Tell me about 9/11 because I wasn't aware it was going on

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about 9/11 because I wasn't aware it was going on

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

MikeCrotch posted:

I've heard from a bunch of people that America basically went crazy for a bit after 9/11, but how did that actually manifest to you?

Some people are still all bugfuck about it. Dennis Miller went from some scraggly guy using words found in the OED to a stark raving mad conservative loon. The nation went from cowering at the possibility that Video Games, the Internet, or Marilyn Manson were turning the youth into goth killers to buying duct tape for their windows in case of a chemical attack and covering up the tits of Lady Justice for photo ops. The news media turned into a faux-event machine trying to chum the waters 24/7.
9/11 was the final nail in the 90s, and it was hammered down so hard some people woke up like reverse Rip Van Winkles and desperately wanted a return to the mythical 50s.

Craziest thing I remember is the lack of air traffic in Los Angeles. It's one of the few times hearing a helicopter made me pause and feel scared for a moment.

But there was TONS of hatred seething from the masses in the weeks that followed. I couldn't listen to FM talk radio without someone saying we should glass all of the middle East or something.

ashgromnies posted:

Didn't it take at least a few days before they attributed it to Al Qaeda?

Yeah. Hardly anyone knew what AQ was, and pretty much only really devout Foreign Policy wonks knew about Bin Laden (or remembered Clinton's bombing campaign against him). It took, I think, a Bin Laden tape for the nation to figure out who had orchestrated it. After that was done, everyone went wary trying to figure out how extensively they had infiltrated the U.S. or if other attacks were coming.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 06:42

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FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

Tendai posted:

I think that's probably where a lot of the irritating, BuzzFeed-style 90s nostalgia comes from.

I remember stumbling upon this a while back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TGj227OVKY
The 90s have a weird countdown timer sell-by date. We all thought it was Y2k.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2015 05:07

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

Violet_Sky posted:

I also remember people complaining that the 2000s was the worst decade ever. Is that because of 9/11?

9-11 meant it got off to a bad start.

Bush's cabinet being chock full of Nixon era Cold Warriors, the country giving him carte blanche, Democrats having limp dicks and so on made it worse. Culturally, everyone had a stick up their asses (remember Janet Jackson's tit causing everyone to lose their poo poo?).

Just put it in this light. Clinton left us a surplus and a road towards a mythical Balanced Budget that would pay off the debt. Bush drove us headfirst into a deficit and helped foster the first big economic downturn of the 21st century (on par with the Great Depression)

# ¿ Oct 4, 2015 06:48

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

paperchaseguy posted:

I don't remember any of that about muslims. I wouldn't be surprised if a few assaults happened, but not "lots and lots". I do remember one Sikh that was killed.

I was driving around on, like, Sept 14 and on one of the main streets here there's a Sikh temple.

There were a TON of its members gathered outside doing a candlelight vigil, holding the U.S. flag and a bunch of pro-U.S. signs.

I was kind of touched, and then saddened because I realized they probably were scared some nut would try to gently caress up their place of worship. I thought that the country was going to go to some lovely "No Browns/Sandpeople" poo poo for a while.

Also, no one's mentioned how pro-Cop/Firefighter/EMT everyone was for like 2 months. To the point you wanted to wave or give a thumbs up if any of them were driving by and poo poo.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2015 18:47

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about 9/11 because I wasn't aware it was going on