America's Post-9/11 Unity Gives Way to Deep Polarization
Left 67%
Center 0%
Right 33%
2 left · 0 center · 1 right
What happened
On September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers affiliated with the Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda seized four U.S. commercial airliners. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 struck the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, both of which later collapsed; American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers and crew tried to retake the plane. The attacks killed 2,977 people. In the following weeks, U.S. polling recorded large jumps in national unity, trust in the federal government, approval of Congress, and support for President George W. Bush, including among Democrats. On the 25th anniversary, American outlets examined how polarization, conspiracy theories, and public trust have changed since that period.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage never names conspiracy theories or anti-Americanism, leaving readers of the anniversary without the claim that 9/11 moved those ideas into the mainstream. National Review presents them as having gone from "fringe to forefront." Bloomberg instead describes a somber anniversary and disruption that created divides, without identifying anti-Americanism or conspiracy thinking as part of that change.
Right-leaning coverage at Daily Wire opens on a vanished wave of national unity, reporting that 72% said the country was going in the right direction after the attacks. Left-leaning coverage opens on present tension and offers no polling on unity, trust, or presidential approval.
What share of the public now endorses 9/11 conspiracy claims, and did that rise in 2001 or only after the unity faded?
Bottom line
Bloomberg can mark a tense 9/11 anniversary without ever mentioning conspiracy theories. National Review's claim that those ideas moved from the fringe is unanswered, and neither side gives a figure for how widely they are held.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Conspiracy theories and anti-Americanism are more widely accepted than they were 25 years ago
- Trust in the federal government to do what is right rose from 31% in January 2001 to 60% in October 2001
- Congress's approval stood at 42% before the attacks and doubled to 84% a month later
- Democratic job approval of George W. Bush reached well into the 80s in September 2001
- The share saying news organizations stood up for America rose from 43% to 69% after the attacks
- Disruption over the past two decades has created divides that could seep into today's 9/11 events
The Left View
Bloomberg characterized the 25th anniversary as "somber" and "tense," writing that it "shows how much has changed" and that "disruption over the past two decades has created divides that could seep into today’s events."
The Right View
National Review argued that 9/11 "brought from fringe to forefront" conspiracy theories and anti-Americanism, which "are more widely accepted than they were 25 years ago." In a Daily Wire reprint, pollster Patrick Ruffini called the post-attack period "the last moment of American unity" and "the last sustained stretch of when a majority of Americans were optimistic about the country," citing a poll in which 72 percent said the country was going in the right direction and 11 percent said it was on the wrong track; Democratic approval of Bush "reached well into the 80s" in September 2001; Congress’s approval "doubled to 84 percent"; and trust that the federal government would "do what was right" rose from 31 percent in January 2001 to 60 percent in October 2001. He noted that even the press benefited, with the share saying news organizations "stood up for America" rising from 43 percent to 69 percent. Ruffini contrasted that rally with COVID-19, after which "77 percent of Americans thought the country was more divided than before the outbreak," and with later political violence that "didn’t produce any lasting change in public opinion," concluding that if the same attack happened today, "the grief would be just as great, but the sense of shared purpose and unity nowhere close."
Our Take (balanced)
Bloomberg’s strongest point is that two decades of disruption have left divides that make the anniversary itself "somber" and "tense." National Review and Ruffini’s strongest point is empirical: a documented, across-the-board rally in trust, out-party presidential approval, and institutional standing after the attacks that later crises did not reproduce, alongside the claim that conspiracy theories and anti-Americanism are now "more widely accepted" than they were then. The central unresolved tension is whether that loss of unity and the wider circulation of once-fringe ideas mainly reflect accumulated disruption since 2001, or a cultural shift that made conspiratorial and anti-American claims more acceptable even apart from those shocks.
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