Bideo James posted:

not that many people died in 9/11. it was just like, a few.

titty_baby_ posted:

My favorite 9/11 consequence is a rambling YouTube comment from years ago where this jaded British raver is talking about how UK garage music was really upbeat and everything was great until 9/11, and then the whole national attitude changed and garage became darker and spawned grime and dubstep. So from this persons point of view 9/11 led to dubstep.

titty_baby_ posted:

Quetzadilla posted:

Now even the loving NYPD has their own international intelligence agency no loving joke.

Buck Wildman posted:

compared to what

Riot Bimbo posted:

I think it was one of those critical moments for millenials. Growing up, watching every adult on the planet go absolutely insane, (I joined them for a while, but I was a preteen, they have no real excuse) was massively enlightening/alienating. More than my parents getting sick, and losing their middle class life to a dying economy and failing health, realizing that the adults in the room by and large were nothing but scared children with way too much power, was big-time formative for me. All of the jingoism and patriotism going around in north-central Texas at the time, was intoxicating at first, but once the buzz wore off, extremely alienating.

Without 9/11, I don't think I would be as "over" America as an idea or nation than I am now. Culturally, I think Millenial+Zoomer leftism also comes back to that stupid loving day.

quote:

WASHINGTON—In a statement posted this morning on several Islamist websites, the global terrorist network al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for last Thursday's devastating personal attack on Carbondale, IL resident Tim Harris.

The highly coordinated strike, which targeted the unsuspecting 32-year-old as he exited a Huck's convenience store, and made light of his ample girth, lack of employment, and inability to meet single women, occurred at 9:32 a.m. At 9:35 a.m., a second wave of vicious insults was reportedly launched at Harris, obliterating what little remained of his self-esteem.
Harris
Harris

"The foot soldiers of Islam have struck at this pathetic slob of a man with righteous force, and they have brought him down," read the statement, which praised as heroes the four al-Qaeda operatives who carried out the personal attack. "There is nothing left of him now. Tim Harris has been destroyed."

"Praise be to Allah," the statement continued. "Allah is great."

Department of Homeland Security officials told reporters that it could take months to determine the full extent of the damage from what they are calling the worst-ever ad hominem strike on American soil, even as crews worked around the clock to salvage whatever bits of Harris' self-respect they could from the wreckage.

"Never before has our nation witnessed such brutal mockery," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "It appears that al-Qaeda had been monitoring Mr. Harris long enough to become fully conversant in his insecurities, and was prepared to employ any means necessary, even pointing out his huge, Neanderthal-like underbite, to achieve its terrible goal. Indeed, there wasn't a single emotional sore spot—from his lack of sexual experience to the fact that most animals don't seem to like him—that they did not exploit."

"It's unthinkable," Napolitano added. "They even reminded Tim about the time nobody showed up to his New Year's party."
Illustration for article titled Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility For Devastating Personal Attack On Illinois Man

When asked by reporters why her department had failed to prevent the hurtful attack, Napolitano said it was impossible for the government to secure every potential target in a country so densely populated with losers.

"At this time, we simply don't have the resources necessary for such an undertaking," Napolitano said. "As much as we would like to, we cannot guarantee the safety of every former telemarketer who sleeps on a futon and still has roommates despite being almost 35 years old."

Critics, however, pointed to the fact that al-Qaeda had attempted a similar personal attack on Harris in 2003, one that might have succeeded had it not been for an uncharacteristic intelligence-gathering error on the terrorists' part.

"We know that al-Qaeda will keep returning to a target until they get their desired result," CIA director Leon Panetta said. "Seven years ago, for whatever reason, they failed to take into account that Mr. Harris had been feeling pretty good about having done push-ups that morning and was optimistic about a job interview he'd just been on. That attack was unsuccessful, but we should have learned from it."

"I mean, just look at the guy," Panetta added. "It's hard to imagine a more vulnerable target."

While acknowledging that there is no foolproof way of protecting oneself against the cruelly incisive barbs of al-Qaeda, DHS released today a list of basic self-maintenance measures that Americans, particularly the most defenseless sad sacks, should employ to minimize their risk. Chief among these is cultivating an awareness of one's personal appearance. According to Napolitano, small, relatively easy improvements in wardrobe and hygiene can deprive al-Qaeda of obvious defects upon which to capitalize.

"All Americans must be vigilant about combing their hair," Napolitano said. "Also, they should wear a shirt that fits them for once in their life, and if they choose to put on sweatpants, maybe avoid those with obvious mustard stains on them."

"A personal attack can come at any time and when you least expect it, whether you're lounging around all weekend in your bathrobe or sitting in the waiting room of a hair-loss clinic," she added.

Napolitano stressed that there was no immediate threat of a personal strike against any particular individual. However, she admitted that her department was closely monitoring a number of "soft targets," including recently divorced Chicago resident David Braumberg, chronically fatigued Wal-Mart cashier Bridget Carmichael, and Rich Parker, a 28-year-old Ohio native who divides his time between playing poker online and staring glassy-eyed at old high school yearbooks late at night.

"I've personally monitored a few of these targets myself," Napolitano said. "Believe me, an attack from al-Qaeda is the last thing these losers need."

KaptainKrunk posted:

the millennial path of 90s kid -> 9/11 -> uhhh iraq war? -> watching dems and kerry SUCK rear end and the peace movement do nothing -> loose change -> briefly believe in obama -> disappointment -> loling at trump -> hope -> epstein -> despair

is pretty loving nuts

Bideo James posted:

not that many people died in 9/11. it was just like, a few.

ohrwurm posted:

9/11 is almost old enough to legally drink

paul_soccer12 posted:

mohammed atta was 33 years old at the time. what have tyou done with your life

Riot Bimbo posted:

MIC won. Security state won. Letter agencies won. Nobody else won.

In fact, they won so hard, and their own words foreshadowed something like this hard enough, it's really difficult to not... you know... give in to conspiratorial temptations

Riot Bimbo posted:

it's really difficult to not... you know... give in to conspiratorial temptations

a few DRUNK BONERS posted:

There are multiple bushes and they all did 9 11

Quetzadilla posted:

They're right, literally no piece of media was unaffected by 9/11. When did punk/grunge die again? What was the tone of 2000s rock? Remember when Jimmy Eat World renamed their platinum album released 2 months before 9/11 from "Bleed American" to self-titled? Or when Slayer got dragged for realeasing "God Hates Us All" on 9/11 with album art of a desecrated bible? Do you think David Lynch's Dune, wherein Kyle Maclaughlin leads a band of scrappy desert freedom fighters to a justified assault an imperial outpost by literally calling it jihad would have come out post-9/11? Or Deep Space Nine where one of the central characters is an unrepentant terrorist/freedom fighter (also 100% justified) would have even been made?

The Matrix was probably the last significant* work of pre-9/11 media, and it absolutely would not have been made or released afterwards.

*just purely based on the breadth and depth of its lasting cultural impact through to today.

Feldegast42 posted:

9/11 was an intelligence flub but boy howdy did Bush and the ruling class know how to take advantage of it

KaptainKrunk posted:

9/11 was more of a psychic attack, mostly on boomers, more than anything. I think it is really hard to imagine the intellectual and cultural conformity that pervaded 90s America, especially as distilled by tv and media.

even just thinking about 9/11 is loving crazy, like almost a dream or waking nightmare. just thinking about the 90s style photography, style, video, and sense of security. of course this is all filtered through the head of a pretty young kid but I can almost feel like I was there. I can imagine someone standing at the edge, wind whipping, flames below them.

Ardennes posted:

To follow up: 9/11 really was the first crack to show in the United States' control since the Vietnam War. The Soviet Union had declined, fallen and Russia at that time (2001) was still a basket-case. China was really only starting just starting to really get more industrialized but generally wasn't a major threat. Since 1970s, everything had been going the US' way at that point and in general, the quality of life for most people was actually fairly decent especially coming off the general economic boom of the 1990s. It was a shock.

Not only did it lead to the War on Terror/Iraq/Afganistan and then the Patriot act, but generally pushed the US in a more aggressive position abroad. Arguably, it would also eventually lead to a more adversarial relationship with the Russians, Iran, and finally China.

The Great Recession was also a big deal, since it was really the first time, that the US started to go nuts with QE and be openly outrageous with bailouts.

That said, I think COVID is bigger than both of them combined.