How is 9/11 viewed internationally?

[Jonabob87]

Ok so im gonna go ahead and speak as a typical muslim "terrorist" or "vandal" or whatever cliche you've bestowed upon us these days. You know what I love about the US, their tendency to break rip a nations heart out for so much as scratching American national pride. The millions of civilians killed in America's 3 massive ***** fits are ofcourse totally ignored, oh no, what matters is that America's big Penis compensation was torn down, yeah that totally justifies 3 trillions dollars worth of war. People, get over it, its been a decade we get it, it was a bad thing to do, we pwomise never to do it again happy?

Jesus, man, calm down.

Americans in general don't think of Muslims that way. Only assholes/bigots do. And those exist in every country.

Also: Technically Al Qaeda started the war against them, and you can't seriously be defending the Taliban. I'm pretty sure RAMMING A FUCKING AIRLINER INTO A BUILDING IS AN ACT OF WAR. It's just as if some country launched a cruise missile into the WTC.

He's being a bit over the top, but the west started it. We've been almost literally raping their countries for centuries.

I meant specifically against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which is what this thread was about. Yes, the late 80s early 90s Mideast was pretty messed up.

I think you've missed the point in the attack. Al Qaeda attacked the US, along with many other western countries, in return for the damages done to the middle east over the years. It wasn't about a personal attack on themselves, but on their land and their people.

Personally I hope I'd go freedom fighter myself if someone did to Scotland what has been done to the middle east. I doubt very much I'd go around killing innocent people, but that's a difference in viewpoint, emotion and standards.

We've gone over to their countries and killed their people hundreds of times, so a few of them see fit to do it right back to us. It wasn't even a religious thing.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Today here in Texas, my Facebook page is littered with memorial copy pastas, American iconography, and a bit of anti-foreign stigma. Ugh...

Honestly, the whole thing is a balance imo. Yes, it's wasn't the worst thing in the world, and people really need to move on, but responiding to the death of thousands with complete apathy is disrespectful. If we were perfect people, we'd pay respect to all the world's tragedies in our lifetime, but since we're not, we could at least pay respect to the ones the media incessantly reminds us of.

 

[Torrasque]

<link=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.312190-Not-your-usual-9-11-thread?page=1>This thread is relevant to this thread.

I don't give a shit about 9/11, I hate how it gets more media attention than any other horrible event that happens in the world.
Few hundred thousand people firebombed? It happened during a war, so nbd.
Hundreds of thousands of people killed by a tsunami and the survivors left without homes and food for a long while? Its in Asia, so nbd.
But a few thousand people killed by a plane slamming into a building? IT HAPPENED ON AMERICAN SOIL, OH MY FUCKING GOD.

If I lived in the states when it happened, I guess I could understand it being a big deal.
But I live in Alberta Canada, and all media around me is completely fucking saturated by it.
Every major paper in my city has done a week-long special about it! WHAT THE FUCK!

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Im English and since all americans who ive met have been absolute assholes to me for being English (so basically for no good reason at all) I look at the footage of ppl jumping out windows and giggle.

....dude....

That's like saying "There's an Asian guy in my class who's a dick, so I enjoy watching footage of Hiroshima. lol"

Have fun being racist and detatched, I guess.

 

[jyork89]

From what I've seen in New Zealand most people aren't terribly bothered by it. We roll our eyes at slightly melodramtic Americans but we understand why you are upset.
Also anyone who uses Hiroshima as a example against America should remember two things, one, that Hiroshima was done during open war, and Two, Nanking. The Japanese don't even acknowledge that and one day the Chinese who are twitchy enough as it is, are going to use it against them.

 

[Jazoni89]

Im English and since all americans who ive met have been absolute assholes to me for being English (so basically for no good reason at all) I look at the footage of ppl jumping out windows and giggle.

....dude....

That's like saying "There's an Asian guy in my class who's a dick, so I enjoy watching footage of Hiroshima. lol"

Have fun being racist and detatched, I guess.

Sorry, but America is not a race.

I Just wanted to point that out to you.

 

[ultimateownage]

I wish you guys would just shut the fuck up about it sometimes. I wish we would, too.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Yeah, I remember it. But mainly because it was incredibly difficult to avoid.

Now, not to sound callous, but it's pretty difficult to forget something that was considered so news-worthy that all 5 TV stations dumped their entire regular schedules for a week, to show nothing but 24/7 news coverage of it.

And I mean, that's 5 channels showing the EXACT SAME coverage of it... >_<
That got really tedious quite quickly.

On a less callous sounding note, it was definitely a big shock, and I never would have expected to see anything like it.

Unfortunately, as big a tragedy as it was, it's difficult (from an international perspective) not to feel how the reaction to it just seemed out of all proportion just because it happened in America.

Disasters of that scale, and atrocities far worse are far more common than you might think. And they typically barely get a mention at all on the news. (mainly because they usually happen in 3rd world countries.)

So, yeah. Unforgettable, and most certainly a tragedy of unimaginable scale. But having never even so much as visited America, it's difficult to feel any more connected to it than any other major disaster I've ever seen on the news.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Well I live in finland, and no one really gives a crap. People died, whoopdy fucking doo. People died yesterday as well. And in the last 20 seconds.

Yes it's horrible but it's also normal.

Well publisisiced death is no different from regular death, and the fact that there's still a fucking holiday for it is just bizarre considering the amount of lifes lost every day in the war on terror. Giant fucking double standard if you ask me.

That's more of a personal opinion really. Were not really big on discussing events in my family or social group. In fact I can't really remember anyone ever bringing it up.

 

[Jakub324]

I can't remember where I was or what I was doing, but the anniversary hasn't really affected my day, barring the three minutes silence held by my family earlier. It's more of an "Oh, that really sucks" thing among people I know.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Im English and since all americans who ive met have been absolute assholes to me for being English (so basically for no good reason at all) I look at the footage of ppl jumping out windows and giggle.

....dude....

That's like saying "There's an Asian guy in my class who's a dick, so I enjoy watching footage of Hiroshima. lol"

Have fun being racist and detatched, I guess.

Sorry, but America is not a race.

I Just wanted to point that out to you.

Well, <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States>it technically is but either way, nationist isn't really a word, and I couldn't think of a more fitting term in 15 seconds. My bad.

 

[fulano]

Viva Salvador Allende and fuck Pinochet. That's all I have to say.

 

[Agayek]

I could say that your second statement is only partially true. Something like the Seirra Leone would never happen in a country like the US today. What you are ignoring though is things like Vietnam and the war in Iraq. Both of these are not that much better and both were started by the US.

My point is not, nor has it ever been, about the relative severity of whatever conflict is taking place. Only that tragedies in third world countries are dismissed as unimportant by those in the first world. For a variety of reasons, but chief among them is the simple truth that most people in first world countries don't think of those in third as actual people. They're a number and maybe a face and not a whole lot else.

I have never thought either of those.

'Third-world' countries are in the state they are in because what we now count as 'First-world' countries took it upon themselves to run in to them, take everything of value (including the people) and kill anyone that showed the slightest resistance.

We continue to ruin these countries through the diamond and oil trades.

It's our fault.

Could it happen here? No. But only because we're making it happen somewhere else.

You're more or less correct in that regard. You're also completely missing the point.

Why they're third world is completely irrelevant. People in first world countries hear about countless deaths in random places all over the world, and they don't care. Why do they not care? Because the people dying are not real people to them. The dying are numbers and a face or two, nothing more. They dismiss the deaths as unimportant, because to them, the people don't matter.

Humans simply do not have the physical capacity to truly care with the same fervor about atrocities that don't affect them or those in their monkey-sphere, regardless of the difference in severity. It's rationalized in a lot of different ways, the most common being the dismissal of others as real people due to perceived differences. This ends up being expressed as a disdain or aloof dismissal of their suffering, nine times out of ten.

 

[goldendriger]

I dunno about the country but i view it as USA blowing it out of proportion because it happened to them. Like if your friends parents split up, its a shame and you feel for them, but as soon as YOUR Parents break up the fuckin' world should cry over it.

Same thing really, its a tragedy but everyone for 10 years has been "9/11 this" and "9/11 that" i mean no one really cares that just a few months ago a phycho killed some kids in a camp, or that hurricane/tornado thing which caused destruction or even the earthquake in Japan which killed thousands and wrecked their way of living. No no no it's ALL about 9/11

 

[New York Patrick]

The recent massacre in Norway hit me harder... It was kids my age, it was done without provocation of any kind. . . To send a message to, not the west. . . Not the christians, but a certain political group. Not by targeting an embassy. But by attacking a summer-camp.

Even the Scandinavian Nazi's (they exist). . Took distance to the shootings. I mean, when the Nazi's thinks his too evil, he should be in Cobra or something.

Or Hydra... that's basically their credo - "We're more evil then the nazis, and led by Agent Smith!"

 

[Coller]

If not for the threads all over the interwebs, I wouldn't have remembered it. There have been a lot more serious disasters in other countries that have been forgotten a lot faster. In other words, I'm so tired of hearing about it, i basically zone out when i do hear about it.

 

[Alex Mac]

If anything, this thread does plenty to reinforce my disdain for nationalistic views of any kind. Be they American neocon uber patriotism or any other, they tend to dehumanized things by placing the rest of the world into the nebulous "other category". People are people and to dismiss the impact of something like this (or indeed, any other major tragedy anywhere, recent or past) is somewhat callous.

That said: I agree with people who say move on, to an extent. When people say "Never Forget", I honestly want to tell them I wish I could forget, particularly in light of the wasteful and neglegent wars that followed it. Plenty of politicians used the tragedy exploitatively and many of the ways that people "remember" 9-11 feel equally excessive and jingoistic. It is distasteful.

But, truth be told, to completely dismiss and gloss over the event is probably unwise. My friend's father was one of the pilots and seeing how that affected her, I cannot really sit back and accept the idea that this is something to completely dismiss, slap a statistic on, and walk away from.

I think that applies to anything like this. War, terrorism, natural disasters. Maybe I'm just naive but I'd like to think it would be possible to treat all of these such things with an equal sense of regret and sympathy. Be it 9-11, the floods in Japan, third world troubles, Oslo, or anything.

/shrug. Sorry if that seems rambly. I just sort of wish that we could, no matter what stance we take on things, move away from the more insular national viewpoint to something a bit more all encompassing and global.

In all, I don't think we should be completely dismissive of 9-11 or any comparable tragedy but I think any remembrance should focus on the human element and nothing else. That's the important thing.

 

[Agayek]

My point is that normal intelligent people should not think like that and nobody I have ever met does.

Except they do. I guarantee you. If you've ever seen someone experience a personal tragedy, you would know this already. Someone's parent/sibling/significant other dying has a vastly more profound impact than a news report about the Rwandan genocide or Second Congo war.

It's perfectly natural, and it doesn't make anyone a bad person, but it doesn't change the fact that normal, rational and intelligent people simply do not truly feel tragedy that does not affect their monkey-sphere.

 

[Mercsenary]

Simple fact is this, unless you actually lost a family member in the attack then you really need to stfu about it and stop acting as if it had anything to do with you.

This. Yes it was horrible. Yes it was a tragedy. But must we obsess. This year is different as its a 10 year anniversary so I'll just grin and bear it but we as a nation seem to be becoming more and more obsessed about it as the years go on. Every year when this month rolls around its "9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11 9/11"

One remembers with more than just lip service. Life moves on, we should too. Never forget but do not obsess.

 

[Mudze]

The Australian media finds it b'awww-worthy, the Australian people do not.


I, personally, think that the attack was overrated since day 1, and they need to stop overreacting and get over themselves.