kineticpenguin:

kineticpenguin:

I hate the term “bootlicker” but watching Trevor Noah praise the US’ hysterical reaction to 9/11 and the security theater that followed was like seeing someone at least lovingly peck the boot

See, one of the things that worries me is that the newest voters, and those that follow them, will have no memory of a pre-9/11, pre-Patriot Act USA. Post-9/11 USA is the new normal. Except… it’s not the new normal. It’s been normal. People were born in it, they have reached adulthood in it. The paradigm shift was about 20 years ago and although I always felt powerless against it, I guess I always hoped that eventually we’d all calm down, cooler heads would prevail, the TSA bullshit would be rolled back, the Patriot Act would stop being renewed, that as a society we’d finally realize that declaring war on concepts always ends in failure.

But I begrudgingly realize now that the ignorant, fearful, disgusting words I heard and hated so much after 9/11 were the truth. Maybe you remember some of them.

“Everything has changed.”
“America has lost her maidenhead.”
“The world is a different place now.”
And so on.

I saw no reason these things should be the truth (and I always found the virgin/rape metaphors to be both crass and historically ignorant), but as I feared, they became reality because enough people willed it to be so. We are a republic, after all. People compared 9/11 to the fucking London Blitz, for Christ’s sake. Did you know people blame 9/11 on Bill Clinton? Yeah, supposedly intelligence found bin Laden hiding somewhere in the UAE and Clinton decided that firing a Tomahawk at a terrorist camping out in an allied country was a bad move.

What, do you think every president since has authorized so many air strikes just because they’re uniquely evil? Playing drone whack-a-mole is the way to protect your nation and your own legacy from the next 9/11. This paradigm changed because the American people demanded it, explicitly in word and deed. Like it or not, the vast majority don’t care how many innocents die at a wedding, as long as the next bin Laden is killed. 

Now, Trevor Noah is a few months older than me (35 as I write this). From my cursory Googling, he came to the US in 2011, so he doesn’t remember pre-9/11 USA. His words might speak to the Kids These Days. But I like to think we should know better. That the US became a darker place after 9/11, a more authoritarian one that all but forgot what soft power is and didn’t care who it hurt anymore. It conditioned people to accept being fondled and prodded and have x-ray nudes taken just for the privilege of getting on a plane, after huddling in a massive, bomb-vulnerable crowd and taking their fucking shoes off and surrendering all liquids. It’s a travesty.

And, y’know, I find it offensive. I do. I am straight-up offended by Trevor Noah saying that this absurd state America reduced itself to, this invasive, privacy-killing society we have now, is a good thing, because it’s at least trying something. Because this shit didn’t make us safer. Every COINista points out that collateral damage breeds more terrorists, every security expert says our airport security just makes bigger targets, but at least we get a fucking You Tried sticker for it, yeah?

So you know what? I will keep my scary guns, please and thank you. And I will continue to fight to keep them accessible. Because I’d rather have that freedom than give an inch to anyone who would unnecessarily impede it just because it would make them feel better.