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Comment by segmondy | Hacker News Reader

Osama Bin Laden won. Before most people realized what the Patriot Act really was, I downloaded the paper and read it in it's entirety. I did a report on it. How I wish we only had what it was suggesting. The world is much worse off since then, My teacher did say some of my argument was slippery slope and would never happen. Ha!

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What strategic objective did Bin Laden achieve?

If we look at his stated reason for the attack [0], it is hard to reconcile post 9/11 history with a claim of his victory.

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20040615081002/http://observer.g...

I don't know nor care about his objective. He was a fucking terrorist. His job was to sow terror. Terror has grown, we are all terrorized and live mostly in fear these days. We have lost tons of freedom, America that was once loved around the world is hated and loathed. We are divided within. You could trace all of these to 9/11

> Osama Bin Laden won.

While I understand that the assertion "Osama bin Laden won" can trigger a lot of arguments, if we narrow the claim to: 9/11 => profound and lasting changes to the entire world, then I think it's essentially correct.

lol, me too. I still have the paper i wrote from 20+ years ago on this subject.

Haha, same! I wrote a huge anti-Patriot Act paper in college. No one was as worried or horrified as I was.

I think it's awesome you were right and your teacher was wrong.

But I also am glad teachers try to teach kids about slippery slope as a logical fallacy. To convince others, we must use fact; when beliefs are chained as facts, well, you form a slippery slope.

And I'm just saying, plainly: I'm glad teachers are still teaching that stuff. Nothing against your win.

A CIA plant won? Say more.

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