How many parents of teenagers and young people will say that those young people spend entirely too much time on social media? Probably plenty of them. But a new poll shows that what those young people may not be learning about in school is nonetheless making its way to social media and giving them a whole other perspective on things like terrorism, and more specifically, the man behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Osama Bin Laden. The results are truly shocking and could have some very serious consequences for America and how we would deal with terrorism years down the road.
Democrat says foreign countries have 'infiltrated our kids minds' after Daily Mail poll found one in five young voters had a positive view of Osama Bin Laden https://t.co/Abh2i8tLW5 pic.twitter.com/YqW5vFhIVv
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) December 28, 2023
A new Daily Mail poll shows that one in five 18-29-year-olds, Gen-Zers, have a positive view of 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden. Broken down, the poll continues to reveal even more disturbing views held by America's young people. Of those 18-29-year-olds polled, eight percent said they had a "completely" positive view, and 12 percent said they had a "somewhat" positive view. When broken down a bit by race, the results were not much better. Among black young people, 18 percent had a positive view, and among Hispanics, that number only fell to 15 percent. Of those polled, 23 percent said they thought Bin Laden's views were good, but his actions were bad. If any results might be seen as a bit less disturbing from the poll, it was the fact that just eight percent of Gen-Zers thought both Bin Laden's views and actions were good.
How do so many people get such a skewed version of the events and the person behind one of the most horrible and deadly days in American history? Easy, social media. Back in November, a video was posted on the popular platform TikTok. It was a letter written by Osama Bin Laden a year after the attacks called a "Letter to America." In it is an attempt to justify the attacks. The letter condemned U.S. support for Israel and contained a lot of antisemitic and homophobic language. The letter went viral on the platform that is heavily trafficked by young people. Videos then emerged of the letter being discussed, and that discussion spilled over into views on the Israel-Hamas conflict. The creators of those videos claimed that they understood U.S. intervention in the Middle East and the Israel-Hamas conflict better. To review, a terrorist responsible for the deaths of 2,977 people on September 11, 2001, is explaining, from his perspective, Middle East complexities to America's young people, with many of those young people saying that their "eyes had been opened."
After seeing the reaction of GenZ on TikTok regarding the “Letter to America” from Osama Bin Laden, can we all please make sure they don’t end up discovering the biography Mein Kampf written by a certain German Author…
— Leo (@Leo33675_) November 16, 2023
Understandably, 9/11 families are extremely disturbed and outraged by the poll results. Terry Strada lost her husband, Tom, who worked on the 104th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center for Cantor Fitzgerald on 9/11. She described the poll results as "'horrifying’ and are a ‘disturbing’ sign that terrorism is being ‘normalized.’" Brett Eagleson lost his father, who worked in the South Tower. He said it showed how "the U.S. government's 'feckless inability' to hold parties responsible is a reason why young Americans' minds have become 'perverted.'" Strada places much of the blame on the American education system. That blame is well placed. A 2017 audit revealed that just 26 states include 9/11 and the war on terror in their curriculums.
It is that lack of 9/11-related information in school curriculums, combined with the fact that roughly one-third of Americans under 30 get their news from TikTok "regularly," that have us at a point now where 52 percent of voters aged 18-34 say they are more sympathetic to Hamas.
We already know that the education system is failing our students by dumbing them down, teaching them to hate America, and graduating many of them without being able to read but more than proficient in the use of transgender pronouns. We can also have the debate about whether to ban social media platforms like TikTok, but the bottom line is this: These young people are the future leaders of America. How can we expect them to deal with terrorism properly if they are sympathetic to the terrorists?
The most frightening example of home grown anti-Americanism I’ve seen yet.
— Brent Bozell (@BrentBozell) December 27, 2023
How do 3 in 10 young Americans say Osama Bin Laden was a force for good? https://t.co/7iJ8NdkvzO
