"The hate machine that was born in the ashes of 9/11 can be seen in the data centers, tracking systems that monitor our every move, a surveillance state that knows more about people than most know about themselves, and a militaristic approach to all things, from petty crimes and homelessness to immigration and pushing back against social justice. These are all systems being used primarily against Latinos, Black, Indigenous, and impoverished people, and women."
"This 9/11, I would ask you to remember the ethnic cleansing led by an administration that currently prioritizes admitting white immigrants only, and has only gotten started on removing millions of brown and black people from the country—overwhelmingly vulnerable people not even charged with crimes. I would ask you to consider the degree to which by creating punitive laws in red states and threatening hospitals in blue states, the government and its lackeys are working hard to make it impossible to exist as a trans person in much of the United States.
When someone like U.S. Senate candidate from Texas James Talarico caves to demands that he will vow to support the discrimination and the denial of rights to a community that just had those rights taken away, it is not some fringe hypothetical about a debate over something abstract (even if is presented in bad faith within a dishonest frame). He is participating in rearranging deck chairs on the next disaster, which has already begun. You don’t have to be at the helm of the ship to harm others.
I don’t know anyone who supports trans rights who would rather have a monster like Ken Paxton than Talarico in the U.S. Senate. But I also think it’s clear enough what’s happening that those who wish to be our leaders shouldn’t go along with it. The biggest danger is when you pretend you don’t see what’s going on—that nobody warned you. You leave all the bad actors free to persecute others."
"...for the broader United States of America, it meant something else.
It was a new freedom that birthed like a new star: the freedom to dispatch with the hairshirt of civilization veneer, the burden of hegemonic benevolence, and dip deep into the wellspring of rage. And, though you will not hear any talk of it today or any other day, millions of Americans were unconsciously relieved to feel it and embody, simultaneously, the role of aggrieved and aggressor. After all, that is the secret mystery at the heart of fascism.
You can watch the memorial services or tune into whatever feckless politician gives a speech today. Feel free. What you’ll experience is the retelling of the mythology and some lie about unity. What won’t be mentioned, no matter where you look, is rage. It’s impossible to articulate it, at least simply anyway. Countless conversations about genocide. Slaughtering men, women, and children. Turning the Middle East into a glass parking lot. Casual racism, gleeful xenophobia. The early whispering of what would become the homily of MAGA and American Fascism. The type of hatred and casual cruelty that makes the frightened feel strong and powerful and, then, through secular transubstantiation, the wave of the learned, necrotic hand, war and conquest and oppression in the homeland and every corner of the Earth. Written, signed, and enacted by members of both parties wearing flag pins as they gaze lifelessly into every TV camera and repeat liturgic nonsense about national security."
"Society definitely changed for the worse. The terrorists basically won by creating the conditions in which Americans willingly gave up their freedom for the illusion of safety. We threw the imperial boomerang out at our enemies and it has firmly returned back to us in the form of overly militarized police and an oppressive surveillance and police state where we incarcerate more people than any other country on Earth.
I don't think we'll ever get back to the levels of individual freedom we had back then, sadly."
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