They say 9-11 changed everything, did it change YOU?

[mopaul]

and there are some who say 9-11 changed nothing, it just focused it better.

it definitely did change a lot of people and how they perceive things, and that's what it was designed to do, to change america.

how did this mostly forgotten event change you?

[Ruffhowse]

1. That phrase was always the most annoying hyperbole to ever

establish itself after 9/11. I was NOT changed significantly by that event, even if the media says I was.

[caledesi]

2. Hear wht the Europeans have said about this statement?

US said 9/11 changed the world. Europeans say America changed, not the rest of the world.

<and for the worse,I might add>

[adwon]

3. Changed everything?

A lot of changes have occurred, but most of them have been of the closing the barn door type. Further, many of them were probably unnecessary. Is it really necessary to ban every possible sharp instrument, minus pencils, on planes? Americans did note that modern hijackers are playing a whole new ballgame. Witness what happened to the shoe bomber when he tried to play.

I've seen a lot of showy increases in security, but significant, SIGNIFICANT, weak spots remain. What is the point of fortifying every military base in the country when CIVILIANS are the targets? C'mon, people, think this through! It only makes the preferred targets even more appealing.

9/11 had a chance to change many things. The reaction to it was a welcome change from the casual disinterest of the 90s. W had a real chance to build himself a lasting coalition and make some of the necessary changes to America (trade deficits and the like). However, he took this opportunity and gladly screwed the pooch. Rather than call for sacrifice in the face of adversity, he chose to exhort more consumption. He told the American people that they didn't need to worry their pretty heads about anything. He and the army could solve it all. Then he gave the army the shaft by forgetting to finish the job in Afghanistan.

The real Republican failure, and this will destroy the current batch, is that they have chosen to deny people a chance to make history. Rather than offer people a chance to make changes, they encourage to sit on the couch, grow fat, and not worry about the government. This kind of patronization just makes me sick.



Oh, maybe some people woke up and realized there were terrorists in the world, too. I doubt that fact was much of a shock to the people here.

[carolinayellowdog]

4. Made me an ex-Christian instantly

Hey,

Since you asked, I had been a lukewarm liberal Christian, hoping that there was more good than evil in the Abrahamic religions and that religion was evolving into something more humanistic. That day I not only felt the absolute evil of Islamic fundamentalism, but foresaw that fundamentalist Christianity would respond with even greater evil. I knew that many thousands of innocent Muslims would die at the hands of Christians seeking revenge.

So I washed my hands of religion that day.

CYD

[rodeodance]

5. it was the follow up behavior/lies of WH that made me more cynical

of the government than I was before (if that is possible).

[rodeodance]

6. I find I have to be more careful. lest there be people around me if

I should say something against the government/war as my words tend to provoke outcries from right leaning people who are very passionate that Bush/gov is doing the right thing. I find myself chilled lots of times.

[mopaul]

7. me too, you have to gauge the crowd you're with

loose lips blow up federal buildings

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[notadmblnd]

34. Couldn't you have just made your first statement in your reply?

why did you feel you needed to make your JUDGEMENTAL second statement?

I've read a lot of threads here on DU recently accusing liberals of persecuting Christians. All I want to say is your second comment was unnecessary. What I read in it was judgment and condemnation. From what I've learned of Christianity, Jesus never would have made a judge mental comment like that. But then again Jesus was a Jew, wasn't he?

[carolinayellowdog]

36. Believers are compelled to attribute unbelief to character flaws

At least a certain type of believer is. I never had much faith in religious dogma, but did have faith in a more humane and progressive future. That included faith that American Christianity's worst atrocities were in the past. All gone now.

[notadmblnd]

39. well in my opinion...

it only exposes the flaw in their claim to be Christian.

[ima_sinnic]

8. 9/11 itself changed nothing for me

but the utterly incompetent, divisive, dishonest, opportunistic and pathetic response by BushCo and resulting enabling of the DUMBEST scum among us, the reactionary anti-intellectual fundamentalists and boob tube sucklings, has made me constantly outraged and heartsick at the completely unnecessary and tragic dismantling of what USED to be a wonderful country. Civil war or some such major upheaval seems just a matter of time now.

[verdalaven]

9. It didn't change my outlook

until we went into Iraq. That was when I woke up and started paying attention.

[Mikimouse]

10. I have to agree with caledesi...

the world did not change, but the US certainly did, and not for the better. The age of introspection was brought to a screeching halt, and with it, any chance of really understanding why these things happen. Of course, I also tend to think that it was all too convenient in the timing and the opportunities which fed directly into the PNAC master plan. Just my opinion.

Edit: Corrected spelling

[dbt]

11. It was a subtle shift.

Before 9/11, I merely suspected that bu$hler and his Dark Masters were some cold-blooded, money-grubbing, utterly and literally Reptilian, murderin' sumbitches who would gang-rape the Virgin Mary if they thought there was a dollar in it.

[Squeech]

12. Yup

Not right away, but I have become a different person, and almost entirely in unfavorable ways. I have no hope for the future. I feel no security in my daily life. I expect no reasonable treatment from authority. I view the America I used to know as a kind of vanished, near-mythological golden age, while the America I actually inhabit looks a lot more like Oceana.

I'm an oldthinker, so I unbellyfeel Ingsoc, I guess.

As far as I'm concerned, 9/11-- mainly America's response to it-- made depression a reasonable and proper state of mind. (And I have no desire to be medicated out of it.)

[BrklynLiberal]

13. For those of us that worked within walking range of the WTC, yes.

[smirkymonkey]

42. I agree and it changed New York as well.

It hasn't been the same since. I can't put my finger on it, but this is no longer the city that I used to be in love with.

Also, I never used to think about terrorism but now it is always in the back of my mind, especially when I think about how easy it would be in a city like this.

[GiovanniC]

14. It Intensified My Hatred For Those Destroying Our Country

I became a Democrat during the Clinton impeachment. Prior to that, I had no political leanings one way or the other.

My beliefs intensified during the 2000 election as I found that I agreed with almost every plank of the liberal/Democratic platform. During the primaries, I rooted for Gore and for McCain. I hated Bush with a passion and determined early that he was a moron. The selection of Cheney as running mate proved to me that he was evil (or controlled by evil people), also.

The 2000 election fiasco solidified my passion about the Democratic party. Prior to that, I thought that Dems and Pubs were just two political parties who disagreed. But when Democrats wanted the votes counted and the Republicans used courts and riots to block votes from being counted, it cleared up any confusion I might have had.

For about a week after 9/11, I was Rah-Rah America red-white-and-blue all over my car, "United We Stand" written in car chalk on my back window, American flags from both rear windows. The right moves on the part of the Bush administration could have won me over to their side. But instead, they came out with idiotic rhetoric and half-cocked, vaguely justified plans to blow the shit out of another country. My suspicions were raised and they lost their chance with me as soon as Afghanistan said they'd turn over bin Laden if the US would produce evidence that he was responsible, and the US refused. If Afghanistan wanted the US to hand over Ken Lay for a "trial" and execution, you can be damn sure we'd AT LEAST demand evidence. Their request was reasonable, but we blew the living shit out of that country.

Four years later, they are still using the attacks on our soil as a political weapon, while doing NOTHING to decrease the chances it will happen again, doing TONS to INCREASE the chances it will happen again, and doing NOTHING to bin Laden or the Saudi government... Yeah, that changed me. Before 9/11 I just thought they had intolerant ideas and bad economic policies that were bad for America. After 9/11, I realized that they were also a danger to the safety of Americans.

[The Devils Advocate]

15. Nothing changed, and why would it?

The gov't has been ramming their invented crises down our throats forever. This is just another one. We will never know the truth of what happened on 9-11, but one thing we can be sure of: Osama and Alquada are just props and scenery to divert us from the truth. In a way, 9-11 was the getaway car that was used to push the patriot act AND Iraq.

And if you think I am a conspiracy nut, answer this: If the Bushies have lied about everything else, why would they have told the truth about 9-11?

[Boomer]

16. Yes, it changed me

Until 9/11 I had been an apolitical Democrat -- I voted Democrat, but avoided undue exposure to specific issues. I hated politics, found it all too boring or upsetting to spend time contemplating.

But 9/11 was so dramatic that it was impossible to ignore, so I started aviding reading online news reports several times a day. The habit stuck, and my reading topics broadened, then I joined DU and the circle widened even more. I'm now a news/politics junkie and can't go more than a few hours before I get itchy to check the headlines.

The other thing that changed for me after 9/11 was that my respect for the American public took a nosedive. Instead of using 9/11 to transform our country in positive ways, it seems to have plunged people into an orgy of fear and hatred.

How sad. And dangerous.

[recoveringrepublican]

32. Sounds exactly like me, but I was an apolitical republican. nt

[cmd]

17. It didn't affect me that much

Kennedy's assassination was the turning point in my life. That was the end of my feeling of innocence and security.

[Danmel]

18. I'm a New Yorker and it changed a lot for me

I worked four blocks from the trade center for 5 years (although I wasn't working there on 9-11). I know, personally, at least a dozen people who were working within a few blocks of the Trade Center (and two working in the Trade Center) on 9-11. Luckily, none of them were killed, but I have to tell you, I still cannot look at the skyline and not see what's not there to be seen. Even the light freaks me out sometimes, especially on Park Row, where there used to be significant shading and shadowing from the Towers. Now it's just streams of light which , had the Towers never been there, would be lovely, but knowing what was there and is no more, is just ineffably sad.

I am depressed and furious at the way this administration has used NY's pain while utterly failing, in my humble estimation, to meaningfully protect us from any future events. And we all know they'll hit NY because without any arrogance, we are probably the only US city that matters to them. I hate the way the govt has used the attacks to foster it's militaristic and anti civil libertarian agendas and the way they fear monger to people who likely have nothing to fear. (I don't think Al-Queada is targeting Iowa, or Mississippi)

Yeah, a whole lot changed. Everything? Of course not. But at least here, where it happened, the pain is still palpable. New Yorkers are tough- we carry on and do what we have to. We laugh we have fun, we have celebrations. But I think a lot of us are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[animuscitizen]

38. I can relate to everything you said--I moved upstate after 9/11

And I'm not alone in my paranoia. Following 9/11, there have been droves of people from the city and surrounding suburban areas who have moved or purchased a second home upstate.

I work in the behavioral health field and provided grief counseling and support groups in the community (at schools and companies) for people directly effected by the events of 9/11. It was an emotionally draining experience. So I ran upstate to gain some serenity.

When I moved, my real estate agent gave me iodine--just in case--because of the proximity of Indian Point. At first I thought he was being a bit extreme. But now I am grateful for the gift. NY is always a potential ground zero.

[BrklynLiberal]

44. Thank you for putting into words what I could not.

[earth mom]

69. Waiting for the other shoe to drop describes how I've felt since 9/11

perfectly. I've been uneasy ever since...nothing is the same. Before 9/1, I was apolitical; after 9/11 I was apolitical and scared shitless, and didn't look too deeply or ask many questions and pretty much accepted what * & Co and the corporate media dished out. A little over a year ago, I woke up smelling the stench in the air and proceeded to do my political homework while arguing issues with freepers for months on another site. Finding DU right after the stolen election was awesome, though tempered with the knowledge of how dark the days may soon become.

While waiting for that other shoe to drop...it's good to know that we at least we all have each other here on DU. :grouphug:

[kiki]

19. The aftermath changed me.

I was actually reaching a point in my life where I was becoming fairly apolitical - it's not that I couldn't be bothered, but I just thought that everyone had a right to their opinion, two sides to every story etc. Political existentialism, you might say.

After 9/11 and the near-global resurgence of insidious fascism it created, I decided that, while all the above was still true, it was probably time to draw a line in the sand and call a right-wing scumbag a right-wing scumbag...

[wildwww2]

20. No. I fully expected a 9-11 to happen with Bu$h in office. And it did.

Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[freestyle]

21. It removed all doubt about the evil of the bush regime

The accelerated push towards fascism that followed 9/11 did ratchet up the distrust of government a bit, but not much. A sad fact of U.S. history is that black people are used to terrorism and injustice, so 9/11 and the aftermath were part of a continuing pattern. There was a window for some good to come from the shared pain, but it was quickly closed by fear and division and the desire to inflict yet more pain on the rest of the world.

[xpat]

22. As I watched the towers tumble

I said to myself this will be used the same way the Reichstag fire was used. I went onto the internet and started alerting my friends to that danger. They laughed at me. Today they weep.

[jayfish]

23. For About 3-Months. -NT-

Jay

[jmowreader]

24. It made me aware of just how evil Bush really is

[Mizmoon]

25. As a NYer I was deeply and profoundly changed

I remember the WTC employee who said he used the building alarm as an excuse to sneak down to the street and have a cigarette. Then the building collapsed. That cigarette saved that guy's life. That made me think about conventional wisdom.

I thought about all the people who went back to their desks because an announcement told them it was safe. I vowed never to be a sheep who listens to announcements again. Ever. I will rely on my own judgement.

I thought about the guy from my high school, and the people from my town, who had died that day and decided to live my life and stop waiting. I've wasted a lot of time waiting for 'the right time' for 'enough money' or whatever else was holding me back from traveling and being true to myself and really being alive. I've stopped that.

I suddenly realized that if I had taken that job offer from a year before, I would have been there too. And I realized so much of life happens due to chance.

The direction of my life and heart changed that day and in the days that followed. I think a lot of New Yorkers were changed in the same way.

[JNelson6563]

26. It sure did!

It made me fully aware of the lengths the BFEE will go to in order to achieve their goals.

Julie

[Theres-a]

27. I discovered the internet

I had no TV at the time,or a computer,so I went to the library and was literally astonished at what I found online.It was a whole rabbit-hole I didn't know about.Up until 911,I had only used the computer for ebay,email and the like.I had no idea what was going on in the real world,other than what I saw on other people's TV's or in print.I got my own computer a year ago.I spend a minimum of an hour a day at DU,Truthout,Democracy Now,etc.Fool me once........won't get fooled again.

[libhill]

29. 11/22/63

Is what changed me - the bastards to this day have never told us the truth about the assasination- J.F.K. /M.L.K./R.F.K./IRAN CONTRA/OCTOBER SURPRISE/911 just more of the same, a corrupt fuckin' government, manipulating events to achieve whatever sinister goal suits the purposes of the cabal that runs this country behind the scenes.

[Lauri16]

30. Honestly,

I can say that it didn't change me a bit. I know that probably sounds cold, but I never altered the way I live in any way. I don't look at Muslims or anyone from the Middle East any different. My neice is married to a Muslim, she converted.

[recoveringrepublican]

31. Yes it did, it's part of the reason I'm here now

It's shameful, honestly I'm very ashamed that it took something so destructive to wake my ass up and realize that I'm part of the world and I better pay better attention.

[Theres-a]

35. You're not alone,me too.

Welcome to DU!

[notadmblnd]

33. yes, I've become more cynical and mistrusting of our government

I believe nothing I see or hear anymore form our elected officials.

[DARE to HOPE]

37. It was the shocking action of Bush v Gore in 2000 that changed me...

...it was akin to the shock of the JFK assassination, though I was a child then!

I said to myself at the time--"they have done this! Now what WON'T they do to us!"

Then in 9 months, 9-11. I knew it was at least LIHOP right away.

[libhill]

49. 9/11 was probably

already in the works- that's why they HAD to get Bush in office, by fair means or foul - a Democratic victory in 2000 would have set back their agenda by who knows how long - but I think it would have happened eventually regardless of who was President.

[kath]

67. Agree - December 12, 2000 was the day that changed everything.

Truly a day that will live in infamy.

[endor_moon]

40. 9/11 changed America for the worse

since our foreign policy, which was the cause of the attack in the first place, became even more inhumane and murdering after 9/11.

More attacks are obviously in the works.

[More Than A Feeling]

41. It made me more liberal and a more partisan Democrat. n/t

[Bouncy Ball]

43. Well, it's not a mostly forgotten event for me.

It did change me, but not the way the bushies would hope.

1. It made me TOTALLY pissed off, permanently, at bush, cheney, and ALL the republican party for being so FUCKING incompetent. They IGNORED ALL those warnings. If Clinton had done that, DAMN, he'd have been ripped limb from limb by people with pitchforks long before now. THAT hypocrisy also pisses me off. It made me SCARED that bush is president, because any administration that fucks up something like 9/11 so badly will fuck up everything that badly. They haven't proven that theory wrong yet.

2. It made me have a new admiration and respect for New Yorkers. It's sort of a stereotype, but I think there is some truth in there: damn you guys are tough mofos. I mean, that shit was something AWFUL, to make an understatement, but New Yorkers were just like "we can handle this, we'll be fine." No whining or whinging from them. It made me, oddly, fall in love with New York City.

3. My husband had a minor nervous breakdown (funny to call it minor, it sure as hell didn't LOOK minor at the time) six weeks after. Troops were being sent to Afghanistan, it was reminding him of 1990, he felt like he should be with them, all the stress of everything just built up and he kind of....imploded one day. It was really scary. He quit his job, attacked (physically) his boss, came home, trashed three rooms of the house....I ended up calling 911. He ended up in some serious counseling and taking meds. He's fine now, just fine, better than ever. It took a few months for him to get his bearing again, but something about that whole thing tripped something off in him.


Have I mentioned how much I hate bush?

[clem_c_rock]

45. It woke my ass up to the idea we're being lied to about nearly everything.

When you have a group called the PNAC flying planes into buildings, blaming it on folks who sit right on the oil/strategic rich countries they first plan to invade, to spark an insane agenda; Hell yeah - it really can change your life.

[libhill]

50. And what really pisses ya off

Is that we know, and they know we know, and they don't even really care - it's like "we have everything under our control, and we will continue to lie to you and push our agenda, and if you don't like it, tough shit".

[clem_c_rock]

51. It seems like something out of a bad comic book

And you try to tell anyone about it they don't want to hear it or they just won't listen.

I'm glad I don't have children right now as I have no idea what the hell kind of future they will be looking at.

After the PNAC agenda crashes as does any world domination attempt our children are going to be the ones eating the most shit.

[ghostsofgiants]

46. It's what got me interested in politics

I heard all of Bush's horseshit on CNN: "They attacked us because they hate freedom" and all that shit. Sounded a little to simplistic to me so I started reading up on such issues and discovered that these people were even more full of shit than I though.

[PowerToThePeople]

47. Yes.

Too much to go into.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

48. It made me even more cynical than I already was.

Seeing Boobya playing it for everything it was worth and some Democrats playing along with him was enough to convince me that politicians as a group are just a bit below house-flies in their value to humanity.

[ContraBass Black]

52. Before 9/11, the worst thing that could happen

So far as I and those around me were concerned, was someone shooting up the local schools.

[WLKjr]

53. For me, Everything changed after December 2000

You all know what I am talking about. It's the month America Died and was put on the 'tubes'........

[Lilith Velkor]

56. Yup. 9/11 was simply the other shoe.

I live in DC, and tensions were already pretty high due to the first annual World Bank/IMF conference/riot in the spring of 2000.

Well, I did get a new pet peeve around summer of '02, and that's the "no plane hit the Pentagon" bullshit. They repaired the building in full view of a goddamn major highway, and people still spread that crap.

[Discord]

54. I realized that day the GREAT potential of the USA

and the bitter dissappointment of its catistrophic failures.

It showed me that the people of this country COULD be united. To live together and put their differances aside for the greater good.

We had the ear of the world, the people united, and FUCKING BUSH BLEW IT!

[maxsolomon]

55. i haven't changed at all

i wasn't even surprised.

one thing: now i feel like i'm aiding monotheist terror every time i fill up.

[Tactical Progressive]

57. I didn't live through the 9/11 shock like the rest of America

I realized within days that Bush had let America get attacked on purpose. Most of the information was there nearly from the start, believe it or not. The weeks and months of shock afterwards that everyone else was going through was an entirely different experience for me. Posting around the internet that Bush had been warned repeatedly from the highest levels domestically and internationally that it was coming, and had intentionally ignored the warnings to leave America open to terrorist assault in order to create an excuse for military incursions into the Middle East, left me being either called insane or, conversely, the activator for conspiracy rants of how the WTC had been covertly blown up from the inside and that a plane hadn't really crashed into the Pentagon. Americans are more comfortable in denial or in conspiracy than in the truth. This pattern continued for over a year and a half before I saw a single post from someone else reflecting the truth, and almost a year after that before 'LIHOP' came onto the scene.

But by then it was all different. The shock of 9/11 was in the past. We'd gone through the buildup of lies against phony Iraqi threats. The attack on Iraq had been executed and BushCo motivations were all part of the miasma of WMD lies and political repurcussions at that point. It's not the same as when you're right in the middle of it listening to maintream media mongrels talking about how Bush had become a leader of great stature after his post-9/11 performance, as I understood how he had really lead. It's not the same as when someone is talking to your face about how 'lucky we are that Bush is in office after 9/11' when you know he let it happen, yet keep silent because you know the person, like everyone else in the country, didn't want to hear anything but great leader. It's not the same, in the middle of a trauma, to listen to the broadband lionizing of someone you know to be the ultimate culprit of the disaster and be utterly powerless to make so much as a dent in the surreality of it all. It's like the difference between proof of CIA involvement in the JFK assassination coming out now versus if it had come out in December of 1963. Think of that difference, between living though something and reflecting on it.

9/11 changed me. It split me apart from the progression of fantasies that everyone else lived through. The realization of what had actually happened, almost right from the start, left me in a completely different state of shock from everyone else. 9/11 was for me a door that opened a whole different vista of trauma than the trauma of the event itself. It wasn't about two buildings collapsing and thousands of people dying for me. It was about how it happened and how America dealt. It was about people who never knew they'd signed their own death warrants ten months earlier when they voted BushCo in. It was about the comprehensive betrayal of American journalism. It wasn't about something that happened to America, but about what America is, and from the beginning it became something terrifying and horrifically sad.

[manic expression]

58. It really changed

very little. People's perceptions were changed drastically, and that is the integral part of everything that has unfolded since.

[Johonny]

59. No

[Maiden England]

60. Personally, Not in the least.

I grew up in the UK, right in the heart of the IRAs most active years. The one thing I learnt from my stoic British upbringing, is the minute you let shit like that get to you and change an iota of how you live your life, the terrorists win.
Obviously the government used the situation to their advantage and instead of taking the attitude of not letting the terrorists win, they saw a wedge they could use, to whip up fear and confusion and allow them to pursue some of their less than popular policy aims without too much ado from the public.
The public, for the most part, went along happily, just like lambs to the slaughter.

TERRORISTS 1 USA 0

[XemaSab]

61. It didn't change much

for me, but my whole faith that the democrats wouldn't let him get away with anything truly horrific was pretty much hosed.

It was the last step before going down the rabbit hole.

[BlueIris]

62. This is an interesting question, and I'm really impressed that

MOST people here have taken the time to give thoughtful replies. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure when The Change happened for me--unless it was my grandfather's death in early 2004. He was a proud Rooseveltian Democrat who hated everything that had happened in America since Al Gore was denied the Presidency. (Incidentally, it's Gore's b-day, did everyone who cares to wish him a happy one?) He inspired me, in his last hours, with what he communicated to me about what he was most concerned about with regard to my future, to be the proverbial change I wanted to see in the world. But as for a major tragedy? I couldn't pick just one, even 9/11 or the beginning of The War.

[distressedsister]

63. I despised the Saudi royals before it and I still do.

I knew Bush was their B*TCH before hand and got my proof afterwards with their redacted document releases.

On 9-10-01, I had a reasonable hope that Bush would be out after one term. By 9-12-01, I saw it as impossible. When Wes Clark entered the primary, I hoped for an upset but when Kerry got nominated, I knew we'd lost.

[Generator]

64. War on truth

The new book that was coming out today is moved to 4/15. I just checked Amazon. I'm anxious to get it.

The key to everything about Bushco is 9/11 and I believe it's the key to their downfall as well.

This is their mantra, their raison d'etre, the soul of their propangada, the reason they have been let off the hook for everything, the reason Bush can go from saying it's his duty to protect the citizens and use that as what he was trying to do with TS when he was really only pandering and using it to subvert the consititution.

Yes, Bush used the words 9/11 about four words from the name Teri Shiavo today.

It's certainly a propaganda coup. It's certainly makes my stomach churn everytime THEY use it to advance thier agenda built on nothing but FEAR and LIES.

I lived in NYC many years ago and once worked at the WTC. I will take it personally forever. It's not going away. It's a crime committed against us that hasn't been solved.

[kk897]

65. Yes, it changed me, intrinsically.

I wasn't there, nor did I know anyone who was there. But basically, it totally blew my perception of reality. Before that time, I had this idea that I knew what was real. I never, ever, in a million bajillion years would have thought I would see the towers come down right before my very eyes. I mean, it didn't even have anything to do with security or terrorism or politics... it was almost a complete ontological paradigm shift for me. My framework changed, forever. Something that I would have said was literally impossible before, somehow became possible. I still shake my head about it, trying to square it with my previous version of reality, and it just doesn't work. I've even half-seriously theorized that somehow I have slipped into some very close but distinctly other dimension, that somehow at that moment when my mom called and said, "turn on the TV," there was a cosmic split.

All I know is that I'm not the same me anymore.

[RBHam]

66. It confirmed all my worst fears re: the New World Order...

And everything they've done since has convinced me that it's going to get worse, way worse, before it gets better...

[zonmoy]

68. opened my eyes

to the conspiratorial puppet-masters running this country and the world.