The cultural shift in DC was pretty profound. I was a kid at the time, but even so I noticed how on edge everyone pretty much permanently became and you had to be more aware of what you had on you when going anywhere significant. Big events like the 4th of July fireworks show became a lot less friendly, too: police and stuff armed to the teeth wandering everywhere and the rules were much, much stricter. It was unsettling since I was a fairly recent transplant, too. I think we were pretty alone in that amount of impact, though. Aside from NYC, I don’t think anyone else was really affected and even NYC didn’t have the war on terror as a constant presence in everyone’s lives for years and years afterwards.
eta also just realized the DC sniper attacks happened about a year later along with a bunch of other localized nonsense, so much of the cultural shift might not have been just about 9/11. That was definitely the start, though, at least from my perspective.
Do you still live in the DC area? I am here now and it sucks balls. People are scared absolutely shitless, way outside of the degree of the actual risk, and in a way it makes it easier to avoid people because I do not want to have to deal with the histrionics if I run one errand without a face mask (can you wear face masks to the bank? I can see why they'd keep the doors locked in that event).
Culturally I wonder if some people won't be more skeptical of the "experts" who have managed to get everything wrong at least once during this outbreak.
I have occasionally wondered this, but I highly doubt it. Recent evidence for my doubt is to be found from the last election...all those "experts": pollsters, pundits, journalists and so on insisting that Clinton had it in the bag, and they were totally wrong. You would think that some of them would be thoroughly discredited, but no. They're still experts!
Same with economists over the last decade or two. As a group they have been consistently wrong about so many things, almost everything, but no, there they are next week on Bloomberg or CNCBC, or in the next issue of the WSJ, still spouting off like they know everything and understand in ways plebs like us couldn't possibly comprehend. (Incidentally, the best change to come out of all this might be the death knell for "Free Trade")
Part of the key to their seemingly bizarre continued existence is that they have a certain fanbase or clientele, or serve a certain demographic or market niche, and they relentlessly tell those people WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR.
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eta also just realized the DC sniper attacks happened about a year later along with a bunch of other localized nonsense, so much of the cultural shift might not have been just about 9/11. That was definitely the start, though, at least from my perspective.
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Culturally I wonder if some people won't be more skeptical of the "experts" who have managed to get everything wrong at least once during this outbreak.
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Same with economists over the last decade or two. As a group they have been consistently wrong about so many things, almost everything, but no, there they are next week on Bloomberg or CNCBC, or in the next issue of the WSJ, still spouting off like they know everything and understand in ways plebs like us couldn't possibly comprehend. (Incidentally, the best change to come out of all this might be the death knell for "Free Trade")
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