# Should I be upset...? (Sept. 11 initial reactions) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 11, 2002, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-be-upset-sept-11-initial-reactions/127931 "2002-09-11T05:10:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-be-upset-sept-11-initial-reactions/127931/21 "2002-09-12T01:35:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Karellen \* > I remember personally feeling more pity for the undocumented Windows on the World busboys than the Morgan Stanley stockbrokers, and wondering if that was wrong of me. Of course not. Only people who make less than $11 an hour are deserving of pity. > [@](#): > > - > > "I love to watch the footage, over and over. I’m looking forward to the anniversary just because the videos will be played again. People claim they don’t like to see the images, but I don’t believe it for a second. It’s a little different when you see it live. > [@](#): > > \*\* > I was sorry I missed footage of people jumping, because you just don’t see that too often and that is rarely replayed." Why you would want to see something like that is beyond me. I suspect there may be something wrong with this person. I forget the actual term, but IIRC, there is an actual name for when people use black inappropriate humor to deal with stressful conditions. An example would be the scene in Full Metal Jacket where the squad is messing around with the dead VC soldier. IINA Psychologist, but I think that many of these comments could be how those people deal with stress. On the other hand, just because we are at war doesn’t make all the jerks disappear. ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-be-upset-sept-11-initial-reactions/127931/22 "2002-09-12T02:20:50Z")
I found it interesting that the only comment in total praise of the US there was from that Filipino immigrant. Makes you realize when you’re most appreciative of what you have… ---
**Author:** ![Karellen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/779978/32.png) [@Karellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karellen)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2002, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-be-upset-sept-11-initial-reactions/127931/23 "2002-09-12T10:46:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by msmith537 \* > \*\* > It’s a little different when you see it live. > \*\* Apparently it isn’t. Some in the article saw it live and still felt very little empathy. Most of us just watched it on TV, and it became just TV. That’s what the article is getting at. There’s a jerkish, jaded, cynical, vengeful, apathetic, selfish, sensational, and tasteless side to all of us–or most of us, anyway, and nothing short of personal loss will snap us out of it. As **Senor Beef** mentioned, this is what allows us to get through the day without crumbling beneath the weltschmertz of starving North Koreans, slaughtered Hutus, mutilated Saudi women, gassed Kurds, raped Bosnians, flooded Germans, West-Nile afflicted New Yorkers, Kenyan AIDS orphans, blown-up Israelis, bulldozed Palestinians, murdered English schoolgirls, molested Catholics, derailed Indians, or that homeless guy you keep seeing near the Starbucks. What Salon pointed out is that many of not most of us can apply that apathy to 9/11 victims as well. I find it refreshing as an indictment, not humor. The solution is not to laugh at stockbrokers falling out of buildings, but to weep for victims everywhere–and do something, the way so many donated to the 9/11 charities. Surely you must have been intrigued by that one story about the widow who actually hated her husband…was her friend a jerk for reporting it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-be-upset-sept-11-initial-reactions/127931.md?page=1)