Two comments in particular stand out:
This is going to be a big turning point in the history and character of this country, I think. posted by Doug at 8:51 AM on September 11, 2001 [207 favorites +] [!]
my greatest fear is how our government is going to respond. more erosion of freedom in the name of security. mark my words. posted by rebeccablood at 12:10 PM on September 11, 2001 [311 favorites +] [!]
That’s something to read…
I still remember little me coming home after school in France; my brother was watching the TV and explaining what happened. I just responded with “ok” like it was nothing
Palestinians dancing in the street, celebrating. Regardless of your world view, cheering this is barbaric.
Followed by (CW: Racist call to violence):
spoiler
I’d like to see us wipe them off the face of the earth.
Is so ironic, but was a very widespread sentiment at the time. I have family who are Muslim, and the reaction of people in the US was more frightening than the event itself. Also with family from Mexico, and that’s also when anti-immigrant/pro-border hysteria escalated to hysterical levels, which have never simmered down.
The biggest tragedy is the way we responded to the attacks. In a way, we pissed on the graves of everyone who died by letting the terrorists win. It worked because we let it.
I was an admin at the time and I had to implore people to not stream stuff on the web (It was a CS lab so we had better internet thatn most at the time) and that we had a tv setup in one of the rooms. Eventually I was asking people to stay home or go home before I finally did and watched tv all night long.
