Where I was, and how did we get here?

[EnergizedLib]

Last edited Sun Sep 11, 2022, 12:15 PM - Edit history (1)

Well, I was in fourth grade on this day 21 years ago, and just remember the Broncos beating the Giants on Monday Night Football the night before and whatever happened on Monday Night RAW, don’t even remember.

I didn’t quite understand the magnitude of everything I fully got picked up and got home from school that day. I remember it being mentioned in class. I knew something bad had happened, like ‘Oh, gee. That’s really unfortunate/too bad.’

I knew it was bad. I didn’t know it was that bad, still can remember waiting for Bush’s speech and news fragments before going to bed that night.

How, though, did we go from being all united on this day 21 years ago to flying Confederate battle flags, flying Nazi flags, subtle (and overt) racism, a party that was in power on that fateful date now devolving into being committed to taking people’s rights away and making cruelty one of their policies? How did we go from flying the American flag and championing what it stands for to having a party championing stealing highly sensitive documents and wanting to impose theocracy on us all, and attacking those different than them?

Just two days ago when driving to the high football game I was covering, I saw a pick up truck with an American flag on one side and the Stars and Bars on the other. This tells me one of two things. That person was either a Civil War buff, or has a real cognitive dissonance.

As bad as that day was, things haven’t gotten better in this country. They’ve gotten worse.

[2naSalit]

1. Well...

When you feed a population constant fear and uncertainty with a single solution fix that isn't really anything of the sort yet allows for power concentration, this is what you get during the transition to authoritarian control.

It's "othering" on a global sale, everything and everyone all at once.

[ananda]

2. I was in the classroom.

I stopped teaching, turned on the tv, and we
watched it the rest of the schoolday.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. "How, though, did we go from being all united on this day 21 years ago..."

Because we weren't united, even on that day.

a party that was in power on that fateful date now devolving into being committed to taking people’s rights away

The party in power on that "fateful date" passed the Patriot Act less than 60 days later.

[EnergizedLib]

4. Well

I’ll take your word for it, I was just a kid, but I don’t remember us being divided.

Also, I think if a 9/11-type attack happened today, the first instinct wouldn’t be unity, but for one side to blame the other.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. .

I’ll take your word for it, I was just a kid, but I don’t remember us being divided.

That's fine; many things look very different to a fourth grader than to an adult.

Also, I think if a 9/11-type attack happened today, the first instinct wouldn’t be unity, but for one side to blame the other.

Sure, look at covid. But there was plenty of blame and finger-pointing after 9/11, a lot of it because people wanted other people to react and respond in certain ways.