Great on sentiment, light on substance..., 14 Mar 2003

I found 'Stupid White Men', although genuine to its very core, to be slightly naive. However, the simplicity could be the intention of the author.

If Moore, and I believe this to be the case, wants to reach Middle America with his views then I think he succeeds. If the book is an attempt to galvanise an electorate even more apathetic and disaffected than in this country then I think he succeeds.

Where I think the book fails is in its inability to be much more than a tub-thumping rant. That is his style and I accept that, but by doing this he suffocates some serious points and skirts some issues which he could have spent more time discussing rather than say, his reasons for choosing to buy a mini-van. However as I say, he is a comedian and while trying to keep the theme light, you can forgive the authors reluctance to substantiate his statements with any real depth.

The exception to this I would say is the fantastic expose of the Bush/Cheney election farce. This first chapter of the book is worth the price alone. If an American citizen can read and understand this without wanting to vomit on the lawn of the white house, then they are a more tolerant nation than I give them credit for.

I think Moore is going for the populist vote and why not? It needs more books of this nature to be read by the masses that perhaps cannot get to grips with other political texts.

Stupid White Men is funny and intelligent. It's a good diversion from more serious authors such as Chomsky and Pilger and certainly one for the uninitiated.

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funny fat man, 9 Dec 2002

By	Mr. M. J. Bowen "middle name : NR" (some NOT RANDOM room) - See all my reviews

Given this diagnosis of the American malaise, it is no wonder that Moore is frustrated by the legion of politicians who mobilize nice sounding rhetoric about "caring for the environment" or "feeling all that pain" - but whose actions display a crass watering down of these "convictions". His liberal-baiting is a highlight of this book - whether directed at those black leaders who consider their people "integrated" or (brilliantly) at the recycling token-efforters. A good bit, for me, was his disavowal of "student councils" at school - and no doubt the boring bureaucracy of Student-Union-career-chasing - unless as scenes for imaginative subversion. This disfavor extends to the Democratic Party - conceived as the nice-talking-Republicans - and to those who carped on about Raplh Nadar handing the election to Bush (which by many measures he simply did NOT WIN);

"Nadar represents who they [the Baby Boomers] used to be but no longer are...that's why they hate him...he never changed, he never lost the faith, never compromised, never gave up."

There are chapters in the book which deal with the three negative states comprising the title - stupidity (obviously bad, but everywhere) whiteness (on the most immediate level - whites are privileged, most blacks are not, so blacks make more committed workers for Moore's various projects than complacent, irresponsible, college kids) Men (obviously bad, or at least worse, and Moore makes the case for their obsolescence). With these reprobates dominating our key institutions - Moore's prescription of playful, but honest, opposition is inspiring and delivered with passion and very little po-faced posturing.

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