AIBU to ask you your opinion on 9/11 and millennials?

[CorianderDestroysFamilies]

I read a tweet this weekend that went - why do millennials complain all the time and the answer is basically because we saw 2000 die on tv when we were 10 and the world has got worse ever since.
Reading the following tweets made me realise that actually it must have had a massive effect for the mindset of that group, myself included, and I’ve never really thought about it - obviously more so for those in the US but even in the UK I remember seeing it happen and then it does feel like everything has just got worse. The war in Iraq, the demonisation of Muslims, so so many mass shootings and terrorist attacks, it sometimes feels like we’re sitting on the edge of the abyss. I know a lot of this is to do with non stop news and how small the world has become but it just struck a nerve with me.
One thing I read that I’d never heard about before was that Nick Jr and PBS in the US played cartoons all day to basically distract the kids whilst the adults took in what had just happened and that alone made me want to cry.
Anyway I’m not putting it very well but hopefully it’s makes sense as I just wondered what other people thought because I can lose myself in MN debates and there’s always angles that I’ve not thought about.

But millennials have lived through terrorism (as opposed to watching it on TV) eg 7/7, the Manchester Attacks, the Westminster & London Bridge attacks, or Finsbury Mosque for example.
I assumed the reference to 9/11 was not just the incident itself but everything that came after eg wars, radicalisation, terror threats, islamophobia, far right radicalisation, etc.

But millennials have lived through terrorism (as opposed to watching it on TV)

Eh? I sure as shit didn’t watch the IRA bomb in Manchester on the tv. I was very much there.

Reading updates on this thread this morning changed my mood from peaceful to serious heart palpitations and helplessness...

Maybe it’s cos I’m a millennial. Or maybe it’s because I was on the wrong side of history and seeing that part of history being conveniently chopped out highlights how many more “backlashes” my kids generation will have to face. And probably a repeat of my childhood for them.

I only hope they cope with things much better. We can’t change the world from being ugly, we can change how we deal with it

But millennials have lived through terrorism (as opposed to watching it on TV)

Eh? I sure as shit didn’t watch the IRA bomb in Manchester on the tv. I was very much there.

Right & I don’t understand what that has to do with my first point? one doesn’t take away from the other Plus I’m a older millennial with republican parents who was born & raised in London in the 80s & whose father worked in the city. My entire extended family live in Dublin & Belfast so Im well aware of the troubles.

I was 10 and don't think it changes anything. I remember my Dad telling us in the car home from school. At that age you learn so quickly. I was bombarded with stories and this was just another. I didn't really have a sense that it was a historic day like my Dad did.

I doubt the historic significance of it now. It led to two bad wars but they are over now. Unless you live in Iraq or Afghanistan, I don't think we are in a different position than we would have been without 9/11. It will be forgotten about in 100 years.

But millennials have lived through terrorism (as opposed to watching it on TV) eg 7/7, the Manchester Attacks, the Westminster & London Bridge attacks, or Finsbury Mosque for example.
I assumed the reference to 9/11 was not just the incident itself but everything that came after eg wars, radicalisation, terror threats, islamophobia, far right radicalisation, etc

That post is full of ignorance of history. What about the IRA? Or the UVF? Who between them killed over 2000 people. Did we not live through that? We had an IRA cell in our naice English village, I missed the Harrods bomb because I overslept. At school we were evacuated a number of times due to bomb threats.

The seismic difference is that now, people are drawn to ruminate about terrible catastrophes via social media in a giant mental health experiment.

In the past, human beings as a social group had different ways of dealing with terrible crises. For example in perhaps the most extreme period, in the aftermath of Hiroshima during the Cold War when there was a genuinely perceived threat of annihilation, faced by everyone, going about their daily tasks, every day. The British Library has examples of the leaflets that were distributed to households on what to do - scary stuff. You see the pervasive fear reflected in the literature of the time - in the rise of sci-fi and stories like the midwich cuckoos, the death of grass, or the day of the triffids. When something is enormous

I remember being utterly appalled by social history as I grew up as I was fascinated by it so read as much as I could on the subject. I remember, as a young child, learning about vile public executions, torture, witch hunts, plague and other diseases, bloody wars, the guillotine, Rome and the gladiators, the list goes on, and many of it in the name of public entertainment... I think it gave me a perspective as I grew up that we really did hit the jackpot in terms of being born at the end of the 21st century.

Sorry - twentieth century

Eek posted too soon! When something is enormous and incomprehensible, humans in the past have been able to disassociate themselves from it and go about their daily lives. Maybe social media makes this impossible.

That post is full of ignorance of history. What about the IRA? Or the UVF? Who between them killed over 2000 people. Did we not live through that? We had an IRA cell in our naice English village, I missed the Harrods bomb because I overslept. At school we were evacuated a number of times due to bomb threats.

Read my 2nd post, I’m well aware of the troubles as many millennials will be. My point was that quite a few posters seem to be suggesting that 9/11 couldn’t have affected millennials because they weren’t there, I was simply saying that I thought the tweet was referring to what came after 9/11.

We were talking about 9/11 at work a while ago. It felt very odd explaining to adults how it changed the world completely.

I missed the Harrods bomb because I overslept I was a very young baby & in Harrods at the time. I was also on the tube the morning of 7/7 like thousands of others. I don’t count myself as missing the bomb in either case.

A) Millenials don't complain any more than any other generation

B) Most people don't realise that most milennials are now in their thirties, not the responsibility free teen/twenties people think they are.

C) Attributing a mindset or behaviour type to such a vast swathe of people is really stupid. I hate it.

D) The world is a really awful place at the moment and just seems set on getting worse.

I read this tweet but all I could think of was my growing up, and my siblings, friends, work colleagues, during the Troubles in NI. Terror was a daily companion and even at 5 or 6 years old you were aware of bombs and shootings in your town, or nearby. As I got a bit older there were certain places I wasn't allowed to go to as it was known they may be targeted next. Life was horrific, generally.
I think for millennials to blame all their woes on this one, albeit truly horrific, event is a bit

I read this tweet but all I could think of was my growing up, and my siblings, friends, work colleagues, during the Troubles in NI. Terror was a daily companion and even at 5 or 6 years old you were aware of bombs and shootings in your town, or nearby. As I got a bit older there were certain places I wasn't allowed to go to as it was known they may be targeted next. Life was horrific, generally.
I think for millennials to blame all their woes on this one, albeit truly horrific, event is a bit every generation has its defining events, I personally think where millennials have it worse is with the head fuckery that is their social media use!

I read this tweet but all I could think of was my growing up, and my siblings, friends, work colleagues, during the Troubles in NI. Terror was a daily companion and even at 5 or 6 years old you were aware of bombs and shootings in your town, or nearby. As I got a bit older there were certain places I wasn't allowed to go to as it was known they may be targeted next. Life was horrific, generally.
I think for millennials to blame all their woes on this one, albeit truly horrific, event is a bit every generation has its defining events, I personally think where millennials have it worse is with the head fuckery that is their social media use!

It was the Balkan wars that really shaped me (born in 1989). A lot of people find that strange and some my age dont even remember it

The first extensively photographed war was the American Civil war, ever seen the pictures of them recovering bodies on the field, Other awful photos were taken in previous conflicts. Before that murder and execution pamphlets were widely available. It may seem more real as it’s footage and it’s very much more available. But seeing and hearing and reading about terrible atrocities has always happened.

I am not a baby boomer I’m in Gen X but can we please stop with the attack on them. It’s politicians, the aristocracy and to an extent though less these days the church that made and makes policies that affect us the little people of every generation. Divide and conquer it’s why the world is the way it is.

@CorianderDestroysFamilies
Im from the UK and I live here now, but when it happened I was 11 and I lived in Canada (was there for 3 years). I remember the morning of the attack I was up with my Mum and my Dad came into the living room to turn on the tv. He said the trade towers had been hit by a plane. My mum said "oh how did that happen" and my dad said "it wasn't an accident" and then we sat and watched it all unfold. When I got to school the normal lessons were cancelled in the morning and we had to watch the TV and write down what was happening. Super weird now I think about it.

The thing that I remember the most is my teacher saying to the class "I need you to tell you all something. You won't fully understand it right now, but the world is never going to be the same again" and I had this weird sinking feeling, which was hard to process for an 11 year old.

Pretty fucking heavy stuff to process at that age.

Over the years I've thought a lot about those words my teacher said. It took me a while to realise what he meant and how right he was.

Patroclus I was born in 1985 and I would agree that the Balkan conflict had a big effect on what I considered really horrific. I didn’t know what rape was until seeing the cover of a newspaper supplement with a picture of a Bosnian woman who was pregnant with her rapist’s baby and I looked inside. It all seemed so inhuman and frightening.

I read that less people are dying now through conflict than ever

I think of course 9/11 showed a generation of children that the world was not all fun and games and could be a scary place and made them aware of everything that came after.

But atrocities have always been going on, each generation has their own events that changed the world for them.

Mine was the constant threat of a nuclear bomb. Being shown films at school and leaftlets coming through your door telling you how to build a fall out shelter in your home. And the public information broadcasts were shown all the time on the tv.
It was a scary time for a child.

Sometimes they test the alarms even these days and they always give me the chills and take me back to those days and how constantly afraid I was.

But millennials have lived through terrorism (as opposed to watching it on TV)

Eh? I sure as shit didn’t watch the IRA bomb in Manchester on the tv. I was very much there.*

Right & I don’t understand what that has to do with my first point?

Because your first point made it sound like Gen X just watched it when millennials have actually experienced it.

Because your first point made it sound like Gen X just watched it when millennials have actually experienced it. No it didn’t, that’s just how you interpreted it.