the thing about 2003 was that at the start it was basically verboten to oppose the war in public and people suffered serious professional consequences for it we do not have to repeat that no matter how much the cable networks want to
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I don't think it *can* be repeated, honestly. The impact 9/11 had on the collective American psyche, and just what and how much we were willing to viciously pursue in order to soothe that hurt, was unique. That level of national shock and subsequent bloodthirst can't be replicated in 2025.
jun 22, 2025, 5:23 am • 8 0 • view
I had my tires slashed, certain families stopped letting their kids play with my kids. Nothing that put me in actual danger or lost me my job, but yes, there was a cost to speaking out against it.
jun 22, 2025, 4:28 am • 5 0 • view
I fully remember the amount of pushback kids got in school for not standing for the pledge during the war. Let's not have that happen again.
jun 22, 2025, 3:13 am • 91 1 • view
Oh my god...yeah my US History teacher (total hippie) sat through it but that was literally the only class where you weren't expected to at least stand.
jun 22, 2025, 3:25 am • 25 0 • view
Sorry I’m a bit obsessed with asking Americans this question but what if you… weren’t American? Like my class in London would always have a couple of kids whose parents were over from Ireland or France or w/e but weren’t UK citizens and would punch you if you suggested they owed allegiance to the UK
jun 22, 2025, 8:19 am • 4 0 • view
Honestly I never had class with the foreign exchange kids, my guess is they would've been asked to stand but even the super patriotic teachers would've understood it's absurd (and possibly against the laws of their country!) to ask them to pledge allegiance.
jun 22, 2025, 12:46 pm • 0 0 • view
Like idk maybe America is a really welcoming place but as a Euro, multiculturalism surely involves meeting *lots* of people who are here long term but would rather die than accept citizenship?
jun 22, 2025, 8:21 am • 0 0 • view
Non-citizen students are basically unheard of below the college level, outside of like, children of border crossers that were born prior to crossing but they tend to not draw attention to themselves for reasons l
jun 22, 2025, 8:49 pm • 0 0 • view
DC would have the biggest potential concentration of these but the sons and daughters of foreign ambassadors are not going to public school lmao
jun 22, 2025, 8:50 pm • 0 0 • view
This phenomenon exists in Europe because you can cross many countries in a single day by train. Living abroad for reasons of work doesn’t make it hard to visit family. By contrast moving to the US from euro or Australia (or even the Middle East) is akin to moving to the moon.
jun 22, 2025, 8:59 pm • 0 0 • view
I had a fair number of friends whose parents moved here on work visas after they were born. Honestly though a very different vibe because all of them got citizenship prior to turning 18.
jun 22, 2025, 10:37 pm • 0 0 • view
Depends where in America you are, I've never lived anywhere that wasn't adjacent to a major city or in the Midwest so in the first people are more aware and in the second people are too polite. Definitely a default "everyone wants us citizenship though" assumption ime.
jun 22, 2025, 12:48 pm • 1 0 • view
foreign exchange students are extremely rare at the high school level in most of America. it's really not common at all that you'd have a student from another country visiting, outside of presumably very major urban areas. as a kid id see it used as a plot device in shows and assume it was made up
jun 22, 2025, 6:49 pm • 0 0 • view
jun 22, 2025, 6:54 pm • 0 0 • view
America is not welcoming. You assimilate or die. It's basically a hive mind.
jun 22, 2025, 11:30 am • 1 0 • view
You unlocked a memory I had in school when a sub in Texas threw a giant fit that a kid sat for the pledge and overreacted to hell and back. Our main teacher basically told us that you can choose if you sit or not. Being a kid in the 2000s was real weird.
jun 22, 2025, 5:34 am • 4 0 • view
The fact that you even still have the pledge at school in this day at age still feels rather cultish...
jun 22, 2025, 8:17 am • 17 0 • view
day *and* age
jun 22, 2025, 8:34 am • 4 0 • view
i was the edgelord who refused to do it in elementary school and i only have become more confident in that choice
jun 22, 2025, 9:00 am • 4 0 • view
Respect.
jun 22, 2025, 9:04 am • 2 0 • view
The Dixie Chick's never recovered
jun 22, 2025, 9:39 am • 1 0 • view
It is GOOD, right now especially, that tv and cable news holds way less sway with the American public than it did in decades past. Very curious to see how the MAGA influencers who have been screaming out against this react now that it has happened. Do they fall in line?
jun 22, 2025, 4:40 am • 6 0 • view
People suffer professional and social consequences for being against US-Israeli genocide now
jun 22, 2025, 7:20 pm • 0 0 • view
Hey remember when MSNBC cancelled its top rated prime time show because the host dared to question the president
jun 22, 2025, 3:14 am • 15 1 • view
And has now hired a bunch of ex-Republicans to critique Trump as if they have no idea where he came from.
jun 22, 2025, 5:15 pm • 0 0 • view
they're gonna go back and use the old 9/11 without a new 9/11, it's been 20+ years of literally the same shit.. I'm almost morbidly curious how badly the pundit and legsislator class debase themselves for this
jun 22, 2025, 3:19 am • 22 0 • view
I don't think it's verboten to oppose a war anymore. When MSNBC fired Bill Press, Phil Donohue AND Pat Buchanan for opposing the Iraq War, it was remembered for many, many years.
jun 22, 2025, 3:16 am • 5 0 • view
Or would hope this was the case, however recent history makes me doubt this. www.npr.org/2025/04/23/n...
jun 22, 2025, 3:18 am • 5 1 • view
The 60 Minutes story is bad, but a different in a key way: it doesn't involve war coverage. As someone who was in newsrooms in 2003 and now, I can tell you that war coverage is different today. The lessons of 2003 are still fresh in the minds of news managers and anchors.
jun 22, 2025, 3:26 am • 7 0 • view
I'm happy to hear your experience from the newsroom and certainly hope you're right.
jun 22, 2025, 3:28 am • 3 0 • view
We'll see.
jun 22, 2025, 3:29 am • 0 0 • view
Phil Donahue. On the hallowed MSNBC.
jun 22, 2025, 5:14 pm • 0 0 • view
And anyone considering primarying Dems who are horny for war with Iran - and telegraphed that in their responses tonight - need to announce their campaigns in the next couple weeks.
jun 22, 2025, 3:33 am • 5 0 • view
Don't you want freedom fries again ?
jun 22, 2025, 7:19 am • 2 0 • view