# Who else wants to confess an unorthodox or inappropriate response on 9/11/01? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 12, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-wants-to-confess-an-unorthodox-or-inappropriate-response-on-9-11-01/668631 "2013-09-12T03:10:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-wants-to-confess-an-unorthodox-or-inappropriate-response-on-9-11-01/668631/61 "2013-09-13T21:33:39Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > I had the same reaction though, and I didn’t have dementia. Some people just react weirdly to tragedy. I reacted the same way when someone told me a classmate died in 7th grade. I figured there was no way they could be serious. Yeah, but she had been slipping for a while though. It wasn’t until that happened that I realized she wasn’t coming back from wherever she was going. (I still didn’t realize she had Alzheimer’s until I saw it in her freaking obituary. No one in my family even said the word.) ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-wants-to-confess-an-unorthodox-or-inappropriate-response-on-9-11-01/668631/62 "2013-09-13T21:55:02Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > That was the new CW for a a while after 9/11, to the point that it was, no offense to your dad, a cliché. But was he right? I really don’t think he was. Before 9/11, as someone reminded us up thread, the news media was obsessed with Gary Condit. Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped in 2002. Nancy Grace’s show didn’t even start until 2005. How is “everything different” now? Everything? Really? Or just a few things, like taking your shoes off at the airport, and having bells rung once a year in lower Manhattan? I probably didn’t get it across right but his point was less mainstream, and mind you this was the night of 9/11 so he can be forgiven for being off track 😛 He figured the USA was probably on the brink of war and who the fucks knows how that can go or spiral out of control, he also said there was no way to tell how the country would go with stuff like the borders etc. It just seemed like while everyone that night was braying GOD BLESS AMERICA with tears in their eyes, he was saying this could get ugly very fast. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-wants-to-confess-an-unorthodox-or-inappropriate-response-on-9-11-01/668631/63 "2013-09-13T22:03:27Z")
It sounds like you are too young to remember the Gingrich era govt. shutdown, Prop. 187, the paranoia around Vince Foster and “black helicopters”, etc. The '90s was every bit as ugly. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-wants-to-confess-an-unorthodox-or-inappropriate-response-on-9-11-01/668631/64 "2013-09-14T03:24:46Z")
I had just moved to New York and started a new job working at the World Financial Center across the street from WTC on that monday. Fortunately we were all out of town for new hire training that week with about 20 other New Yorkers and a couple hundred other new trainees. Mostly we just got drunk all day for three days until they could bus us all home. > [@bump](#): > > But it’s New York, and everything that happens there is more important than the rest of the country. > > (which is why we’re still hearing about 9/11 12 years later, and all the bitching and moaning about hurricane Sandy still. You didn’t hear this level of whining about Ike or any of the Florida hurricanes a year later.) New York is the largest city in the United States. It’s an international cultural, financial and economic center. So yeah, what happens in New York is pretty important. Second, 9/11 was pretty much the largest terrorist attack ever. And it is an event that has shaped world politics and events for the past decade. Third, Sandy caused almost twice as much damage (in $) as Ike (about half as much as Katrina, but without all the race and socioeconomic class implications). Although I am surprised that the entire country hears about it. People are still feeling the after effects in some places. But I just assumed I keep hearing about it because I live in New Jersey. Although there is some concern that global warming might turn Sandys and Irenes into regular occurances. So yeah, that’s why you still hear about it. In fact, not understanding why those events are important makes you seem a bit obtuse or disconnected. > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I remember my dad woke me up and said “a plane just ran into the World Trade Center” and I was like “huh? what?” and went back to sleep. I’ve admitted here on the boards before that I had no idea what the WTC was at the time. It just wasn’t something that had crossed my 22-year-old path. How does a 22 year old not know what the World Trade Center is, even pre 9/11? You’ve never seen a tv show or movie set in New York and wondered what that pair of giant buildings was? > [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > [American Life Turns Into Bad Jerry Bruckheimer Movie](http://www.theonion.com/articles/american-life-turns-into-bad-jerry-bruckheimer-mov,220/) > > The article managed to combine humor at the incredible visual impact and similarity to over-the-top action movies with an acknowledgement of the sadness and significance of it all. General: “Those aren’t ideas, those are special effects!” Michael Bay: “I… don’t understand the difference” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-wants-to-confess-an-unorthodox-or-inappropriate-response-on-9-11-01/668631.md?page=3)