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submitted 2 days ago by RandAlThor@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca
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[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 77 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I was about to say the list was incomplete as several million attended the Iraq war protests, but it turns out that was global and only a few hundred k Americans bothered to protest the invasion of Iraq based on manufactured propaganda.

The post 9/11 bloodthirsty hysteria, "you're either with us or against us" dissonance, religious nationalism, and ignorant patriotism is what made me believe the US would become an authoritarian dictatorship in my lifetime. Great job teenage me. I hate it.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 36 points 2 days ago

A lot of people forget the shear bloodlust in the USA after 9/11 that lasted for years.

When people compare the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, a lot of people forget there was a large chunk of the country who were rabidly pro Iraq War while there wasn't an equivalent base for the Vietnam War.

[-] Zenith@lemm.ee 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It felt like everyone was like you were either 1000% on board or you were casually on board cause you weren’t “into politics” but trying to find likeminded people who opposed it felt impossible to me. I was 16 when 9/11 happened and shortly after was when I stoped standing for the anthem or saluting the flag in the morning and I was the only kid in my highschool of 1,800 kids to do that and wow I got SO MUCH hate for it

[-] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago

The spike in nationalism was intense, and hasn't really dropped back down to a reasonable baseline since.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This is online discourse in general with Americans. Nuance is impossible, it's all "you're either with us or against us", for example when discussing China. Doesn't even have to be something political, just any charged argument at a point in time.

Must be a coincidence that Lemmy was much more relaxed and welcoming when there were fewer Americans here in the beginning, you could even read news about European countries, now all we get is American politics spam.

[-] Genius@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Doesn't even have to be something political

Yeah, it does. Everything is political. I guarantee, you've never had an apolitical argument taken over by Americans, because there's no such thing as an apolitical argument

[-] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 2 days ago

"I liked the gameplay of Witcher 2 more than Witcher 3's"

[-] Genius@lemmy.zip 1 points 14 hours ago

CDPR made the combat easier so the game would appeal to a wider audience and make more money. The Witcher games are getting worse because of capitalism. If money weren't involved, the devs could focus on making a work with artistic value, including in the gameplay, rather than chasing mass appeal.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 1 points 1 hour ago

"I liked the gameplay of Witcher 2 more than Witcher 1's"

[-] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 days ago

I think you may have misread the Wikipedia page. There were 300-400,000 in NYC alone.

I was in Boston and there were 10s of thousands, even though it was February and sleeting, SF had another 150-200k.

I think there was a sizable group in DC too.

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

That's what I thought but those are the "official" estimates, which do strangely focus on NYC.

I guess we're talking about a fascist-oligarch-owned MSM who profit from war and chaos so they had a vested interest to suppress the real opposition.

[-] Zenith@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago

I was 16 when 9/11 happened and I was a pretty tuned in kid who spoke up about the issues I had with it, how horrible the patriot act was, all sorts of things and I can absolutely attest the response was always extremely hostile and cutting, filled with personal attacks about how moronic I was, now naive and of course because I’m female I’m inherently too stupid to hold a conversation about this so just shout me down so I will shut my stupid girl mouth and sit down. I’ve never changed my mind, why would I? And you know what, I still get attacked in exactly the same ways but at least the “you’re a terrorist for not supporting the Iraq war” has died down

[-] chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 days ago

I was in college at that time and was a typical "centrist" and counter protested. I've changed at lot since then.

[-] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

Congratulations on your evolution. I was pretty cringe around that era, too.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

That was the first overt demonstration that American news outlets were captured by jingoist propaganda. But back then pointing out that media coverage differed from literal experienced reality got you labeled as a terrorist kook.

this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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