re: #69 freetoken

9/11 has become the basis of a new American religion.

Which is really on old American religion.

American exceptionalism is the collective superpositioning of fear of not-being-enough.

What a major, successful, terrorist attack undermined is this idea that America is the apple of God’s eye.

Hawking 9/11 really bugs me. As terrible as murdering a couple of thousand people was, we’ve had wars that killed many, many times that. And nothing comes close to the Civil War in traumatizing the US (which is why 150 years later it is still a hot button.)

And why the South and Southern heritage is still hawked with pride when they’re the ones who lost - and the ones who committed treason and engaged in insurrection against the Union. Pointing this out is enough to trigger the same people who think USA #1 without the slightest bit of irony.

Where 9/11 differs is that in prior wars that the US entered, the targets of violence initiating the conflict were military targets. This was a conflict where the targets were entirely civilian in nature. The terrorists used methods that didn’t require massive amounts of explosives or military prep - just the ability to hijack airlines and fly them into structures of their choosing. Low risk, high reward from their POV - whereas defending against that requires high investment, and ongoing vigiliance to protect against future attacks using those same methods (all while the terrorists change methodologies to try and inflict mass casualties). Hence, we get various suicide bombing attacks, shoe bombers, and now vehicle hijackings that drive through high usage areas to kill/maim as many as possible.