An archived thread from Something Awful on the morning of 9/11
326 replies, posted
It is so weird seeing historical events like this so directly from people reacting to it. Luckily I was too young to fully understand the horror that was occurring when I saw the second plane hit on TV.
[QUOTE=matt000024;48664452]It is so weird seeing historical events like this so directly from people reacting to it. Luckily I was too young to fully understand the horror that was occurring when I saw the second plane hit on TV.[/QUOTE]
I never did see it live. It was something that was brought up in class, and we said a prayer (Catholic school). And we went on with our day as planned (probably to avoid upsetting us young kids). But I was absolutely clueless about what went on. The antenna reception in our classroom was too grainy to make out. Planes hitting the world trade center meant absolutely nothing to 9 year old me. I didn't even know what the World Trade Center was.
It wasn't until I got home that afternoon and saw the new footage that I started to grasp what had happened.
[editline]11th September 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Lyokanthrope;48664395]man fuck that 911 call video from a few pages back
I can get through most of it, but I can't handle the end. I like to think I'm desensitized to shit like this, but that made me cry and want to curl up in a ball.[/QUOTE]
I think the way it cuts so abruptly is what make it so shocking. He was talking, and then he's gone in less than a second just to make an audible scream.
I'm surprised the phone system held out that long.
man i remember 9/11. a lot of the people i knew at the time were conspiracy theorists and thought the world was ending or something.
Everyone jumped on the Bin Laden train pretty quickly, I wonder why. To my knowledge he never had anything to do with the 1993 bombing
He was becoming increasingly popular and orchestrated at least a few other major attacks before including bombing that U.S warship in port.
I was just six when this happened, and I don't really remember much about that day. Never lived through it. Just read through the whole thread, holy fuck this gave me chills. I cannot imagine what it must of been like to wake up one morning, and you hear about one of the towers being on fire... and a few hours later it seems like the whole goddamn world is ending. Truly a harrowing chapter in our history.
Shortly after it happened, my brother and I were sent to sign my youngest brother out of school for the day. He had been there for all of an hour that day and they had a majority of students in the auditorium as a safety measure. Everybody thought Schools were going to be targeted/were threatened. While I live a good while away from Ground Zero, it was incredibly dusty due to what had happened and there were even some seared papers from the towers being blown about.
The next few days someone was up at all hours incase they decided to crash into apartment buildings.
I was 11 when I first saw it on the news and my reaction was.. eh... stupid. I thought all that smoke, destruction and building collapsing was awesome. Sort of cheered and hoped that second tower would collapse too. All that reaction thanks to action movies.
I remember seeing it on the news with my mom and me saying "what's the big deal? It's just a building" because I was too young to realize the significance at the time.
I remember when this happened, it was shown live when childrens cartoons were supposed to be aired, my parents got tired of me being an annoying brat and they wanted to drink their coffee alone so they sent me into the living room so I could watch my cartoons.
I turned on that TV, then I saw two towers on fire, I remember watching it all, the second tower getting hit by the second plane, the towers collapsing. I didn't know it was real, I thought it was an action movie, and I thought it had the best special effects ever.
Sort of fucked up.
[QUOTE=SteakStyles;48665782]Shortly after it happened, my brother and I were sent to sign my youngest brother out of school for the day. He had been there for all of an hour that day and they had a majority of students in the auditorium as a safety measure. Everybody thought Schools were going to be targeted/were threatened. While I live a good while away from Ground Zero, it was incredibly dusty due to what had happened and there were even some seared papers from the towers being blown about. so you where living in New York at time pretty scary
The next few days someone was up at all hours incase they decided to crash into apartment buildings.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]I was listening to Howard this morning and I hear him say that the world trade center is on fire. I turn on the TV and the next thing i know i see a big fucking plane crash right into the other tower.
My uncle works right across the river and was watching the whole thing. He called up my aunt and told her that he saw people jumping out of the world trade center
Being that i grew up in the city this is completely unreal.
One of the towers just clapposed. I feel like im going to be sick. My fucking hands are shaking and i feel like throwing up.
If we go to war, i would happily join any one of the armed forces and fucking take all of these motherfuckers out.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]I was napping outside of work, waiting for my day to begin, when I get woken up by my girlfriend, telling me something's happened at the WTC. I didn't want to believe it, seemed like a bad dream at the time.
I got out of my car and started walking into our office building. The ground floor is mostly taken up by Boeing and a large number of their flight instructors with 2 huge simulators, and engineer types. There was a group of them milling about outside, obviously distressed and crying about something major.
It didn't sink in until I stepped into our corporate offices on the 3rd floor, and everyone was in a daze, listening to the radio, or watching the makeshift TV stand by the Inside Sales area. Everyone was just numb from shock. People started going home early, and the volume of incoming calls was off by 75% or more. It was like a ghost town by 2 pm PST. I'm still in shock now. What kind of maniacs would do something so terrible, because they don't like our way of life or who we associate with? I am not a bloodthirsty person, but just this once, I howl in rage and pray that eventually, the perpetrators are either bombed into the Middle Ages, get thrown off the Sears Tower back first, or executed live on television. Even if that happened, it would not be enough to heal the scars this even has caused. Bastards.
I hope they rebuild the World Trade Center. [/QUOTE]
pretty brutal
[editline]12th September 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Pappi_man;48666086]I was 11 when I first saw it on the news and my reaction was.. eh... stupid. I thought all that smoke, destruction and building collapsing was awesome. Sort of cheered and hoped that second tower would collapse too. All that reaction thanks to action movies.[/QUOTE]
doesn't sound abnormal
it's not like an 11 year old can be expected to fully understand what was happening
I was seven years old on 9/11/01. Back then I was recovering from my initial Diabetes diagnosis and so I was homeschooled that year. Normally on weekdays my mom would have woken me up, but she didn't wake me up that morning. At first I was happy because she let me sleep in, so I walked out into the main part of the house to find her, and she was just sitting with her head in her hands, crying in front of the TV. I remember the smoke billowing out and thinking that the building was simply on fire, but looking back I think I either came out just after the first tower had collapsed or it was later and the footage was being replayed. I asked what was happening, but she just told me to go back to my room and not to watch any TV. I don't remember much about the rest of that day, or how I learned the truth about what happened. For me, my mother sitting alone and crying is the most memorable thing.
-snip-
[quote]I feel dread sinking into the very marrow of my bones. I can't even find the right words for the kind of shock this makes me feel.
Is this what our parents/grandparents felt like when Kennedy was killed?[/quote]
It’s probably worth bumping this thread once again. We shouldn’t forget these first hand experiences from this day. Not ever.
I remember I was in school when it happened, but being a naive 11 year old I thought the teacher had put a movie on.
As much as my opinions on 9/11 have changed somewhat over the years as my understanding of the math and physics of the event have developed. I still can't shake that something fishy went down that day. Even the NIST report is dodgy in many parts mathematically and former NIST employees have spoken that the standard of scientific evaluation was very poor in comparison to what they typically do.
I think when textbooks look back at America and 9/11 a hundred or two years from now they'll say it was when this country peaked.
It was like a rude awakening from the optimism in the 90's and everything seems to be downhill since
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgyLQ2jVsuY
Ok I'm never taking any of your posts seriously again.
Which part don't you like?
You were taking them seriously up to this point?
what exactly is your evidence that a plane crashing into a skyscraper at some hundred miles an hour and spewing their fuel and lighting it on fire wouldn't bring it down
also relevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzF1KySHmUA
If it happened once I wouldn't bat an eye, 3 in one day however, well there is something that would, you would imagine a serious investigation into the safety of those structures, a full and proper investigation into the defense of the USA and if another country had a hand in bringing down these buildings. This was apparently not done.
I don't subscribe to the fact that Bush did 9/11. And we can argue blue in the face about steel beams all fucking day and we'd both have points but the real problem is the aftermath and subsequent investigation, primarily the investigation of tower 7 that causes problems. Not to mention that the attack was used to fuel the public into going to war against a people that had nothing to do with it.
This man eloquently points out the reporting issues, and you'll see them for yourself if you have half a brain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMoG8bssZf8
3 in one day literally just means it was organized, which is common knowledge, terrorist attacks are often organized, it's not like it was 3 lone wolves or any shit like that, what are you even trying to pull here?
I'm just pointing out that the NIST report was a letdown to itself. Watch what the NIST employee of 14 years has to say on it as I posted above.
Any event such as this should be investigated thoroughly. Passing things like this that are so extraordinary and unusual as a fact after such little investigation, with such little evidence, is unusual. There were alot more voices on this on FP back in the day, primarily Europeans. Things have changed alot though and it seems like you are being unpatriotic or retarded to question the NIST report even when you have genuine issues with it.
The Government should have taken a controlled demolition extremely seriously, as to absolutely everyone that is what it appeared to be until the NIST report came out and then everyones minds seemed to have went to ease. The fact the Government didn't consider a foreign or domestic force being responsible for such an action, and instead setting the event to rest because NIST made a report explaining what happened UP TO the collapses, and not why the buildings themselves pancaked, is odd, at best.
Wow, I remember reading this thread, live, as it happened. People in the thread were keeping ahead of the news and, in spots, being more informative than the news. While everyone was glued to the TV screen I was glued to the LCD I was in front of.
I know it was said to never forget 9/11 - and we shouldn't - but it's been 17 years; the people responsible for the attack are jailed, dead, or in hiding forever. The dead have been mourned; have been respected; have been given retribution and vengeance. Yet we continue to fear Muslims and dream them terrorists-in-waiting; we continue to practice close-guarded xenophobia where we once proudly (well, most of us, anyway) welcomed all-comers; we allow the fear and discord which was the aim of those terrorists to continue to tear at the heart of America; continue to listen to people who tell us 'they will keep us safe from the Boogeyman'.
I fear that we have forgotten 9/11; it is no longer a singular and terrible attack on American soil in our soon-distant past - it is an ever-present and haunting, towering, phantasm - ever-growing in scope and import - born from fevered dreams and worries. In remembering this singular event we have chosen to forget all its context, draw large shadows over small figures, and fear our brothers and sisters as 'the sleeping enemy within'.
As we would with the dead, I think its high time as a nation we convinced each other to bury it; such that it is gone but not forgotten. We have now been through all the stages of grief but for the final one - we can't accept that it's really, truly, over - that it even can be over. We continue to worry that tomorrow portends another 9/11-like and the day after that portends yet another - held back only by rights-bending laws and massive surveillance apparatuses. We worry that the moment we choose to stop internally reliving 9/11 to justify our continuing living nightmare - or even worse dare to ignore someone who dredges up its specter - the nightmare will intensify. I worry we'll continue to fight this War on Terror endlessly not because there are terrorist groups as there will always be terrorist groups but because we choose to remain terrified. Not that I mean to say there aren't things to be legitimately worried - even extremely worried and focused - about; just that we have to bury this hatchet and learn to accept as a nation that Muslims aren't terrorists - that terrorists are terrorists - that we do have the tools to prevent another attack; that a man promising us freedom from 'the other' is often offering shackles; that we don't need half the rights-bending laws or need to actively and presently destroy every last living threat to America that isn't waving the flag of a sovereign nation or that we need to hold terrorists indefinitely, without due process, simply to sate our fears or anger.
So this 9/11 anniversary I won't be remembering it - I will be remembering the America that was before it. I encourage you all to do the same. I hope we can return to the nation we once were - and I hope we can move as a nation past 9/11. Anyway, it's 4 AM and I'm probably getting too philosophical here, so I just want to wish you all a great day - a fantastic day - full of joy and happiness this 9/11 instead of the usual doom and grimness we've been conditioned to give and accept. I hope this year will be the year we finally accept that 9/11 is over.
I and likely many of us will have a weird status in our later years of life.
I was six when 9/11 happened, which is just old of enough to remember the day. How my parents reacted, how I had so little perception of what was going on that I thought I was watching a weirdly edited action movie, and how culture shifted going forward. We'll have a bit of first hand experience with what happened on 9/11 which will become less and less common among people as time moves on.
Here's an interesting article from Medium about the history of ultra-violent flash cartoons after 9/11. A little stale to post as a new article so I thought I'd post it here
Ultraviolent Flash Games After 9/11 – ZEAL – Medium
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