I was homeless when the 9/11 attacks happened. Given how garbled initial live reports from the radio were, I originally thought it was some kind of plane failure. Then the second attack happened. The world I wanted to grow up in, a world of personal freedom, the means to communicate and collaborate with people around the world, interact with a shared repository of human knowledge where anyone and everyone could learn and contribute to a self-sustaining technology boom, all that ceased to exist after that point.

The laws passed in the aftermath of that attack, called the "Patriot Act" was supposed to keep Americans safe, pushed with a stern undertone of 'you are with us, or you are against us.'. And instead of using it to stop terrorism, it was used to erode the privacy and rights of the average American citizen. The TSA, created to serve as an additional layer of security was so riddled with failures to the point that it became a public annoyance rather than a critical security measure.

I take that ''never forget" message to heart - to never forget the fact that the world was, for what felt like a flicker across the history of all mankind, walking hand in hand together to a better future. The Berlin Wall had fallen, the Soviet Union was at its end, technology was progressing at a rate never before seen, and the ideals of personal freedom and individual sovereignty were spreading throughout the world, slowly but surely. I'll never forget those heady days when it seemed like a splendid future awaited all of humanity.

Then, just like that - the dream ended. Things just went from bad to worse from there.

24 years later, things are messed up. The first 'foot in the door' by the Patriot Act has expanded, using dirty tricks like utilizing private companies to enforce state dictates to bypass first amendment protections and then by policing individuals by demanding personal information that every child that grew up in the 90s knew not to share on the internet. And that's not all...

...now we have this mess to deal with.

Yeap, that's a global map of DDOS attacks taken on 11 September 2025.

24 years ago, this was unthinkable - now it's reality. While newgrounds has managed to weather the storm, smaller sites and communities run by hobbyists had no such luck. Many places I still visit went down, some permanently after getting slapped with massive 'bills for bandwidth' that they never asked to use. With each site that goes down, with each restriction or geoblocking that happens, the internet is a little dimmer every time.

But you know, I'm not gonna let that get me down.

Because this little cinnamon roll taught me that the most important thing is to never give up. Thanks for those important lessons you imparted to me in the short time I knew of you. I'll make you something good. I promise you that.

Rest in peace, Haru Urara. (27 February 1996 ~ 9 September 2025)

I was sad about this, but what happened next is even more of a disaster.

A moderate right-leaning debater was shot dead for having opinions that differed from the so-called 'tolerant left'.

If the "let's debate" guy was executed in broad daylight and the allegedly 'tolerant inclusive left' is laughing and cheering it openly, the only message they're putting out is that they don't want to debate, they don't want a dialogue, they want anyone deemed a 'heretic' for whatever vague reason by their ecclesial order to be summarily executed.

And all that's managed to do is radicalize people towards more dangerous, extremist rhetoric.

Charlie Kirk was killed not because he was divisive, but because he was the opposite. He worked to create peaceful, respectful dialogue, to show young people that you can disagree and still be civil. He was a uniter, not a divider. And that made him dangerous to the warmongers and the people exploiting the left-right divide to keep everyone down. They couldn’t debate him, so they killed him.

"NooooOOooo he was spreading hate!"

Just to clarify, most of Charlie’s views would’ve been deemed 'common sense' by both sides 15 years ago, but in today’s society it got him an extrajudicial execution in front of his family over vague notions about him being a nazi - while in life actual racists and nazis derided him as a 'moderate', a 'softy' and an 'enemy'.

Besides, if he was spreading "hate", we wouldn't have Tim Walz of all people calling it an 'open forum for political dialogue and disagreement'.

As an aside, I'd like to ramble on for a bit about this whole 'Hate' thing.

Vague 'scary words' were used post-9/11 to force the "Patriot Act" through. Now, fueling the censorship complex of today as seen in the Online Safety Act and its KOSA variants is a combo of "protect the children!" and "stop hate!". Anyone who opposes these vaguely worded laws is labeled an 'abuser' or a 'nazi', just like how they labeled people pointing out the ludicrous demands set in the Patriot act as 'terrorist sympathizers'.

Some things really don't change.

Now there's a whole swath of people online with real names, faces and personal information all put on the net blithely making fun of Charlie Kirk's extrajudicial execution with the exact same sort of uncaring cruelty used by the pushers of the Patriot Act in justifying the shutdown of personal privacy and individual rights, complete with a rework of that "you are with us or you are against us" line; "agree with us or else you're an -ic and/or -ist!"

Little do they realize that they're all being used to make a case for aggressive ID laws, online surveillance and the continued curtailing of privacy and individual rights.

It's pretty sad just how they're unaware that what they're doing is being used to "create a problem, sell a solution" marketing spiel that goes "Look! These people hate you because you have differing opinions! We must introduce new technology and ID laws to track them! if you disagree, you're enabling these domestic terrorists!"

To those celebrating his death, <sarcasm>congratulations.</sarcasm> You've just completed your marketing gig for Palantir, online censorship and Digital ID laws while radicalizing people away from a moderate position.

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Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk. (14 October 1993 ~ 10 September 2025) 

You died so young. Always wanted to debate you.