——
If someone would have told me yesterday that Paul Krugman was going to post 9/11 anniversary hot takes that were extremely inappropriate and unhinged – even for him, I would have told them that a dog will probably bite a man today, too.
If that same person had also said his takes would be so bad even the left would be dunking on him as hard as the right normally does, I’d have told them they were full of it, because Krugman is viewed by liberals as a leftist icon and hero – and one who has TDS down to an exact science.
But I would’ve been wrong because that’s exactly what happened this morning after the liberal New York Times columnist took to the Twitter machine to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Among other things, he compared them to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic – as an excuse to own President Trump. He also engaged in some pretty farcical revisionist history on what American life was like post-9/11, which also had people on the left and right coming down on him big time.
Here’s how it started out:
So it's 9/11. Hard to remember now how large the terrorist attack loomed in our national psyche; after all, in death toll Covid-19 is already the equivalent of 60 9/11s. But a few thoughts and recollections 1/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 11, 2020
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 2/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 11, 2020
Daily behavior wasn’t drastically affected. True, for a while people were afraid to fly: my wife and I took a lovely trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands a couple of months later, because air fares and hotel rooms were so cheap. But life returned to normal fairly fast 3/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 11, 2020
On the other hand, I groan whenever I see some pundit describing the aftermath as a time of national unity. On the contrary, Republicans began exploiting the atrocity almost immediately — trying to use it to cut capital gains taxes within 48 hours 4/
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 11, 2020
Bzzzzt!! Say what?
As per the norm, Kruggie got a number of things wrong in his Lincoln Project-esque thread. We’ll start with the whole “national unity” thing, where he conveniently forgot a few things:
Kruggie's revisionist history on today of all days is especially disgusting. Democrats and the media were screaming "BUSH KNEW!!" within hours of the 9/11 attacks. That's where the lack of national unity Kruggie blames on Republicans actually came from at the time. https://t.co/UFwlTMM8GF
— Sister Toldjah 😁 (@sistertoldjah) September 11, 2020
Also, to say “daily behavior wasn’t drastically affected” simply because he and his wife were able to “take a lovely trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands” sounds about as tone-deaf and privileged (their rules) as his tweets from a few days ago where he declared that the violent Antifa/BLM-style “urban anarchy” seen daily in Democrat-run cities like NYC was a myth simply because he was able to safely take a morning jog in his neighborhood without being accosted by “black-clad anarchists.”
So happy 9/11 hardly affected you, and your family were able to exploit the cheap airfare for a well-earned vacation. My friend’s brother, who retired from NYPD that day, ran toward the towers and died. He’s mentioned in Looming Towers, maybe you’ve heard of it.
— Sans Culottes (@sansculottes60) September 11, 2020
There was also his comparison of 9/11 to the coronavirus outbreak, which many found disgusting and tasteless:
You ghoul. My father was one who was killed by covid. I would never dishonor his memory by diminishing the lives lost on 9/11 to justify some political take.
When you politicize both, you care about neither.
— Bonnie Blue (@BonnieBlueTK) September 11, 2020
Can we just give the family members of 9/11 our time today? It’s so disrespectful to try to draw parallels to COVID, even more so today. Just stop.
— Belle didn’t drink the Koolaid (@virginiabelle76) September 11, 2020
I feel sad that you don’t know the difference between a disease and murder. Also sad that you can’t remember 9/11 without trying to own Trump. https://t.co/m9Nqosl5Qe
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) September 11, 2020
Liberals also took great offense to Krugman’s claim that “there wasn’t a mass outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence” after 9/11:
Krugman’s bafflingly-inaccurate thread shows why it’s important to talk about the way all American Muslims were demonized post-9/11, and why that wasn’t an acceptable response. We can’t just pretend “there wasn’t a mass outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence.” There was! https://t.co/pQLFUp0ohJ
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) September 11, 2020
Nothing to see here, just Paul Krugman gaslighting Muslims everywhere. https://t.co/MbQRW2g2wZ
— Reema Amin (@reemadamin) September 11, 2020
The best response to Krugman was one with very few words:
You should have just sat this one out…
— BuildBridges (@divakelso) September 11, 2020
I’ve recommended before that he delete his account, but his massively inflated ego told me no.
Related/Flashback –>> ‘Sociopathic’: Paul Krugman Again Reveals Himself as an Awful Person in Tweet Bashing Elderly Floridians
Join the conversation as a VIP Member