Michael Moore’s “Mainstream” Now

If I open up a program on my Mac called "Acquisition" and type in the name of most any major box office movie, I can easily call up a list of downloadable files. Digital film piracy is the new music piracy, and the tipping point for this phenomenon might have been reached when the last Star Wars installment was being sold in Southeast Asia weeks before its international theatrical release.

These facts are discoverable to anyone with a Google search engine or a subscription to Time or Newsweek. Yet Michael Moore will tell you that the only reason his new documentary Sicko has found its way onto the internet is because of those conniving corporate interests looking to keep universal healthcare down and animated tales of gourmet French rats way, way up:

Moore was ready for the piracy questions. "Let's talk about that," he said, sporting his trademark hat, jeans and sport coat. "The film that leaked on the Internet is not taken in a movie theater with a home video camera, the way its usually done. This is an inside job. Now, if you were a police detective, what's the motive? Who has a vested interest in destroying the opening of the film? Of ruining the opening weekend box office?" By those parameters, a conspiracy to sabotage Sicko could involve anyone from the head of Pfizer to the folks behind Pixar's Ratatouille, which opens on June 29, when Sicko is scheduled to open nationwide.

Not that this is the first time our Zarathustra of demagoguery has spoken of "inside jobs" to account for all the evils inflicted upon the world and, more importantly, himself. He recently told the nutters from 9/11 Truth that there was more to the Al Qaeda attack on the Pentagon than meets the eye.

This of course doesn't going far enough for the "truth movement," which has evidently thrown its weight behind the increasingly farcical Ron Paul candidacy. But this video beats anything you'll see courtesy of the Michigan militiaman this year. One conspiracy theorist feeling tetchy and awkward at the crazy talk of another… It's like watching two inmates jockey for the position of medical director at the insane asylum.

Still, who doesn't trust Michael Moore these days? He's arrived, baby. He's mainstream now.