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I don't think that's true. Part of Osama's point was to inflict a wound on the US like it had never seen, and the US had seen 300 deaths before. If they'd hit the statue of liberty or waited until night it would have sent a similar message, but only to the people in charge - by killing so many civilians he said "you can't protect your people" in a way that everyone understood. Or to put it another way, we could have been cavalierly using 9/11 as a unit of measurement a few years later, instead of 20.
If you referred to something as a 9/11 in mainstream circles in 2010 you would be a pariah, it was considered outrageously bad form. I speak from experience here - my best friend at the time was too online, and in places like 4chan and poe it was regularly joked about (because edge), and he used it like that at the birthday party we were at. He didn't make a joke, he just used it too nonchalantly. Instantly I was told I was too drunk and needed to take my friend home (which just made me laugh, which just made everyone more upset, so it's partly my fault) and for about two years after that any invitation I got came with a request not to invite him. The human toll was necessary for the impact.
Ok but the point is still that the fuss was about the "you can't protect your people" part and that this might happen again and the symbolism of destroying the tallest towers, which also symbolize the US leading the western world or even the globe regarding economic matters etc.
It wasn't particularly about just those 3000 people individually. The smuggled implication in saying "a 9/11 a week" is that somehow there should have been somewhat similar levels of concern each week as there was due to the OG 9/11, and that clearly doesn't follow.
Oh, you mean 9/11 was terrorism, and that's what made it different? If so I agree entirely. Mentally I put "a 9/11 a week" in the same category as the people who liken covid deaths to car accidents and wonder why we still drive cars - usually missing the point.
Sorry, I had a conversation with a youngster last week who actually thought the main point of 9/11 was flying a symbol of modernity into another symbol of modernity and the deaths were incidental, and that's why it upset everyone and covid deaths don't.
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