I can barely comprehend the sheer stupidity, xenophobia, and warmongering bloodlust that went into that statement. Maybe it’s just a recency bias or because I’m way too tuned in this time, but it feels like the news and every political institution has gone off the rails beyond anything I’ve seen before. Even more so than they did for the war in Ukraine and the 2020/2016 elections. Was it really this bad in the post-9/11 US as well?
I can’t speak too much to this since I was young, but I can say with certainty this talking point - terrorists coming over the border hiding among undocumented immigrants to set up terrorist cells in the us in preparation for 9/11 2 - was extremely prevalent. I was in middle school and even the kids were repeating this shit (which they had either heard from South Park or their parents)
A lot of people also aren’t falling for it since they remember 01
I’m sure a lot of people can see that, but it’s also kinda ironic how people who weren’t even old enough to truly remember post-9/11 are far more on the right side of history on this lol
Like I’m 20, no one my age was even born on 9/11 and yet it definitely seems like the majority of people my age support Palestine, and actively supporting Israel almost seems fringe. Meanwhile most 30-35+ year old Americans who should be seeing the parallels seem like proud zionists
Wasn’t the closest to mainstream pushback in 2002-2003 when Bill Maher went on a CNN-show and said that you couldn’t really call Al-Qaeda cowards, because they actually believed in their cause strongly enough to die for it? And Bill maher was IMMEDIATELY shitcanned IIRC.
Yes and no. The government and the news were just as bloodthirsty, yes - Barbara Lee got death threats for voting against the invasion. The social climate was a little different because the almighty algorithm and advertising hadn’t taken over the Internet, so online discourse felt more diffuse and heterogenous.
