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Herr Moore

14 comments on Herr Moore

Herr Moore
: Michael Moore opened his tour of Germany last night in Berlin. Deutsche Welle reports:

“It has not been the easiest year in America to stand up and voice your dissent,” said Moore, leaning his large frame into the podium. “It makes a lot of difference to have friends overseas supporting me.” …

But Moore’s alleged creative handling of the facts in his books and films, a standard criticism in the United States, is beginning to make its way across the Atlantic. German journalists, professors and critics have begun to take off the gloves when talking about the bestseller. Even devoted fans left feeling empty-handed after an appearance they felt was more entertainment than substance.

“I thought it was almost like a kind of cult. He says somebody is crap and everyone cheers,” said Max Klemmt, a truck driver. “I thought he would bring a few more examples and a bit more context.”

: Heiko Hebig says:

I am still somewhat baffled by Moore’s extraordinary success in Germany. He actually sold twice as many books in Germany than he did in his home market – while writing mostly about domestic politics. I guess for one thing, Michael Moore encourages many Germans to keep their bias towards partial ignorance. “Muhaha, 80% of all Americans can’t find Iraq on a map…”

So, please, you average Hans, what’s the state capital of Kansas? Show me Wyoming on a map. And how many members does the U.S. Senate have?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, when will Germany get its own Michael Moore?

14 responses to “Herr Moore”

  1. fishbed21 Avatar
    fishbed21

    Hell, have ’em try to correctly locate the state of New Mexico. That’s a question the NY Times whiffs on 5 out of 6 tries. And the folks at the 96 Olympics refused ticket requests from us because avalability was open to only the Lower 48 states.
    Heh, Indeed.

  2. Catherine Avatar
    Catherine

    Heiko – agree 100%. One of my co-workers in the UK wrote me she met a lovely couple from LA (“and they were normal! not like 90210 at all!”) who “very strangely” were connecting through Heathrow to Barcelona (“how weird is that!”). She had no idea it took 11+ hours to fly from LA to Heathrow alone and there were no direct flights. She also had to ask me recently where Chicago is and if it’s close by to NY (well, closer to CA). I get these questions all the time. I don’t mind at all, but don’t freakin’ tell me they are better at geography.

  3. Chocolatier Avatar
    Chocolatier

    To Heiko:
    let’s see, a citizen of country A writes books about country A and sells like mad in country G. And then you bash people of country G for not knowing enough about country A. Counter-question: how many books dealing with country G (or continent E for that matter) are bestsellers in country A? Awwww, … none. What was that about the mirror? Who is getting some information about abroad and who none? Getting one sided information is better than getting none at all.

  4. Andy Freeman Avatar
    Andy Freeman

    I know why the Germans need to know about the US, but why and what do Americans need to know about Germany?
    I agree that Americans should know that Europe has is approaching some serious demographic problems.

  5. JorgXMcKie Avatar
    JorgXMcKie

    Well, the difference, Andy, is that some questions make Americans look ignorant and others don’t. Depends on what result you want.
    I, personally, consider Europeans of all stripes incredibly ignorant because they can’t discuss baseball intelligently, nor football (soccer ain’t football), nor tell me accruately where Waterloo, Iowa or Waterloo, Illinois are. In addition, these dimbulbs can’t even come close to telling my why the Iowa caucuses (not primary) are important to the Presidential election process nor how they work. Besides that, hardly any of them know the differences between Chicago-style pizza and stuffed pizza.
    On top of that, if you start describing your home area and talk of miles, acres, bushels or gallons they just look at you stupidly, like cows chewing their cud. (I’m not entirely sure some of them even speak English, let alone well enough to actually carry on a useful conversation with me.)
    Trust me, these folks don’t have a clue as to why thery’re buying a book full of lies about America. Probably one of those weird cultural rituals of theirs you occasionally hear about. (You know, like arming up and stomping across Europe.)
    ;->=

  6. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    The part I still can’t figure out is why, if Moore and Sarandon and Garofalo and Robbins and so on are being so massively suppressed, why do I keep hearing so much about them? Does no one else see the irony of Tim Robbins giving a talk at the National Press Club about how his freedom of speech is being taken away from him?

  7. jim Avatar
    jim

    My last boss at the last company I worked for (before becoming much more happily self-employed) was an incredibly arrogant Dutch citizen. He was excoriating the group for not knowing who the company’s biggest customer in Finland was. I asked him “who is the biggest customer in Ohio?” He didn’t know and didn’t think that that was important to know, even though Ohio was more than twice as many people as Finland (11 million to 5 million, in round numbers), and was more than twice as big a market for our products.
    And, yes, I know the capitals of all the European countries.

  8. Mara Avatar
    Mara

    “It has not been the easiest year in America to stand up and voice your dissent,”
    Poor Michael. He only won an Academy Award and had a best selling book here. What a struggle that man has had this year. Sigh.

  9. moptop Avatar
    moptop

    You would think that a continent in the process of framing a constitution would have at least the faintest clue about the electoral college, since they are attempting to create a federal system. But alas, no, Europeans feel free to criticize our elections with zero comprehension our system. And calling Michael Moore’s view of the US as one sided, is like calling Alice in Wonderland a one sided view of reality, when without facts it is in truth no view at all.

  10. backpacker Avatar
    backpacker

    I think Madonna’s comment says it all:
    “The most stupid British person is still more intelligent than the average American.”

  11. Phil Avatar
    Phil

    > Poor Michael. He only won an Academy Award and
    > had a best selling book here. What a struggle that
    > man has had this year. Sigh.
    I think he’s referring to being branded “unpatriotic” or “anti-american” when vilifying the Bush regime. Just because you loathe the administration, doesn’t make you anti-American. In fact, it makes you pro-American..
    You don’t get out much, do you?

  12. Lynb Avatar
    Lynb

    Phil,
    Calling Americans the most stupid people on the planet isn’t “Anti-American”? Moore doesn’t just “vilify the Bush Administration”. He insults every last one of us. That’s Anti-American in a nut shell. Don’t get out much, do you?

  13. Andy Freeman Avatar
    Andy Freeman

    > Just because you loathe the administration, doesn’t make you anti-American. In fact, it makes you pro-American
    Actually, it doesn’t.
    Moore is entitled to speak/believe pretty much anything he pleases.
    However, there are UnAmerican beliefs and speech(es) just as there are UnAmerican acts.
    Moreover, the fact that there are pro-american criticisms of this administration doesn’t imply that Moore is making them.

  14. Dave Avatar
    Dave

    I just picked up Moore’s books today, yet I can tell why he is so overwhelmingly popular here.
    It’s simply because he makes Germans believe that
    there are thinking Americans over there. Sometimes
    the utterances of thsi “non-president” and his cohorts plus the biased media coverage have us doubt it. Moore is the spark at the gun powder barrel. Just you wait.
    Forget all that crap about patriotic, unAmerican,
    etc. Read your postmodern authors to find out that
    those kinds of myths and meta-narratives do not exists, are ficticious!