Myth #982: Arabs Were Happy About 9/11 (so let's kill 'em all!)

Hey Guys,

I hope everyone's doing well, and had an awesome/peaceful holiday vacation.

Whenever Christmas rolls round I find myself often wondering about the conflicts going on in the world, and sheer amount of misunderstanding and phooey that took place throughout the year. By 'phooey' I'm referring to the  piles of BS that gets pumped into the air, that the general public is always readily willing to believe. 

I've found that people are far more likely to believe things that are absurdly false, rather than the things that are actually true.
I mean how boring would it be if you always believed what was true.
I mean really.
Snooze fest.

So with that in mind, I've gotten a few messages and comments on the latest video that I did calling the NYTimes rascist. To begin with, I have to say that in comparison to a LOT of other papers (whether in the US or anywhere else)  it does pretty well. But since when was 'pretty well' sufficient, or even acceptable?

I've found that whenever I make accusations like this (that any Western institution is racist against Arabs) whether be it in an academic, professional or personal setting, I often get barraged and attacked by people for uncovering something they've been oblivious to (or even subconsciously promoting) for a while.   Whenever I make an observation about a comment someone has said to me, people within the
'same group' often get very touchy and jumpy, as though I'm attacking them.

Which is DEFINITELY not the case.
Often, people's reactions to my observations and relayed comments reveal more about the way people view different 'groups'.  

I've also found that many times I've pointed out things that seem unpleasant to people from that background, I often get responses that simplify and dehumanize the other group.  A great recent example of this came from my videos, where I got comments about how horrific 9/11 was, and how happy people in the Middle East were about it, therefore it is completely acceptable to make racist generalizations about millions of people. 

I get that a lot, and it never ceases to surprise me.

There are several reasons for this.
That statement alone has SO many things wrong with it, that I'm frequently shocked that intelligent, educated people actually believe it. It's also shocking to see how many people out there automatically believe that without ever rationally thinking about it.

At the time of the 9/11 attacks I happened to be living in Saudi Arabia.
Yeah.
Not the most Pro-American country in the world.

But I remember switching on the news just as it was happened, and the next day EVERYONE I knew was in shock and in a state of mourning.
Everyone.
And this continued for weeks.
People that I knew throughout the Gulf, in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East started fundraising, and tried to do everything they could from there. I know of quite a lot of people that moved there for a few weeks to see if they could help. So it really shocks me that so many people believe that all Arabs/Muslims (as if they are interchangeable) were happy about it.

If anything 99.9% were in complete shock for months. 

But one must never forget the quacks.
There are quacks in every society, and to pretend like they don't exist only gives more power to the people that are violently against you. There clearly were some people who were happy about it. But I can guarantee you that it was nowhere near the amount that the media portrayed, or the Bush administration capitalized on.

So for the people out there that want to keep spouting crap about how happy people in the Middle East were about 9/11, they've either never read anything or been to the region.
Because I have never, EVER, met a single American (or anyone else for that matter) who's actually believed that after visiting/living in the middle east.
And I've met quite a few hard-core Republicans in my day.

So yeah.
Come to the Middle East, then tell me we're all raving lunatics.

Alrighty then, it's midnight and I should prob get some sleep!
Thanks for listening guys,
Lyla.