Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/09/15/9-11-parade-tribute-a-bit-much-say-locals.html
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Disappointed they didn’t have an endless stream of popcorn popping out of the tops.
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Maybe they wanted the onlookers’ jaws hanging open so that the popcorn could be more easily fired into their mouths.
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Video link for the BBS
Also, what were they thinking? At least they didn’t have a device shooting minifigs out of the top.
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Perfect example of someone commemorating the thing that happened while failing to take into account the people it actually happened to.
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Wow, that’s basically the entire US response to 9/11 in a nutshell.
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There was this very brief period when America as a whole pretended to accept New Yorkers as actually American, and even to say that their vote for Bush in 2004 was motivated in part by what happened in NYC on 9/11. If you respect New Yorkers so much, maybe check out what they think of Bush?? who got 24% of the NYC vote.
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Commemorating something that happened somewhere none of them had ever been, before half of them were even born, clearly.
Nah, the immediate response was to say that New York deserved 9/11 for being commie liberal Jewish atheist feminist fag abortionists, and this is their punishment for going back on God.
Then, after they got that out of their system, they used New York as an excuse to foment war against a country in the same general region as the one the 9/11 attackers came from but that had nothing to do with 9/11.
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It’s nothing new. I worked near Ground Zero in the mid 00’s, while it was still an open pit and the neighborhood still in shambles.
Multiple times a day you’d get flagged down by tourists asking “where’s 9/11”, often followed up with something like “can you get a beer down there” or “where’s the best place to get a t-shirt”. And just the crowds of smiling people taking selfies by the open god damn crater where thousands died was absolutely bizarre.
It got a weirder still when the memorials first went in, planking Texans standing next to folks looking for the names of friends or family who could not be buried. Because there was no body.
It seemed to calm down a bit when the museum got going, and international tourists became a bigger part of the crowd. But it’s still just uncomfortable. And it’s heightened in a different way now that the new Trade Center is a going concern (there is a currently a popup beer garden sponsored by a start up on the grounds).
I’ve never really seen that atmosphere at any other museum, memorial or what have I’ve ever been to. A large portion of those showing up seem to view it as some sort of point of pride, or something to be excited about. Depending on when you’re down there the atmosphere can feel halfway to a carnival.
I don’t really head down there or like being there to begin with. But at this point I’ll basically walk friends or family from out of town in so they don’t get lost. Then peace out to a bar or coffee shop several blocks away. Pick em up on their way out.
Sadly my favorite spot for that went under in 2018.
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I was a paramedic at the time it happened, working close enough to Shanksville, PA that our tones went off to be on standby when flight 93 went down. We were never actually dispatched to the site but we covered calls in the extended service area while their crews and the crews of a dozen other rural townships were busy. The memorial is lovely and not touristy at all. But the people who pilgrim there are often seemingly missing the point. I suppose it’s that way most places though. I will not Google Auschwitz tourist photos because I strongly suspect I’d hate what I find.
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I’d say this is almost beyond parody but of course there’s already been at least one parody of this exact scenario.
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Ugh, this wasn’t clear to me from the post, but that float was by the local repub party…
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But yeah, that was just a bunch of liburals in a blue state that aren’t REAL Americans… /s
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Two steaming refrigerators. I’m not sure I understand the problem.
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From what I understand you 'd probably be pleasantly surprised. There are of course dumbasses in the world, but even the Auschwitz Museum themselves have a tendency to call out people for treating it lightly, and the Germans in general are not down with disrespectful visitors or those with ulterior motives.
The WTC Memorial is very nice, but the context is very weird. Somewhat unavoidably. Since it’s sort of in the middle of a pretty busy business district. That could be handled a bit better, like for example you could not have a start up sponsored beer garden on the opposite end of the plaza from what is pretty much a cemetery.
And just crowd wise, it’s very much like you ported the tourist swamp around Time Square into something like the Auschwitz Museum.
You’re not going to see that at the Holocaust Museum, I didn’t see it at the Vietnam Memorial. You don’t even see it at shit like the Lincoln Memorial or the Met. Which aren’t generally somber places. You’re not generally going to see people happily taking photos with Off Brand Elmo at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
I spent most of that day running around checking up on people, my school wouldn’t allow anyone to use the office phones. And the single payphone in the lobby they’d only let you use between class. But a few of my friends had cellphones. So there was a lot of cut class, courier the phone to so and so who’s mom worked at the bank across the street and what have. Around 3 my mother called the school so I could grab up my younger siblings and drive them home, my Dad’s national guard unit was deployed. I don’t remember going back to school that week.
I’ve always felt a lot of cognitive dissonance between that, and how pretty much anyone outside the region reacted or experienced it. And even my experience and people who were physically in NYC at the time.
But a visit to the WTC, even now when it’s a lot less weird. Just heightens that in a really uncomfortable way.
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Yeah, this is Valpo, my former home. This doesn’t surprise me at all. If 9/11 was really a solemn day, why didn’t they postpone Popcorn Fest? But, the truth is, that is impossible, unthinkable. Popcorn Fest is the most important day in Valpo, more important than the 4th of July, even. Orville Redenbacher popcorn isn’t even made in Valparaiso anymore. God, the whole thing is disgusting. Yesterday, there was a huge anti-vax/anti-mask protest in downtown Valpo. These two events tell you everything you need to know about this shithole.
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Reminds me of a cargo cult.
Also: Did it annoy anyone else that the Towers were aligned side to side? The WTC was aligned corner-to-corner specifically because a side-to-side alignment would have potentially caused catastrophic sympathetic vibration.
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I will be honest- I don’t think I’ll ever return to NYC. the three times I’ve been there, Bad Things have happened:
first visit was 9/11.
the second visit was to finish the task that I was originally shipped there to do- the router I worked on suffered a backplane failure, which is a very rare event.
the last visit was in november of 2001, when a plane crashed in the bronx.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m bad luck for that place, and will not willingly go there in the future.
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