In Defense of Dinesh D'Souza and the Film "2016: Obama's America"

People will believe whatever they want to believe.

As for me, I realize there is a division between the conservatives and the liberals.  With the things they each believe, I’m afraid this is unavoidable.  There is also a division between the Republicans and the Democrats.  They also have different ideas.

Then a film like 2016: Obama’s America (see the link here) comes along, and the debate begins anew.  I’m actually surprised by the sheer number of people who support it.  The box office numbers are quite strong, causing many to take notice.  Yet I am also not surprised by the number of people who don’t like it.  They sound surprisingly like brainwashed characters from the pages of George Orwell’s 1984, crying foul because their beloved Dear Leader has been “mercilessly” attacked.

As for me, I believe!  I first discovered Dinesh D’Souza years ago after I picked up and read a copy of his book What’s So Great About Christianity.  I found it extremely insightful, well thought out, well written, and actually on about the same level as C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity.  I also knew he was on the conservative right, and that meant there would be some crazy internet chatter surrounding him, with some on the left attempting to portray him as either a deluded simpleton, or as a deceptive, evil influence.  (Funny how people on the left can so easily use the term “evil”, something they don’t believe is actually real).  In reality, however, D’Souza was an intellectual, and in his debates with some of the leading atheists, even they came to understand that he was no cerebral slouch, and developed a respect for him, and he them.  Not so the internet crazies though, who usually did not come close to being at D’Souza’s level of intelligence or critical thinking skills, though to read them, they sure liked to think so.

Then I read an earlier book of his called Letters to a Young Conservative, and followed that up with Ronald Reagan, The Roots of Obama’s Rage (from which this movie documentary was derived, along with the book Obama’s America that I haven’t read yet), and most recently, Godforsaken (with What’s So Great About America ready on my nightstand, and Life After Death: The Evidence on my Amazon.com Wishlist).   He quickly became a favorite author of mine, and I looked up to him for his intellectual walk with God, showing me that Christians don’t have to separate the Spiritual Christian walk from their intellectual selves or put science and philosophy on a shelf in order to worship the Creator, but that they can actually meld the two, and be both a devoted follower of Christ AND an intellectual - and in fact, use their minds to reinforce their faith!

Of course, there was still the crazy internet chatter.  Who are these people anyway?

Then this film came out.  I knew ahead of time that all the people who swallowed everything Michael Moore had to say would hate this film, and the filmmakers, and the main audience.  The question is:  Does Dinesh have a legitimate point to make?  Is his theory plausible, or even more chilling, probable?  Perhaps he knew that Obama would have supporters coming out of the woodwork to discredit him and this film.  That’s why he used the historical facts surrounding Obama’s upbringing, things that cannot be disputed, and then cement them with large portions of dialogue from Obama’s own autobiography, Dreams from My Father.  I mean, it’s hard to discredit D’Souza when most of his ideas about Obama come right from Obama’s own prose!  Disputing his ideas means you’ve either got to dispute Obama’s own autobiography, or make general, unspecific, sweeping statements that Dinesh is an idiot and his book and film are  not factual and hope that the sleeping public buys into your general statements without thinking too much about them, like they usually do.

I really don’t think the naysayers have a leg to stand on when the basis of Dinesh’s theory is confirmed by Obama’s own words!  Yet they try.  The accusations of these naysayers, of course, are always unformed and unspecific, just like they usually are when they attack the right.  The negative reviews of users on the internet movie database don’t really attack the substance of the film itself, but instead make broad, general, non-specific attacks on the film and the filmmakers.  The internet users on the left make all the usual accusations we’ve come to expect, using their usual level of hatred, insane rantings, colorful language, and interesting grammar choices; you know – all the things they usually pin on right-wing fanatics!  Just listen to them concerning this movie, and see if you can find anything substantial and specific about the film (all the user movie reviews can be found linked here):

• Arguably the worst documentary I have seen in years.
• It begins right off the bat in attack mode…
• The ludicrous conclusions it draws from the "facts" presented in the first ¾ of the documentary would be laughable if this was not such an important subject…
• …just from an entertainment perspective it is boring and repetitive.
• The narrator is uninteresting and keeps going over the same details over and over again…
• Whatever side of the political fence you stand on you will probably find yourself disappointed by this documentary.
• This is a shame because something much more interesting could have been created.
• This is just the typical Republican crap rhetoric with a fancy label on it, brought to you by someone who has either sold his soul to party-over-country partisanship, or who saw the ratings for Sarah Palin's Alaska and realized the Tea Party were as gullible as they come.
• All of these people giving it ten stars are lying Tea Party soul-sellers that are all too eager to believe anything about Obama as long as it's negative.
• Even if you don't like Obama, you owe it to yourself not to let them get away with this.
• I can state with factual and logical certainty that the makers of this movie have a distorted view of reality.
• It is fitting that I saw this around National Dog Day because it reminded me of the @#*& I clean up after my pet.
• The film-school intellects can drool all they want about the important (imagined) meaning of this film, but it's just that: intellectual drool.
• This film is creatively bankrupt, and some mistake it's endless self-indulgent wanking as substance.
• He's capturing the birth of this new "morning in America" and he chooses instead to cover the music with some guy reading out of a True Detective mag or some such crap.
• Then there's the endless shots of what looks like 60's librarians spray-painting words on people's cars. And then there's the seemingly neverending "interview" where the actress was brilliantly instructed to answer only yes or no to all the really deep and intellectual questions. There's some dude in a suit is reading more crap from a book, which goes on for, oh, only about 20 minutes. And black panthers or something in a junkyard.
• But for unwashed film-school hipsters who don't care squat about the lost opportunities of having full access to the US Prez bringing Obamanomics into the world and would rather hear some English guy reading instead whilst gazing at the covers of nudie mag's, this film's a real winner! More accurately...maybe D'Souza just blows.
• …these gold-bricker are typical narrow-minded neo-cons…
• …engaging in anti-governmental propaganda as such in the time of today's turmoil is treason - treason of America - and anyone who watches or endorses this movie is a traitor of USA.
• Fictitious fabrications, cheesy montages, and fake interviews should make any normal person sick and filled with anger this "documentary"…
• Just a rehashing of all the stupid ideas the right have…
• A ten year old could have written it.
• Full of conspiracy theories and other nonsense.
• The only people going to see this are right wing racists and fear mongers.
• The film has none of the insight of Fahrenheit 9/11 or any actual facts for that matter.
• The box office will die on this in a week or two and this embarrassing film will forever remind us of how hateful the right wing are and also how uneducated.
• If the idea of a black man being elected President of the United States drives you absolutely crazy, and the idea that your secret agenda for your country is driven by the father who abandoned you at birth and have only seen twice in your life doesn't seem far fetched, then you will love this movie. It is propaganda of the highest form.
• It is such a preposterous notion, so artfully argued, that you might almost believe some of it has some basis in truth. But then, unless you watch Fox News non-stop, it dawns on you that you have been seduced by a paranoid dream of Africans taking over the country. And that that is a bad thing.
• I left really worried about how effectively it presented a completely paranoid, bizarrely contorted view of the world with so little basis in reality.
• the documentary lacks in all credible categories…
• The cinematography sucks…
• Can no one anymore offer a balanced political view without going to such extremes than to demonize and scare people into believing realities that just don't exist?
• Once again the Right displays their expertise in taking facts and twisting the truth into utter falsehoods.
• Taking bits and pieces of reality that lead lesser minds to illogical or fantastic conclusions while tongue is firmly planted in cheek is the worst kind of evil possible.
• I question if this D'Souza character actually believes any of this or if he is just paid an exorbitant amount of money to make this film seem serious. I find it outrageous that theaters are even screening it. Booooooooooo. Really, D'Souza, how do you sleep at night? This is what you dedicate your life to? Sad.
• Basically a propaganda piece using a minority to spew hateful rhetoric about a moderate, likable president who was given a raw deal.

Some of these people were giving reviews of the film without even seeing it, admittedly: 

“The first time I heard of 2016 was fifteen minutes ago. The listing's scant info only hints that 2016 has an agenda: a one-sided judgement… Since 2016 is a speculative prediction -- essentially sci-fi -- it may be fair to give it a speculative review before actually watching it.”

As if all this weren’t bad enough, check out this winning user review:

“for your delectation i swear its the worst movies ever made in the movie history. From the disappointing to the bad to the downright offensive, here is a pile of sick filth that should be banned if they ever start assessing narrative coherence and filmmaking skill. Ladies and gentlemen, your worst movies ever in you life will be this movie, the only strong point that the director has is , he has a big and large family members and friends who can help him voting high rank on the movie without watching it even, I cant believe how some people voted for even a "good" or "can be watched" , when we were watching it me and my friend at the cinema all the people at the cinema were laughing a lot because of the boredom and waiting a very small action to happen which didn't ,,anyway , trying is the best proof , but last advise try not to watch it in the weekend because you will spoil the whole week, good luck,”

Other than the obvious, that people who cannot write a coherent sentence or use punctuation think they can somehow attack the “narrative coherence and filmmaking skill” of a lauded bestseller and the producer of Schindler’s List, the thing that really gets me is how these people on the left think that what they say is truth and fact simply because they say it.  It’s almost like they’ve been using the Darwinian Evolutionists’ Playbook!