Young Americans on TikTok say they sympathize with Osama bin Laden
Category: News & Politics
Via: krishna • 2 years ago • 50 commentsBy: Donie O'Sullivan, Catherine Thorbecke and Allison Gordon, CNN
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dozens of young Americans have posted videos on TikTok this week expressing sympathy with Osama bin Laden, the notorious terrorist who orchestrated the September 11 attacks, for a two-decade-old letter he wrote critiquing the United States, including its government and support of Israel.
The letter, which attempts to justify the targeting and killing of American civilians, was first published in 2002. It began to recirculate this week on the social media platform, and videos on the topic had garnered at least 14 million views by Thursday.
Many of the videos, which supported some of Bin Laden’s assertions and urged other users to read the letter, were shared in the wider context of criticism of American support for Israel in its ongoing war against Hamas.
Many of TikTok’s users were born after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks when 19 men hijacked commercial airliners, intentionally crashed the planes, and killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Washington, DC, and rural Pennsylvania. The attack was orchestrated by Bin Laden, the former leader of the al Qaeda terrorist group who was killed in a US special forces raid in 2011.
An initial CNN review found a few dozen videos overtly praising or sympathizing with the sentiments expressed in the letter, which is titled “Letter to America.”
Tags
Who is online
58 visitors
Dozens of young Americans have posted videos on TikTok this week expressing sympathy with Osama bin Laden, the notorious terrorist who orchestrated the September 11 attacks, for a two-decade-old letter he wrote critiquing the United States, including its government and support of Israel.
Thankfully his letter was not acted upon.
Maybe now that, through the "mircal of the Internet"-- many Gen Z'ers will read the letter and unfortunately some of the crziers ones will try to act on it.
Since Z is the end, what will they use for the next generation? Greek letters? Alpha Beta Gamma Delta?
Maybe when they run out of letters they will use a different alphabet-- from another language.
Alternatively, they cause use "double letters" A, then Aa, then Ab, Ac, etc.?
Personally I think Greek letter would be nice.
Many of the videos were shared with the hashtag #lettertoamerica. By Thursday, views of those videos had exceeded 14 million, yet some videos were from users expressing frustration and disgust about the letter and how it was being praised by others on the platform.
In one video no longer available on the platform that had been viewed more than 1.6 million times, a New York-based lifestyle influencer encouraged others to read the letter and said "If you have read it, let me know if you are also going through an existential crisis in this very moment, because in the last 20 minutes, my entire viewpoint on the entire life I have believed, and I have lived, has changed.”
I wonder how it changed - to positively about Israel and America or negatively.
This is what happens when you get your news from twitter, tictoc and facebook. You become a whackadoodle. And then you go to a college with other wackadoodles and all sense flies out the window.
There does indeed seem to be a greater lack of common sense lately-- much more than in the past. And I think you're right-- the rise of social media is a major contributing factor.
(Also some of the people don't only use it for a short period of time every day-- many of them spend hours onit daily!)
...staring into their cellphones.
I used to say (Only half joking) that Millennials have one hand permanently attach to their hand. When in the shower one hand is washing themselves, the other is permanently attached to the cellphone.
Same when having sex (One hand on cellphone, the other hand is on the other person).
This is not funny!.
I didn't realize cellphones were waterproof. Maybe they film themselves having sex so they can watch it when there is a lull in what they watch most of the time.
I while back there was an influential book about the effect of the media. (This was long before cellphones-- in fact IIRC even before the Internet became popular.
It was The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan.
To summarize the keypoint: the same message (even news coverage of a specific event) while effect the consumer differently if its broadcast in different media. There are "hot media" and "cold media"-- its about the emotional (or lack of) emotional effect.
That was perhaps the main idea. But it also talks about a real object (or scene) and "the projection of it"
An interesting point which seems especially releveant now: the "projection of an image or event often would effect the consumer more strongly than the actual event.
Ah yes, the famous Canadian Marshall McLuhan. There was a scene in Woody Allen's movie Annie Hall where he and Diane Keaton are standing in a line waiting to buy tickets to see a movie when the man behind him is spouting off to his companion about philosophical matters trying to show off his self-superior knowledge and intelligence and he says that Marshall McLuhan said something I can't remember, but Woody went off the scene and pulled the REAL Marshall McLuhan into the scene and McLuhan told he braggart something like "I didn't say that. I would never say anything like that." A scene I won't forget even if I develop Alzheimer's.
That's one of the reasons I keep begging Scotty to beam me back to the early 1950s, to the time of Walter Cronkite and Paul Harvey.
Ah, you mean when news people gave you the news without the spin.
They gave us the truth without political bias - it was just the news. Commentators and talking heads were free to be biased, but at least we got the actual truthful news.
I remeber him-- he was really trustworthy. (Also there were one or two more like him-- I ferget their names)>
Real quality news reporting!
Tom Brokaw, Huntley-Brinkley Report, Dan Rather, etc
A little off topic-- but I actually observed a real "beam me up" incident. I couldn't believe my eyes!
That brings back memories! What a wonderful time (at least re: news coverage)>
Amazing how much its deteriorated since then
.
You mean I actually can hope? Tell us about it.
[removed]
While many people remember the attack on the WTC on 9/11, most people don't remeber that that was the second attack-- there was an earlier one:
World Trade Center Bombing 1993
On February 26, 1993, at about 17 minutes past noon, a thunderous explosion rocked lower Manhattan.
The epicenter was the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center, where a massive eruption carved out a nearly 100-foot crater several stories deep and several more high.
Six people were killed almost instantly. Smoke and flames began filling the wound and streaming upward into the building. Those who weren’t trapped were soon pouring out of the building—many panic-stricken and covered in soot. More than a thousand people were hurt in some way, some badly, with crushed limbs.
Middle Eastern terrorism had arrived on American soil—with a bang.
As a small band of terrorists scurried away from the scene unnoticed . . .
I can't remember if there were more terror attacks there afterwards. Except for this one (which only murdered 8 people):
"2017 New York City truck attack":
In October 31, 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov drove a rented pickup truck into cyclists and runners for about one mile (1.6 kilometers) of the Hudson River Park's bike path.
The vehicle-ramming attack killed eight people, six of whom were foreign tourists, and injured eleven others.
The man ran over people in the bike lane, mainly cyclists, killing eight and injuring seven others along a one mile (1.6 km) stretch. [7] [8]
After crashing the truck into a school bus, Saipov exited, apparently wielding two guns (later found to be a paintball gun and a pellet gun). He was shot in the abdomen by a policeman and arrested.
A flag and a document indicating allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were found in the truck.
A federal grand jury indicted 29-year-old Saipov, who had immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010, with eight murders in the aid of racketeering, twelve attempted murders in the aid of racketeering, destruction of a motor vehicle and providing material support for a terrorist organization. [5]
The world would have been better off if he was shot in the head instead of the stomach, but I hope that his stomach has given him pain and digestion problems ever since.
I remember it.
Here's the "See Also" from Wikipedia:
See also:
I used to love America and the people living there. For a while I even owned in partnership with my brother a golf condo in Florida. But that was long ago, and now I wouldn't set foot in America, and for more than one reason.
Some time ago my closest friend married a guy who had a condo on a golf course (in Boca Raton FL, in a gated community) and moved in with him. He was a fairly wealthy guy who originally also owned a large house on the Hudson river, a bit North of NYC.
I've never visited her in Florida, but from the photos its a really nice place. Unfortunately he died fairly recently. She's thinking of moving to another area, possibly Winston-Salem NC or Greensboro NC* possibly even Chapel Hill NC*. Or even Charlottesville VA*.
I've never been to any of those places except I spent 4 years in Chapel Hill (undergrad at UNC).and a little time visiting Greensboro
One of the things she's looking for is a place with a large cultural life and creative types of people. (*These 3 cities are all university towns)
America is a pretty diverse place-- what are your reasons for not wanting to live here (other than the fact that you are happy where you now are)?
(N.B: I posted this in a larger font so Buzz could easily read it)
.
Thanks for the font. At the risk of being criticized by MAGA types, the major reason is that I don't want to be shot which is no problem at all here. Also, although I grew up in a parliamentary democracy it worked well, and there are great privileges in Canada such as universal free health care and for senior citizens free prescription drugs, whereas in the USA many people on pension like me go bankrupt due to medical reasons. The growing political divisiveness and the rampant crime in the USA leads to so many problems and finally it is so much less expensive to live here in relative comfort than it would be in the USA or even Canada. Here I live in modern comfortable surroundings close to everything I need or want on the meagre pension that I have that would put me in North America in a rooming house room with a shared bathroom and kitchen. It's hard for me to believe the antisemitism happening in America and Canada these days but it's not happening here. I'm sure there are more reasons but I can't think of them now - have to eat breakfast soon.
Don't believe the myths. You're not going to get shot and most pensioners in the US have fully funded healthcare.
That's fair. Plus, if you like living there, why would you move?
Most of the people in America who got shot never thought they would get shot, but you know as well as I do the record extent of gun violence that exists in the USA. Anyway, yes, I'm happy here, and even if I wanted to move, my wife would want to remain here with her extended family, so I will remain here until the end.
Awhile back I read an article re: Americans who left the U.S. to live permanently in other countries-- and what those countries were.
Also their main reasons for leaving the U.S. as well as reasons for moving to specific countries.
Not all, but most, gave one of their reasons for leaving the U.S. was the enormous amount of gun violence (which, BTW, was close to non-existeant in the country they emigrated to).
Its really gotten crazy the last few years.
That's not been my experience. I've met many, many "middle class' folks. (Not "poor people"). All working as full time jobs. Most have problems with the high cost of healthcare.
And paying for hospital stays? Fergeddaboudit-- it really hits their wallet.
Sounds like you must feel like Biden's been doing a great job!
???
I have no doubt it makes it difficult to sell America's version of democracy.
LOL. I doubt that's on Jack's mind.
So not pensioners, then.
People over 65 have Medicare. There is a $1600 per year deductible on hospital stays. Less if they have Medicare Advantage. Most people get a supplement policy that pays the $1600.
I'm not sure that's a reasonable conclusion to draw, given that both of those things have been true for decades.
We need to bitch slap the youth back to reality. I will happily state that I enforce daddy law, and I spank the shit out of my kids when they ask for it. I make sure it hurts, otherwise it isn't effective. It is ask, tell, make in our house. At this point, I start counting down from 5, and when I get to 1 99% of the time they give in and I don't have enforce daddy law. Sure they give a bunch of attitude, but they do what they are told.
It does seem that several aspects of society have gotten worse in recent years. And IMO there are several contributing causes. However one of them is the attitude of parents now-a-days.
Mainly a lack of parents taking responsibility for their actions
(It seems so "old-fashioned" to say that but IMO its definitely true...)
Kids dont get their asses whipped anymore, that is the problem.
Tik Tok as news,
''WE ARE DOOMED''.