I reblogged it earlier but I'm glad the Something Awful Forums 9/11 thread was archived because it's an incredibly important slice of internet history. For the record I think 9/11 was thousands of personal tragedies for the direct victims of the attacks but one big national farce that led to America's ongoing slide into fascism, and the nationalism and remembrance around it is a joke especially in the wake of the same amount of deaths every fucking day in the US during the height of coronavirus.
Nevertheless I think it's important that if you do not remember because you were too young or just didn't exist on Sept 11, 2001 to read the Something Awful 9/11 forums to get an idea of what the internet was like at the moment when America changed to 24 hour news cycles and renewed hyper-nationalism not seen since WWII.
This all happened before Twitter, Facebook, before Discord. Before smart phones. Before most people had cell phones. When a lot of people still had dial-up internet, even. Some people in the thread were relying on radio because internet and TV weren't keeping up.
It was a live event of internet denizens reacting to the biggest national event (and among the biggest international events) of the past 25 years. It was also a slice of what the internet was like at the turn of the millennium. Not only that, but people accurately calling out who was responsible, and what would result before the attacks even finished.
Keep in mind that the links that follow contain images of the event, lots of Islamophobia, people calling for the Middle East to be nuked, people blaming Palestine, casual racist and homophobic language (this was Something Awful after all), etc etc. They preserved the first 17 pages which spanned about 24 hours during the events. It's the origin of the "WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR" screenshot.
Links under the fold. I've also annotated the pages with notes regarding the timeline and any posts of interest. Note the thread was preserved in Pacific Time even though the page says times are Eastern. That's incorrect. Post timestamps are 3 hours behind Eastern Time, which is the time zone where the attacks occurred:
Page 1 - Note the first post was edited to include images of the second attack. The thread started after the first plane hit. Second plane hitting the WTC happens here too.
Page 2 - Poster accurately calling out Bin Laden was responsible at 9:14 AM EST
Page 3 - "WATCH BUSH START A FUCKING WAR"
Page 4
Page 5 - First official acknowledgement it was a terrorist attack.
Page 6 - Pentagon hit
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9 - Commercial flights grounded by FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)
Page 10 - First mention of towers collapsing at end of page
Page 11 - More reactions to collapse of first tower. People thinking it was a bomb or yet another plane. Rumors about a fourth plane just missing the White House (these are false and predate the actual 4th plane crash by minutes)
Page 12
Page 13 - By this point there's just rampant speculation about more bombs at the WTC, the US Capitol building being hit, etc (all false). Remember this is all just people reacting to TV news and radio and the rumor mill via phone, AIM, IRC, and maybe text messages.
Page 14 - By this point internet news sites are overwhelmed
Page 15 - Second tower collapses. First acknowledgement of the fourth plane that crashed in PA.
Page 16 - There's an abrupt time jump in the threads, I think it was the result of admins pruning the activity or the SA forums going down. This page starts on 9/12 even though it is page 16. American flag signatures and ribbons start appearing.
Page 17
Seedless Watermelon
Lemons.
Thank you so much 4 the invite @burned-out-match !! Tag games are so fun :)
hardcover or paperback? bookstore or library? bookmark or receipt? stand alone or series? nonfiction or fiction? thriller or fantasy? under 300 pages or over 300 pages? children’s or ya? friends to lovers or enemies to lovers? read in bed or read on the couch? read at night or read in the morning? keep pristine or markup? cracked spine or dog ear?
I'd like to invite @jacuzziwaters @a-wandering-fangirl @thatonerandomsimpinthecorner
A wonderful tag game courtesy of @fluffyyymocha!! Sorry it took so long to post :((
hardcover or paperback? bookstore or library? bookmark or receipt? stand alone or series? nonfiction or fiction? thriller or fantasy? under 300 pages or over 300 pages? children’s or ya? friends to lovers or enemies to lovers? read in bed or read on the couch? read at night or read in the morning? keep pristine or markup? cracked spine or dog ear?
@frogrye @i-am-the-chair @smokipoki @aimixx @yuurionviktor @wistymisteria @sylviethefox @ttamatowne @veenxys @sourlemonsodass @hisoka-lost-gon @onthemccn @i-eat-laundry-detergent @lyricalwandering
(how do people not know this😭)
"I don't reblog fics because I don't have followers!"
you would have followers if you reblogged posts!!
YOU WOULD HAVE FOLLOWERS IF YOU REBLOGGED POSTS
🥦 Grocery clerks 🥦
time to see if my old mpreg player works ahhh!!!
this is genuinely impressive
so I finished my kimetsu no yaiba manga re-read and this is all I can do, trying to bring Kyojuro back to life.
Akaza, I love you but how dare you unalive Kyojuro?
more crappy edit under the cut, I'm just proud of this first one because I got tired editing out the blood from Kyojuro's left eye that Akaza smashed but forced myself to edit more
Gotogue owns these pictures but I spent my time and effort editing, thus please let me know if you're going to use it somewhere. Like and reblog are much appreciated that repost.
Thank you! o(〃^▽^〃)o
just saw someone post “it’s common knowledge ur not supposed to spam reblog from someone ur not mutuals with” …..?????????? am i confused??? IS that common knowledge???? i try not to spam if i can help it but i actually personally love seeing spam notifs lmao??? unless i dont know what spam reblog means
i think more characters should have canes actually. theyre cool. theyre sexy. they can have swords in them. they come in any color u want.
Naur this isn't a painting I refuse to fall for such miserable deceptions.
*Squints eyes*
HOLY F*CKING SHIT THAT'S A PAINTING?!?
finally finished this painting i sketched out months ago… please click for better quality i know tumblr is gonna kill it (reference used)