Twitter Dunks On NYT Columnist Paul Krugman For Saying America Post-9/11 Was Pretty Chill

September 11th, 2020 - 2:39 PM EDT by Adam Downer

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paul krugman tweet over islamaphobia

In early 2019, @maplecocaine tweeted, "Each day on Twitter there is one main character. The goal is to never be it." Today, Twitter's main character was New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman, who felt it was time to reflect on just how famously chill and calm America was post-9/11.

9/11 paul krugman tweets

"Overall, Americans took 9/11 pretty calmly," Kruman tweeted, starting a roll of simply jaw-droppingly out-of-touch claims. "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."

For those who were old enough to remember America post-9/11, this was an astonishingly bad tweet. America famously did not take 9/11 "pretty calmly," and there was in fact a mass outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence. Twitter posted an Events page compiling Twitter users who responded to Krugman with FBI data contradicting his claim.


Others pointed out the Bush administration's strong and arguably overzealous response to the attacks, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, the eventual war in Iraq, etc.


Others were simply agog at Krugman's gumption.


The words "Krugman" and "Islamaphobia" trended on Twitter throughout the day, as people continually found various angles with which to express disgust at Krugman's bizarre recollection of America post-9/11. Despite the mass of criticism, Krugman has yet to respond and as of now his tweets are still up. And so, to put it in @Leyawn's words:


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