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Michael Moore: A psychological analysis
rachellucas.com ^ | January 07, 2003 | Rachel Lucas

Posted on 01/07/2003 6:35:29 PM PST by Leisler

I've long loathed Michael Moore's politics, but I've always cut him some slack (believe it or not). I've defended him in the press, in that Wired article for which I was interviewed. I've refrained from gratuitous name-calling (with one exception which I later retracted) and I've made it a point to read the entirety of his writings and to give him credit when he's right.

Those days are over, not because I no longer believe in those methods but because I no longer feel Moore deserves their application. I now realize that he is a very interesting psychological case study.

First we had this yesterday:

American satirist Michael Moore has stormed out of Britain after a bust up with the London theatre hosting his one-man show. The Bowling For Columbine moviemaker performed Michael Moore - Live! to packed audiences for two months before Christmas at The Roundhouse in Camden, North London. But on the penultimate night he reportedly flew into a rage, verbally attacking everyone associated with the theatre because he thought he wasn't being paid enough. During the performance he complained he was making just $750 a night. A member of the stage crew says, "He completely lost the plot. He stormed around all day screaming at everyone, even the £5-an-hour bar staff, telling them how we were all conmen and useless. Then he went on stage and did it in public." Staff retaliated by refusing to work the following night, which led to the show being held up for an hour. Eventually he made a groveling apology to staff and the angry audience finally took to their seats. A source reports that Moore then packed his bags and flew to New York the next day without saying thank you or goodbye to anyone.

This, from a man who claims to be "regular folk" and who identifies with "working stiffs."

Primary diagnosis: Cognitive dissonance

Being an intelligent man, Moore knows deep down that he is full of shit. On some level, he's aware of the hypocrisy and manipulation that he engages in on a daily basis. Claiming to represent "working stiffs" while being a famous multimillionaire is becoming problematic, and as his psyche tries to reconcile these two states of being, he lashes out at the people who actually embody what his public persona is supposed to represent.

His subconscious wants to 'destroy' the real working stiffs, so as to mitigate the constant influx of information about what it means to be a real working stiff.

It may also be possible that in attacking genuine "regular folk," Moore is merely demonstrating that he truly believes he is one of them, in the same way that only another member of an "oppressed" group is allowed by society to insult other members of that group.

In any case, the dissonance between what Moore knows to be true and what he so desperately tries to convince other people is true has become a psychological burden for him, and he is beginning to crumble under the pressure.

Secondary diagnosis: Pompousassity

He just can't help it.

And then this, today (emphasis mine):

I took my son to see Michael Moore live at the Roundhouse, in north London, before Christmas...Sure there were some flunked bits – you expect that, the troughs are part of the adventure, an evening with a well-worn rebel.

What we did not expect was to feel so enraged at one point that we almost walked out. It was when Moore went into a rant about how the passengers on the planes on 11 September were scaredy-cats because they were mostly white. If the passengers had included black men, he claimed, those killers, with their puny bodies and unimpressive small knives, would have been crushed by the dudes, who as we all know take no disrespect from anybody. God save us from such stupid white men, especially now, when in the US and the UK, black people's lives are being ripped to shreds by drugs, lawlessness, fear and frightful violence plus the endless circle of racism, exclusion and incarceration.

Ah-hem. Ah-HEM. Yes, this may simply have been a joke in extremely bad taste...but maybe not. Does it matter?

Primary diagnosis: Projection

Moore is a self-proclaimed overweight nerd. Therefore, he knows that if he were confronted with a challenge such as being on a hijacked plane, he would be a "scaredy-cat" and would be unable to fight back in any meaningful way. But, rather than admit this to himself or anyone else, he attributes these feelings and qualities to others.

This projection not only comforts Moore by convincing him that he's not unusual or less manly than anyone else, it also gives him an opportunity to talk about Stupid White Men, which is important because he has books to sell.

Secondary diagnosis #1: Black envy

To Moore (as to many others), black people are cool. Black men, in particular, are natural warriors and bad-asses in Moore's mind. Their Afro-fabulousness is apparent on the football field and in popular culture. They will whup that ass, basically.

On the other hand, Moore sees a problem with white men. The only white men you see whupping much ass have guns. This poses a severe psychological conundrum for an individual like Moore because, remember, guns are baaaad. So a Dirty Harry figure can't be the hero.

The hero must be the unarmed yet naturally tough black man, in Moore's mind. I'll refrain from discussing the homoerotic undertones of this.

Also, the black-man-as-noble-hero image is safe and desirable. It appeals to white guilt and fits right in with contemporary pop culture. We love watching a Denzel Washington shoot poison arrows with his eyes and put the smack-down on the antagonist with an eloquent speech. We love our black sports hero-millionaires, and we enjoy knowing that they overcame hardship and oppression to achieve their lofty status. Our culture adores this sort of thing because it means we've changed.

Moore is tapping into that cultural state of mind and attempting to exploit it. He supposes that a rant about how bad-assed black men are, in contrast to white super-wusses, will appeal to our current instinct to vilify Whitey and elevate "minorities."

Furthermore, it's really the only option Moore has. His paradigm does not allow for white heroics, unless those heroics are performed by extremely poor or extremely liberal white people, preferably female. He has a best-seller called Stupid White Men. That's his schtick and he's stickin' to it, except now he has added Wimpy to the adjective list.

Secondary diagnosis #2: Blame the Victim Syndrome

In a mind as saturated with modern "liberal" dogma as Moore's, it is imperative to always find a way to place at least part of the blame for any tragedy upon the victim. To him, no event is allowed to be colored in anything but pallid shades of gray.

Just as he blames Columbine on suburbs, conformity, and gun shows, Moore must use the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, to somehow criticize the "establishment," which is White Men (stupid and wimpy white men, to be concise). At the same time, he strives to be original and provocative, and is aware that all the obvious targets have already been addressed - the federal government, President Bush, the airlines, et cetera.

Therefore, in the midst of a feverish bout of Blame the Victim Syndrome coupled with a desire to be "different," Moore has found his holy grail: Blame the deaths of 3,000 innocent people on the whiteness of the airplane passengers.

In the paradigm Moore has crafted for himself, this is the perfect solution - it lets the perpetrators off the hook (liberal handbook item #8, check), holds the Black Man up as Heroic Bad Ass (political correctness handbook item #4, check), and lays the blame for the atrocity at the feet of Stupid White Men (Michael Moore best-seller thesis, check).

Furthermore, it's bullet-proof, so to speak. Moore knows that if and when Whitey stands up to defend himself against such a ridiculous statement, the politically correct crowd (leftists) will scream, "Racist!" Remember, white people are not allowed to defend themselves against statements that simultaneously shred Whitey and praise black people, and Moore knows this.

Moore also likes this, because it helps him sell millions of copies of his book, Stupid White Men.

As you can see, what we have here is a deeply troubled man whose personal reality may not gel with actual reality, but nonetheless has a perfectly reasonable explanation. Pompousassity coexisting with the projection of a feeling of helplessness onto others. A deeply held yet erroneous belief conflicting with hard sensory input from the manifestion of that belief. Black envy wrapped up with the hate of one's own race. Et cetera, et cetera.

Treatment Plan: Prolonged intravenous infusions of Clue™.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: cappydick; gotmarx; loser; michaelmoore; michaelmore; michaelmoron; mikeymoron; pompousass; scaredycat; stupidwimpywhiteman; theroundhouse
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Moore is the sort of pecker-head that would take showers after gym in his underwear. Even though his physical size was over average, he had no courage or fire in his soul to do anything but take it.
This dick-weed has never had any self respect and therefore lashes out at the people that made his shortcomings apparent
The implications forwarded by this coward cannot be ignored by any American male, regardless of melanin content.
I am a white, American male. He has called me a scaredy-cat. A coward. And implies that I am weak.

Therefore, I call you out, Moore. Pussy! Coward! Idiot! Fight me now. I'll introduce you to the American male, up close.
Would you like your liver whole or shredded? Because, though your ass weighs more than my whole body, you will end up eating it. Faggot.

/rant off
fellow Freepers. Sorry for the outburst and the foul tone.
41 posted on 01/07/2003 8:07:03 PM PST by Spruce
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To: Leisler

Mike: Big Fat Geek Waddling

42 posted on 01/07/2003 8:21:49 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
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To: Leisler
Being an intelligent man, Moore knows deep down that he is full of shit.

Actually, this pretty much sums it up right there. . . except for the part about him being intelligent, or knowing. The rest of the article is just filler.

43 posted on 01/07/2003 8:30:16 PM PST by Stefan Stackhouse
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To: billhilly
Junior Samples made far more sense than this bastard! "Call us a BR-549"!

Mark
44 posted on 01/07/2003 8:31:15 PM PST by MarkL
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To: MarkL
You got that right, Mark.
45 posted on 01/07/2003 8:43:14 PM PST by billhilly
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To: Leisler
Frankly, I consider his stereotype of black men as tough guys racist in the extreme.
46 posted on 01/07/2003 8:50:22 PM PST by ellery (Michael needs Moore valium)
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To: Leisler
What a weirdo this guy has become. And to think . . . I actually like "Roger and Me"!
47 posted on 01/07/2003 8:55:25 PM PST by Saundra Duffy
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To: Spruce; Gforce11
fellow Freepers. Sorry for the outburst and the foul tone.

I thought it was quite appropriate. Can I kick his punk-ass some more when your done?
48 posted on 01/07/2003 9:26:37 PM PST by motzman ((stupid Giants given' me an ulcer))
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To: Leisler
bump for later
49 posted on 01/07/2003 9:34:40 PM PST by lorrainer
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To: Leisler
I had the misfortune of being in an edit bay next to Mr. Moore while he was cutting that steaming pile of dog squeeze known as "Canadian Bacon". In addition to being such a miserable you-know-what to be around (according to those trapped in the room with him), he also had a PA whose sole function (as far as any of us could tell) was continually running to Fatburger.
50 posted on 01/07/2003 9:45:17 PM PST by bootyist-monk
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To: Leisler
Cognitive dissonance

Pompousassity

Projection

Blame the Victim Syndrome

This describes all liberals, not just Moore. I don't agree with the Black Envy part. I see it as Black Exploitation. Liberals don't respect blacks or women, they simply use them for their own selfish purposes.
51 posted on 01/07/2003 10:51:36 PM PST by Mind-numbed Robot
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To: Leisler
Moore is beneath contempt, and this latest little outburst only confirms it. He probably thinks "Let's Roll!" is another way of saying "Let's head for the buffet table!"
52 posted on 01/07/2003 11:47:47 PM PST by Rainbow Rising (Please don't feed the liberals)
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To: chasio649
I love it...may i borrow that?? ;)

By all means. I've suggested that interviewers confirm it next time they have Mr. Moore on as a guest.

53 posted on 01/08/2003 2:49:35 PM PST by IronJack
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