Growing up in the 90s I’d hear random splotches of bad stuff happening here and there. People starving in Somalia, the Waco massacre, the Bosnian genocide, Oklahoma City bombing. I just vaguely remember news reports of people dying in these incidents, but not really understanding why.
In 1997-98, when I was 13 I particularly remember hearing about this dude named Saddam Hussein wanting to make germ weapons to drop on us. My dad reassured me that it was all fake, that the media just wants to scare us. I took his word for it. Then 9/11 happened a few years later and he was suddenly convinced that Saddam was stockpiling WMDs to use against us. I was older and knew better, but no amount of reassuring from me was ever able to convince him otherwise.
I feel like 9/11 just broke a lot of peoples’ brains.
