my apparently-unpopular-in-the-online-left point of view is that i think i get why people make jokes about 9/11, in response to the incessant fascist US propaganda and pageantry about it and the juxtaposition with what was done in response and everything but like.. I don't like it and kinda wince every time i see it.
idk if it's because of where i grew up and my personal connections with it? like my family on both sides have been in NY for generations, extended family members survived being in the towers, other extended family members were firefighters, and lots of people have their stories and flashbulb memories of the chaos. and for some other people like people who were too young or not born yet or people farther away from it it's presumably more abstract and distant than that idk
Yeah I feel this. My experience of 9/11 was, in chronological order:
- Horrifying tragedy
- Conservatives co-opting that tragedy to justify racism and imperialism
- Leftists responding by making fun of the tragedy
And the thing is, from the perspective of people who actually have trauma from that day and its aftermath, this satirical attitude doesn't feel like it's countering the right-wing co-option so much as joining in with it. Tacitly accepting that these catastrophic events are mere symbols rather than actual human suffering.