Product Description

Michael Moore sizes up the new century - and that big, ugly special-interest group that's laying waste to the world as we know it: stupid white men. Whether he's calling for United Nations action to overthrow the Bush Family Junta, calling on African-Americans to place whites-only signs over the entrances of unfriendly businesses, or praying that Jesse Helms will get kissed by a man, Stupid White Men is Mike's Manifesto on Malfeasance and Mediocrity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99836 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Stupid White Men, Michael Moore's screed against "Thief-in-Chief" George Bush's power elite, hit No. 1 at Amazon.com within days of publication. Why? It's as fulminating and crammed with infuriating facts as any right-wing bestseller, as irreverent as The Onion, and as noisily entertaining as a wrestling smackdown. Moore offers a more interesting critique of the 2000 election than Ralph Nader's Crashing the Party (he argued with Nader, his old boss, who sacked him), and he's serious when he advocates ousting Bush. But Moore's rage is outrageous, couched in shameless gags and madcap comedy: "Old white men wielding martinis and wearing dickies have occupied our nation's capital.... Launch the SCUD missiles! Bring us the head of Antonin Scalia!... We are no longer [able] to hold free and fair elections. We need UN observers, UN troops". Moore's ideas range from on-the-money (Arafat should beat Sharon with Gandhi's non-violent shame tactics) to over-the-top: blacks should put inflatable white dolls in their cars so racist cops will think they're chauffeurs; the ever-more-Republicanesque Democratic Party should be sued for fraud; "no contributions toward advancing our civilization ever came out of the South [except Faulkner, Hellman, and RJ Reynolds]," because it's too hot to think straight there; Korean dictator Kim Jong-il "has got to broaden himself beyond porn and John Wayne" by watching better movies, like Dude, Where's My Car? (which contains "all you need to know about America"). Whatever your politics, Stupid White Men should make you blow your stack. --Tim Appelo

About the Author
Michael Moore is the award winning filmmaker behind Roger and Me and the Emmy award winning TV Nation. He is a professional agent provocateur.

Customer Reviews

Great on sentiment, light on substance...
Michael Moore, I take my slightly grubby baseball hat off to you sir...

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.

funny fat man
This book is far more than the rant-against-bush-with-laughs I was expecting; indeed it contains within it a critique of American society and politics that amounts to an entire worldview-with-laughs. Its fundamental premise is that, instead of being fearful of one another, "the people" should be aware of how those in power (almost exclusively the Stupid White Men of the piece) perpetuate economic inequality, social degeneration and their own global and national power, while masking all this with an omniprescient (sic.) dumb culture. This is rightly seen as an unjust, dividing, oppressive superstructure that looms over and conditions your petty prejudices about how "blacks commit the most crimes" or whatever. By refocusing your attention in such a way - away from the spots news/petty politics complex (listen to Talksport) and towards a critique of society that reads in the factor of "power" (as opposed to liberal conceptions of "consensus") - the social order that appears so good and reasonable (less so under Bush) is cast in a new light. In each case (economics, education, justice) the dominant trends are towards consolidating and expanding the prospects of the top 10% (Tax breaks et al, unthinking corporate prawn production, allowances to evade tax/emissions levels) and constrict those of the poor (fear of unemployment, diminishing opportunities to fight back, being not about rights but keeping the "garbage off the street"). This domestic situation is masked by a national arrogance which declares "we're number one" - and proceeds to throw its weight around in international antagonisms which again only benefit the narrow upper strata. This whole situation, writes Moore in the Epilogue, has hardened into its mould post September 11th (this book was, in the main, written beforehand, and additions to it deal with responses to its contents in the aftermath). The patriotic rhetoric and climate of fear have been used to give extra-sanction to the power of the powerful - while increasing the division of the neighbor-distrusting, (corporate) America aligning, people.

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.

Examining some skeletons in Americas closet
Michael Moore seems to be a fine patriot, in the finest sense of the word. Not following the blind opinion that "my country is the best, my countrymen are the best", he turns the spotlight on his own people and is heavily critical of American politics, politicians, culture, but in a highly amusing and irreverant fashion. The chapters on the election of President Dubya are fascinating reading. Similarly, his opinions on the so-called "recycling" trend, are thought-provoking and intelligent. Moore is a fine patriot because with his unique style of questioning and challenging of the authorities, he is seeking to improve the society in which he lives. Moore cares enough to take unpopular stands against big business, and throughout the book he encourages us to look beyond the obvious when following the news, and to take an active part in society rather than letting it pass us by.