, as the Detroit Free Press observed.
“At one point, when photos of Flint residents who died from Legionnaires’ disease during the water crisis were shown, one person yelled, “We love you all!,” the paper noted.
Ariana Hawk, the mother of a young boy who was a victim of the lead water crisis, told the daily The Detroit News that she hopes the film will bring the national spotlight back to Flint.
“There are families here who still can’t drink the water, that are still affected by what the water did to them,” she said. “I know, I’m still living it.”
(Source, https://www.dw.com/en/fahrenheit-11-9-michael-moores-latest-film-is-a-call-to-action/a-45458833) (4)
There was fraud committed by Flint Health Officials, in relationship to the contaminated Flint River water, that is lead poisoning the residents of Flint Michigan. Flint whistleblower April Cook-Hawkins .. Cook-Hawkins, a former employee of the Genesee County Health Department who gives her first on-camera interview to Moore in the film, (Source, https://www.indiewire.com/2018/09/michael-moore-fahrenheit-11-9-premiere-parkland-flint-1202001490/ ) (2)
Moore presents a weak straw man fallacy toward Donald Trump, he insinuates that both Snyder and Trump are were wealthy CEOs with a history of varying levels of corruption as the heads of their companies . Moore does not prove this point very well with the evidence that he presents .
The filmmaker also hints that 9 / 11 was an inside job similar to the Reichtag fire, coordinated by the Nazis, with the voice over of former President Bush, dubbed over video from the aftermath of the Reichtag fire, that occurred in Germany in the 1930s, so Hitlers Nazi Party could gain tighter control over that country, after the First World War, as well as the hyperinflation, that plagued Germany leading up to the Nazis gaining power.
Mr. Moore didn’t connect that the current public school system in the United States, is the Prussian Public school system model that was adopted 90 years prior to the Nazis coming to power in Germany . How peoples of a nation are socialized in a school setting affects their intellectual and emotional development. The Prussian Public School System model keeps those who are over the long term exposed to it, in a 10 to 18 year old level of intellectual and emotional development.
Source, https://www.dw.com/en/fahrenheit-11-9-michael-moores-latest-film-is-a-call-to-action/a-45458833 ) (4)
The film also explores how the Democratic Party establishment, sabotages more radical democratic socialists, and or reformers campaigns .
Also it explores the West Virginia Teachers strike, the origins of the term “red neck”, came from strikers who wore red bandanas during the movements of the early 20th century, that organized for American workers rights . There are many schoolteachers that have to work more than one job, while also helping out some of their students, who may only have one parent.
This is from The New Yorker Magazine ,
“The United States of America is a leftist country.” Various items of evidence are submitted as proof: statistics on health care and welfare; demonstrations in favor of gun control organized in February by survivors of the Parkland school shootings; and, in the same month, the successful strike that was called by teachers in West Virginia.”
By sharing about the leadership corruption against reform, by mainline centerist Democrats, Michael Moore infers with his democratic socialist leaning audience, that reforms must occur within the Democratic Party in order for more of a social democracy of an FDR Bill of Rights direction to occur in America, with Bernie Sanders, as well as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, being two examples that are presented in the film.
The New Yorker article, doesn’t share any context of how socialist movements in the 1930’s and before in America, have brought forth the middle class, as well as the MUCH better workplace, and wage standards, that many Americans take for granted today, were fought toward for decades.
Here is their VERY plain observation about how Moores message is simplistic, which I disagree with and US history does also,
“All that is required for the dislodging of the status quo is a natural gush of political complaint, or so the movie would have us believe. What it neglects to mention is that, in the 2016 election, Michigan went for Trump, who was also backed by a startling 68.5 per cent of West Virginian voters. The gushers had ideas of their own.”
“But the film will neither change minds nor soothe embittered hearts, I fear, and an opportunity has been missed. Flint is to Moore as Baltimore is to Barry Levinson or Brooklyn to Spike Lee, and I can’t help wishing that Moore, who knows every inch of his home turf, had embedded with a family of Trump loyalists—not to catch them out, as he seeks to do with Snyder, or to stand in awe of them, as he does with the Parkland students, but purely to trace the source of the family’s grievances and the everyday progress of its hopes.
After all, he did much the same with autoworkers in “Roger & Me.” That movie, incidentally, earned praise from an unexpected quarter. “I liked it,” Donald Trump once said, before adding, “I hope he never does one on me.” “
(Source, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/the-vexing-analogies-of-fahrenheit-11-9?mbid=social_twitter ) . (1)
What Moore could have done better ,
* Connecting the dots of the Trump family fortune with embezzling wealthy Russians monies like he did with the Bush’s and the Bin Laden’s in Fahrenheit 9 11 .
* Sharing at greater length and detail some of the corrupt practices that the Trump and Snyder families have been involved in .
* Connecting how corporatism works. How it is a merger of the interests of the large corporations with the state. Also Moore could have done a better job looking at how the lack of ethics, within the law, prevents true comprehensive, lasting, reform from occurring in the United States .
* Explored the corruption within the Democratic Party in the theft of the nomination of Bernie Sanders .
I see this film as Mr. Moore targeting an already built in audience of his followers, the tone of the film is NOT to bring new followers to Michael Moores Democratic Socialist message. to mold America into more of the commonwealth that is actually supposed to be .
So this film from Michael Moore Farhenheit 11 9 gets two and one half popcorn kernals out of four.
adamhaines11 