Politics & Power Quote by Michael Moore

Moore’s line is a heckle disguised as a diagnosis: it turns the Bush-era phrase “weapons of mass destruction” into “weapons of mass distraction,” collapsing national security rhetoric into a media critique with one consonant shift. The joke lands because it’s not just wordplay; it’s an accusation about attention as a battleground. If the public can be kept anxious, flag-wrapped, and busy arguing about fear, it’s easier to slide past messier questions about evidence, motives, and whose interests are being served.

The “majority” claim is doing strategic work. In 2000, Bush lost the popular vote, a fact Moore weaponizes to suggest a moral mandate exists outside official power. He’s drawing a line between electoral legitimacy and cultural legitimacy: you can occupy the presidency while failing to persuade the public. That’s why “the ones who never elected George W. Bush” matters; it’s a reminder that consent was contested from the start, before Iraq, before the WMD claims curdled.

Subtextually, Moore is also flattering and mobilizing his audience. “Not fooled” turns skepticism into identity: you’re not merely anti-war, you’re savvy enough to see the con. The context is early-2000s America, when cable news, embedded reporting, and patriotic branding fused politics with spectacle. Moore’s intent isn’t balance; it’s agitation. The line aims to puncture the aura of inevitability around war by reframing the administration’s story as a deliberate diversion, and by treating the public’s attention as something being managed, not informed.