More Fumento

Commenter Marlowe notes:

The utter fatuous cluelesness of Fumento and his ilk is amusingly illustrated by his comment that the doctors suspected in the recent British terrorist plot was "a truly scary scenario that's right out of a movie like The Manchurian Candidate."

That's true. The terror plot in question wasn't like The Manchurian Candidate at all. There was no brainwashing, no assassination attempt, no resemblance whatsoever.

Comments

No, Fumento means it was like the Manchurian Candidate remake. It was too long, overhyped, and fizzled out in the ending.

Posted by Davey | July 8, 2007 5:01 PM

He and his ilk are not clueless. They pursue their corrupt ideological agenda with a single mindedness. The traditional notions of truth, facts, honesty, integrity and decency have no place.

Just more of the same and relentless Stalinist style propaganda.

Posted by erict | July 8, 2007 5:49 PM

Wasn't the VP (or perhaps the VP candidate?) evil? Maybe The Manchurian Candidate isn't as off-point as we might think.

Actually, I do think Hollywood -- like the MSM -- has frequently misrepresented the terrorist threat, as the Glasgow case demonstrates. In movies, terrorists are always incredibly competent. They're smart. They are many steps ahead of law enforcement. They have plans within plans. And often they're charming (though in an effete, unmanly sort of way )and good-looking (though not too good-looking).

Hollywood has an excuse. Movies would be far less entertaining if the terrorists were all bumblers and incompetents. The MSM, though, can't evaluate the seriousness of a terror threat. This isn't surprising, given that the newsworthiness of terror threats is directly related to whether there is video footage of something, anything, burning.

Ryan

Posted by Ryan | July 8, 2007 5:55 PM

It is more like a subplot in Lars Van Trier's great tv series make of Stephen King's The Kingdom, Riget. For some reason, Riget is still not known enough in this country - but a freemasonry of terrorist doctors would easily be accomodated in the numerous plots.

Posted by roger | July 8, 2007 6:39 PM

But is WAS like the Manchurian Candidate - there were terrifying, demonic foreigners.

Posted by dave l | July 8, 2007 6:55 PM

After reading this several times, I'm still not sure if you're endorsing or poking fun at my post. But in any case, your snippet leaves out my main point, and your comment indicates that you missed it. I was not pointing out that the mundane details of the plots were dissimilar, but that the whole goal of the plot in The Manchurian Candidate was not terrorism, or violence, sabotage, or espionage, but to put an obvious Joe McCarthy clone (or Darth Cheney to update it) in the White House. Frumento & Co. are oblivious to the point of the movie--the prophetic statement that putting the polarizing far right in charge was the best method of weakening the US. Which is now proven. Oh, and I considered that Frumento might be referring to the remake (unseen by me), but his post links to the IMDB entry for the original film.

Posted by Marlowe | July 8, 2007 7:00 PM

^^ He's agreeing with you. Yglesias isn't subtle enough for figurative irony.

Posted by Korha | July 8, 2007 7:06 PM

For what it's worth, I read Matt's comment as endorsement. It's bizarre how piss-poor analgies (Fumento's in this case) can slip by until someone points out that they are ludicrous, and only then does it become immediately obvious how inapt they are. Nice catch on this one.

Posted by jfaberuiuc | July 8, 2007 7:12 PM

Posted by Marlowe | July 8, 2007 7:00 PM:"Frumento & Co. are oblivious to the point of the movie--the prophetic statement that putting the polarizing far right in charge was the best method of weakening the US. Which is now proven."

Prophetic? Proved right? Only in the sense that it was wrong and has been proven wrong. Carter, a figure on the Left, did more damage to America than anyone on the Right although I suppose he inherited a lot of bad things thanks to Vietnam. Bush was not a polarizing figure on the Right. He campaigned on a platform of "Compassionate Conservatism" and passed Bills like No Child Left Behind with that well known Rightist Ted Kennedy. He has become polarizing because people hate him so much and he is such an idiot. That does not prove tMC right. Anything but.

As for the film criticism, presumably the comparison was not about the mechanics of the plot per se, but the "meta-plot" - the idea that seemingly normal people could be taught to commit terrible crimes. That sleepers might exist among us, people with everything to live for, but that they have been indoctrinated to murder. In that sense the attempted mass murderers are like the brainwashed killer in tMC.

Posted by HeiGou | July 9, 2007 6:16 AM

There seems to be a bit of talking past each other here because of the two versions of The Manchurian Candidate. The analogies are closer to McCarthy in the first movie and Cheney in the second, not Bush.

Posted by Reality Man | July 9, 2007 6:25 AM

Well, maybe he meant it was like a plot right out of "Stargate Atlantis", in which on another planet in another galaxy a big city is really like a spaceship and was drowned underwater and then they figgered out how to turn it on and it was a city again.

Or maybe it was a plot right out of "Walker Texas Ranger" in which a bunch of dumb crooks are always brought down by roundhouse kicks to the head and then they jump through the front bay window just before the building blows up.

Posted by El Cid | July 9, 2007 9:07 AM

Carter, a figure on the Left, did more damage to America than anyone on the Right although I suppose he inherited a lot of bad things thanks to Vietnam.

Are you trying to move Fumento down on the list of "Dumbest F**king Things I've heard today"?

Posted by Col Bat Guano | July 9, 2007 3:36 PM