Well .. I'd like pick your statements apart - I hope you don't mind ..??
First of all .. NOBODY's ego is fed by protests. While you might think that's true .. it's not .. trust me!
Lots of uninformed, non-political, young people will like his film. First of all it feeds the lies the dems (or their parents) have been feeding them about Bush. Why bother with a kiddy film when Moore's film is more "adult". [the kids just don't know it's really not adult]
The way to start conversations is to confront people with the truth. You can do that by protesting. People see the sign - read the comment - start talking about what they saw vs. what the sign said .. start questioning film. The choir Moore relates to won't bother to see his film .. they already hate Bush.
Protesting doesn't make anyone consequential. Ignoring someone sends a signal that nobody cares what the film is, or that the film is OKAY. We should never want people to believe this film is OKAY. This film is the worst possible type of hate speech. We cannot allow it to stand.
You are free to pick my statements apart, but you didn't.
Protests do feed into the Moore publicity machine, rather than undermine it. They also feed his ego. It makes him seem much more important than he really is.
I don't trust your assesment of that, sorry. You are off base.
I don't doubt that there are lots of uninformed people out there, but that doesn't have much to do with my statement. Indeed, many of those uninformed get their info from mainstream media sources.
"Thje protesters don't want you to see Michael Moore's expose of the Bush administration, a film that won the top award at Cannes." Then they interview one of the more dim-witted people on the protest line and make it look like the criticism of the movie is coming from backwards right wingers who want to censor the movie.
They have done this before, they will do it again.
You are a poor box office prognosticator. The chior WILL go see the movie, but it won't have much appeal beyond that. The movie will do modest business but get a lot of press - it will be crushed, of course, by Spider-Man 2 which opens a few days later. But the newspapers and magazines will continue talking about the film.
Do you really want an article about the protest with a hand-picked picture of a bunch of backward looking, invred-appearing zealots with the title "The movie that the right wing doesn't want you to see!" Moore can't pay for that kind of great publicity.
We shouldn't give it to him.
And finally, I never suggested ignoring the film. I just don't think organized protests is the best avenue towards that. Arm ourselves with the facts and argue about it whenever we can. I do - I embarassed a crabby lady at my supermarket the other day, and had a verbal tussle with a patronizing DNC worker on the streets of NYC that he is still smarting from.
I don't expect to change their minds, but I figure there are peopkle in earshot who might be on the fence and the exchange could motivate. I never appear mean or angry, which also undermines credibility.
Conservatives never get this lesson - the media will never be fair to our side of the issues. An organized protest will not impress the chior going to see the film, and naturally lead to some press coverage for the protest and for the film. This advertises the film, not undermines it. To expect anything else is unrealistic.