9/11 does still have the impact?

32 comments

1. It changed our country forever. From airport security to foreign policy to the legacy of the Patriot Act. It had an enormous impact on our lives.

2. I can’t speak for everyone but for me, my cousin is still dead and my family is still upset about it.

3. Copying/pasting a rant I made earlier this morning in another sub, with some tweaks:

   Every now and then you see prompts on social media asking which event had more of a global impact: 9/11 or covid. And it’s disheartening to see the inevitable takes from younger people, especially those in other countries, imply that 9/11 was something that only affected Americans at that time and specifically those that were directly killed in the actual attack.

   9/11 made a direct impact on the global economy and crippled both the insurance and travel/tourism industries for months. It catapulted the West, not just America, into a war against an ideology that resulted in the longest running war in American history. The consequences of this turmoil led to great political instability in the Middle East, resulting in the deaths of millions of innocent people and the displacement of even more millions as refugees. Those refugees arriving in Europe fueled a xenophobic backlash in those countries that gave rise to far-right political parties and subsequent democratic backsliding, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, and the rise of rightwing populism in the US. Terrorist groups continue to take advantage of that backlash to increase hostility towards the West, creating a positive feedback loop of animosity.

   So yes, it still has an impact and will continue to do so.

4. For me it’s lessened a lot because I was young when it happened and didn’t lose anyone.

   For those that I know that lost family that day I suspect they have a very different opinion.

   Like I know a young man that grew up without a father because of those terrorist fucks. I’m fairly certain this is a hard day for him.

5. The terrorists won.

   * The government got a bunch of fancy new powers they shouldn’t have.
   * the 20 year GWOT has been so badly managed Wahabist Islam has more power than before.
   * destabilization from the GWOT has been used as an excuse to bring more very hostile “refugees” into the Western Bloc countries including the U.S. see Dearborn Michigan or MinneSomalia. This is worse in Europe.

6. Absolutely. There were a lot of changes because of 9/11, and many of those changes are permanent.

7. When I was a Pup in the 70s… “Pearl Harbor Day” was still a pretty big thing.

   Now? Not so much.

   Same thing. For lots of reasons time dulls the impact.

   Edit: I guess should clarify. The 1970s… I’m not from the future.

8. Yes, it does. And if it doesn’t, it should.

9. No impact to me as I was too young, but I also took time to educate myself on the history of WHY the events took place and everything leading up to it. I have a rounded world perspective and I have come to my own conclusions on those events. In short: I can’t blame them

10. Yes, very significantly.

11. >a wrong way to ask

    You could have chosen a word other than “impact”, but your question is valid and asked in the right spirit. The answer is yes, the events of 23 years ago still very much affect American (and world) society.

12. Yes but if you are referring to the emotional part of it, not as much on a national level

13. Yes. For example, Air port security has been permanently altered. Before 9/11 it was very minimal. Now it’s a long extensive process.

14. We still can’t go the airport, do some shopping, wait for our friend’s flight to land, greet them at the gate, walk with them to the baggage return, and chat as we wait to grab their suitcase off the carousel … like we used to.

15. A lot less than before. I was born within the week of 9/11 but putting it like that, the majority of current college students in the US were born 2-5 years after the event so there’s an entire generation of adults born during the post-9/11 world. I think this is also the first time I’ve seen 9/11 being mentioned so little on Reddit but it’s currently being overshadowed from yesterday’s presidential debate.

16. It’s the grammatically incorrect way to ask

17. Something like 90-100 million Americans have no memory of 9/11. Getting close to one out of three people. They would remember the multi decade aftermath but the event itself, we are getting further and further from it. For a lot of us, it was a very traumatic day that we will never forget, for others it was something that happened before they were born or before their first memories. The youngest people who have any recollection of 911 would be people in their late 20s. A 7 year old kid on 911 is now 30.

    It changed policies all over the place, but over time will have been overshadowed by other events. COVID being the big one. The Ukraine War being another. But we went out and fought a global war on terror for 20 years or so, that is a huge impact. I also think that looking back, the fall of the Soviet Union likely also played a much bigger role in changing the world than we really think about every day.

    911 has a pretty big impact for me. I was 17 at the time, it happened at a formative time in my life.

18. A few years ago, my husband worked in a building close to where the Twin Towers stood. In fact, the building he worked in was considered a potential target on 9/11. I (very, very) occasionally felt a small twinge of anxiety about him working there, even though he worked there well over a decade after the attacks.

19. For younger people who don’t remember it, maybe not, but for everyone else yes. It’s hard to appreciate how much it changed the world if you weren’t alive before it happened.

20. Yes, TSA, DHS, and a bunch of other agencies were created and still impact our country. You could say it was a perfect tragedy that was exploited for people who want to try and take power and increase the authoritarian control of the government.

21. I think so. But as we go forward from that day, unless we were affected personally by it I believe it just becomes something in the past that happened. It will be remembered for generations. Just how much is the question.

22. I’ll never forget about my kindergarten teacher. Her husband was in the North Tower. The principal, secretary, and other teachers came into the room and pulled her out. I’ll never forget the sorrowful scream from the hallway. None of us knew what was going on, because we were so young. Our parents were called and we left school early that day. I still think about that sometimes.

23. Yep. As long as the TSA is still around, we’ll still have to go through security checkpoints before going on our flights. I was 2 at the time, so it didn’t affect me as much as it did my parents. So I don’t have the full picture of 9/11 no matter how much I know about it.

24. I smell it in my nightmares. I don’t think that will ever go away.

25. It had a bigger impact on the millions killed by the US in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen.

26. Yes. I had an appointment in the south tower at 9:30. I was sitting in some coffee shop, idling there a few blocks away, because as usual, I was early. When the first plane hit, we all ran to see what happened. When the second plane hit, we were paralyzed. Most of us stayed … Until the north tower fell and then we ran. When the dust/debris cloud came, a man pulled me to the street and covered his head and mine. It seemed like forever. I ended up walking from whatever street I was on up the parkway to Westchester.

    It will always have a personal impact for me. And as others have so much more eloquently put it, it had and will continue to have, a global impact.

27. In a literal sense yes. It permanently changed the world. People who were old enough to remember it or were directly affected by it still care a lot.

    But it’s also been long enough that there’s a generation of young adults who are more detached from it and make tons of jokes about it.

28. I still have to get to the airport 2 hours before takeoff and remove my shoes and belt when going through security.

    I used to be able to cross into Canada just by saying “nothing to declare” at the security booth. Now I need a passport or a special driver’s license.

    Yeah, it still has an impact.

29. Very much so.

    While the “shock value” (for lack of a better phrase) may have begun to wear off for younger people who weren’t alive when it happened, they’re still being impacted by it, knowingly or not.

    It’s hard to stress just how impactful 9/11 was/continues to be:

    9/11 has quite literally shaped our county’s foreign and domestic policy in the 21st century and has had global impacts that are still being felt today, 23 years later (and will likely continue to be felt for decades).

    Even if you didn’t know someone who was a direct victim on 9/11 chances are you know, or you know someone who knows, a person who has been a victim of it in the last 20 years: Could be a friend or family member killed or wounded (physically or otherwise) in Afghanistan, a coworker who lost their spouse to a subsequent terrorist attack, a neighbor who has been the unfortunate the victim for their religious beliefs, the grocery store clerk’s father/brother/uncle who has cancer as the result of being a first responder on that day, the list goes on.

30. The aftermath (Patriot Act, war in the ME for my entire adult life, etc) still has a huge impact on all of our lives, but for me personally, I don’t know anyone who was lost, and I live nowhere near any of the crash sites. It’s still horrible and tragic, and i definitely won’t forget that day or the weeks after, but the anniversary is just another day for me.

    Obviously, people directly affected on the day are going to feel much differently.

31. Thousands and thousands of families lost relatives and Friends. Yes it still has the impact. Only people who didn’t live through it or don’t remember it cuz they were too young aren’t impacted by it.

32. Well I’m 23 so I don’t know the world any other way but from what I hear and from the way it’s talked about and how I personally feel about it, yes it still has the impact we just deal with it better.