9/11 was used as an excuse to create more mass spying on Americans even though 2,977 people died while 42,116 died from car accidents that same year.
I’m therefore not sure what weight this argument is supposed to carry.
I have trouble understanding your logic. A lot of trouble is made to prevent car accidents. We require driving licenses, we develop whole categories of law and do plenty of research to make driving safer.
Prior we had metal detectors for people and hand luggage x-ray. Now we have x-ray backscatter for people, ID and facial photography, and a whole lot of other nonsense. Liquids banned, visitors at the gate not permitted, and the list goes on…
I don’t entirely agree with the actual measures taken purportedly to prevent a recurrence, but it’s hard to argue anything other than significant steps were taken.
Roughly a million people have died in car accidents since. Was there really nothing possible to prevent a fraction of them?
Where’s the new government organization? What new laws have been passed to prevent? What safety features are now required to mitigate such?
Ok, we have backup cameras and the funny headlights that turn off when the turn signal is on. Mission Accomplished?
Otherwise, this is surface-level insanity.
Because it was a terrorist group killing people to make a point, not somebody who has lost their sanity and, failing to have any other outlets, takes it out on the weak.
How are people THIS dense?
Do you seriously believe that among the thousands of mass shootings to have taken place in America since 9/11, none were the work of sane people trying to make a statement? The shooting death toll of people trying to make a statement since 9/11, exceeds the death toll of 9/11.
Maybe you missed that since it's diluted by all the other shooting death of children and random citizens.
Though it would be unkind to accuse you of being that dense.
Getting more literal with madeup numbers you imagined that present interpretations incompatible with reality doesn't convince anyone else of your view, though I'm sure you find it effective in showing others that, as you said, any education they have to pass on will be reduced to zero when encountering you.
You made an insane statement that only a complete fuckin moron could support, then acted high and mighty when you are the one with the onus of evidence while pretending you aren't. But hey, at least you're clever enough to pretend that I'm goofy because I don't think children are terrorists. Maybe it wasn't an act. Maybe you just are that stupid.
Nobody thinks children are terrorists. If you want to make the claim that they are, prove it. Otherwise, I'm just going to keep calling you a dipshit, dipshit.
So, I've been twisting myself in knots trying to find interpretations of your comment that don't make you look like an unintelligent, bigoted asshole who loves to tell others they're wrong regardless of reality.
Since it's clear from your last comment that any alternate interpretation wouldn't be accurate, that's the end of my replies to you. If you're interested in why you're wrong, feel free to read back on how I talked about mass shootings, which you decided meant a subset of school shootings. Dipshit.
I’ve started downvoting inanity and flagging one-liner, content-less snark, but unless the mods get serious on stuff that hits the front page, I don’t see that trajectory changing.
You're right on licensing but I wonder how it compares to the cost of the TSA?
Everyone knew, even in the immediate aftermath, that a copycat situation would never happen again, because passengers now knew to fight back and risk possible death vs certain death being used as living munitions inside a flying death tube.
Don't forget that in 2004 when traumatic memories of 9/11 were still raw and on everyone's daily consiousness, we had the Madrid bombings, the London bombings I think the following year, and then the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.
The world felt like it was rapidly becoming more unstable, and people feared that surprise terror attacks were the new normal. That kind of loss of confidence in security services can cause a rapid unravelling of the social fabric in ways that car accidents can't.
Nobody was talking about starting pogroms against people with brown skin because of car accidents.
Not that it really matters to your point, but this happened in 2015. Seems kind of odd to include that in this list.
Not accidents.
Fixing this broken language and attitude is a step towards ending these deaths.
Is it? The person you responded to sees car crashes as an important issue to solve yet still calls it "car accidents". So maybe it's not that important after all.
Nothing makes me saltier than language policing; I'd say fixing _that_ broken language is more of a step towards fixing issues than the actual language itself.
If the person running with the knife hurt someone they'd be a murderer. But the car? Oh, it was just an accident.
If it's the first, I dunno - you're wrong. People aren't. If it's the second, aside from insurance fraud, nobody is trying to fuck up their day and lose a functional car in the process, maybe getting seriously injured. If it's the third, you're just being annoying and nobody will take your point seriously if you can't make it more saliently. If it's the last, go check out reddit. There are at least half a dozen subs where people post bad drivers and everyone in the comments is collectively grumbling.
bye, bye, miss american pie. drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry. and good old' boys were drinking whisky and rye
singin, this'll be the day that I...
it's report card time fellas, the department of homeostasis is feeding marijuana users to the prison system when the incumbent promised to reschedule.
edit: spelling.
In the years immediately following the attacks I thought the country's collective paranoia would subside. I thought the encroachments on civil liberties would fade away.
I didn't understand how much money there was in fear-based capitalism (and I really should have, seeing as how I lived thru the fear and hype around Y2K) and how quickly the interests profiting from keeping Americans afraid would become entrenched.
I feel like people who were young when the attacks happened developed a normalized view of mass surveillance. Likewise, I feel like they have a stronger deference to authority. As today's early-to-mid 30's-aged people assume the reigns of power I think we'll have even less of a shot to see a return to pre-9/11 attitudes about civil liberties.
The occasion of Y2K was used by merchants of hype and fear to make a quick buck with people who had "prepper" tendencies. I can't believe I didn't expect them to glom-on to 9/11 the way they did with Y2K.
So much vitriol here today, jeez.