25 Years of Amnesia: Propaganda and the Legacy of 9/11

um at the time uh ditto with like mockingbird or you know more recently like the epstein case like is a nut conspiracy and now look at like all these um relations we have we i think we know what you're getting at is this version of of uh how that happened during 9 11 where people were asking questions like look four airplanes were supposedly hijacked 19 hijackers three buildings two of which were by airplanes fell in in manhattan and um folks had questions at the time And I think one of the things that I wanted to kind of get your opinion on, I think you were getting at this with blowback, is the historical memory part.

The Bush administration told people they hate us for our freedom, encouraged us to go back to our way of life.

He didn't say go shopping, that's how it's remembered, but he basically said go back to our standard way of life.

Just recently, you know, 25th anniversary, you've got people like Assan Piker trying to explain why he supposedly said the U.S. deserved 9-11.

You've got these young people about two or three years ago on TikTok who are rediscovering Bin Laden, who said, yeah, the reason, you know, tacked on 9-11 is to drag the United States into an endless forever global war.

Good thing that didn't happen.

And particularly bin Laden talked about the U.S. special relationship with Israel vis-a-vis Palestine.

And bin Laden said that right after the attacks.

At the same time, he denied being the mastermind of those attacks.

Yeah.

And so, and the last thing I wanted to get to on that to get your opinion on is one of the books I read, I read it after 9-11, but I didn't realize it was written before 9-11 when I read it, which was Chalmers Johnson's book, where he says in 2000, like, look, we've put so much military aid, intelligence money into the Middle East and folks connected with folks like bin Laden.

I wouldn't be surprised if they use that to attack us in what the military calls blowback.

So Yeah.

This wasn't some like nuts conspiracy.

This was almost like a predictable outcome by people were paying attention.

I think you were getting to like you in the classroom.

Right.

We're sort of like one of those people like we're playing with fire here.

Well, yeah.

And Chalmers Johnson, I was going to mention his name because he's the did the blowback trilogy, the late Chalmers Johnson, who, by the way, wasn't a crazy radical leftist.

He was a widely respected scholar of politics and about Asia and things.

And, you know, he wrote very detailed, meticulous articles.

well-documented books about US foreign policy and the kind of challenges that we have.

And he gives example after example after example.

So is Stephen Kinzer, another pretty middle-of-the-road establishment kind of historian and political analyst, writes for the Boston Globe.

um at the time uh ditto with like mockingbird or you know more recently like the epstein case like is a nut conspiracy and now look at like all these um relations we have we i think we know what you're getting at is this version of of uh how that happened during 9 11 where people were asking questions like look four airplanes were supposedly hijacked 19 hijackers three buildings two of which were by airplanes fell in in manhattan and um folks had questions at the time And I think one of the things that I wanted to kind of get your opinion on, I think you were getting at this with blowback, is the historical memory part.

The Bush administration told people they hate us for our freedom, encouraged us to go back to our way of life.

He didn't say go shopping, that's how it's remembered, but he basically said go back to our standard way of life.

Just recently, you know, 25th anniversary, you've got people like Assan Piker trying to explain why he supposedly said the U.S. deserved 9-11.

You've got these young people about two or three years ago on TikTok who are rediscovering Bin Laden, who said, yeah, the reason, you know, tacked on 9-11 is to drag the United States into an endless forever global war.

Good thing that didn't happen.

And particularly bin Laden talked about the U.S. special relationship with Israel vis-a-vis Palestine.

And bin Laden said that right after the attacks.

At the same time, he denied being the mastermind of those attacks.

Yeah.

And so, and the last thing I wanted to get to on that to get your opinion on is one of the books I read, I read it after 9-11, but I didn't realize it was written before 9-11 when I read it, which was Chalmers Johnson's book, where he says in 2000, like, look, we've put so much military aid, intelligence money into the Middle East and folks connected with folks like bin Laden.

I wouldn't be surprised if they use that to attack us in what the military calls blowback.

So Yeah.

This wasn't some like nuts conspiracy.

This was almost like a predictable outcome by people were paying attention.

I think you were getting to like you in the classroom.

Right.

We're sort of like one of those people like we're playing with fire here.

Well, yeah.

And Chalmers Johnson, I was going to mention his name because he's the did the blowback trilogy, the late Chalmers Johnson, who, by the way, wasn't a crazy radical leftist.

He was a widely respected scholar of politics and about Asia and things.

And, you know, he wrote very detailed, meticulous articles.

well-documented books about US foreign policy and the kind of challenges that we have.

And he gives example after example after example.

So is Stephen Kinzer, another pretty middle-of-the-road establishment kind of historian and political analyst, writes for the Boston Globe.