Instead of learning from this event, we doubled down on our assumptions and bigotries. What could have made us a better leader, a better ally, a better example, instead made us far worse. As a country we did not learn from the attack, we accepted lies. We accepted lies and then used laws to abuse both others and our own people. We invented ways to surveil, traumatize, and limit the freedoms of people all over the world… and across the street.

America pre-911 is a lost land, a former dream that has been given over to anger, grift, and post-truth diatribes. Wedge issues were manufactured to great effect. The American Dream was leveraged so those who could no longer attain it wouldn’t attack those who actually took it from them… instead they vilified their neighbors.

Those who claimed the moral core were the first to betray it. Those who claimed the traditions of virtue and patriotism were the first to leverage those virtues toward craven ends. Those who claimed the authority of faith were the first to bear false witness. Those who trumpeted liberty were the first to enable authoritarianism.

September 11, 2001 should have been a moment to make America own her “better angels.” Instead, it was when she sold her soul. And we are reaping the harvest now: post-truth garbage, AI slop, and dopamine fixes for the masses while a miniature cartel of billionaires hoard wealth and power. Their stated ends do not include us, the 99% of people, nor do they assume environmental stability. They will happily preside over the end of most of humanity (i.e. culture, art, literature, creativity, meaning), if only their fantasies of a sterile, techno-authoritarian utopia can become reality.

The lesson of 911 was not learned. But if the tech-bros have their way, we’ll all know before we’re wiped out.