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NYT columnist Paul Krugman ripped after claiming Americans reacted 'calmly' to 9/11 & didn't blame Muslims
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman reckons post-9/11 America was a simpler time, when George W. Bush did his best to “calm prejudice” and nothing too bad happened to American Muslims. He was swiftly torn apart on Twitter.
The New York Times columnist commemorated the 19th anniversary of the most deadly attack on US soil in spectacular fashion. In a tweet on Friday morning, he claimed that “overall, Americans took 9/11 pretty calmly,” that “there wasn’t a mass outbreak of anti-Muslim sentiment and violence,” and that then-president Bush “tried to calm prejudice, not feed it.”
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
Krugman was swiftly ridiculed. Commenters reminded the esteemed economist that anti-Muslim prejudice actually skyrocketed after 9/11, with FBI data showing a more than tenfold increase in hate crimes over the preceding year. Others reminded him of wholesale roundups of Muslims, which saw hundreds jailed following tips to an FBI hotline, and according to one lawsuit against the federal government, physically abused in prison.
Americans called the FBI on their Muslim neighbors, the FBI rounded up Brown men indiscriminately, White thugs physically assaulted Sikhs and Muslims, gov't implemented mass surveillance, wars were started, black sites opened - all done very fucking calmly. Because we are "good"
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