this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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“America deserved 9/11”
He’s backtracked on that statement and claimed it was satirical/hyperbole/sarcasm and poorly worded. While I’m all for criticism of American imperialism and globalized capitalism, if you’re going to target the people behind that, target them like Luigi is alleged to have done. The kids who were on the planes those zealots used had zero influence on the world they were born into but died anyway. The youngest was a two year old. Fuck Al Queda and fuck anyone who thinks that was an acceptable blow to the system.
I mean "America deserved it" and "those kids didn't deserve it" and "the people who did it are evil" are all statements that can be true. There is no logical incompatibility there.
If a person blows up a building full of people and one of them was a serial killer, it's very reasonable to believe "this was a bad act and most of these people didn't deserve it" and "that one guy definitely did deserve it" at the same time.
Nah. There was no nuance to his statement, and he’s never backtracked or amended it in a way that acknowledges while the institutions deserved it, the method by which the attack was carried out killed children and people who had no connection to the institutions being targeted. They were collateral damage and part of the reason 9/11 is what it is. What he does have is an army of apologists who will tell other why what he said isn’t what he said, and if it was what was said it’s being taken out of context, and if it’s not out of context it’s actually three different statements, two of which he never said, but could be true, so accept that even though that’s not what he said. Like a bunch of fucking MAGAts arguing why Trumps words aren’t what he said or meant.
I never claimed he said those additional things. You're the one putting words in his mouth by claiming that he was saying the kids deserved it or that the perpetrators were the good guys. "America deserved X" does not mean "the children involved deserved X" and it does not even mean "the people who did X did a good thing". It means only "America deserved X".
I know you didn’t, that’s why I accused you of being an apologist.
It doesn’t matter how you try to separate “America” the idea as deserving 9/11 from “Americans” who didn’t deserve it because when you flatten it to “America deserved 9/11”, you’re not separating the means from the end, and the means was jets filled with innocent people turned into missiles. 9/11 isn’t 9/11 without the kids who died on the planes to give America what it deserved.
Piker’s not an idiot. He knew that a comment like that would go viral, it’s a sensationalist hot take that will immediately cause an explosion of discussion, which then becomes a quick dismissal of “it was satire”, but most importantly, he flipped being held accountable for his lack of nuance on separating America from Americans into being attacked by his enemies.
Edit: formatting error fixed
dam, the downvotes on this
If you’re so invested in your influencer that you will ignore endorsing actions that tools the lives of innocent children because the outcome was worth it in your eyes, you are not a progressive, or a socialist, or a communist, or an ally. There’s a certain strain of leftism that has emerged where America is always the worst so any action taken against it is acceptable, up to and including the death of a two year old. We’re going to have to be real careful about who’s getting into what power positions once MAGA is dealt with because we’ve got leftists who will preach solidarity now but would stab us in the back as so as the rebuilding begins.
no, I was commentating on WHY this got downvotes, as you are completely right
I wasn’t directing that at you, I should have responded with a “if one” instead of “if you” to make it more clear it was a critique of the culture of “my icon can do no wrong”, and then when they do “that’s not what they meant” than you the poster.
That I’ve now met self-proclaimed leftists that are so “America bad” they’ve turned our fight against the Nazis into “blind imperialism” is… is something. Did we use what came after for imperialism, yeah. Would the world have been a better place if America hadn’t entered the war? Doubt it.