When young Americans began to sympathize with bin Laden

Produced by |Tiger Sniff Youth Culture Group.

Author |Slag County.

This article was first published in Tiger Sniff Young Content*** That NG" (ID: huxiu4youth). Here, we present the faces, stories and attitudes of today's young people.

Tonight, I can announce to the American people and the world that an operation launched by the United States has killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a man responsible for thousands of innocent men and children

On May 1, 2011, Obama, then the head of the United States, stood in the East Room of the White House and announced the news to the world.

Then, just five minutes after his speech, thousands of Americans flocked to the White House and the World Trade Towers, chanting "USA!."usa！"Begin the carnival of victory.

For Americans, the fall of the leader of this terrorist organization not only means revenge, but also a victory for the American narrative, representing the ambition of people of different races to rediscover a common goal under the banner of counter-terrorism.

Twelve years after the incident, the former terror mogul has been revisited in the U.S. news.

But this time, his identity is no longer a spurned villain, but a person worthy of sympathy in the hearts of young Americans.

Here's the thing, a small TikTok account that supports Trump, originally posted conspiracy theories such as what the White House lizardman and Biden is a stand-in every day, but on November 10, he became serious and recommended American audiences in ** to read "A Letter to America" written by bin Laden in November 2002:

"Believe me, after reading this letter you will find the answers to the current problems of the United States. ”

The 3,800-word letter, written by Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of 911 and seen as al-Qaeda's plea, explains why they attacked the United States, and the main structure is this:

1.Because you have attacked us, we are going to fight you (Palestine, Iraq, Somalia.

2.Explain the justification of the attack on American civilians.

3.Attacking the immorality, **, and depravity of the United States.

4.Call on the people of the United States to convert to their religion.

5.We are righteous, you are **, if you don't listen to us, you're finished.

We've all been deceived", "It turns out that *** is actually myself", "If bin Laden is *** then so are we." "When watching American TikTok users speaking epiphany words, with exaggerated actions, it is difficult for you not to think of the scene of his @李老** commenting on Manchester United goalkeeper Onana, in short, it is very abstract.

The American people's reading trend made the popularity of this letter reach an unprecedented peak on November 16.

The trend of Google Trends is soaring like pulling onions on dry land, and the total number of videos with the LetterToAmerica label on TikTok has exceeded 10 million, although this number is insignificant compared to other hot spots, but the resulting public opinion has evolved into a political event in the United States.

TikTok removed all relevant ** on the grounds of anti-terrorism rhetoric, the British newspaper The Guardian deleted the link to the original article in the past, and the deputy press secretary of the White House Bates issued a statement criticizing this behavior. The 911 Family United, a group of families of 911 victims, also issued a statement

“..We strongly advise Americans who are too young to remember the brutality of 911 to look for reliable**self-study, rather than being shaped by false short** views.

For mainstream American society, the sympathy of the younger generation towards Osama bin Laden is as ridiculous and unacceptable as seeing someone on TikTok saying that Hideki Tojo also has good intentions.

But when it does happen, it reveals a more important question than arguing whether American bastards are bastards or not:

How did the political ideas of the younger generation in the United States become so abstract?

"When you see so many similar, sympathetic Bin Laden letters, I have a very bad instinct: bin Laden's letter is eight pages long and full of obscure religious jargon, but these young people say it's only two pages, and even if it's problematic, it's so popular. ”

@tamsin Shaw, a professor of political science at New York University, commented that he has long tracked the impact of social media on American politics. In his view, this young man's out-of-context interpretation of bin Laden's letter can almost be called a landmark event in American politics.

Some attribute the farce of sympathy to bin Laden's treachery to the inwisdom of the younger generation, arguing that when one-third of young Americans rely on TikTok for news, it is the beginning of all deterioration.

But is this really the ultimate answer to the question?

It's not so much that young Americans are unintelligent, it's that they want to express their dissatisfaction with the current situation in this way.

U.S. elites once saw Gen Z's youth as the hope of American democracies, believing that their sense of justice would repel the erosion of the polity by the likes of Trump.

At least in 2020, the elites are optimistic. Because during that year's election period, the young generation of Hallyu fans in the United States used deception and deception to sneak attack the 74-year-old American Trump.

They applied for tickets to Trump's speech in Tulsa through the TikTok organization, but they actually planned to release the pigeons. This made the Trump team miscalculate the number of spectators who came to the ** campaign speech, so that the venue that can accommodate 19,000 people only came to 6,000 people, which was very embarrassing. And the main reason they did this was because they were unhappy with Trump's conservatism.

The American left was crazy with joy when they saw this, and felt that the political power held by the baby boomers could finally be safely handed over to Generation Z.

But the American elite has made the mistake of empiricism, taking for granted that their own upbringing experience is used to understand the mood of the younger generation, and the feeling is wavering. I didn't expect that they were abstract creatures who wanted to kick the Republicans and fight the Democrats, and they couldn't grasp it at all.

In July, Siena College conducted a poll and found that only about 1% of respondents in the 18-29 age group in the United States agreed with Biden's governing style, and this group is also the most anti-Trump group.

And the reason why the approval rating is so low is because they feel that the political situation in the United States is too old. In the past, they opposed Trump and supported Biden because the latter seemed less bad than bad, and if he was elected, he would at least have abortion rights, gun control, and climate policy.

But with the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, the younger generation has lost patience and feels that whoever they choose will fall into a situation where they will be left behind.

Now, Biden's refusal to put pressure on Israel on the Kazakh-Israeli issue has also disappointed the younger generation with a sense of justice, with an NBC News survey showing that 70% of respondents aged 18 to 34 disapprove of such an outcome.

A generation that doesn't work like this, and who doesn't work like that, will always be seen as hypocritical by the older generation, but their emotions do have a source:

They haven't seen the good times of America.

American politicians who are now in high positions have spent their youth in the ** era, they have seen good times, the economy is prosperous, and they are full of hope, so they emphasize norms and order, and try to make every decision patiently.

This self-righteousness also happens in our culture.

In the lectures I have listened to, the elites standing on the stage always refer to the present as an uncertain time, although it sounds very worrying, but I always vaguely feel that when they give passionate speeches, they always exhort people to be optimistic and patient, just like Little Finger in "Game of Thrones" said that chaos is an ascending ladder, with a little pride and joy.

But I'm curious how much of an impact these high-strength chicken soups have on people who are in it, who taste the ups and downs, especially for the angry generation.

From birth, they have seen social platforms change from a tool to make information dissemination more equal, to a cocoon;Wave after wave of economic crises erodes the dreams and wealth of the past.

They grew up in a time of decline and welcomed graduation in the midst of the pandemic;No one understands better than they the hopelessness of inequality and the horror of social alienation brought about by extraordinary times.

When everything gets worse and worse, no one wants to smash an old system and start over.

This is the angry young Americans, and the angry generation.

Anger comes from despair.

The 2022 Gallup Global Sentiment Report is based on 12 of the 122 countries surveyedAfter 70,000 people, it was found that people's unhappy ratings had reached an all-time high, with nearly a quarter of respondents feeling anger in the first 24 hours of the survey, and the prolonged economic crisis, political conflict and climate change had worn out people's patience.

Regarding the loss of patience, Edelman's report also testifies, and in the 2023 Rookie Barometer report, they found that the world is 3Only 40% of the 20,000 respondents believe they will have a better life in the next five years, a 10 percentage point drop from 2019.

This sentiment is even more pronounced among younger people.

As the fears of a generation growing up in multiple crises intensified, many took to the streets, turning their anger into action on public issues such as race, gender, the environment, and abortion rights, with a 2021 survey showing that 70% of young people would participate.

Is this political fervor really a good thing?

Some youth observers in the United States have found that the rise of the "Just America" initiative among young people is a response to the sentiment generated by Trump's election in 2016**. Many young people, faced with a strong contrast between hope and disillusionment, have chosen to respond in this way.

As moral as it sounds, it quickly transformed into a religious presence that was bullied and isolated if it became popular culture.

In the face of this climate, former US ** Obama is full of anxiety about this, and in his opinion, the behavior of showing himself more awakened by being harsh on others does not bring real progress to society.

When a generation of young people around the world is collectively angry, the future of human society seems to have reached a dead end.

The old-fashioned man chooses to preach, and the wise man chooses to admonish, and the reliable approach may be as Hitchens says at the end of "Letters to Young Rebels":

“..So I didn't have a stirring epilogue at the end, no horn to say goodbye. Be wary of irrationality, no matter how tempting it may be. Stay away from the transcendent and those who invite you to obey or self-destruct. Beware of compassion;It is preferable to be dignity for yourself and for others. Don't be afraid that others will think you are arrogant or selfish. Think of all experts as mammals. Never stand by for injustice and ignorance. No additional justification is required to seek arguments and arguments;There is plenty of time in the grave for you to be silent. Question your own motives, and all excuses. Not living for others is like not expecting others to live for you.