Spot on, but seriously though: wasn't that the plan all along? The true damage of 9/11 wasn't the towers and the people who died in the attacks. That was only a trigger for the real destruction...
Spot on, but seriously though: wasn't that the plan all along?
The true damage of 9/11 wasn't the towers and the people who died in the attacks. That was only a trigger for the real destruction that followed - the paranoid reaction of the United States, which eroded civil rights, caused wars that destroyed two countries, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, and burned trillions of dollars that could otherwise go to healthcare, infrastructure, and other areas of need. It demonstrated that modern democracies are extremely vulnerable to terrorism, as even minor attacks can cause the political equivalent of autoimmune disease in the target.
Unfortunately, once again, The Onion has continued its trend of masquerading prescience in predicting future world events under the guise of satirical humour.
Unfortunately, once again, The Onion has continued its trend of masquerading prescience in predicting future world events under the guise of satirical humour.
I first thought this was a reference to current events, before realising that this article is almost seven years old. Well, that's a trademark of The Onion, isn't it, to craft generic stories that...
I first thought this was a reference to current events, before realising that this article is almost seven years old. Well, that's a trademark of The Onion, isn't it, to craft generic stories that seem eerily topical. This one is specially uncanny though, as it predates quite a few American fiascoes.
I specially like one of the last lines :
one high-ranking U.S. counterterrorism official has described the present situation as a massive failure of intelligence
Not being a native speaker of English, I was always puzzled, or amused, by the word intelligence having two meanings that are not quite coterminous. Well, in the generic context of this Onion slice, the gathering of data certainly isn't at fault. This diagram is all over the internet, in various versions. I do feel that it illustrates well the aforementioned (collective) failure of intelligence being brought upon us by an intelligence overload.
I certainly won't posit that ignorance is bliss. However, it would seem that we, the people of Earth, lack the processing power to actually work on all this information that we fling around.
Spot on, but seriously though: wasn't that the plan all along?
The true damage of 9/11 wasn't the towers and the people who died in the attacks. That was only a trigger for the real destruction that followed - the paranoid reaction of the United States, which eroded civil rights, caused wars that destroyed two countries, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, and burned trillions of dollars that could otherwise go to healthcare, infrastructure, and other areas of need. It demonstrated that modern democracies are extremely vulnerable to terrorism, as even minor attacks can cause the political equivalent of autoimmune disease in the target.
Unfortunately, once again, The Onion has continued its trend of masquerading prescience in predicting future world events under the guise of satirical humour.
I first thought this was a reference to current events, before realising that this article is almost seven years old. Well, that's a trademark of The Onion, isn't it, to craft generic stories that seem eerily topical. This one is specially uncanny though, as it predates quite a few American fiascoes.
I specially like one of the last lines :
Not being a native speaker of English, I was always puzzled, or amused, by the word intelligence having two meanings that are not quite coterminous. Well, in the generic context of this Onion slice, the gathering of data certainly isn't at fault. This diagram is all over the internet, in various versions. I do feel that it illustrates well the aforementioned (collective) failure of intelligence being brought upon us by an intelligence overload.
I certainly won't posit that ignorance is bliss. However, it would seem that we, the people of Earth, lack the processing power to actually work on all this information that we fling around.
A quite tasty Onion slice, anyway ;-)
Use Your Illusion III
What we've got here...is failure of intelligence...some men you just can't reach