Anti-Obama ‘Documentary’ Biggest Hit Since ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′

By majestic on August 30, 2012 in News 71

What a turnaround – finally a right-wing activist documentary that people want to see, with no response from the left’s usual filmmaker suspects such as Michael Moore and Robert Greenwald. David Wright reports for ABC News:

It’s rare that a low-budget documentary becomes a genuine blockbuster, but conservative firebrand Dinesh D’Souza‘s controversial new film, “2016: Obama’s America,” is one of the hottest tickets at the box office right now.

“I’m overwhelmed,” D’Souza said. “This is my first venture into film territory.”

The film is now showing in more than 1,000 theaters, and that number is expected to double by Friday, which would put the movie’s release on par with a major Hollywood blockbuster. Last weekend, “2016″ was already earning more money per screen than “The Bourne Legacy” and “The Expendables 2″ — combined. The film has grossed an estimated $10.5 million to date, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

D’Souza’s controversial screed makes the case that President Obama has a secret un-American agenda. He claims the president is desperate to fulfill the anti-colonial dreams of his late father, a man Obama barely knew, and that he is intentionally trying to diminish America’s power abroad. D’Souza makes the case that by 2016, a second Obama term would inexorably lead to an utter collapse of the United States’ economy and the rise of a United States of Islam, led by a nuclear-armed Iran…

[continues at ABC News]

Activism, Conspiracy Theories, Dinesh D'Souza, Documentaries, President Obama, Right-Wing

The Fantastical Burials Of Ghana Coffin

Storage Unit Auction Yields Gruesome Collection of Human Organs

http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/5OQFBZ26C3VQ5ONGZGDBDY4BUU Mark A

It is only becoming popular because of the backing of the super-rich. This is why the Citizens United case was so important, we are being bombarded with corporate propaganda from the super rich. The media won’t debunk the film because they are also owned by the super rich.
- razzlebathbone
  
  Thing is, it won’t matter if the media does debunk it. It doesn’t help to explain the facts to the cult of Koch. All it does is strengthen the conviction of their bizarre beliefs.
  http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
- mannyfurious
  
  Well, I honestly believe some in the media would debunk something like this, but they’re too afraid of being called on their imaginary “left wing bias.” Whoever came up with that idea for the Right is a goddamned genius. Any pretension of having a unbiased discussion in the media about political matters is now, probably, irrevocably vanished because of this looney idea that has taken hold. Call the right out on any of their shit and it’s not “reporting the news” it’s “liberal bias.” Pure genius.
  - http://skadhitheraverner.wordpress.com/ Skadhi_the_Raverner
    
    Yea its dumb of the right to talk about ‘left wing bias’ all the time, the left are more imaginative when they try to dismiss well reasoned criticism in the same way… all that newspeak like “racist”, “homophobic”, “anti-woman” etc…
    
    Just because liberals are smarter doesn’t mean they’re any less full of shit than conservatives.
    
    You really believe any mainstream news source? Or even the alternative ones?
    
    Everyone has some kind of ‘bias’.
    - mannyfurious
      
      Well, you’re correct in saying that everyone has a bias. Just the fact that you report on something betrays your bias on what you think is reportable and why. I actually think it’s better that everyone just disclose what their biases are and that way we can make more informed decisions about how we interpret the “news.”
      
      On the other hand, though, you’re wrong because most of the time right-wing talk should be dismissed as racist, homophobic or anti-woman or whatever else it is. It’s not that I think I’m right and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong. It’s that we’re not talking about John McCain ca. 2000, or Dwight Eisenhower or even George H.W. Bush. Today’s right-wingers are hate-mongering, fear-rousing, backwards-moving cavemen who need to be called on their shit.
http://egregores.blogspot.com Apuleius Platonicus

Gods help us.
WTFMFWOMG

This is the one I want to see: http://www.obamasrealfather.com/
LOL Birth certificate. What about a paternity test? Daddy was a commie and mommy was a slut! LOLOLOL! Politics is just another function of the Department of Bread and Circuses. I am voting for “none of the above” this year.
- Andrew
  
  I like how that site put “autobiography” in scare quotes. Probably for legal protection.
- Rake
  
  Everyone should see that film.
  - Andrew
    
    Wouldn’t relevant criticism of Obama be preferable?
    - Jin The Ninja
      
      the fact that racism and right wing hysteria subvert legitimate criticism is naught but one example of why ‘modern’ governance is a broken system.
      - Paul Dirac
        
        I don’t understand either of you… The first guy (WTFMFWOMG) posted about a video that “criticizes” Obama and points out his Lies about his past. Then Rake said “Everyone should see that film”. So Andrew, What is not relevant? And Jin The Ninja, where the hell is this racism your talking about? Maybe I’m just retarded and don’t see some it. Or perhaps it’s some sort of inside reference… Do you just think the movie is made up? I haven’t seen it, but i’m not going to immediately disregard it as illegitimate right wing hysteria, yet.
      - Andrew
        
        > Do you just think the movie is made up?
        
        Yes, I do.
      - Andrew
        
        > So Andrew, What is not relevant?
        
        Pretending Obama is an angry leftist, when his actual policies show quite clearly that he’s a corporatist plutocrat.
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        Corporatist? Care to elaborate?
        
        Also, what is your evidence that the movie is made up?
        
        Not being a wiseass, just curious.
      - David Howe
        
        nope. you’re a wiseass
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        Depends on who I’m typing to–or how they’re typing at me.
      - Andrew
        
        By “corporatist” I mean that he’s in the pocket of big business and does pretty much whatever they want.
        
        My evidence that the movie is made up is that it’s by Dinesh D’Souza, a rightist Catholic.
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        I agree with your “corporatist plutocrat” charge. But in regard to “rightist Catholic[s],” of whom I am not particularly fond:
        
        http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem.html
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        Saw 2016 last night. In my estimation, the movie is not “made up” because D’Souza is a “rightist Caltholic.” It isn’t chock-full factual inaccuracies–compared to a Michael Moore film, anyway.
        
        But the facts are undoubtedly filtered, slanted, skewed, twisted, teased, and stroked into a throbbing, deformed, ad hominem cock in your face, because D’Souza is an unapologetic neocon.
        
        I thought Obama might stab me outside the theater when it was over.
      - Kudzu_Bob
        
        Why would Obama stab you? He’s got other ways to take your money. But somebody who looks just like his hypothetical son just might.
      - Jin The Ninja
        
        ” So Andrew, What is not relevant? And Jin The Ninja, where the hell is
        this racism your talking about? Maybe I’m just retarded and don’t see
        some it.”
        
        the racism is everywhere. turn on fox news or go to infowars.
        it’s birtherism, it’s coded language about race, ‘reverse-racism’, etc etc etc. one and a half million other things.
        
        i cannot speak for andrew, but i concur with him in what he said below. obama is corporatist plutocrat, neo-liberal politico whom is solely concerned with killing brown people in the middle east, and helping bankers thieve from the unwitting/unwilling.
        
        when he is referred to as a leftist of any sort, it de-legitimises actual critiques from actual leftists (or even ‘liberals’) pertaining to policy and the american socio-political system.
      - Apathesis
        
        You forgot MSNBC. They think everything is racist, in a way that only a fool with a guilty conscience would.
        
        And let’s not forget all the Democrats who have called black Republicans horrible things like “house nigger”, or the racist cartoon depictions of Condoleeza Rice.
      - Monkey See Monkey Do
        
        Yeh democrats are the ones calling republicans niggers…..what?
      - Apathesis
        
        You’re kidding, right? When Herman Cain was news last February, an Alternet article by Chauncey DeVega was calling him all sorts of awful things. Of course, the article no longer exists, but the link is inside this story, near the beginning.
        
        http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/12/05/bye-bye-herman-cain-true-to-form-his-race-minstrel-show-ended-the-only-way-that-it-could?page=0%2C0
        
        Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, and Colin Powell have all been called terrible things by folks on the left. Racism coming from either side is wrong, but don’t act like Democrats aren’t guilty.
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYKQJ4-N7LI
        
        The guy at that rally was a black veteran. MSNBC deliberately hid his true identity to make false claims.
      - Jin The Ninja
        
        there is a no question that racism in western culture is both pervasive and insidious.
        
        however, the problem with MSNBC is not that they ‘think everything is racist,’ rather that they fail to take the historical context of racism as a founding principle of an american nation state to its logical conclusion. they fail to define the structural roots of racism. they fail to see policy changes as ineffectual in combating a systemic value system of oppression. they fail to see that all oppressions are inextricably linked and intersecting.
        
        the most racist thing to come out of a dem’s mouth- is the post-racial rhetoric. it’s implications are numerous and insidious and invalidates experiences of people of colour across the US.
      - Apathesis
        
        Post-racial is one of the dumbest terms I’ve heard in years come from the politically correct crowd, but I agree with your assessment of it. By even entertaining the idea we live in a post-racial world, we are discouraging honest discourse.
        
        ‘Chicago’ and ‘golf’ are the newest racist codewords. What’s next?
      - Andrew
        
        “Human.”
      - Calypso_1
        
        if only
        
        please
        
        i’m going to
        go smudge and dance
        and weep
      - Calypso_1
        
        heh…I could only laugh
- gr8pyramid
  
  Coalburner4life, lol.
- Nunzio X
  
  “The Department of Bread and Circuses.”
  
  I like that.
  
  No voting on the part of young Nunzio X this year, either. The game is up, as Carlin said, and the plutocrats have won. Romney’s policies would be different from Obama’s, yeah, but only in degree. With Romney, the train goes off the cliff faster. With Obama, a bit slower. But the train still goes off the cliff.
  
  In fact I was even tempted to vote for Romney, just to accelerate the process of total collapse, in hopes that something better would rise from the ashes in my lifetime; ripping the bandage off quickly as opposed to inch by inch, to get it over with.
  
  Then I said, fuck it. I don’t really wish harm to the US, but I’ve also stopped caring about it.
lifobryan

Karl Rove’s strategy, which has been unleashed & empowered by Citizens United, is to use vast corporate wealth & lies to “smoke the battlefield.” While Rove’s tactics & goals are plutocratic and vile, his strategy is effective. When enough lies are repeated loudly, and real debate is muddled with non-sequiters, people make decisions based more on gut reaction than reasoning. This is a powerful strategy with proven efficacy – and this movie is one more smoke bomb that clouds the field.

Democrat: “Let’s debate. I’ll tell you what I think, and you refute it with your point. The most reasonable argument will win.”

Republican: “BLAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH ……!!!!!!”

Democrat: – - – - – (can’t respond because blood is now spurting out of his severed neck).
- mannyfurious
  
  I basically agree with this, but it does make one wonder why the democrats don’t have a war strategy themselves. I honestly believe that the U.S. is a left leaning country. The problem is, the right wing controls the conversation with, as you said, muddled non-sequiters that people are essentially duped into voting against their own best interest (shame on them of course, but still). If the “left” in this country actually has our best interests at heart, why aren’t they fighting like dogs to get it done?
  - TennesseeCyberian
    
    “I honestly believe that the U.S. is a left leaning country.”
    
    Yes and no. Twice as many Americans describe themselves as “conservative” than “liberal.”
    
    http://www.gallup.com/poll/152021/conservatives-remain-largest-ideological-group.aspx
    
    However, many commentators would agree with you, claiming that if traditional standards are applied, America’s definitions of “left-center-right” are significantly skewed to the left. As in the last sentence in this entry (taken from a quote in 1996):
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_politics#Political_parties_in_the_political_spectrum
    - Monkey See Monkey Do
      
      More like left is centre, centre is right, and right is somewhere out in Naziville. Your preception is quite skewed, it would help you to read authors based on academic accomplishment (peer-review) rather than an an author that professes an alliance with the left or right.
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        Don’t talk down to me, monkey boy. I’m just relaying information from the most easily accessible sources.
        
        If you have better information, tell us about it.
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        Speaking of peer-review, this study has interesting implications for that process:
        
        http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/1/liberal-majority-on-campus-yes-were-biased/?page=all
        
        Note that Massimo Pigliucci’s comments on the study leave the question open-ended.
    - Zulu22
      
      Yeah, more people describe themselves as conservative
      because liberal has turned into a bad word because of how it’s been used. It
      doesn’t really matter if Americans call themselves liberals, conservatives,
      libertarians, fascists, Maoists, etc, the fact is most Americans are in favor
      of more liberal policies like universal health care, higher taxes on the
      affluent, less defense spending, and improved social programs. It only makes
      sense since majority of Americans are not wealthy so those kinds of policies would
      benefit them.
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        That’s true.
      - mannyfurious
        
        Exactly. Made my point better than I could’ve/did.
      - BrianApocalypse
        
        The “Orwellianization” of the word ‘liberal’ is one of the most cunning achievements of the American right.
      - Calypso_1
        
        The’ve done a damn good job with Libertarian too.
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        You hit the nail on the head with that.
      - Calypso_1
        
        I’ve done a fair bit of framing.
      - Calypso_1
        
        I’ve done a fair bit of framing.
    - mannyfurious
      
      I disagree that we are a “left-center” country. This is the biggest joke I’ve ever seen you type and it betrays what is a stark and undeniable ignorance in your world view. Obama is a “right-centrists” through and through. This country’s politics have shifted so far to the right that some people actually believe he’s a “left-centrist” or even a “socialist” which is so laughable it actually makes me want to cry for whatever it is this country’s become.
      
      Anyhow, I’ll be honest and admit I have no research or data to back up these sentiments. They’re base solely on my very limited observations of the “American Character.” The two observations I’ve made are that one: less than half the population votes. The vast majority of those I know who don’t vote would definitely vote democrat if they did vote. As I said, this is an observation very limited in scope, experienced mostly in the rural southwest and California.
      
      My second observation is that there are a lot of people, particularly white males, who identify as “Conservative” because “Liberal” has become something worth ostracizing by the country at large. Liberal is synonymous with non-issues like political correctness and extreme feminism, when that simply isn’t the case. There are a lot of people who identify as Conservative who believe the rich should pay higher taxes, who believe the minimum wage should be raised and who believe too much of the country’s money goes to the pentagon. These are not conservative values, but people are both uneducated of what real conservative values are and are also fearful of looking like a “hippy, liberal pansy” so they identify as Conservative.
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        You said:
        
        “This is the biggest joke I’ve ever seen you type and it betrays what is a stark and undeniable ignorance in your world view.”
        
        Then immediately after:
        
        “Anyhow, I’ll be honest and admit I have no research or data to back up these sentiments.
        
        In that case, you shouldn’t be so hasty or hostile in your statements. Because you also said:
        
        “I disagree that we are a “left-center” country.”
        
        After you said:
        
        “I honestly believe that the U.S. is a left leaning country.”
        
        It seems now that you were referring to the political structure in the first claim and the political sentiments of the masses in the second, but that wasn’t clear from the start. So what’s with the snide tones, little man?
        
        What you incredibly perceptive InterWeb pundits seem to have missed is that at no point did I make a claim of my own. I simply relayed a Gallup poll and a popular sentiment among many commentators which, at the time, seemed to reflect your own. I didn’t agree or disagree. Just put them out there.
        
        But because you unbiased, clear-headed, highly observant Beings of Light are so eager believe that my “perception is quite skewed” or that my worldview is wrought with “stark and undeniable ignorance,” you failed to notice that these are not my claims and at no point did I agree or disagree with them.
        
        One asshole is a “troll,” ten assholes are an “online community.”
        
        Do your arms ever get tired from patting your own backs?
      - Monkey See Monkey Do
        
        Your whole left/right paradigm is a myth because the terms are so relative. You would have learnt that by now big man if you paid attention to your sources. (I call you big man cuz you call everyone else little man, that must make you big, right?)
        So you just put things out there that ‘are not your claims’ and sit on the fence about them, why would you put them out there in the first place?
        
        Does it get hard to breath with your head up your ass?
      - TennesseeCyberian
        
        I posted them because they were relevant to his comment. And if my “whole left/right paradigm is a myth,” then why in the world would you say “More like left is centre, centre is right, and right is somewhere out in Naziville”?
        
        And why call it my left/right paradigm? When did I claim there was a clearly defined distinction? I didn’t, because I don’t believe that.
        
        Where are those superior peer-reviewed studies you were talking about?
  - Calypso_1
    
    The left might literally want to start considering a fighting strategy considering the number of those on the right that are preparing for civil war.
    - mannyfurious
      
      I think you’re probably right, although, I have to admit, we should just let “the south” secede without a fight this time. Let them have their own country with their own laws and maybe the rest of us can actually get somewhere this time.
      - Calypso_1
        
        Goddammit are you people going to make me burn Atlanta all by myself!?
      - mannyfurious
        
        Well, to be honest, the only two real choices are to let the south secede or to burn the whole thing to the ground and send a real message about what is an appropriate way to live life and what is not. The latter, while tempting, is fascist, and so it would contradict all my anti-fascist ranting. But let’s just say, it’s not against my pro-apathy stance to sit around and not do anything to stop you from burning Atlanta to the ground. There is no conflict in morals for me in that at all….
- http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient
  
  “…when I set fire to his name, it does not matter where you hear it from, whether truth or lies, it gets said all the same. Whatever’s on the table plays.”
Andrew

I try to avoid optimism, but I suspect most of those who saw this film this weekend were the Teatards who were told to see it by Glenn Beck and Matt Drudge, and its grosses may plummet very quickly.
HandsomeDan

“I think he would like to see America have a small economy, use less energy, he’d like to see money redistributed away from America, towards the rest of the world,” D’Souza told Nightline at the Republican National Convention in Tampa”
Hope this is true, because if this is what Obama actually believes it sounds good to me.
- Ceausescu
  
  LOL, I thought of the same thing when I saw the video.
  
  Can you imagine how fucked up the society is if that message is supposed to stir negative criticism towards Obama ?
Simiantongue

Demogoguery sells.
Audio7

Congrats to the producers of this film for finding a way to get the misinformed and resentful to part with their cash.

Other than for guns and ammo, that is.
DeepCough

“The Obama Deception” had better production values and narrative tone.
http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

yeah, like Obama calls the shoots
nice psyop all the way around though
no focus on the puppet master & the banksters
beautiful fit to have one guy of color call-out another guy of color
as psyops go I’d give it an 8, but it’s a 10 for most Amerikans
- Jin The Ninja
  
  i find it really sinister that the racialised rhetoric of the right in many ways benefits the dems…
  - http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin
    
    the racialised rhetoric
    - http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin
      
      sometimes the Disqus interface goes FUBAR
      this is one of those times
  - http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin
    
    the main focus of the Puppet Prez psyop
    is to keep the keep the underlying unity
    of the red & blue parties obscure
    all PP psyops just shift sentiment back & forth between the teams
    to make it look like there’s an election going on
    & wee the sheeple are players
http://skadhitheraverner.wordpress.com/ Skadhi_the_Raverner

”
D’Souza’s controversial screed makes the case that President Obama has a secret un-American agenda. He claims the president is desperate to fulfill the anti-colonial dreams of his late father, a man Obama barely knew, and that he is intentionally trying to diminish America’s power abroad. ”

Sounds too paranoid.
ReginaldO45

I enjoyed the director’s comment at the end about the
“big fat federal government” and the “lean and nimble private
sector”. It’s always interesting hearing from all these savvy capitalists
about how great the private sector is, especially considering it would
completely fall apart if it wasn’t for extensive support from the government. JPMorgan
Chase & Co alone, was receiving about $14 billion dollars in subsidies
every year from the government. Apparently Boeing, another corporate giant
can’t build a commercial space craft without the government paying them
billions of dollars in subsides

So much for the “free market”….
cakey pig

It’s a movie made for dumb people who want their ill-formed prejudices and paranoid opinions validated on a big screen.
- David Howe
  
  correct. they are being lied to, which is not their fault. but they are willing to be lied to. that’s a moral failing.
David Howe

It’s not a documentary. It’s propganda. Dinesh D’Suza? Disort D’Newza