to start out, yes, the critiques of this movie are true. it’s kind of unfocused in how it jumps from topic to topic and the presentation is sensationalist, but personally im not someone who makes the worst assumptions of people’s intent. i think those issues occur because moore is passionate and he needs to make his point, and he knows that means you have to be as loud and clear as possible to even hope of making a dent on someone’s mind. i can easily see that style not being someone’s taste, but once again, personally, i admire knowing what you want to say and how you want to say it. he leaves his fingerprints and his voice (quite literally) in his work and that doesnt make the art bad, it makes it his. moving onwards:
i think it’s a lot stranger to watch this film in 2024 than it wouldve been to watch it in 2018, mostly because of exactly how much more inevitable america’s torpedo towards a dictatorship seems and fascistic it’s become. the suggestion that moore makes, about how maybe the system can be rebuilt better by the younger generation has, at this point, been at least partially snuffed out between 2017/2018 and 2024. the wombo combo of the pandemic and ai programs have made many american children, if what multiple US teachers online have to say is true, functionally illiterate. even if we dont believe that, we cannot underestimate the impacts generative ai will and does have. the seeds of doubt trump made about the media and the truth is only being worsened with ai generated images and ai generated answers on google. even assuming it’ll go out of fashion soon, how do you regain the trust of anyone who had to be taught they cant believe the images they’ve seen, but that they can trust you? how do you do that for a young child? even if we arent talking about young children, what about the teenagers and young adults who now feel fully reliant on chatgpt to write almost anything? even to believe in the generation that’s come before that, we also have to believe that the next generation wont tear down that hard work.
and frankly, that’s all i even
want to address. on the list of things i havent mentioned and has either gotten increasingly worse since 2018, hasnt changed, or is some whole new fuckery:
The Racism> anti lgbt+ sentiment specifically against transgender people> The Misogyny (to the point of removal of a fundamental human right)> gun laws > lead pipes still remaining in flint michigan and there still being families who havent recieved the settlement funds they’re entitled (as of this year)> US funding and support for the genocide against palestinians in gaza
and there’s probably a lot more fuckery on a local level im not privy to as someone who isnt american. im not american, and i dont have the same personal stakes in the state of the country as someone who is. maybe if i watched this movie in 2018, i couldve ignored it as something that’s not my issue at all, but america is influential. you cant help but watch as the years for the united states get worse, the ways your own country mirrors it, or the ways your own politicians are so desperately trying their own hand at the strategies of donald trump, not unlike the way im sure his presidency is him trying out the ways of the fascists before him. you cant help but watch the way many other parts of the world are falling into the arms of fascist rhetoric to the point it becomes murky if america is even the one started this at all. this movie is strange to watch in 2024 because even in 2018, you can believe in humanity’s ability to overcome fascism. but instead, i watched it now. and i left wondering; how can i continue to believe in humanity?
POST 2024 ELECTION EDIT: we're actually fucked lol
