I understand the impulse—to meme-ify this thing that has become a symbol for the cynical, trauma-mining jingoism of American life. But I also think it’s a way to do what I did, what all my friends did, after 9/11—to minimize its impact on us. Because whether you were there or not; whether you were born before or after, that event has deeply and tragically affected our lives—taken away your personal freedoms in the form of the Patriot Act; put blood on your hands and guilt in your hearts in the form of endless war on foreign soils. We’re all trying to put it behind a screen; to make it a movie.

this is where the left-libs’ “9/11 was a tragedy, I’m only mocking how it was used afterwards” position takes you: viewing anti-americanism as just an ironic performance, done by people trying to sublimate their cynicism from their fundamental love of country

but when I make fun of 9/11 I’m not using gallows humor to cope with cognitive dissonance. there’s nothing gallows about it bc I don’t particularly view 9/11 as a tragedy. I just hate this country and find the blowback for our crimes a bit satisfying