We’re still underrating 9/11’s impact

Matthew Yglesias · 11 Sept 2026 · slowboring.com ↗

3 korrents from this piece

Matthew Yglesias did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Post-9/11 American public sentiment was malleable enough that leaders could have directed it toward inward-looking demagoguery instead of foreign war.

Their wordsIf Bush had wanted to whip people up into an inward-looking demagogic fervor instead of an external-facing one, he clearly could have accomplished that, too.
Our reading
9/11 and Osama bin Laden's actions fundamentally shaped the world we live in today.

Their wordsIt's on some levels obvious that we are all very much living in a world that Osama bin Laden made.
Our reading
The plan to hijack airplanes and destroy the World Trade Center was an eccentric, unlikely scheme rather than a natural or inevitable one.

Their wordsI think appreciation of the contingency starts with observing that the whole idea of hijacking airplanes in order to destroy the World Trade Center is eccentric.