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We didn't question immoderate of it astatine the time, but revisiting these 2000s moments present makes it wide conscionable however messed up the decennary truly was.
Note: The communicative beneath discusses body dysmorphia and eating disorders.
The 2000s look harmless successful hindsight — a blur of bedazzled everything, caller technology, and profoundly cursed manner choices. But down the Motorola Razrs and articulator gloss was a decennary packed with governmental disasters, nationalist wellness scares, bizarre trends, and genuinely unhinged taste moments we've collectively memory-holed. Here are immoderate of the astir forgotten, "Wait, that really happened?" events of the '00s that were mode darker (and weirder) than immoderate of america remember:
1. Throughout the 2000s, paparazzi relentlessly pursued Britney Spears, earning hundreds of thousands per photo. When she publically struggled with intelligence health, tabloids framed it arsenic amusement and a motivation failure. The infamous single-shaved-head photograph reportedly generated millions of dollars successful media revenue. The host/cast of Family Feud joked astir her breakdown, and late-night comics mocked her custody battle. She was yet placed nether a conservatorship that lasted 13 years.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): Britney's attraction exposed however cruel 2000s media civilization was to women, peculiarly young women struggling nether intense, unprecedented scrutiny. The nationalist consumed her symptom arsenic entertainment, turning a intelligence wellness situation into a tabloid spectacle. Because it was framed arsenic "celebrity drama," overmuch of the decade's complicity successful the systematic degradation of a young woman's beingness gets glossed implicit successful hindsight.
2. Girls Gone Wild (GGW) sent camera crews to outpouring interruption destinations and assemblage bars to movie young women — immoderate proven to beryllium underage — flashing oregon performing intersexual acts portion intoxicated. Multiple lawsuits alleged coercion, deceptive tactics, and filming minors. The marque ran relentless late-night infomercials and made an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars during its peak. Founder Joe Francis was aboriginal indicted on national tax-evasion charges and yet pled blameworthy to filing mendacious taxation returns arsenic portion of a plea deal.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): GGW normalized intersexual exploitation arsenic amusement and helped signifier a civilization wherever violating women's boundaries was framed arsenic comedy, not harm. It successfully convinced a procreation that this benignant of predatory voyeurism was not lone acceptable but fun. Its illness owed to ineligible and fiscal issues doesn't erase its immense taste impact, but galore present callback it lone arsenic a ridiculous, cheesy relic, not the predatory instrumentality it genuinely was.
3. Network sitcoms successful the 2000s — including shows similar Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Scrubs, Two and a Half Men, and adjacent The Office — frequently used "gay panic" humor, jokes built around men overreacting to same-sex affection oregon thing coded arsenic feminine. Critics often mention scenes similar Michael Scott's meltdown implicit Oscar successful the "Gay Witch Hunt" occurrence arsenic a textbook illustration of however profoundly this humor was woven into the era's mainstream comedy.
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On Rainn Wilson's Soul Boom podcast, Angela Kinsey revealed the archetypal publication adjacent had Angela invoking Jesus to justice Oscar — a gag she asked Greg Daniels to region due to the fact that it felt "one-note" and stereotypical.
Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): These jokes shaped however an full procreation internalized queerness — arsenic thing inherently embarrassing, mockable, oregon a motion of weakness successful a consecutive man. They reinforced harmful stereotypes and taught kids that mocking LGBTQ+ radical was socially acceptable, not conscionable connected the fringes, but successful the astir fashionable shows connected television. Today, those jokes property similar milk, but successful the '00s, they were a systemic root of societal shame.
4. Reality shows similar Extreme Makeover and The Swan aired multi-surgery transformations, featuring liposuction, chemoreceptor jobs, brow lifts, and implants, each for a "reveal." The shows positioned surgical involution not arsenic a aesculapian process but arsenic a reward for a motivation nonaccomplishment — that the idiosyncratic was "unworthy" of emotion oregon occurrence without a full carnal overhaul. The amusement The Swan went truthful acold arsenic to enactment contestants done a "beauty footwear camp" earlier unveiling their caller selves.
micha / Via youtube.com
Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): These shows normalized surgical "self-improvement" arsenic mainstream entertainment, shaping millennial quality civilization by implicitly teaching that a earthy assemblage was a occupation that needed to beryllium surgically corrected. The connection was clear: Your existent look isn't bully enough. They get overshadowed by later, little invasive reality-TV chaos, but their interaction connected internalizing assemblage shame was seismic.
5. The precocious '90s and 2000s teen-comedy roar (American Pie, EuroTrip, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, Road Trip) treated the humiliation, objectification, and exploitation of teenage girls arsenic comedic acceptable pieces. Voyeurism? Funny. Filming girls without consent? Hilarious. Sexual coercion? A crippled device. Female characters existed mostly arsenic blistery obstacles, and full storylines revolved astir boys "achieving" enactment with them.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): These movies created an full taste vocabulary of "boys volition beryllium boys" behaviour — and convinced millennials that girls' symptom and objectification was comedy, not harm. Because these films were positioned arsenic "classic teen movies," their bequest is often remembered arsenic harmless nostalgia alternatively than the mass-produced handbook of misogyny it truly was.
6. Leading up to Jan. 1, 2000, experts warned that older machine code, which utilized 2 digits for the twelvemonth (e.g., "99" alternatively of 1999), wouldn't beryllium capable to process the twelvemonth "00," perchance causing monolithic failures successful banking systems, energy grids, aerial postulation control, infirmary equipment, and defence systems. Globally, companies and governments spent an estimated $300 cardinal fixing the code (with the US authorities spending implicit $8 billion). The US State Department established 96 worldwide Y2K centers. People stocked up connected water, cash, generators, and canned food. Then midnight hit...and thing catastrophic happened.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): Y2K was 1 of the largest coordinated technical-prevention efforts successful quality history, a palmy planetary mobilization. The deficiency of catastrophe is the crushed we forgot: Because the fixes worked, radical mistakenly believed the menace was overblown oregon invented. The representation of however genuinely frightened planetary nine was — and the massive, unseen effort to forestall catastrophe — was ironically erased by the occurrence of the effort itself.
7. In 2005, 19-year-old Samy Kamkar released a cross-site scripting worm connected MySpace that exploited a illustration vulnerability. When users viewed an infected page, the codification automatically sent Kamkar a person request, displayed the connection “but astir of all, Samy is my hero” connected their profile, and replicated itself onto their page. Within astir 20 hours, much than 1 cardinal MySpace profiles were infected, forcing MySpace to unopen down parts of the tract to purge the worm.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): This was 1 of the earliest and astir palmy large-scale societal media cyberattacks, demonstrating however easy a azygous portion of codification could weaponize a level with millions of users. It was a monolithic preview of the vulnerabilities that would signifier the adjacent 2 decades — from information breaches to viral propaganda. But due to the fact that MySpace faded into nostalgia, the archetypal large viral social-media hack successful past is mostly forgotten.
8. Between 2004 and 2007, NBC's Dateline aired the conception To Catch a Predator, successful which men were lured to decoy houses nether the content they were gathering minors. On-camera confrontations with big Chris Hansen were followed by constabulary sting-arrests. The amusement became a taste improvement — and it ensnared not conscionable net users, but professionals successful trusted positions. In 1 infamous 2006 Texas sting, a squad of constabulary and an NBC camera unit went to the location of adjunct territory lawyer Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. He died by termination arsenic they approached. His sister aboriginal filed an astir $105-million wrongful decease suit against NBC, which brought sweeping disapproval of the series' methods.
True Crime News / Via youtube.com
Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): The bid blurred the enactment betwixt journalism, policing, and world TV astatine a clip erstwhile networks were racing to outdo each different with sensational, high-stakes programming. Its tactics raised superior questions astir entrapment, coerced confessions, and whether instrumentality enforcement should ever collaborate with amusement media. But due to the fact that the confrontations became viral clips and taste jokes — and due to the fact that the 2000s were drowning successful outrageous world TV — galore radical retrieve To Catch a Predator for Chris Hansen’s one-liners, not the profoundly arguable collaboration betwixt a quality division, constabulary departments, and primetime tv that ended successful a nationalist official’s death.
9. The aboriginal 2000s were brutal to women's bodies. When Jessica Simpson wore a brace of high-waisted jeans successful 2009, headlines crossed large sites and networks called it the "mom jeans meltdown." Actresses similar Nicole Richie, Keira Knightley, and Mary-Kate Olsen were routinely photographed for grounds of utmost thinness, portion tabloids would people "circle of shame" images highlighting "problem areas," implicit with arrows and mocking commentary. The communicative was simple: Gaining 5 pounds was a motivation failure.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): This was the taste situation shaping millennial adolescence: a changeless watercourse of media teaching girls that thinness was the lone acceptable assemblage benignant and projecting judgement onto each disposable woman. These quality standards fueled eating disorders, self-hatred, and semipermanent assemblage dysmorphia. Today, due to the fact that the taste speech has mercifully shifted to "body positivity," it's casual to hide however vicious mainstream media was, and however perfectly normalized that systemic fat-shaming felt astatine the time.
10. Weeks aft the 9/11 attacks, letters laced with weaponized Bacillus anthracis spores — Anthrax — were mailed to media offices (NBC, the New York Post) and 2 US senators. The attacks killed 5 radical and infected 17 others. Mail systems unopen down, offices evacuated, and a massive, decades-long FBI probe (Amerithrax) was launched. The superior suspect, Dr. Bruce Ivins, an Army biodefense researcher, died by termination successful 2008 earlier helium could beryllium charged.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): It was 1 of the deadliest biologic attacks ever carried retired connected American soil, causing immense intelligence trauma and fear, not knowing wherever the adjacent infected missive would appear. The attacks outgo the US authorities implicit $1 cardinal successful cleanup and investigation. However, due to the fact that it happened successful the immediate, overwhelming shadiness of 9/11, it became psychologically folded into the broader epoch of panic alternatively than remembered arsenic its ain distinct, horrific tragedy.
11. Teens utilized file-sharing services similar Napster, Kazaa, and LimeWire to download music. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) responded by suing thousands of mean people, often non-technical users. A parent successful Minnesota was initially fined $1.9 million for sharing 24 songs, which was aboriginal reduced. By immoderate counts, the RIAA had filed much than 30,000 lawsuits against file-sharers by the mid-2000s.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): These draconian lawsuits instilled immense fearfulness successful thousands of families, treating mean euphony consumers arsenic high-level criminals. While the strategy was meant to support profits, the aggravated nationalist backlash backfired truthful spectacularly that it accelerated the public's displacement distant from buying integer files and toward all-you-can-eat streaming, yet starring to the exemplary that saved the euphony industry. The fearfulness instilled successful families astatine the clip has mostly been erased by the modern convenience of Spotify.
12. Almost each large sitcom of the 2000s leaned heavy connected fat-shaming humor, especially aimed astatine women. Shows similar Friends (via "Fat Monica"), The King of Queens, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Will & Grace regularly used plus-size women arsenic punchlines — portraying them arsenic undesirable, desperate, oregon comedic burdens. The gag was astir ever the woman’s value itself, reinforcing thinness arsenic the lone acceptable state.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): This normalized an full generation's assemblage dysmorphia. Girls learned that gaining value meant losing worth — socially, romantically, and culturally — via the astir fashionable contented connected television. The harm wasn't fringe; it was mainstream, repeated each week astatine 8 p.m. Because modern sitcoms grip assemblage diverseness differently, the earlier, systemic cruelty is often dismissed arsenic "just aged humor" alternatively than systemic shaming.
13. In 2003, the US invaded Iraq, claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of wide demolition (WMDs). None were ever found. The justification was a catastrophic quality failure. News outlets aired dramatic, highly produced "shock and awe" footage with cinematic music. Meanwhile, the warfare killed implicit 4,800 US work members, and the estimated decease toll for Iraqi civilians is successful the hundreds of thousands. The warfare destabilized the portion and displaced millions.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): The warfare redefined US overseas argumentation and outgo trillions. More fundamentally, it represented a chilling infinitesimal erstwhile the lines betwixt warfare sum and spectacle dissolved, with quality becoming amusement and propaganda. Because aboriginal sum felt similar an enactment movie — and the decennary was overloaded with crises — radical often hide the standard of the devastation and the eventual motivation outgo down the flashy quality graphics.
14. Early net forums and LiveJournal communities created a thriving subculture that shared starvation tips, utmost dieting challenges, and glorified emaciation arsenic a lifestyle. These "pro-anorexia" ("pro-ana") and "thinspiration" ("thinspo") sites acted arsenic toxic enactment groups, giving teens — often girls — elaborate instructions for hiding and managing eating disorders.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): This was a dark, hidden country of the aboriginal net that profoundly influenced a generation's narration with nutrient and assemblage image, encouraging the progression of a superior illness. Because those spaces were deliberately hidden from parents and media, their lasting, devastating interaction connected teen wellness is present critically under-remembered.
15. When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast successful August 2005, the levee failures resulted successful the flooding of 80% of New Orleans. Over 1,800 radical died crossed 5 states. Thousands were trapped successful the Superdome without nutrient oregon aesculapian attraction for days. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) effect was wide criticized for being delayed and disorganized. President Bush's comment to the FEMA director, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," became iconic for authorities negligence.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): Katrina was not conscionable a earthy disaster; it was a profound nonaccomplishment of organization and governmental volition that exposed deep, long-standing radical and economical disparities. The immense bulk of the storm's victims were mediocre and Black, and their hopeless suffering connected nationalist TV demonstrated however overmuch American infrastructure and institutions had neglected them. But due to the fact that the 2000s were saturated with crises, its existent magnitude often gets flattened into a fistful of heartbreaking images.
16. Shows similar Punk'd, Room Raiders, Dismissed, and Next often enactment young women successful unsafe oregon humiliating situations portion framing men's predatory behaviour arsenic drama oregon charm. Some pranks progressive intersexual harassment, stalking-style scenarios, oregon emotionally manipulative setups. MTV wit leaned into objectifying women, from countdown shows to "hottest bodies" lists. Teens absorbed this contented uncritically, believing it reflected mean dating culture.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): MTV shaped millennial adolescence much than immoderate different network. Its messages astir flirting, dating, and "edgy" behaviour contributed straight to unsafe teen dynamics and the normalization of intersexual harassment. However, due to the fact that we present presumption MTV arsenic goofy, nostalgic wallpaper, the seriousness of its taste interaction connected however a procreation learned to behave toward 1 different is minimized.
17. Anna Nicole Smith died successful 2007 from a cause overdose aft years of aggravated tabloid coverage, lengthy ineligible battles implicit her precocious billionaire husband's estate, and nationalist exploitation of her idiosyncratic struggles. Media outlets aired autopsy details, speculated wildly, and focused heavy connected a paternity conflict implicit her newborn baby. Her decease followed the overdose of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, conscionable 5 months prior.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): Her last years and decease became a template for relentless tabloid cruelty, a precursor to however Britney Spears and different women were treated by the media. The sum was a nonstop spectacle of nationalist exploitation, which highlighted the full deficiency of compassion for pistillate celebrities successful crisis. In the shadiness of other, larger crises, her calamity is often overshadowed.
18. Just weeks aft 9/11, Congress rapidly passed the USA PATRIOT Act. Among its 150 sections, it allowed for roving wiretaps (following a idiosyncratic alternatively than a circumstantial phone), warrantless searches of room records and backstage documents (under Section 215), and gave the authorities greater powers of wide information collection. Many of its astir sweeping surveillance provisions were kept concealed for years, revealed lone overmuch aboriginal by whistleblowers similar Edward Snowden.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): The Patriot Act dramatically reshaped privateness rights for an full generation, cementing the ineligible model for a surveillance state. It was a monolithic and accelerated enlargement of national powerfulness successful the sanction of security. But due to the fact that overmuch of the expanded surveillance was invisible — particularly the National Security Agency's (NSA) wide information postulation — radical hardly realized however dramatically the government's powers had grown until the adjacent decade.
19. Flash mobs were initially organized via aboriginal email and substance messages. The precise archetypal ones were bizarre, coordinated creation performances, specified arsenic a radical abruptly converging successful a section store to inquire for a "love rug," oregon a wide synchronized applause. Later versions became cheesy firm ads, governmental protests, oregon "flash robberies," wherever ample groups would rapidly loot a store earlier dispersing.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): They previewed the powerfulness of viral, decentralized organizing — a chaotic trial tally for societal media's quality to coordinate ample groups successful existent time. But due to the fact that they became cheesy truthful quickly, their early, genuinely unsettling chaos and quality to disrupt nationalist spaces are overlooked.
20. A decennary of lax regulations, risky subprime location loans, and corrupt practices similar trading analyzable fiscal products (credit-default swaps) caused the US lodging marketplace to illness successful 2008. The concern slope Lehman Brothers folded, and the US authorities instituted a $700-billion bailout of banks and companies (TARP). Unemployment skyrocketed to 10% successful 2009, and millions mislaid their homes done foreclosure.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): The situation reshaped the planetary economy, fueled governmental movements, and created the largest economical disruption since the Great Depression. However, the dilatory and analyzable quality of fiscal quality makes the lawsuit hard to visualize, which is wherefore radical often retrieve it arsenic a "recession" alternatively than a seismic illness caused by systemic greed and unregulated finance.
21. Teen magazines similar Seventeen and its peers routinely spotlighted the thin‐female ideal, moving countless weight-loss tips, "fix your figure" ones, and quizzes that ranked girls by desirability and assemblage shape. Adolescent research shows that galore girls utilized their magazines arsenic quality guides, internalized the messaging of "you tin ne'er beryllium bladed enough," and treated self-critique arsenic a signifier of self-improvement.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): For millennials who grew up successful this era, assemblage shame wasn't a broadside effect of popular civilization — it was popular culture. These magazines shaped self-image during the astir susceptible years of development, instilling a captious and damaging narration with the aforesaid that lasted decades. Because the modern versions of these brands are often "woke" and feminist, the toxic bequest of their aboriginal '00s editions gets wholly memory-holed.
22. During the 2000s, the US undertook a major expansion of abstinence-only education, funneling hundreds of millions successful national grants to programs that emphasized abstaining from each sex until matrimony and minimized oregon omitted acquisition connected contraception. Many of the federally funded curricula formed girls arsenic the motivation gatekeepers of antheral sexuality and framed premarital enactment for women chiefly arsenic harm to self-worth. Virginity pledges became common, and critics reason these programs were bolstered by spiritual and media messaging that shamed young women for their sexuality.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): Purity civilization created lasting intelligence damage, particularly for young women and queer teens who were taught their desires were shameful and their bodies were a information to men. It fueled internalized misogyny and shaped dating dynamics good into adulthood. But due to the fact that it hides nether the umbrella of "religious values" oregon "strict upbringing," its structural affectional maltreatment is often minimized.
23. Magazines and gossip blogs framed women arsenic rivals to substance engagement: Britney vs. Christina, Paris vs. Lindsay, Jennifer vs. Angelina, etc. Some of these women hardly interacted — but tabloids needed drama, and thing sold similar the "catfight" narrative. These fake feuds created a procreation of fans who believed women couldn't coexist without conflict, driving monolithic postulation and mag sales.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): These manufactured rivalries reinforced misogynistic stereotypes: women arsenic jealous, petty, competitive, and irrational. They besides shaped aboriginal fandom culture, mounting the signifier for today's toxic "stan wars" but with little consciousness of however media manipulation was fueling the hostility. Today, due to the fact that galore of these celebrities person reconciled, the earlier manufactured hostility feels similar a fever dream, and the media's relation successful creating it is forgotten.
24. Enron, erstwhile the seventh-largest publically traded institution successful the US, collapsed successful 2001 aft its enactment utilized special-purpose entities and analyzable accounting to fell billions successful indebtedness and inflate profits. The institution filed what was past the largest bankruptcy successful US history. Its stock, which had peaked astir $90 a share, plummeted to conscionable pennies. Thousands of employees mislaid their jobs and saw their status savings vanish erstwhile their 401(k) plans, heavy weighted successful Enron stock, collapsed.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): Enron's downfall exposed systemic corruption betwixt firm executives, accountants (Arthur Andersen, a "Big Five" accounting firm, was dissolved arsenic a result), and Wall Street banks. It was the archetypal large domino successful a question of firm greed scandals (like WorldCom) that outgo mean Americans billions and straight led to the transition of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which created caller firm accounting standards. We hide the details due to the fact that the 2008 fiscal situation made Enron's nonaccomplishment look small, but it was the archetypal monolithic motion that the firm strategy was rotten.
25. The 2000 predetermination betwixt George W. Bush and Al Gore was incredibly tight, hinging wholly connected Florida's 25 electoral votes. Gore won the national fashionable vote by implicit 500,000 ballots, but the Florida effect was separated by a mere 537 votes retired of astir 6 cardinal cast. What followed was a 36-day governmental and ineligible situation involving butterfly ballots, "hanging chads," manual recounts, and authorities Supreme Court rulings. The full process was yet stopped by the US Supreme Court's 5–4 ruling successful Bush v. Gore, efficaciously handing the presidency to George W. Bush.
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Why it mattered (and wherefore we forgot): The predetermination undermined nationalist religion successful the electoral process, revealing the heavy flaws successful voting exertion and counting procedures. It created a massive, sustained governmental part that arguably laid the groundwork for today's hyper-polarized governmental landscape. We hide the strength due to the fact that it was instantly overshadowed by the trauma of 9/11 a twelvemonth later, which unified the state and made the pre-9/11 governmental battles consciousness tiny and distant successful hindsight.
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