So it's 9/11. Hard to remember now how large the terrorist attack loomed in our national psyche; after all, in death toll Covid-19 is already the equivalent of 60 9/11s. But a few thoughts and recollections 1/

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/

Daily behavior wasn't drastically affected. True, for a while people were afraid to fly: my wife and I took a lovely trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands a couple of months later, because air fares and hotel rooms were so cheap. But life returned to normal fairly fast 3/

On the other hand, I groan whenever I see some pundit describing the aftermath as a time of national unity. On the contrary, Republicans began exploiting the atrocity almost immediately — trying to use it to cut capital gains taxes within 48 hours 4/

And of course the Bush team used 9/11 to take us into an unrelated and disastrous war. It's actually remarkable how many of the media-promoted "heroes" of 9/11 ended up revealed as horrible people. Remember Bernie Kerik? And will Giuliani ever get off my TV screen? 5/

Almost two decades on, it's now clear that the real threat to America comes not from foreign terrorists but from home-grown white supremacists. But you know what? That was true even in 2001. 6/