My brother and I were talking about something interesting, that I hadn’t necessarily thought of in those words before. And I haven’t seen anybody else online talk about it like that either. Maybe I just haven’t been looking that hard, either…
 
Anyway, the idea was about Fahrenheit 9/11, and what it’s real cultural agenda is. Sure, you have this kind of outer wrapping of mobilizing people to “vote” Bush out of office. But that only seems like the surface issue of it. The outermost layer. That is accomplished according to exposing people to news they haven’t seen before, theoretically. So that’s the next layer, giving people information to equip them to make more informed decisions about leadership.
 
But to me, neither of those are very interesting. I already knew Bush was a piece of shit, and I already knew more or less everything contained, informationally, in that movie. But yet, I still liked it, got something out of it, and thought it was important for people to see it. Yesterday, my brother hit the nail on the head, I think, as to why this is so…
 
He said that the real trick here is taking news, current events & media footage, and changing the context in which they are viewed. When most people see these things on television news reports at dinner and bedtime, they accept them as “fact.” They may be slanted facts, but facts nonetheless. Just based on the context of which they are shown. Unless you believe in huge conspiracy theories, you believe that news - more or less - distributes facts. That’s its purpose. But movies, on the other hand, deliver something different. When you go to the movies, you don’t expect to served a cold dish of facts, you expect entertainment. You expect epic stories. You expect fiction.
 
So, by moving news & current events outside of their “factual” context, and putting them into this “entertainment” context, a new understanding is cleverly and subconsciously foisted upon viewers. They can evaluate the news stories in their true form - as stories, constructed with some purpose. Be it sinister or otherwise. You get to sort of ask yourself questions like
 

I think then, that the main goal of this movie is NOT to remove Bush from office, expose corruption, or anything like that. It is to give ordinary people the ability to take this understanding that news is yet another entertainment media, and needs to be evaluated critically as such.