Hey, I know Gen-Z likes to joke about 9/11 but some of us were alive for it and it was legit traumatizing so just FYI if you post any jokes about it tomorrow I’m blocking you. I know no one cares and frankly it’s kind of gross that I feel like saying this might be inviting controversy or whatever, but you’re not an edgelord for making fun of dead people you’re just disturbing.
No, the racist attacks on Muslim Americans were absolutely not even remotely OK. And yes, the government and military responses were disproportionate and very much about greed and oil. I know because I spent the entire war protesting and educating people about why it needed to end and getting people to vote in every election and standing up for Muslim people. I also walked past the crater left by the twin towers regularly for years and the fliers on the fence in little plastic protector sheets of people looking for loved ones who were still missing.
Civilians died. Regular people who happened to be on vacation, or had a work meeting, or their bagel and donut cart spot was on that corner, or they were on the janitorial crew, or their office just happened to be there, or they were a firefighter who ran to the scene and never made it out. Making jokes about 9/11 won’t change how many civilians died in Afghanistan and Iraq and Guantanamo. And their deaths also don’t justify making fun of the civilians who died in the towers and on the planes. It also doesn’t justify the cost that rescue workers still pay to this day because of the damage to their lungs that they can’t get help for because they don’t have healthcare and the Republicans struck down the bill to allot funding for them until it was too late for a lot of them. Some of us saw saw the 9/11 attacks in real time. Our lives stopped completely along with the rest of the country. Some us watched for days on TV while nothing else was on as firemen and rescue workers and desperate civilians were out there in the rubble with literal buckets trying to dig survivors out.
So yeah, I don’t like what I’ve seen the last few years from people who didn’t live through it and have made it a joke and if I see you posting callous, soulless jokes on Sept. 11th I’m blocking you and hope you take a look at your choices as a human being.
Seconding this.
My family was affected by 9/11. We were lucky no one died, but my mom had to walk from ground zero all the way up town until she could find a cab to take her out of the city. She is still traumatized from seeing the planes crash and the buildings fall, and the aftermath was…not great for our family.
I understand people want to make jokes etc. But this blog won’t support it, and I’m not going to get involved in the discussions about it.
I will say that everything that came after the attacks: the US response and the horrible wars waged and lives lost were awful and inexcusable. But the attacks of 9/11 themselves…I don’t feel like looking at it or having that conversation.
This is one of those things that’s always baffled me.
Also, god, can you think of a worse way to die than burning/suffocating to death and then spending the rest of eternity knowing your corrupt government made you into a meaningless symbol so they could bomb families and children?