UK Guardian Profiles Michael Moore

With a laugh bordering on the maniacal, he relates how rightwing talkshow hosts accuse him of instigating class warfare. "Like that's some horrible thing. I always take it as a compliment. I say, 'Thank you. I don't have to instigate it, though. It already exists. And it's going to get greater and you're going to lose. And next time could you please just introduce me as America's bestselling author, because I want all your rightwing buddies to know that we're coming.'"

In his landmark book, Democracy In America, the 19th-century French intellectual Alexis de Tocqueville makes reference to the often shrill tone that can characterise American political discourse in a chapter entitled Why American Writers And Speakers Are Often Bombastic. "I have often noticed that the Americans whose language when talking business is clear and dry . . . easily turn bombastic when they attempt a poetic style . . . Writers for their part almost always pander to this propensity . . . they inflate their imaginations and swell them out beyond bounds, so that they achieve gigantism, missing real grandeur."

A hundred-and-fifty years later, little has changed. America's most popular polemicists, on the left or the right, have little use for subtlety or nuance. The titles of the bestselling diatribes say it all. The last two books by Al Franken, who is liberal, were called Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them and Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot. The most recent two by Ann Coulter, who is on the right, were called Treason and Slander.

Coming from this tradition, the title Dude, Where's My Country? sounds positively conciliatory. Open the cover, though, and Moore once again delivers a tirade worthy of the genre. At one point he writes: "These bastards who run our country are a bunch of conniving, thieving, smug pricks who need to be brought down and removed and replaced with a whole new system that we control."

"I really don't like doing interviews. I have no control over what you're going to write. But somewhere I hope you're going to say that I hold Blair more responsible than Bush for this war. Because Bush doesn't know better, Blair does. Bush couldn't have gotten away with this without Blair. It is my challenge to the British public to get up off the couch and find another way."

Moore- How to talk to your conservative brother-in-law.

1. First and foremost, assure your conservative friends or relatives that you do not want their money. You do not want them to make less money, nor do you want them to lose what money they have.

2. Second, every political argument you make must be about them and for them. They base every decision on "How does this benefit ME?" Instead of fighting this self-centredness, just go with it, embrace it, feed it.

3. Journey into the mind of the conservative. What you will encounter is fear. Fear of crime. Fear of enemies. Fear of change. Fear of people not exactly like them. And, of course, fear of losing any money on anything.

4. Tell them what you like about conservatives. Be honest. You know there are many things about conservatives that we like and believe in ourselves - even though we usually wouldn't be caught dead saying them out loud. Tell your conservative brother-in-law that you, too, are afraid of being a victim of crime and want to prevent criminals from getting away with their actions. Tell him that if America is actually attacked, you will be the first to defend the defenceless. Tell him you don't like freeloaders, either, especially that room-mate you had in college who never lifted a finger to pick up a damn thing and turned your place into a pigsty.

Tell him how dependable conservatives are. When you need something fixed, you call your redneck brother-in-law, don't you? You yourself can't fix a damn thing - and neither can any of your whiny liberal friends. Also, when you need a job, who hires you? The conservative who owns the business, that's who. And if you need someone beaten up, that bully who's been picking on you, you certainly aren't going to ask your uncle at the Unitarian church to do it for you. You never know when you're going to need that conservative relative.

Conservatives are organised, on time, efficient, well groomed and consistent. These are all good qualities and attributes, and we wish we were more that way.

5. Admit that the left has made mistakes. Ouch. This is a tough one. But, if you admit that, on occasion, you have been wrong, it's easier for the other person to consider what they have been wrong about, too.

- Nixon was more liberal than the last five presidents we've had. His administration opened up a dialogue with China. He was instrumental in establishing affirmative action in hiring and protecting the rights of women. He was the first president to sign agreements on nuclear weapons control. Nixon was responsible for the 1970 Clean Air Act. He also attempted a type of welfare reform that would have guaranteed an income for the poor. Nixon still should have been run out of office, and the millions of dead in south-east Asia will haunt him throughout eternity. But to think that he was the last "liberal" in office just makes me want to puke.

After admitting that you're not always right, you will find your conservative friend more willing to listen. Then it's time to make the case for why he or she should consider looking at things in a different light. The most important thing is to NEVER make the "moral" argument about why the Pentagon should get less money or why a sick child deserves to see a doctor.

We have tried those arguments and they don't work with conservatives, so save your breath. Begin every point with this one sentence: "I want you to make more MONEY!" Then take a stab at discussing the issues with them:

Part 2.

Paying workers more money makes you money!

Providing daycare for your employees will make you money!

Joining a union will make you money!

Clean air and water save you money!

Stopping the drug war will save you money!

Giving lots of money to the public schools makes you money!

When our pathetic schools send a generation of idiots and illiterates out into the workaday world, how in God's name do you expect to make any money? Seventy-five per cent of welfare recipients are illiterate. Don't you think things might be a little different if they could read and write? It totally boggles my mind that conservatives haven't demanded, purely out of self-interest, that our schools prepare young people to contribute and even excel in the workplace.

Workers are supposed to bring you great ideas and make you filthy rich. Instead, they're sitting out there in their cubicles trying to figure out how to download the latest Weezer album. I've got a kid in my office right now who thought the UK was Russia, had never heard the name "George McGovern", and figured a legal pad was where you store legal court documents. And he's the smartest one in here! HELP!!!

By never voting for a Republican again, you will make a tonne of money!

These very Republicans you say you are one of want nothing to do with you. They have either downsized you, fired you, or they've got you doing the jobs of two or three people. They have taken your money in the stock market and made it vanish. They have pushed through tax bills that truly benefit only that top 1%. They are spending your retirement money right now on boondoggle after boondoggle to make their buddies rich.