Happy forever war day, I guess?
20 years ago I was sleeping in. I was 18 and college didn’t start for another week.
My mom burst into my room screaming “they’re bombing New York!!!” and I spent the rest of the day consuming horror and nationalist rhetoric on the tv.
My mom burst into my room screaming “they’re bombing New York!!!” and I spent the rest of the day consuming horror and nationalist rhetoric on the tv.
I was a young kid who didn’t know anything, but I knew the things I was hearing didn’t match the things I was seeing.
The drumbeats to war fueled by every tv network, the bad-faith arguments, the self-righteous anger that refused to engage with “why”.
The drumbeats to war fueled by every tv network, the bad-faith arguments, the self-righteous anger that refused to engage with “why”.
I didn’t know it then but I’m autistic, and autistic people tend not to get swallowed up in mass social trends.
My autism sort of inoculated me from the propaganda engine as it spun up. And it made me feel crazy.
My autism sort of inoculated me from the propaganda engine as it spun up. And it made me feel crazy.
After about three months I ended up in a nervous breakdown. I was so depressed, and until today I didn’t realize it was MY way of processing 9/11 and everything that came from it.
But I knew then that I was somehow Not Like Them. I wish I’d had the strength to know it was good.
But I knew then that I was somehow Not Like Them. I wish I’d had the strength to know it was good.
Anyway. Bin Laden achieved his aims better than he had any right to hope. We did exactly what he wanted, and the United States is now a failed state.
What a history lesson.
But sure. Never forget.
What a history lesson.
But sure. Never forget.
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