In terms of culture

24 comments

  1. 9/11 and it’s not particularly close. 3,000 innocent people were killed in the largest terrorist event in the history of our nation. Everything changed immediately and we’re still dealing with the fallout.

    Kennedy was a tragedy, but it did not have the same impact on the future of the country.

  4. 9/11.

    As traumatic as it was, JFK was not the first presdient to be assassinated. But 9/11 literally changed everything and effects from it are still being felt and will continue to be for a long time.

  5. I mean it is one person versus three thousand, and it isn’t as if JFK wasn’t the first president to be assassinated, we already had three beforehand, and it is easy to argue that Lincoln’s was far more traumatic in terms of history.

  6. 9/11. The JFK assassination left a scar on the memories on that generation(for instance, my grandma was 19 in 1963 and remembered it until the day she was passed away in 2018) but it didn’t produce the same visceral anger that having 3000 civilians killed did. I think you can just see it in the fact that 9/11 produced music from all over: [rock](https://youtu.be/r5_8gpiSotI), [country](https://youtu.be/Zj6rMcVNQbw),
    [anti-religious](https://youtu.be/xJinRZkANVs), [Christian](https://youtu.be/0Sxqkbz6T4g), [angry](https://youtu.be/5PXSK3iDeAI), [reflective on the heroes](https://youtu.be/7mJJGfFis1g)(before you say it, yes I know Neil Young in Canadian), etc. Everybody was united, ready, and determined to avenge their deaths. You could also just see it with the emotion that came out when we finally got Bin Laden. None of that happened with JFK. It was a shock and memorable to people but it wasn’t even close to having an act of war committed on innocent people.

  8. One could write an entire book exploring and comparing societal and cultural impacts of each. It’s gotta be 9/11, but it’s still an interesting contrast. Feels like JFK’s assassination was maybe a bigger gut-punch for a lot of people, if you follow me.

  9. They were actually very close. The difference is that Democrats were in power and used the death of JFK to pass things like the Civil Rights Act, the War on poverty, you know things that might have taken another 20 years to pass otherwise.

    The Republicans were in power during 9/11 and used it as an excuse to invade Iraq which had literally nothing to do with Muslim extremism, while simultaneously legitimizing Al Queda, up to then Terrorists were treated as criminals, by declaring war they acknowledged AL Queda as a Nation State.

  10. 9/11. Is it bad that I think this is a strange as fuck question? Because this is a strange as fuck question and I’m not sure why someone would compare the two things ever. I’m almost a little offended and I don’t necessarily understand why.

    JFK wasn’t like Archduke Ferdinand by any means. His assassination didn’t plunge anyone into a world war. It was sad but it’s more, in terms of emotional impact, like when Princess Diana was killed in a car accident.

  11. September 11 killed more people than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and started 2 wars. Looks like you don’t remember what life was like before the Patriot Act so that’s a rabbit hole you can fall down.

  12. “Traumatic” is an interesting word. 9/11 undoubtedly had the more direct historical consequences but I wonder if the Kennedy assassination wasn’t more “traumatic” for the American psyche.

    I mean, I don’t know because I didn’t live through it. But I can imagine that seeing video of a young, vibrant president who most people felt they “knew” getting his brains blown out May have been a greater shock, especially coming in an era that apparently felt so optimistic. 9/11, as awful and transformative as it was, was not the first terrorist attack or mass violence in recent years when it happened.

    Maybe, maybe not. I was going to say we should get someone who lived through and remembers both to weigh in but even that may not be accurate since probably the event that happened at an earlier age looms larger.

    Interesting question.

  16. 9/11. We are still living in what people call a “Post 9/11” world even though we are on our 4th president in this “Post 9/11 World”. We are also in a post “2008 Great Recession world” (although maybe not), and now a “Post Covid-19” world, both of which were far more traumatic and challenging than 9/11, but we still sort of consider 9/11 as the big defining thing of our generation.

  17. If JFK were assassinated by a foreign military operative, it still probably wouldn’t compare to 9/11

  18. 9/11 it made me question more our government, I sat in my economics class my senior year watching the news that morning. The really hit seeing how people around the world were happy it happened. I thought it was hypocritical SA offered money if I remember correctly.

  19. Lots of people here aren’t old enough to compare or comprehend the assassination of JFK. That focused the country on to the Cold War. It was and still is a lasting event

  21. I wasn’t alive with JFK was shot but I can’t imagine that it was even remotely close to as traumatic nationwide as 9/11. It was a national tragedy but didn’t fundamentally change the nation and world like 9/11 did.

  24. The only thing that could remotely compare to 9/11 in American history was Pearl Harbor, and even then, I still wouldn’t call it comparable. There was a world war ongoing, tensions with Japan were high, and a naval and air base were attacked. It was culturally impactful because it stirred a reluctant nation into a war where we emerged as a superpower.

    9/11 was out of the blue, and against a civilian target. It SCARED people. Overnight the world changed, and in a bad way.

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