Tuesday, and After (The New Yorker, Talk of the Town, her contribution)

Susan Sontag · 16 Sept 2001

Susan Sontag 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
Public figures and commentators responding to the September 11 attacks were infantilizing the public

Their wordsThe disconnect between last Tuesday’s monstrous dose of reality and the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices licensed to follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize the public.
Our reading
Courage is a morally neutral virtue, and whatever else is said of the September 11 attackers, they were not cowards

Their wordsIn the matter of courage (a morally neutral virtue): whatever may be said of the perpetrators of Tuesday’s slaughter, they were not cowards.
Our reading
The unanimous, reality-concealing rhetoric of American officials after September 11 seemed unworthy of a mature democracy

Their wordsThe unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy.
Our reading
After September 11, the politics of democracy was replaced by grief management; people may grieve together but should not be stupid together

Their wordsPolitics, the politics of a democracy—which entails disagreement, which promotes candor—has been replaced by psychotherapy. Let’s by all means grieve together. But let’s not be stupid together.

Keep reading

The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.