Ask a brown-skinned person what has changed, and I’ll bet they’ll tell you they are living under a whole new paradigm. They are the new whipping boys. People serving them in public places can’t refuse to serve them, but they can serve them last, and refuse to make eye contact when they do. Such people don’t even actually have to be Muslim-- or even Arab, because most dumbfucks in the US can’t tell an Arab from a Sephardic Jew, someone from the subcontinent of India, or even many people with Hispanic backgrounds. I know a Sephardic Jew from Israel, with one Ethiopian grandparent, and a guy from Peru who is a naturalized US citizen, and has been since the 80s, who get all sorts of anti-Muslim shit.
And gawd help you if you really ARE Muslim.
Any time anyone, no matter what their political leaning, sees someone in a military uniform, or finds out you are a veteran, they say “Thank you for your service.” I enlisted in 1993, and officially became a veteran in July, 2001, with my honorable discharge (interestingly, I got all my official paperwork in the mail, including my DD214, and my discharge certificate, in the mail on 9-12-01). I never heard this once before 9-11, and really, not until about halfway through OIF. But I hear it all the time now. My driver’s license has the “veteran” mark on it, because places that have military discounts occasionally extend them to vets, so I just need my license to get it. When I pull it out, the cashier says “Thank you for your service,” and so does anyone in line who is aware of what is happening. I hear it all day long on Veterans’ Day. I also get cards from people on Veterans’ Day. Never got one before. I don’t even think they were a thing before.
A lot more people display flags. People aren’t as flag-crazy as they were before 9-11, but I still see lots more than before. I have noticed that a lot of apartments with outside doors have flagpole sconces, or whatever they are-- those cylindrical holders for porch-display flags.
Having a flag lapel pin no longer indicates that someone leans right.
Security is crazy-fanatic in NYC and Washington, DC. Getting into any kind of landmark requires almost as much security as boarding a plane.
You now need a passport to go to Canada or the US, and soon you are going to need a much more secure driver’s license than previously if you want to travel by plane, even domestically. Even within a state.
Depending on what you do for a job, or where you live, you may have “acts of terrorism” written into your insurance policy as one of the types of damage covered for a house or car. If you have a sensitive job, travel a lot for work, or otherwise might be thought of to be at risk for being the victim of an act of terror, you may have to pay more for life insurance, but you may also get a double indemnity clause.
“Jihad” is now part of our vocabulary, and people use it figuratively.
You can’t enter a bank wearing a hat, or scarf that covers your hair or the lower part of your face.
There are “how-to” books for parents on how to explain terrorism to your small child.
Schools have drills practicing what to do in the event of a bomb threat, or another threat of terrorism. Private schools that can require things public schools can’t often require parents to have an emergency pick-up plan if the student should need to be picked up immediately due to the threat of terrorism.
This one is more in the realm of speculation, but I have read some op-eds, and know some people who hold the opinion that 9/11 is responsible for the more lenient pot laws, including the legalization in some states. It goes like this: with terrorism the new bogeyman, people care much less about drug use, pot in particular, and people also care about law enforcement and the justice system, as well as the prison system having the time and capacity to deal with terrorism, SO, if they are relieved of dealing with low-level drug crimes, that frees up the time and capacity.
Another speculative one is that the “Me too” movement was helped by 9/11, because it helped a lot of people “get” the idea of someone being targeted because they belong to a class of people; the individual may not particularly matter to the perpetrator, and the class may be targeted because of the perpetrator’s prejudices or presumptions, and no other reason.
The last two, I’m personally still thinking about, but I do believe that there are certainly wide-rippling effect, the connection of which to 9/11 may not be immediately obvious.