I Will Downsize You, My Friend

It is a sad, sad thing that I can discredit Mr. Michael Moore, the author of this book, with only two words. Three, if you're one of his greater supporters and would be biased enough to not even let me include the dash. What are those two/three words?

No back-up.

None. Nada. Zero. Zilch. In Downsize This!, Moore makes claim after claim about the evils of American corporations, and there is no... what would you call it... bibliography in the back of the book, nor are there footnotes in the bottom of his pages, nor places we can call to verify his claims. Everything he said in here might as well be bullsh*t, and given Moore's history (www.bowlingfortruth.com , www.moorewatch.com), there's a great chance that much of it is.

Let's say, according to his more optimistic critics, Moore's first film, "Roger & Me" (which I have yet to see) is 3% lies. Moore's most recent film, Bowling for Columbine, is, and this is being nice, about 40% lies. R&M was published in 1989, and BFC was published in 2002. 2002 minus 1989 equals 13. 40-3 (And remember, 40 is being nice), equals 37. 37 divided by 13 equals about a 3% increase in lies given in publications each year. "Downsize This!" was published in 1996. 1996 minus 1989 equals 7. 7 times 3 equals 21. 21+3 equals 24, which means "Downsize This!" is 24% untruth. We can assume in 1988, before R&M, Moore was not a corrupt person, but then he started making movies, and he probably realized how easily you can deceive yourself into lying to get people to agree with you, and thus, the corruption of Moore began.

While I was reading "Downsize This!", so sickened was I by all of the easily identifiable false propaganda that it took me four weeks to read the book, for I could not take all of that crap within such a short amount of time. In the first one-hundred pages, I was optimistic for Moore, and somewhat believed he'd start getting somewhat credible in the book, but when I got to page 95, I knew this wasn't going to happen, so I started taking notes, all the way up until the end.

So many notes are there on Moore's fallacies (from page 95 all the way to 317), that I'll have to only go through the biggest and best, so I apologize to those who really wanted to hear everything, but being a writer, I don't want this review to get boring.

Page 95 (and try to remember all of this is without back-up)- Republican Senator Jesse Helms states, "Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here [to North Carolina]. He'd better have a bodyguard." For what feels like the rest of the chapter, Moore goes on about how this MUST be a threat (simply because Jesse is a 'pub), and even investigates in the manner by calling the Secret Service. Now whether or not this is a threat, I don't know, but Moore doesn't even stop for a second to consider the possibility that perhaps Helms was just stating that some people HATE Clinton so much in NC, that if he goes down there, he might to watch out for himself. It VERY WELL might have been that, and when I read it, that's what it came off to me as. But NO! HELMS IS A REPUBLICAN HE IS THE EVIL AND HE WANTS TO KILL CLINTON! Bah.

Page 108 All I have to quote is "the dark days of Reagan and Bush." How ignorant is Moore to state something like this? If people thought the days of Reagan were so DARK, then why did they re-elect him, then elect Bush, list him on the top five greatest American presidents, and then MAKE SURE "THE REAGANS" WOULDN'T GET AIRED? Can ya tell me, Michael? Huh? Or is it simply that because the word "Reagan" is included with "Republican" that the days under him must have been DARK?

Page 120 Here Moore shows how unsafe working conditions killed 56,000 people in 1994, while handgun deaths caused 15,000. This is interesting, but Moore blames it on BIG CORPORATION, when this really is just managers just not taking these sorts of things into hand, and some of these, a lot of them at that, were completely unavoidable, because when you're around people, disease spreads, and people die.

Page 152 Any lavishly spending mother would become Moore's biggest fan when reading this page, where Moore tells us that when we spend irresponsibly, ITS NOT OUR FAULT. ITS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. I don't even think I have to go to any lengths to explain how bad that is.

Page 163 Moore's most ignorant point is right here on this page. "As I've pointed out, over 60 percent of the voting-age population in this country did not vote in the 1994 election. Of the remaining 38 percent who did show up at the polls, the Republicans got a little more than half of the vote. That means that Newt Gingrich has been ruling America with only 20 percent of this country having voted for his agenda. Twenty percent! That's no mandate-IT'S A CULT! That's all-just a puny little cult. Nearly 80 percent of all Americans did not want Newt Gingrich running the show!"

Reading this, I really couldn't believe my eyes were seeing this. How could even a man like Moore be lead to state something like that part in bold. 80 percent of America doesn't like Newt because 80% of them didn't vote for him, according to Moore. Doesn't that go for our president, as well, and the one before him, and several others before those? Doesn't it? But does Moore point this out? And if only 40 percent voted, how can you account for the other 60 percents opinion? How, people? How is it even possible? Perhaps Moore can provide us with an answer. But he doesn't.

Page 169 If you've read through some of Reagan's letters, as I have, you find that the reason Reagan didn't go to church much was because his security STRONGLY advised him not to for risk of him getting killed. He really, really wished he could, he states. But for security reasons, he couldn't. While perhaps Moore didn't know it at the time, here he blindly points out that Reagan simply can't be very "religious" if he doesn't go to church, but Bill and Hillary are obviously religious, because they go to church every Sunday morning. Ugh.

Page 176 Jokingly, here Moore fights for a sperm's right to life. "The sperm is the very first building block of life. Without the sperm, there can be no fetus," obvious arguing against anti-abortionists' statement that life begins with the fetus. Moore, a sperm isn't going to become a life unless it is joined with the egg. It is an entity that has no care for its existence. A fetus, however, is going to become a life. And imagine if your mom had aborted you? Would you be around to tell everyone your point of view?

While I'm against abortion, I tend to think it should probably be legal, because as a human, I cannot prove whether or not it a fetus is a life. But I'm just arguing my anti-abortion stance here.

Later in the chapter, Moore suggests people are only anti-abortion because they want to control women, which is about as asinine as it gets.

Page 227 On my notes here, after I put the page number, all I wrote was "What a bastard." And what a bastard indeed. Despite all the evidence against him, Moore says the only reason we all think O.J. is guilty is because he's black. Well then, couldn't I as easily argue that the only reason Moore thinks he isn't guilty is because he's black?

Page 273 "4. Demand a release of the tens of thousands of black inmates in U.S. prisons who are there for nonviolent crimes. Give each of these newly released inmates a good-paying job." Sigh... with that logic, shouldn't we release the white ones as well? But no, even in prison affirmative action should exist... ugh... Moore seems to be thinking the only reason these men robbed was because they didn't have jobs which was because of our evil economy and because they were discriminated against in the predominantly black societies in which they already lived. Isn't it possible that they were raised in a society that made them too lazy to get jobs, and just resorted to burglary instead? And Moore, weren't you complaining about burglars and how they should all be in prison earlier in the book?

Page 302 This is near the end of the book. Here, Moore, with a total lack of balance, tells us stuff to read and listen to so that we may get a better liberal balance. So he says "Check out rap, too---the powerful voice of Black America." Oh yeah, "I'm gonna hit this b*tch and pop this motherf*cker for stealing my weed and money. Bombs over Baghdad." That's some powerful stuff, Moore.

It is sad that I had to read through the book and find all of these fallacies (and many more that I'm not going to waste my time mentioning), because when a friend of mine lended it to me, I was actually thinking Moore would have some pretty good, credible material to provide me with. Apparently I was wrong, and ten pages in, when a friend of mine asked me what I was reading, I said "liberal propaganda." I wish I wouldn't have had to say that.

To give Moore some credit, there are some very funny parts to his book, and he has a good sense of humor (when he's not being an idiot). Early in the first pages, he tries to see how money-hungry Presidential nominees are by creating organizations like "Satan Worshippers for Dole" and sending the nominees money. The results are... interesting. He also interviews one of Steve Forbes' assistants, with humorous results. He makes corporate trading cards (those are funny). He creates new names for America, which are too funny to mention here, in an article that doesn't even need to be labeled as "liberal humor." And he has some good points to offer about how America always seems to need a new enemy, whether it be Hussein or Bin Laden.

But none of these can save the book from the more-than-likely biased one-star I'm about to place it with. Moore never gives balance to a word he says, rarely provides the reasons for what he thinks, has no back-up, always spares liberals where a group of people is wrong, supports free health care, and mentions his "hometown" Flint so much that some have started investigating into whether or not he really was born there- plus, his stories just seem too convenient to be true at times.

So if you're a narrow-minded individual looking for propaganda with a lack of credit, I would recommend reading "Downsize This!" But hoping you're not, save yourself the time, and don't pick up this book.

"Everyone thinks their form of socialism is the one that will work." -Rick Speaker

"You think health care is expensive now? You should see it when its free."