The Paranoid Guide to Better Living: Ten Years of Fear (9/11 Never Forget)
Editors Note: This article originally ran September 11, 2011
And now your host, Paranoia:
Ten years ago today one of the single worst attacks on American soil claimed the lives of thousands Americans from all walks of life. That's when terrorists commandeered four planes, flying two into the North & South World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon and one into a field. Since then, we've engaged in two endless wars, revamped airport security to the point of absurdity and created agencies and laws that border on socialism and threaten our rights as democratic citizens on a near daily basis. In response to what? Twenty assholes with box cutters.
The ridiculousness of the aftermath of 9/11 is something that is questioned every day, along with the truth of the event itself. Anyone who was there that day, or knew someone who died that day would not refute the obvious truth, that two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, dropping both buildings into their own foundations in what would go down as one of the biggest conspiracy theories in modern engineering.
There are even comics that try to reinterpret the events of that fateful day, clinging to the theory that the towers were brought down by inside forces rather than the assholes with the box cutters. But every major historical event in this country has conspiracy theories tied to it, that's nothing new and that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to answer the biggest question that is no longer being asked as often as it should, and when it is, with the wrong answers. Did the terrorists win? Did that strike at the heart of America achieve their goals?
I am here to tell you, whether they think so or not - yes - the terrorists won when they brought down the twin towers, and a sneer ran across the face of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of their grubby handed crew. Democracy started it's downward spiral that day, in the aftermath. Sure, members of congress were out on the front porch holding hands and singing kumbaya, but it was sure not to last. And it didn't. Soon we were in a misguided war in Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of the war on terror. Soon we were watching our government commit the same acts that caused our countrymen to revolt against the British monarchy. We were, and still are, watching our rights and freedoms disappear on a daily basis - and for that - the terrorists have won.
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