They Forgot

[phantom power]

Here’s why I think (the Wingnuts) have completely forgotten what really happened on September 11, 2001, despite their cries of “Never Forget!”:

*It’s been more than 8 years. Children born after it happened are entering the second grade right now. Kids in college were in elementary school when it happened. Destiny’s Child was still together, and Creed was still a hit factory. This trial should have happened a long time ago, but the Bush administration deliberately delayed dealing with it. Over 8 years, it’s easy to forget a major American tragedy like this, especially if it hasn’t seemed real to you in a long time---or worse, it never seemed real to you. Which, I’m prepared to argue, is largely the case with the Wingnutteria.

*They kind of think it was a Michael Bay movie in the first place. It all happened on TV, giving it that hyper-real feel that made it hard, even for those of us whose minds aren’t bent by Fox News, really feel the reality of the situation. On the day of the attacks, the reality of it seeped through the hyper-reality, but in the days following, the media made sure that didn’t happen.

*In the years since, “9/11” has turned into a shorthand for patriotic kitsch for the Wingnutteria, and doesn’t describe a horrific mass murder. For the flag-waving wingnut set, 9/11 brings to mind commemorative plates and coins, paintings of crying bald eagles, and the background noise for torture porn like “24”. There are many layers of kitsch and meaning between the phrase and the memory of the World Trade Centers collapsing (much less a plane hitting the Pentagon).

*The Iraq War distorted the issue. Since Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, but because it became the linchpin of the wingnut revenge response, it became easier for war supporters to simply forget about 9/11 as being a real criminal plot to mass murder, and think of it simply as a rallying cry. How do you convict a rallying cry? How do you even try it?

*They don’t really think New York City is real. Like Atrios noted when the teabaggers complained that the Metro in DC works like a subway and not like monorail at Disneyland, “This is also about people not from cities seeing cities - especially DC - as big urban theme parks.” And if DC is a big urban theme park, New York suffers from that image even more.

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/they_forgot/

[MiniMe]

1. Unless you live in New York or DC

I still have vivid memories of that day, and that was from DC which didn't get it as bad as New York did. But I remember watching the smoke coming up from the Pentagon, and at first, nobody was sure what building got hit. Rumors abounded that day, they hit the State Department, the White House, the Capitol, etc. and they were being reported on the radio. They shut the subways down at first which made it almost impossible to get out of DC. There was nothing on the radio on that long ride home except 24/7 news. It was a clear day, and the only things you saw in the sky was birds and military planes. In New York, it was worse, the subways weren't running, the bridges were closed.

So while I agree with you that it is a rallying cry in most of the country, and brings back the fear part only, it is different for people who were in DC and New York.

[Historic NY]

2. The hole left behind is still a vivid reminder.

[annabanana]

5. We also remember the smell . . .

It was everywhere, in everything, for months and months... (years for apartments nearest the site). It is hard to treat something as a rallying cry when the rememberance comes with that bitter, choking smell.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. It was deliberate -

In order to turn 9/11 from an tragic event into a rallying cry the administration could not let the perpetrators come to justice. They needed to keep the wound open, and pour salt on it on regular occasions, in order to provide cover for their criminal agenda.

If those who perpetrated it were put on trial or, heaven forbid, even caught (where is bin Laden?) hundreds of millions in government contracts would go uncollected.

[Sinti]

4. At the time, for me, it did seem like a bad made-for-TV movie

I should have been at the Pentagon when it got hit, but I missed my bus... and then felt the BOOM. I thought a transformer had blown up (it happens in VA), then I saw the TV and thought "man, I am lucky."

Some forgot, and some never knew and may never understand. In Idaho now, I have meet people in very small towns (less than 1,000 pop.) that think they're a target. They are extremely confused individuals.

I'm glad we're finally following the Constitution on this matter. I hate to sound cheesy, but it gives me hope that things may have actually changed for the better, on this subject at least - fingers crossed.