Given the skies were closed to civilian air traffic for an extended period of time there, the word "opted" is doing some heavy lifting.
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
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The "security" fuckery that came into force globally afterwards definitely shifted the calculus for me. Unless I can fly through regional airports both ways, and walk straight onto the plane without going through the gestapo, I choose road travel wherever possible.
I started flight school in June 2001.
Airspace was closed for 2 days. These deaths occured over the following months.
Well, Americans had opted not to have rail transport. Which is safer.
We opted for air travel, which is even safer than rail.
Far more people died in the aftermath of health related issues caused by the destruction so not really a fair comparison.
Abstract
We show that the public's response to terrorist threats can have unintended consequences that rival the attacks themselves in severity. Driving fatalities increased significantly after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, events that prompted many travellers to substitute road transportation for safer air transportation. After controlling for time trends, weather, road conditions and other factors, we find that travellers’ response to 9/11 resulted in 327 driving deaths per month in late 2001. Moreover, while the effect of 9/11 weakened over time, as many as 2300 driving deaths may be attributable to the attacks.
And for a while during Covid, we beat the 9/11 immediate death toll for several weeks straight, every single day.
But it didn’t matter one fucking bit, because we care more about optics than numbers.
The attitude was off the charts odd.
People yelled. People refused to wear masks. People (non-patients) were hauled out of emergency rooms by security. People accused healthcare of lying about diagnoses. People accused healthcare of being paid off to lie about all covid diagnoses (by whom is far less clear). People went so far as to tear breathing apparatuses off the “loved” one it was helping breathe. People won the country a full hospital ban on visitors that didn’t fully go away until very recently. People died of covid or covid complications and their own people still didn’t believe Covid existed.
And why? Because they didn’t want to wear a mask? Because they didn’t want to stay home from work when sick? (Remember, everyone mostly dosed themselves with cold medicine and then took their crud into work, infecting everyone, in before times.)
You weren't paying attention to the alt media igniting and fanning the flames as the pandemic unfolded, it was like Covid itself started broadcasting and posting on forums. Unbelievable shit. Felt like one of those "wacky wednesday" books but with, you know, more people choking to death on their own blood.
It still didn’t make sense.
I knew healthcare was the main testing ground for vaccines. It made sense. Someone had to go first. It also made sense to deliver it asap. Staff was bleeding out of hospitals. Staff did die. Some cases of workers surviving only to find themselves widows or widowers because they brought it home, near the beginning. I think a lot more staff would’ve left and simply waited it out at home if not for the vaccine. The vaccine kept hospitals open imo.
But sure. Bill Gates nanobots in a shot! That one was my favorite.
I mean, the same thing happened during the Spanish Flu Pandemic. There were even anti-mask leagues, as I recall. We’ve always been quite stupid as a nation.
Genuinely speaking, considering this same shit happened in other flus and other public health emergencies, and like look at the ebola thing in Africa rn..
I think most humans are just big unhappy about things they feel they can’t control, and want to ignore them until they go away. That’s played out historically with doctors just poo pooing germ theory because they didn't understand how it could be the case, and didn’t care to look into it, even as their own patients died by the dozens.
and.. Look.. I'm very uncomfortable saying this because I don't actually view people this way, but the dumber you are the less you understand the world around you and the less control you likely feel you have over things. The more likely you are to just be obstinate about shit if it goes against what you think you know. People are stubborn because they are stupid and don’t understand what they are fighting with and against. And unfortunately education campaigns aren't a silver bullet, neither is literally anything, including over 100 years advancement.
The way it played out in the US during covid was very different to how it played out in most other countries. This is not "how it has always been everywhere". The anti-science mania during covid in the US was manufactured and deliberate.
That is part of the purpose behind the original anti vax campaign, to undermine a fundamentally long term accepted science. It’s a foot in the door for overturning anything “proven” by academia/science, in addition to being a learning course.
Just the other day, I was listening to a (maga) gentlemen tell me that he’s steering clear of Tylenol because it’s unsafe. He’ll only take acetaminophen. (I told him, he did not care. In his mind, they are two different meds).
So the original intent is working. The principle of the anti vax push is now imbued in American society. Canada too, now, sadly. I recently read about another measles outbreak up there.
But the same forces are at play everywhere, it's just that in the US you have this extremely powerful arm of the media that straight up pushes lies. Those lies, however, play on the same fears and cognitive biases.
1 death is sad.
100 deaths is a tragedy.
10,000 deaths is a statistic.
There's still like 200 US covid deaths a ~~day~~ month too lol
200 per month, worldwide. But that’s still a lot
Human only see big thing.
Human not see statistics.
Human think this maybe great filter.
I'll be honest, I avoid flying as much as possible. 9/11 is part of the reason; it made flying the most miserable experience. A what should be a 1 hour flight is a 4 hour ordeal.
Now hear me out on this, flying in Japan is simple and easy and pretty much hassle free, so it's just flying in the US.
Flying in the US used to be fun. Now it's Papers Please.
If the place is close enough, you may as well drive there. There is every possible hassle you can imagine. Sit in a shit aluminum can; you're thankful if you get a cup of water and a tiny snack bag (last time I didn't even get that); you're subjected to getting a free massage prior to entering after a complementary radiation exposure and a free maybe a reach around, you can't bring your own drinks, so go ahead and buy the $7 bottle of water, luggage is limited so we can put a skid in the storage bay to make money on shipping, your luggage may or may not arrive, and please be sure to arrive two hours earlier or more in peak seasons so we can let you know your flight is overbooked, so enjoy paying twice to four times for the same shit you can get outside the airport. I hope you like your luggage rummaged through, we do it just for fun now even though there's xray scanners. Do you enjoy having the most uncomfortable seat possible? Of course you do, now shut the fuck up. There's more to this rant, but I figure that paint's the picture.
So it's the after affects of 9/11; flying in the US is terrible. I hate it. Don't get me started when Southwest canceled my flight 6 times and I ended up just driving home with a rental. What a waste of a week.
Depends on the airport and airline, obviously. We have a small "international" airport in my town that connects to all the major hubs. No lines, security is quick. I'll show up an hour before takeoff and still have time for a beer before boarding. And in my experience, reentering is faster and easier than ever, even somewhere like O'Hare.
Honestly, my least favorite part about air travel is the other travelers. We've been doing this shit for decades but people still don't take things out of their pockets and bags until they're at the scanner. There's TSA agents yelling, "Phones out, jackets off, laptops out of bags" etc., and some people just completely ignore it.
And then the people who don't have their passport/boarding pass ready...
There's some okay airports. I have to fly with the more annoying ones. TPA/ATL/JFK/DFW. I think a big issue is how over-priced everything is. Even though the vending machines in Japans airports were priced a bit higher, they were still a great deal. Same with food in Koreas airports. I will avoid flying out of JFK if I can, that's probably one of the worst airports I've been in.
I hate it because of people. I also am tired of public transit for the same reason.
Riding the trains in Japan in silence was a bliss.
Oh come on, in a week you'll miss people clipping their nails during rush hour!
You're forgetting the smells.
Oh dear, last week someone started chomping on a garbage hoagie made with real garbage on the bus. Like, what kind of barnyard are these people raised in?
You sure they didn't just get Subway?
Just as bad here in Australia. I hate flying and just don't do it. Even if the drive is 3 days.
The worst part is, all these measures are laughably ineffective at preventing anything when it was actually tested, with a 95% fail rate. Security theatre.
Wow I'm surprised to hear that.
The totalnl number of TSA prevented terrorism since 9/11 is zero, AFAIK.
I'm pretty sure it was just a "jobs" program. Can't say unemployment is up when you make fake jobs. Kind of like the greeter at Costco, idiocracy.
How many lives were lost because Giuliani and Co lied about the air quality?
5k-8k
Wow. Just for comparison, this is what Wikipedia has to say about Chernobyl:
long-term death estimates range from 4,000 up to 9,000 (per the 2005 and updated 2006 conclusions of a joint consortium of the United Nations) for the most exposed people of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, to 16,000 cases in total for all those exposed on the entire continent of Europe, with figures as high as 60,000 when including the relatively minor effects around the globe
Almost like we suck at risk assessment or something. That's why we have a whole Wikipedia category about shark attack films but none where a vending machine is the primary antagonist. Honorable mention to the one in Maximum Overdrive that kills the coach though. Spoilers, by the way. Also this section of a Wikipedia page with a few other pop culture references.
Clearly we need pitches for a Vending Machine Horror Movie. Titles and directors please, with a short plot summary if you feel like it.
Vendgeance: Exact Change
A serial killer is on the way to the electric chair and passes a drink machine. Feeling parched but with no change in his prison pocket, he starts to rock the machine in hopes of shaking something loose. He is successful but, unfortunately for him, the thing shaken loose is the entire vending machine which tips over and pins him to the floor. Busted cans spray soda and fragments of glass into his open mouth so attempts to scream for help only come out as a muffled gurgle. There's no chance that he'll be heard over the crackling thunder. Oh yeah, there's a storm too.
The liquid pools and spreads until it reaches the machine's frayed electrical cable, giving the killer his electrocution a little earlier than planned. His body goes from dying to dead right before the breaker trips, plunging the whole complex into darkness. Flashes of lightning provide spooky intermittent illumination.
The families of the people he killed had just made it into the wing with the execution viewing room when all of this is taking place. Lights flicker while they make subdued small talk. Many carry pictures or mementos to stand in for the loved ones they've lost to this monster. The last of them comes in and shuts the door when that circuit breaker finally gives up the ghost.
Guards find the charred corpse on the floor but it's clearly too late to do anything. Electric locks won't cycle until the power is back on so they can't bring him to the infirmary anyway. Settling in for the wait, the guards absorb themselves in a game of cards by flashlight. One gets thirsty and notices the drink machine standing by the wall has two bright red LEDs shining from its control panel. Strange, he thinks, must have a battery backup...
Anyway, they're all toast. It's a real gorefest. More plot happens, tension and hijinks with those families from earlier too. Love sideplot with some who lost spouses. Various trinkets of the killer's victims protect them from the machine's attacks so they figure out that his consciousness was transferred on death.
In a final showdown, the remaining family members lure the machine into the room with the electric chair. Ghosts rise out of the photos they brought earlier and feed themselves into the power outlet in order to energize the chair. The living struggle to get straps and electrodes in position on the machine. The family member who was last to arrive earlier delivers a sick one-liner and pulls a big chunky switch to complete the circuit and put an end to the horror once and for all. The machine shudders, jolts, and smokes. A flash of lightning shows its boxy rectangular frame, another shows the man they were expecting to see in that same chair. This happens several times but not so many that it gets too boring. It's the machine again and those red LEDs glow faintly before dimming and winking out.
The lights come back on, the chair is empty. Everyone goes home and lives happily ever after.
...
...Or do they? Find out in Vendgeance II: No Refunds!
(Also, if anyone's wondering why the facility was so poorly built, why the prisoner was unattended, why the machine was there, etc., it's because horror movie logic. Don't worry about it.)
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