Thread by @natcassidy

Can I say a potentially controversial, semi-shitty thing? On Twitter? Is that allowed?

Donald Trump is the inevitable result of “Never Forget” culture.

See, cuz there are 2 kinds of “never forget”ing.

There’s the kind where you use the non-forgettable event as a mirror. A rock bottom. A chance to grow.

And there’s the vengeful, fearful kind where “Never forget” is a kind of threat.

Guess which kind’s easier.

Trump is a grievancemonger, a fearmonger, and a divider. 9/11 was one of the most important ingredients in the shit stew that produced the political entity we unfortunately have to try to survive now.

Doesn’t matter that we already reacted to 9/11. Doesn’t matter that it was in the past. All that matters is tapping into the fear, resentment, and vulnerability people (mostly white Boomers whose security had never been threatened before).

All that matters is Never Forgetting.

Obviously this doesn’t mean we should *forget* that day. Quite the opposite. We need to actually remember it fully. How it happened. How we responded. How we rose to the occasion. How we fell short afterwards.

You wanna really “Never Forget?”

Never forget that people of color are feeling that same existential, physical terror we all felt that day RIGHT NOW because of our own government.

Never forget that the GOP (and honestly a few Dems, but ALL of the GOP) fosters policies that create MORE global resentment, MORE terrorists, MORE pain, MORE wars of attrition with other cultures until the only possible solution is genocide.

You know what, lemme put this in a more elegant way.

If you're going to Never Forget?

Do it like a fucking New Yorker.

New Yorkers don't need to be reminded. Even if we weren't there that day, we can never forget. But it's not just the horror and death we never forget. It's the way our neighbors helped us out. How our city doesn't function without each other, without multiculturalism.

Talk to any New Yorker who was here on 9/11 and their story will be part survival drama, part Breakfast Club character study.

Even beyond 9/11. For every calamity, for every major event, that's the story of New York: a buncha strangers crammed together, trying to get by.

But there's also the "Never Forget" of "real" America. It's a football chant. A trademark. I've known people who literally despise everything NYC *actually* stands for who also have posters of Ground Zero framed in their house to look at every fucking day. It's grievance porn.

It's almost ironic Trump is from NYC--but he's been so thoroughly shunned by this city that he has no real connection to this place. He's incompatible with our lifeblood.

Trump is the living personification of that *other* "Never Forget."

The GOP wants you to feel fear & hatred and inflict misery & pain on others in response. Whether they admit it or not, they *want* enemies. They *want* tragedies. It keeps them in power.

The only weapons are empathy & love & a rejection of defining our culture by its worst day.