john over at genehack hits the nail on the head regarding a biting bit from michael moore:

“I have a certain tendency to think of Michael Moore as a funny, slap-dash kind of guy. I think it’s because time dulls the memory of how dark Roger & Me and Moore’s later TV shows were — they were funny, but whistling-in-the-dark funny. From reading his latest letter, however, it sounds like he’s stopped whistling, and started shouting.”

i grew up in the flint area and have friends and family on both sides of the auto labor force equation [line and management] – people thought many things when the movie came out, but that it was funny wasn’t one of them. it was dark and it affected people.

i still have family in the area and get back every once in awhile. when you ask how flint is doing – it always ends up sounding like you’re asking about the alcoholic uncle who has had a rough go of it, and tries and tries, but just can’t quite seem to kick his habit. according to michael, it doesn’t seem like flint can get gm out of its system and nafta is exacerbating the issue:

“In my hometown of Flint, 32,000 GM jobs have been lost since you and Clinton took office. That’s 5,000 MORE GM jobs than were lost there during the ENTIRE 12 years of Reagan/Bush! Are you even aware
that two-thirds of the school children in Flint live below the federal poverty level? And you wonder why the race in Michigan is so close! These people you left behind had nowhere else to go EXCEPT to Nader — unless they choose to just stay home on Election Day, which is what the majority of them will do.”

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