Con·flate(v) - To bring together; meld or fuse

The Porcine One has declared war on ... somebody. Whoever "banksters" are. I presume it's not the same ones who finance his unwatchable movies.



He speaks in the name of "the people." Though he never gets specific about which "people" he's so in favor of, I presume he's talking about the poor, put-upon government workers. Funny thing, that: I don't feel the least bit sorry for them. In fact I occasionally wonder if they'd taste good with chili sauce - at least then they'd be of some practical use.

But sitting in front of a camera and weeping for the woes of a $100,000-for-nine-months'-work schoolteacher will only take you so far. No, what this narrative needs is a good villain. Wherever can we find one? Hmm.

Ah! Just the thing! The "Wall Street" financiers who by all accounts made out so profitably from the economic jiggery pokey of 2008 (and let's be sure to repeat that year as often as possible, so everybody knows it was a republican at fault and not the ever-virtuous Obama, who did the same thing harder) are a delightfully effective target. If any of them has a friend in the world not directly on the payroll it'd come as a surprise to me. By all means! There's our villain!

"The country isn't broke!" Moore yells. There are huge resources not yet looted by "public sector"* unions! "We have a right to that money!" he shouts, all in the name of "the people."

And here's where the conflation comes in. I don't know anything about finance, the subject gives me a headache. But from what I can make out, if there's a group of people less worthy of sympathy in this great land of ours than government workers it would have to be the "Wall Street" financial houses who used their government contacts to loot taxpayers and investors so obscenely. Between them and government unions, they serve the same purpose: Strip the people who earn money of their wealth and fill their own pockets with it. Is there a difference between the two? One group dresses better, I suppose.

But in this context, as an issue, what do the two have to do with each other? As far as I can tell, not a thing. Moore needs a villain, and he can't exactly call out American taxpayers; that would give the game away. So instead it's these unnamed "banksters," who as a class nobody loves but who would seem completely unconnected with the question of whether overpaid government workers should be paid more highly still.

Moore never mentions government workers, of course. It's "the working people" he weeps for. The very people whose money he's trying to steal, but I doubt many television viewers will catch the point. Or the irony.


*I hate that phrase, "public sector." Just say government, fergodsake.