Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of the September 11th attacks. On that day, as many know, more than 3,000 Americans died. Every year since, September 11 is marked with tributes to the dead, the heroes that risked and/or lost their lives, and to America itself. All of the tributes, somber, statements, and moments of silence serve the purpose of further propagandizing the American people.
To date, more than 1.1 million Americans have died with coronavirus. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are dealing with long covid that threatens to permanently change their lives.
Over the last seven days, roughly 2,675 Americans have died with coronavirus. During the height of the omicron wave last winter there were periods when more Americans were dying with coronavirus on a daily bases than died in the September 11 attacks.
Sadly, the comparison between how America views September 11 and how it views coronavirus is indicative of the ableism, racism, and classism that has always defined America.
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The simple truth is that most Americans have been so propagandized that they believe a police state backed by constant warrantless surveillance, government lies, and censorship is not only inevitable but is something required to keep them safe. On the other hand, millions of Americans believe wearing a mask in public is an affront to their imagined liberties and freedoms. The absurdity of the reality that wearing masks to protect others and yourself during a pandemic is such a contentious political issue that politicians feel safer supporting eugenics than they do following science and/or public health measures is heartbreaking. Just as shameful is the way politicians have used the selfish devicevness over mask wearing and other common sense public health measures as another of their tools used to distract people from what should really be motivating them.
Government needs people to never forget what they felt on September 11, 2001. Government needs the delusional to focus on that day in exclusion of almost everything government has done in the name of September 11, 2001 in the subsequent 21 years. By regularly forcing people to relive their fear, government gets most of them to look away from the more than one million people of color, many of whom were civilians, America has killed around the globe since 9/11. America needs people reliving the anger they felt 21 years ago because it is directed away from the American government.
On the other hand, government cannot be honest about the ongoing and long-term suffering caused by coronavirus because it highlights government failure. Even worse, if people spent much time considering and valuing the more than one million lives lost, the lives still being lost, and those that will never be the same, some people may decide that corporate profits actually don’t matter as much as lost or damaged lives.
America plays up September 11, 2001 and America dismisses coronavirus because the different responses are necessary to continue projecting the myths of American exceptionalism, American democracy, America as the world leader on human rights, and more. If Americans really understood September 11 and its aftermath, many more Americans would realize what America has done in the name of 9/11 was to limit American democracy, punish descent, eliminate supposed constitutional protections, and constantly spy on Americans, more Americans would know the truth about America. If America was honest about the ongoing threat of coronavirus and the viruses that will soon make their own devastating marks, America would not have such an easy time convincing many Americans that eugenics is okay as long as corporations are making money.
The sad truth is that most Americans are way more easily manipulated and controlled than they realize. In a society truly dedicated to equality, as America pretends, the lives of the millions of people killed by America would matter. The lives of the more than one million Americans who have died with coronavirus so the economy could keep enriching corporations and the wealthy would matter. When America blows up a wedding in Afghanistan it’s called a mistake. When America kills children on a bus, it’s a mistake. When an American dies with coronavirus, they were old and/or disabled. America, which wants you to believe it is committed to human rights, casually dismisses millions of preventable deaths attributable to America while focusing attention on 3,000 deaths that maybe could have been prevented without American incompetence, because the actual murders were not carried out by Americans.