2 Comments
Jul 20, 2021Liked by Handwaving Freakoutery

This is an interesting read, particularly as we approach the inevitable frenzy of national wailing and other funereal pageantry that will come in a couple of months with the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Expand full comment

'He said simply “fly to Israel.” I found his answer very insightful.'

I suspect "insightful" was euphemistic

"Was Osama bin Laden a visionary who could see through the veil in 2000 and identify these issues we now grind our teeth over? Or did the 9-11 attacks affect our dialogue so tremendously that his stew has now become our stew?"

Isn't it clear by now that Wokeness has been brewing in academia for a long time? I don't think Osama is responsible for 'Critical Race Theory' or gay marriage or the gender wars. Perhaps he accelerated the transition to a militarized police state, but that was coming anyway thanks to technological advancement. It was probably our own provincial, media-assisted delusional worldview that prevented Americans from seeing these problems many years out.

One often hears derisive jokes about the older generations' opinions on "kids these days," and how far things have fallen since their youths: the joke is that every older generation says these things, but we always turn out fine; "look at these boomers getting worked up over nothing." But things really are getting worse, have been for a long time, and it's probably easier to see this if you hate and intend to fight the society in question.

Expand full comment