Twitter users quickly pointed out that Krugman's views on 9/11 were ahistorical, ripping into the New York Times columnist. —Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 11, 2020 —Shaker Samman. 2 days ago — Paul Krugman (@Paul Krugman).0 Krugman, in his Twitter thread, added that he 'was struck by how small the reaction to the tax announcement was — less than 1 percent on the day'.
© Brendan McDermid/Reuters Brendan McDermid/Reuters- NYT columnist Paul Krugman was widely lambasted on Twitter after suggesting that 9/11 did not lead to a 'mass outbreak' of anti-Muslim sentiments or violence.
- There was a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes after 9/11 and the US invaded two majority Muslim countries, launching a global war on terror that's killed hundreds of thousands of people.
- In short, Krugman's tweets were ahistorical.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was excoriated online after a series of tweets in which he suggested that the 9/11 terror attacks did not lead to a 'mass outbreak' of Islamophobia or violence.
'Overall, Americans took 9/11 pretty calmly. Notably, there wasn't a mass outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence, which could all too easily have happened. And while GW Bush was a terrible president, to his credit he tried to calm prejudice, not feed it,' Krugman tweeted on Friday, the 19th anniversary of the attacks.
Twitter users quickly pointed out that Krugman's views on 9/11 were ahistorical, ripping into the New York Times columnist.
—Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 11, 2020
—Shaker Samman (@ShakerSamman) September 11, 2020
—Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) September 11, 2020
—David Sirota (@davidsirota) September 11, 2020
—Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) September 11, 2020
—Megha Mohan (@meghamohan) September 11, 2020
The attacks ushered in a wave of anti-Muslim sentiments, fostering a spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes. And 15 years after 9/11, Americans elected a president who called for banning all Muslims from the US.
The US also invaded Afghanistan within a month of the attacks, launching the longest war in US history (and it's not over yet). The US then invaded Iraq in 2003 (US troops are also still there), which was ultimately disastrous and helped foster the rise of ISIS.
The US has conducted counterterrorism operations in 80 countries, according to Brown University's Costs of War project, and America's 'global war on terror' has displaced at least 37 million people and killed over 800,000. The federal price tag for the so-called war on terror stands at $6.4 trillion, and though Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi are both dead, neither al Qaeda nor ISIS have been totally defeated.
People were tortured by the US government after 9/11, and held indefinitely without being charged with a crime at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The US government also engaged in the mass surveillance of its own citizens.
In short, Krugman's take on the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks does not hold up (at all).
Paul Krugman Twitter Account
Video: Militias, social media propaganda threaten election experts say (MSNBC)
In early 2019, @maplecocaine tweeted, 'Each day on Twitter there is one main character. The goal is to never be it.' Today, Twitter's main character was New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman, who felt it was time to reflect on just how famously chill and calm America was post-9/11.
'Overall, Americans took 9/11 pretty calmly,' Kruman tweeted, starting a roll of simply jaw-droppingly out-of-touch claims. 'Notably, there wasn't a mass outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence, which could all too easily have happened. And while GW Bush was a terrible president, to his credit he tried to calm prejudice, not feed it.'
For those who were old enough to remember America post-9/11, this was an astonishingly bad tweet. America famously did not take 9/11 'pretty calmly,' and there was in fact a mass outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence. Twitter posted an Events page compiling Twitter users who responded to Krugman with FBI data contradicting his claim.
With all due respect Mr. Krugman, I believe this isn't an entirely accurate take. I had the honor of training the FBI last year & we looked at reported hate crimes using their own data. The spike you see is 9/11 – 9/18/2001. The average daily incidents over that time was 20. https://t.co/w7aYzbJTympic.twitter.com/E4XoJ1aUZ5
— Ben Jones (@DataRemixed) September 11, 2020
Anti-Muslim hate attacks in the U.S. jumped by over 1,600% in 2001.
The FBI logged 481 incidents in 2001, vs. 28 in 2000.
While numbers have fallen since then, they have never returned to pre-#September11 levels. In 2018 there were at least 188 such attacks. pic.twitter.com/oINTnrFkNA
— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 11, 2020
And here’s the FBI data on the jump in anti-Muslim hate crime right after 9/11 https://t.co/KLJ0CAhTkRpic.twitter.com/ZpWWIiRln0
— Megha Mohan (@meghamohan) September 11, 2020
Others pointed out the Bush administration's strong and arguably overzealous response to the attacks, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, the eventual war in Iraq, etc.
Paul Krugman and his family weren’t subjected to the illegal domestic surveillance programs secretly implemented by Bush, Cheney & their team of monstrous neocons (catch them now on MSNBC!) but it still happened.
The liberal whitewashing/revisions of the Bush years is repulsive. pic.twitter.com/tfmLDPgYJE
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 11, 2020
Paul Krugman Columns
Reminder: in the aftermath of 9/11 Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Transportation Security Administration; DHS, ICE, and TSA respectively.
Paul Krugman thinks this was 'calm' https://t.co/B6smd06X2c
— Cowsey Explosion (@CaseyExplosion) September 11, 2020
OMFG where the hell was Krugman after 2001? How about all those trumped up charges against people like Al-Arian and Holy Land? Or the Muslim men rounded up in NYC (never mind GTMO and elsewhere)? How about the 'Death to Arabs' graffiti scrawled all over? WT actual F https://t.co/5agJ4c02fy
— Laleh Khalili (@LalehKhalili) September 11, 2020
Others were simply agog at Krugman's gumption.
credit to Paul Krugman for effectively recreating the feeling of the years following 9/11. everyone constantly saying outrageous and deranged shit and you just sitting there looking around like “man… what”
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) September 11, 2020
Paul Krugman celebrating 9/11 by getting up bright and early for a suicide mission
— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) September 11, 2020
Paul Krugman has zero relationship to the truth when he enters full-on propaganda mode, which is very often. pic.twitter.com/MgPqvxIYvN
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 11, 2020
The words 'Krugman' and 'Islamaphobia' trended on Twitter throughout the day, as people continually found various angles with which to express disgust at Krugman's bizarre recollection of America post-9/11. Despite the mass of criticism, Krugman has yet to respond and as of now his tweets are still up. And so, to put it in @Leyawn's words:
congratulations paul krugman you are 9/11/2020’s main character
— leon (@leyawn) September 11, 2020