Alan Moore vs Frank Miller regarding the Occupy movement


This from Honest Publishing:

With the Occupy movement, it seems you and Frank Miller have conflicting views. Would you say that he’s against it and you’re for it?

Well, Frank Miller is someone whose work I’ve barely looked at for the past twenty years. I thought the Sin City stuff was unreconstructed misogyny, 300 appeared to be wildly ahistoric, homophobic and just completely misguided. I think that there has probably been a rather unpleasant sensibility apparent in Frank Miller’s work for quite a long time. Since I don’t have anything to do with the comics industry, I don’t have anything to do with the people in it. I heard about the latest outpourings regarding the Occupy movement. It’s about what I’d expect from him. It’s always seemed to me that the majority of the comics field, if you had to place them politically, you’d have to say centre-right. That would be as far towards the liberal end of the spectrum as they would go. I’ve never been in any way, I don’t even know if I’m centre-left. I’ve been outspoken about that since the beginning of my career. So yes I think it would be fair to say that me and Frank Miller have diametrically opposing views upon all sorts of things, but certainly upon the Occupy movement.

As far as I can see, the Occupy movement is just ordinary people reclaiming rights which should always have been theirs. I can’t think of any reason why as a population we should be expected to stand by and see a gross reduction in the living standards of ourselves and our kids, possibly for generations, when the people who have got us into this have been rewarded for it; they’ve certainly not been punished in any way because they’re too big to fail. I think that the Occupy movement is, in one sense, the public saying that they should be the ones to decide who’s too big to fail. It’s a completely justified howl of moral outrage and it seems to be handled in a very intelligent, non-violent way, which is probably another reason why Frank Miller would be less than pleased with it. I’m sure if it had been a bunch of young, sociopathic vigilantes with Batman make-up on their faces, he’d be more in favour of it. We would definitely have to agree to differ on that one
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It's in response to a Frank Miller blog post titled "Anarchy":

Everybody’s been too damn polite about this nonsense:

The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.

“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” – HAH! Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached - is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.

This is no popular uprising. This is garbage. And goodness knows they’re spewing their garbage – both politically and physically – every which way they can find.

Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy.

Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you’ve heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism.

And this enemy of mine — not of yours, apparently - must be getting a dark chuckle, if not an outright horselaugh - out of your vain, childish, self-destructive spectacle.

In the name of decency, go home to your parents, you losers. Go back to your mommas’ basements and play with your Lords Of Warcraft
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19 commentaires:

Anonymous said...

Wow. I have to go with Frank Miller here. I Absolutely love his totally non-pc opinion and how it rings of truth. The occupy folks in my small town are just a bunch of transients. The police swept them out of the park after about a month and all that was left of a once nice park was feces and syringes.

Ted Cross said...

I didn't realize Mr. Miller was such an ass. Good to know. There happen to be millions of Americans who believe the rich are purposely harming the middle and lower classes while protecting themselves from the chaos they caused.

Anonymous said...

Frank Miller must be drinking the same Islamophobe kool-aid that Dan Simmons has been partaking of for the last few years.

Miller appears to be stuck around 5 years ago, perhaps because those fat royalty checks are such a fine reminder for him of that period.

His disdain is so disjointed that it's basically nonsensical. First, we're told that the Occupy Movement is full of rapists and thieves. In the last sentence, the rapists and thieves are now over-sheltered World of Warcraft nerds who should go back to their basement dwellings. Which is it? He doesn't know because he's too busy being clever.

Here's his point: If you're not already rich you should probably just get out of Frank Miller's way because you weren't smart enough to be rich and thus are pond scum.

Next time Frank, just save attempt at eloquence and say "Generic bootstraps tale", or "Screw you, got mine" and we can move on to the next article that much faster.

Sigh... said...

Ad hominem attack? Check!
Fact-less ranting? Check!
Unrelated invocation of scary foreign terrorists? Check!

I certify this as a genuine Frank Miller rant.

Ash said...

David Brin really tore into Miller too: http://davidbrin.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/move-over-frank-miller-or-why-the-occupy-wall-street-kids-are-better-than-spartans/

Anonymous said...

You gotta love Miller for having the balls to come out and say what a lot of people think.

The tone is that of a rant, yeah. But it's all too true.

Bill

WTF said...

Can't believe that so many people seems to agree with Miller. For my part I will now make sure never to open one of his comics again. The Occupy movement has been active in Montreal as in a lot of other places and I am anything but glad that some people found this non violent and very decent way to denounce the ruthless financial world and the way it continue to gain money while causing major financial crisis and impoverishing the middle and lower calss.

Anonymous said...

I (I) think Miller is a nutbag (think Miller is a nutbag) but I've met about a dozen (but I've met about a dozen) occupiers (occupiers) and the future is (and the future is) grim (grim) if that bunch (if that bunch) is at the helm (is at the helm).

Anonymous said...

I like Adam Carolla's view of Occupy Wall Street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJEbWMS_IHE

Mike said...

Get it straight. Occupiers are a bunch of freeloading idiotic protesting hippies and the Tea Party'ers were upstanding american citizens merely expressing their displeasure with government taxation (with representation) by staging peaceful gatherings at which they were armed to the fucking teeth so that any cop stupid enough to pepper spray them would have been pumped so full of lead in 3 seconds he'd be using his dick for a pencil.

Morrigan said...

Hahaha wow Frank Miller is such an ass. He doesn't even make any sense. I wonder if he's be able to tell the 84-year old Occupy lady who got pepper sprayed by cops to "go back to your mommas's basement" to her face...

There are perfectly valid criticisms to aim towards the Occupy movement, but he makes exactly none of them.

I love how Alan Moore tears him a new one. I'm not a fan of either of these writers, to be honest, but it seems Moore understands reality a lot better than Miller does.

Nein said...

Odd isn't it that it's the British snake god worshipper who's on the side of social justice and the married Irish American Catholic who's throwing around ad hominem attacks instead of engaging the issues raised.

It's one thing to disagree with the OWS people.But calling peaceful protesters "a pack of louts,thieves and rapists"?That's demonstrably false,and more to the point,he has to know it.So he's at best an intemperate blowhard,or at worst a brazen liar.

Neither option reflects very well on him as a person,and puts him in the company of Dan Simmons and Orson Scott Card as writers who I'm....chary of.

machinery said...

anarchists like the occupy movement may say the right thing "we want better conditions for all" and it sounds right, but they want to do it by breaking everything and starting over.
life isn't a game.
from my pov even the bad things that exists and needs correction in the western world, is still a part of a working system.
a system that doesn't work ?
check out the dark ages, no thanks, i don't want another hundreds of years or decades at best before there is a new working system.

Anonymous said...

Ironically, I believe Mr Moore's comments are a better description of the Tea Party movement and not the Occupy movement.
Personally, I am not sure how anyone can comment intelligently about the Occupy movement, it is a amorphus blob of cacophonus bleating.
Self-righteous complaining...the 99%? If so, God help us.

Anonymous said...

Moore is eloquent as always. Miller? Not so much.

A pretty interesting take on the movement can also be read here:

http://tarmojuristo.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/a-different-kind-of-ball-game/

Diorj said...

Oh ok Frank ...We all should worry about the evil Muslims and not focus on the real problems of America namely the corporate takeover of government and the grave reduction of the quality of life here. keep worrying about those Muslims, while America gets turned into a third world cheap labor center for the global elite.
I'm glad the occupy movement is doing what they are doing. and if you don't follow the main stream media, you will see that the majority of the movement is not dirty hippies with philosophy majors.
I don't always read comics, but when I do, I'll make sure they're not by Frank Miller.

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure ppl have actually been raped at some of these occupies... the add the hygiene issues and unempoloyed bong-heads and lifetime students who keep getting interviewed... it's quite disturbing, and very difficult to police.

Good in theory...

-paran

Anonymous said...

Frank Miller wrote some comics, most of them mediocre to bad.

I don't completely agree with the OWS movement but giving a subpar writer too much voice is a mistake.

Better to check in with people from the Civil Rights movement, economists, or even the average American.

Compared to them Miller's opinion is worthless. So sick of the spotlight people put on "celebrities".

Anonymous said...

Wow there are people who think the occupiers are peaceful? Talk about living under a rock. Ask the people of Oakland how peaceful they are. This is what happens when you get all of your news from the huffington post and Mother Jones. Youtube is overflowing with examples of violence perpetuated by the occupiers. Educate yourselves and stop being slaves.