“Bowling for Columbine” (2002) is a Michael Moore film about why America is so violent, particularly White America. Until CNN does a “White in America” on violence, which will probably be never, this is as close as you will get.
Some of what you see:
- Moore asks the man who makes “Cops”, the crime show, why he always seems to show black street crime and never, say, white corporate crime.
- Moore asks a spokesman at Lockheed Martin whether having a big defence contractor in town had anything to do with the shooting at the nearby high school: Columbine.
- Moore shows the plane that bombed Vietnamese on Christmas Eve 1972. It is not far from – Columbine.
- Moore takes two of Columbine’s wounded – one in a wheelchair, one with a bullet near his heart – to the headquarters of K-Mart, the company that sold the 17-cent bullets that remain in their bodies.
- Moore asks Charlton Heston why America is so violent. And why he spoke at NRA rallies in Denver and Flint, Michigan soon after terrible shootings took place nearby (Columbine, Kayla Rolland).
- Moore shows a quick cartoon history of violence in White America – from the Pilgrims to the Klan to the NRA to white flight.
- Moore plays the song “What a Wonderful World” and shows 16 cases of violent American foreign policy from the past 50 years. Body count: 4,806,006. It ends with 9/11. Chickens coming home to roost.
Moore points out that:
- Columbine took place on the day America dropped the most bombs on Kosovo.
- The father of one of the Columbine killers used to drop bombs on Iraq. At the time they lived not far from the Nichols brothers, the ones who helped Tim McVeigh bomb a government building in Oklahoma.
Moore does not blame the violence on:
- The NRA, the National Rifle Association, a front for the gun industry that pumps money into enough Congressional races so that Congress never passes strict gun laws.
- Hollywood films, which make heroes of gunmen, from John Wayne to Clint Eastwood.
But mainly blames:
- A culture of fear: From the Pilgrims onwards White Americans have been overly fearful. They deal with their overblown fears through flight and violence: witch burning, genocide, lynching, white flight, etc. But this just leads to more violence and fear – of Indian attacks, slave uprisings, black crime and terrorist attacks. On and on. The media and government feed this fear for their own ends (ratings, foreign policy, defence spending, etc).
Canada: Moore points out that Canada watches the same Hollywood films and has millions of guns – yet few are shot dead. People do not lock their doors, not even in a big city like Toronto. There seems to be way less fear, even among those who have experienced crime. Some suppose it is because Canada is lily-white, yet 15% of Canadians are not white
So what makes Canada different? Instead of trying to get their way through violence, Canadians settle differences through negotiation and compromise.
See also:
I actually liked this film. I haven’t seen it in years. But I found it pretty eye opening. Moore can come off a little pompous and full of himself at times……but overall it’s a pretty good documentary. Anyone interested in the culture of guns should check it out.
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Just a coincidence that the KKK and NRA were founded in the same year!
I do wonder if the “founding fathers” intended for guns to be used to shoot and kill black people, Native Americans and Asians.
I watched this movie many times around 2002-2005, when it verbalized for me one of the main reasons why I did not like living in US society. There is indeed a pervasive feeling of fear that I feel as soon as I touch on USA soil. One of the other reasons was the screwed Health Care system (which was addressed in another film).
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Well, fear often destroys the person doing the fearing. That’s why the Bible says “Fear not” more than anything else. So, there is a lesson I there somewhere.
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I need to see this film. I do think America fear culture has a lot to do with what we see…This fear manifests itself in our foreign policy (especially the layman’s understanding of it) and our relation to each other. Nearly all proponents of unabridged 2nd amendment rights cite self-defense as the most important reasons for lax gun laws. Self-defense from what? Who is coming to get them? Crime has been on the decline since at least the 1990s and the crime that does happen is usually in large urban centers, not white suburbs and fly over country were most NRA/2nd fanatics live. They are hardly living in the ground zero of violent crime so who or what are these people afraid of?
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“Cops” is a program about patrolmen. It is they who must confront street crime on a daily basis. If you would like to see programs about white, corporate criminals, you can watch, “American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Scandals”, which runs on CNBC nearly nightly.
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@ Y
I noticed that too that they want to own guns but its like what exactly do they need it for. I think they want guns to protect against crime that may happen but more than likely will not.Its the same reason why you see them on shows like doomsday preppers preparing for the end of the world.They want to preserve their whiteness.I think they are afraid of people going into their neighborhoods and destroying it ,so they are armed.They are afraid blacks and other poc will stop shootin up their neighborhoods and come shoot up theirs.Of course they are going to be scared people who have wronged pretty much every race will fight to keep those people from uprising.They can’t stop karma they can arm up all they want but karma is a bit.ch and she don’t care who you are or what gun you have.
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The part I especially LOVE about this film is how Moore briefly talks about crime in the news media. This one part shows how the news media overreports crime where the suspect is a black male. Even though most black males don’t engage in violent crime, the perception in white America is always that most violent crime in America is committed by black men. Moore even highlighted racial hoaxes where a crime is occurred by whites, but they scapegoat a black suspect who never existed.
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Isn’t it weird that the term Organized Crime does not seem to include the biggest white crimes? They are called “corporate crimes”, “white collar crimes”, “economic crimes” etc. but never organized crime, which they are. It is possible the biggest organized crime in the world. Those guys stole 770 billion dollars from US citizens in a “bail out” and not a word about organized crime. They are stealing billions of dollars from EU as we speak and not a word about organized crime. Then you have black kids selling ounces of crack in some slum and that is organized crime.
This documentary should be shown once a year in all major US networks.
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I saw the documentary too, it was Michael Moore at his best.
I still have not heard a credbile explanation for why america is so much more violent than canada
but it seems that among the global white/albinic population historically the “center of power” shifts from location to location.
You had greece then rome then the medievil period and now this current period – and as usual the most dominant/aggressive members of the global white/albinic population live in the nation which becomes for a time a empire.
And the albinic/white america population has the perfect attitude of a empire.
the focus on and prioritizing of male aggression and violence from infancy to adulthood
male aggression & domiance in every aspect of social life.
BTW
The first Klan was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, by six veterans of the Confederate Army.
The National Rifle Association was first chartered in the state of New York on November 17, 1871 by Army and Navy Journal editor William Conant Church and General George Wood Wingate.
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They could really learn a thing or two from watching anakin skywalker
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DEAD LOL @ “Ah loves mah gun…looooves mah gun!” in the last video.
And THAT folks, pretty much sums it up.
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lol the south park episode was on point.I just watched bowling for columbine and it was an eye opener.Charlton Heston in the film when asked what makes america so violent and have gun killings he said because america has different ethnicities.I’m like wtf so basically what he is saying is america isn’t white enough and is why we have gun violence.Watching this film made me firm in my belief that most people own guns out of fear.Fear of war,fear of other races of people,fear of revolt. They should fear diseases more and guns can’t protect against colds and deadly diseases.America is more violent than other countries and has a high prison rate because of the people.Other countries belive in fair share for everyone and equal healthcare.America teaches people to look out for themselves and not give a fk about others especially poor people.They say well poor people are lazy and should become a ceo like me.Newsflash not everybody can be ceos or else there would be nobody to build the product.Another thing that was interesting in the film was the bees.they were talking about how somebody brought bees from africa to south america to breed with european bees to create less deadly bees,because they said african bees are more deadly.why does that sound like how they are doing black people today,blacks who have more eurpoean are considered beautiful[halle berry], while others with less european looks are considered ugly.Its like anything african is viewed as bad and anything european is viewed as good.
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@ Brothawolf
I loved that part of the film too.Its amazing how much fear sells.The news overreports it especially fox news to get more people to buy guns.Then when people buy guns they want to use it and when they do ,that creates business for the hospitals and prisons.All of these organizations are in it for the money and basically send customers to each other.
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“Live by the sword die by the sword.”
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mstoogood4yall,
You mentioned, “Another thing that was interesting in the film was the bees.they were talking about how somebody brought bees from africa to south america to breed with european bees to create less deadly bees,because they said african bees are more deadly.why does that sound like how they are doing black people today,blacks who have more eurpoean are considered beautiful[halle berry], while others with less european looks are considered ugly.Its like anything african is viewed as bad and anything european is viewed as good.”
When I first saw that, it connected more dots. It shows that white racist mentality as being afraid of all things “pure-African” or “too black”. So, they wanted the African bee to mate with the European bee to create a “lesser aggressive” bee that will make more honey. It is synonymous with the Slave Trade. They kidnapped Africans to work for Whites for the benefit of whites.
Ultimately, the bees escaped and are now in the U.S. As such people are scared as hell of Africanized bees because of their “aggressiveness”. The plan to control them backfired and the bees are loose to attack. Sounds familiar.
Here’s where their fear doesn’t make sense. As seen here, trolls love to say how we always blame white people for slavery, as if slavery was the only thing they’ve done against blacks. It’s as if to say that they don’t expect any retribution for the sins of their sons, fathers and their father’s fathers. To them what goes around doesn’t and shouldn’t come around unless they are the victims.
Some of them seem to be more comfortable hanging around a crazy white man with a gun than with a sane black man with no gun. Quote me on that.
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@ Brotha wolf
“Some of them seem to be more comfortable hanging around a crazy white man with a gun than with a sane black man with no gun.”
I agree and in their mind the crazy white man with a gun is more safe than an unarmed black man.The media and fear lead them to believe a black man is armed even if he isn’t {phantom negro weapons}.In a weird twisted way they think a white man with a gun is going to protect them while a black man without a gun will find a way to hurt them.Fear is what drives them its the reason why blacks weren’t allowed to own guns after or during slavery.A gun can’t be in savage hands oh no it can only be in good innocent and unbiased white hands.A savage is people regarded as uncivilized and primitive and the adjectives for it are fierce,violent,and uncontrolled. blacks and natives were somewhat primitive but they sure as hell weren’t fierce and violent for no reason. But whites were fierce and violent so wouldn’t they be considered savages as well.
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Some folks are really anal about their firearms.
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mstoogood4yall,
You know, it’s funny how whites have said and are saying how blacks are uncivilized savages who love to ruin everything. Once you learn about white supremacy, you realize this is nothing but projection. Everything they think and say about blacks is really about themselves, and they are deathly afraid of that truth.
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Oh dear, white America is so violent! LMAO… Show us your stats, brah. Here’s mine:
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/race.cfm
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@Brotha, no the filth of every black settlement on this earth is why people say it.
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Ah! Larry Clown is back.
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Larry Clone,
Don’t strain yourself. I know it took you days to put your broken record responses together. Just enjoy yourself trying making black people feel terrible in order to make yourself feel good about being white because, after all, that’s the only thing you got going for you, huh?
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@ Larry Clone
This is a joke, right? Black homicide does not begin to match what whites have done. You did notice the body count of 4,806,006 in the post, right? That is just the past 50 years, a relatively “peaceful” time in white history.
It does not include wiping out the natives of North America, South America and Australia
it does not include the millions killed by Hitler and Stalin.
It does not include the 10 million slaves worked to death.
It does not include the 17.3 million killed by the European slave trade.
When blacks kill people it is called crime. When whites do it, it is called history.
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[…] “Bowling for Columbine” (2002) is a Michael Moore film about why America is so violent, particularly White America. Until CNN does a “White in America” on violence, which will probably be never, this is as close as you will get. […]
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Was wondering if those stats exclude
– self-defense against real or phantom weapons
– police brutality killings – 2 places I used to live (New York City and Prince George’s County, MD) used to rank 1st and 2nd in the country.
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http://www.eurweb.com/2012/12/among-the-sandy-hook-school-victims-was-a-6-yr-old-black-girl-ana-greene/
I just wanted to post this here, one of the victims of Sandy Hooks that the Media seems to be ignoring For obvious reasonsd
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History or collateral damage ?
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R.I.P ana greene
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It has been shown in studies that the traumas soldiers get in front line service can be passed on into fourth generation. Now if we think about USA: WW1, WW2, Korean war, Vietnam, Gulf War, Irak/Afganistan… Millions of men fought on those alone. Millions suffered all sorts of mental traumas, meaning millions were affected directly etc. Why USA is so violent country??
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@Mbeti calling white people albinic is also bigotry and discrimination.
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17 dead in Parkland, Florida the mainstream media says this shooting, is the deadliest since Columbine and Sandy Hook. 19 year old Nicklaus Cruz, was described as a loner and weirdo when he attended the high school. He is seen on social media posing with guns. Gun violence in America wash, rinse,repeat.
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According to ABC News and other sources, the Parkland, FL school shooting is the eighteenth (18th) shooting this year and we are less than 60 days into the year.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/18-school-shootings-us-year-group/story?id=53091125
Most of these shootings have been committed by young White males. Yet, there is never a public conversation about the “pathology” of White families and communities or toxic White masculinity.
Nor, for that matter the role of the gun lobby or the inaction of the US government.
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The white men who perpetrate these atrocities are individual, lone wolves, that is why.
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Right, lone wolves. Nothing to see here. Move along.
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