• tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    Even as a child I heard that and was like “They hate us because of our freedom? That doesn’t make any sense at all, they said we bombed them? That seems more likely the reason”

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    I always thought the “they hate us for our freedoms” thing was a bit/joke from a comedian or SNL, similar to Sarah Palin’s “I can see Russia from my house” stuff, I never realised that Bush Jr actually said that…

    That man was deeply unserious but also incredibly evil.

    • Ildsaye [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      At the time, everyone I knew thought him every bit the dangerous buffoon Trump is considered now. But the feeling that he was emblematic of imperial decline felt much more abstract, the overreach had just begun in earnest under him. I remember the competent libs howling “you can’t DO that!” to the Patriot Act and violations of treaties and international law and watching that whole admin ride tidily into the sunset laden with dollar sign bags, secure in the knowledge that the consequences weren’t even a little bit their problem.

      (Most of those same libs didn’t say shit when it was Clinton, Obama, or Brandon doing the same things)

      Check out season 1 of Blowback for more wacky/terrifying Bush admin hijinks

      • Tabitha ☢️[she/her]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        At the time, everyone I knew thought him every bit the dangerous buffoon Trump is considered now.

        I had immigrant parents, who didn’t talk much English at home or US politics much. In elementary school I’d pass as white until you realize I have heavy accident 1/5 the vocab as everyone else. Bush was the the middle school and high school era for me. What I personally witnessed felt like Bush seemed to do bad things 24 like a cartoon villain but every fucking adult loved him because he was a Christian man and was going to end satanism and abortion or something. I moved way up north before Obama, and when he won the election everyone rejoiced like it was going to change everything.

      • bleepbloopbop [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        8 months ago

        At the time, everyone I knew thought him every bit the dangerous buffoon Trump is considered now.

        Yeah I wasn’t exactly politically engaged at the time (was small child) but reading works from the time, especially Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For, was illuminating for me about how little has changed. The frustrated liberals seeing how bad the situation in the world is but utterly failing to make the connections needed to actually fight back, the derangement that set in after Bush’s stolen first election, etc.

        I also read a book of essays written under clinton about (basically) the coming dominance of computer technology and its many downsides and deprivations if implemented under US capitalism. Seeing clinton’s “technology=progress=moral good” BS condemned and many of the more predictable outcomes of the rise of the PC/web pointed out was nice.

    • BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      I remember people online (Americans mostly, but other Islamophobes and racists too) unironically saying that the terrorists hate the Western world for our freedum.

  • buh [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    More americans would know what Letter to the American People is about if it was a diss track instead of a literal letter

  • MDKAOD
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    8 months ago

    September 13th 2001, Tool took to the stage. Maynard James Keenan spoke briefly about the attacks. Paraphrasing, he suggested an inward look at ourselves as a country. The crowd began to chant “USA USA” to which Maynard responded

    “you all are going to be really bummed out when you find out the U.S. did this to itself.”

    Read More: Tool Was Set To Perform 20 Years Ago In Grand Rapids On 9/11 | https://wgrd.com/tool-was-set-to-perform-20-years-ago-in-grand-rapids-on-911/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    Libs today will (hopefully) recognize that the “They hate us for our freedoms” line was BS (though they fell for it at the time), but then they’ll turn around and call you a Russian bot if you say it’s important to at least hear out the stated motivations of geopolitical rivals instead of believing whatever the news says.

    They’ll oppose every war except the ones happening in the present.

  • SSJ2Marx@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    free men do not forfeit their security.

    Osama bin Laden

    Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

    Benjamin Franklin

    idk where I’m going with this, maybe that they were both broken clocks?

  • Top Tier cliches I remember:

    • “They hate us for our freedoms.”
    • “We gotta fight 'em over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.”
    • “We can’t cut and run.”

    Honorable mentions:

    • “Mission Accomplished”
    • “Who cares about WMD? Saddam was a bad guy. We freed the Iraqi people!”
    • “The troop surge is working.”
    • “Building democracy takes time.”

    the great thing about these cheers was that they were all completely false, but they were stated as obvious axioms by everyone from the $500 haircut in the $5000 suit on TV down to the retiree in the 55 and up only HOA trailer park obliterated by a hurricane, sending his last $50 to a televangelist with a private jet.

    • blashork [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      Gotta say, posting that is a major L. That is absolutely not a credible site. Even if you believe he died in 2002, that is not where I would go looking for a source.

      Also, I personally believe he was alive because all the seals argue about which of them was the one who actually got to pull the trigger finally.

      Anyways, really sad to see you post cringe like this, hope you make a full recovery soon.

        • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          I don’t doubt that they shot somebody who they were told was OBL. Recall that the SEALs blasted his face into a crater, as ordered, which would make a positive identification at the scene difficult. No photos or DNA samples were taken.

      • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        You’ve probably faced the frustrating situation in which a liberal refuses to engage with a well-reasoned article simply because they dislike the source. I bookmarked that page before the pandemic began and I was unaware that the authors had taken a Max Blumenthal-esque turn. That Off-Guardian piece was little more than a collection of articles from mainstream news websites. I’ve reduced it to its underlying layer of sources.

        Cheers, comrade.

        • blashork [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          Fair enough, I think you’re original comment is removed so if you edited it, I can’t really see it. If you want to make it a proper post some time I’d be happy to try and give it a proper read.