I was in fifth grade in Queens NY that day. I remember teachers screaming and crying. The day was over and we were told to read. Parents taking kids out one by one with names being called over the speakers. I was excited when mines was called till I say my mother covered in Tower dust crying.
Cancer that killed a good majority of the firefighters that survived. Funding that was attempted to be cut by mitch McConnell and Mike Johnson only to be defended by, of all people, the amazing Jon Stewart
The more cynical take is that they never felt shame, but Jon's advocacy as a celebrity brought unwelcome publicity to their mistreatment of universally valorized heroes.
Because they don't care. It's a great tool to stir up memories to try and win some patriotic votes. Clearly from peoples experiences in this post.
Its nothing more then a cynical tool, they could have passed a law that day. That would medically cover all the victims and first responders.
They didn't, they were to focused on the opportunity to galvanize the public for never ending wars.
I say this in good faith and from personal experience. 9/11 is nothing more then a tool to them. It can garner votes, silence political opponents and always be used for some good press with a hollow ceremony.
Trump has Howard Ludnick(how ever you spell his last name) in his cabinet.
His brother died in 9/11 as their company was in one of the towers.
He played a real good sob story, made it seem like he cared and helped setup a fund to support the families of the deceased.
The loophole, was that there wasn't a limit on the amount that could be paid out.
He took the whole think, I can't remember the exact number, but it was more then a couple million.
So that's who we have in government. People who have no problem using 9/11 for personal gain.
I remember this story, and it’s not like I’m ignorant of the state of US politics but man. It’s always the ones who are supposedly full of patriotism who over and over take action against the needs of those that fought and gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country. And their supporters don’t bat an eye.
You get it, it's just hard to accept there are demons who act like this for political points and call themselves patriots. Conservatives are very good at getting people focused on one issue while the rob you on 5 others. Just like a bunch of pick pockets, except their actions kill millions and as long as those super PAC donations keep coming, they couldn't care less.
Being a lap dog to the upper class has its perks. They get to sell out 300 million people while their masters flood the country with social media and fake news to keep us distracted in a culture war while they speed run robotics so we're not needed
At least 1% of the population has psychopathic traits so I can assure you, there are many psychopaths in the halls of power and the heads of state. But remember, not all psychopaths enact harm, especially to this degree. We are dealing with psychopaths who are gleefully harming others. We have sadists, narcissists, and machiavellian dark triad mfers on our hands.
do you not have an understanding of numbers or math?
there are tens of millions of sociopaths and psychopaths in this country, alone, based on %s and how common those conditions are. and that's IGNORING people who have little to no empathy for other reasons, which there are many
why is it so hard to believe that people flock to jobs that reward their worst attributes. it works for the cops and it sure as fuck works for republican politicians and influencers and shit.
i can't, but i'm sick and tired of people seeing the evidence of horrific people with no morals and no conscience destroying the world around them, and shrug their shoulders in disbelief, saying "well, surely some of them are fine people! i'm sure any day now one of them will come around and all of this will be fixed and ok! they just need to look inside their hearts!!"
civility in the face of willful ignorance has gotten us where we are today
civility in the face of the lies of sociopaths got us to trump, and a nation afraid of everything, always (especially nothing). instead of uniting and becoming better, together, we let a group of the worst people in this nation's history destroy us from the inside, while we sat and waited, confident that, one day, all of those good people will just decide to take a stand. cause surely, hundreds-to-thousands of people can't be sociopaths in a nation of 300million where the incidence of sociopathy is upwards of 4% (which means more than 12 million people), and roughly 1 out of every 20 people you meet.
Not even remotely what I said. I'm also not from the US. And the prevalent statistics for psychopaths in the US is 1 in 100 people. Perhaps the whole Republican party is full of them. I was merely wondering how these people can behave in such an awful way and show no empathy as, statistically, it's unlikely every single one is a psychopath but perhaps they are. Not sure why that triggered you.
I do, there are just those rare moments where the real weight of how broken it all is hits me in a way it usually doesn’t, and this was one of those times.
Unfortunately patriotism is often just another kind of virtue theater. Some people wanna feel like the heroes without ever actually lifting a finger to help someone.
It would be universally popular and so easy to just do the right thing here, but it just never crosses the minds of some people we elect to represent us.
Of all the celebrities, this is the one guy I respect. He fought for those that those in power decided were inconveniences to be swept aside and forgotten.
I was. Jon Stewart is probably known second most for his advocacy for 9/11 survivors and first responders.
It took me years to figure out how to properly spell both of the their names correctly. I’ve been spelling GL’s name as “John Stuart” for longer than I care to admit.
Mitch McConnell, Senator from Kentucky celebrated as coal country, took time out from trying to cut health funding for Black Lung, the most well known coal miner's disease, to also try and cut funding for 9/11 related respiratory care?
Hard to believe he took his eye off the ball screwing over coal miners just to stick it too 9/11 rescuer toos. Unless some of them were also coal miners?
I wish someone with the same convictions, charisma, moral compass, and ferocity for justice as Jon would run for president. I realize Jon would never do it. We also don’t need more celebs doing it but damn I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought about it
The moral failure of the entire political class is so absolute when a fucking comedian is the one that finally gets things done for firefighters that gave up their health to help others.
So many toxic things. Asbestos, lead, PCBs, fine particle dust, and so much more. Anyone who got hit with dust in NYC that day is basically at high risk for dozens of terrible conditions and diseases.
Doesn't really matter in such a case. Carcinogenic materials are usually not toxic (stuff like lead aside) but simply so small that they can get into your lungs and such. And in such an event, the air is filled with extremely fine particle dust of concrete, glass and other normal building materials. Not that concrete dust is much more healthy.
I am aware, just wanted to add that in case someone thinks that it is possible to make such an event not incredibly unhealthy. And even a log cabin will be, at least when it goes up in smoke.
True, though I suppose it would still be far less carcinogenic by comparison, given that wood smoke is fairly commonplace to be exposed to and isn't particularly regulated.
Like it's usage in fireplaces, outdoor fire pits, or in various cooking usages where smoke is infused into food and directly consumed.
And smoke is pretty much a daily exposure for firefighters.
I mean yes, but firefighters try to stay as far away from the smoke as possible and utilize heavy breathing equipment if they can't. Soot and woodsmoke are incredibly carcinogenic. To the point where firefighters in my country change clothes as soon as possible, even having a specifically equipped car for it. And they try to not touch it without gloves, just because of the soot and everything that is on the jacket. They reason why it is not as heavily regulated is likely because a) it is simply not as common as it once was and b) people try to get away from wood smoke by themself because it smells bad and makes breathing hard.
Even the modern stuff that we think (for now) isn’t tooooo toxic when used properly is generally still toxic when burned or smashed into airborne dust.
Don’t hang around on construction sites or near burning building materials for fun, yeah.
Asbestos was used in buildings back then plus all the damage to the building left the dust in the air extremely toxic. It’s been linked to multiple cancer cases, like exceeding the death toll of 9/11 itself! Our gov didn’t provide any healthcare to these ppl.
If you look up “The Dust Lady” you’ll find more/better info on the subject. 🩷
omg that’s terrible. I remember my high school still had asbestos on the roof (and I graduated in 2021) and there were tons of protests by teachers and parents about it in my school and other old schools but the government did nothing about it.
Asbestos in old buildings is incredibly common and so long as it’s not deteriorating or being broken apart and drilled into (making the fibres airborne and breathable) it’s generally fine.
Two gigantic towers collapsing containing asbestos is a public health disaster. And it’s sad that America spent way more money fighting overseas than helping heal its own citizens.
Unfortunately every commercial or government or healthcare building constructed before the 80s, even 90s had asbestos in it. Vinyl composite tiles? Asbestos. Insulation? Asbestos. Pipe wrap? Asbestos. Void fill? Asbestos. Acoustic tiles? Asbestos.
And as far as I am aware, it is still, to this day, the best material for that we have. We just accept a faster fire spread in the event so that we do not have to deal with asbestos as much.
As others have said it caused cancer but another not so fun fact is that the cities administrations got the past 25 years have covered up the fact that the area was still toxic to be in for months after the attack. So if just the air was toxic for months after, just imagine what being there at ground zero would’ve done to someone
Because it was basically a vaporized mix of skyscraper materials, it was very bad for you to breathe in. Lots of rescue workers got cancer or respiratory issues
As other people said, cancer causing shit. I do want to add that comedian and Daily Show host Jon Stewart has been a huge supporter of the first responders. He’s talked to congress (I think it was congress) about improving the health care they receive.
There was a lot of dangerous chemicals/materials in that dust (asbestos, mercury, and lead - just to name a few of many bad things). It caused cancer and early deaths in a lot of people that breathed it in.
In addition to what everyone else has said, the government hid information about it from the people, until the current mayor of NYC released over 100k documents about it 25 years later. They knew and didn't tell anyone.
Iirc it was at the time where Asbestos was all the rage, and if not Legally Asbestos, then the materials that are legally not asbestos but are asbestos like enough to have the same effect on your body. And also just breathing in concrete dust is not good. And even if you couldn't see the dust in the air, the concentration of particulates was still high enough to cause problems for a long time after. Afaik, more people died not during the direct attacks on the towers, but from the dust and debris that took a long time to clean up and/or get under control.
Asbestos plus lots of burning plastic (for weeks) plus finely ground glass, plastics and concrete is the perfect mix of carcinogens and mechanical damage causing agents to cause lots of problems. Fine particolate gets through the lungs into the blood to cause inflammation. Also not American but it's a no brainer that stuff was going to be bad bad.
Unfortunately asbestos cancer takes about 25-35 years after exposure, so more people will die in the next decade of mesothelioma as with this huge number of people exposed some will inevitably get it.
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u/Milestailsprowe 15h ago
I was in fifth grade in Queens NY that day. I remember teachers screaming and crying. The day was over and we were told to read. Parents taking kids out one by one with names being called over the speakers. I was excited when mines was called till I say my mother covered in Tower dust crying.
This country was never the same after