u/Ok-Following6886

I feel like that 2026 reminds me of the period shortly after 9/11 and here is why:

• Americana and patriotic imagery being common (i.e. influx of American patriotism after 9/11 or the 250th anniversary of the US).
• Country music is popular.
• The media is somewhat similar (such as GTA III/Vice City, Sam Raidi's Spider-Man, or 28 Days Later for late 2001/2002 or GTA VI, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, or The Bone Temple for 2026).
• A World Cup is being held.
• The United States engages in a difficult war on a Muslim-majority country, with its authoritarianism and misogyny being used as a justification (Afghanistan and Iran).
• A divisive Republican president uses authoritarian measures against the population (Bush and the Patriot Act or Trump and Project 2025).
• A surge of sentiment against an Abrahamic religion is becoming more present (Muslims for late 2001/2002 or Jews for 2026), with said war being used as an excuse for said bigotry.
• A certain infamous figure becomes more well-known to the public (Osama bin Laden and Jeffery Epstein), with him being used as a stereotype against said Abrahamic religion.
• Several space missions are being held with excitement amongst the general public (the space shuttle takeoffs in 2002 or Artemis II for 2026).
• The economy was affected during the political events of both periods (such as the post-9/11 and Afghan war economy drops or the rise of gas prices following the Iran war).

I'm not sure if it's just me who notices the similarities, but this is what I've noticed so far, although it can be considered to be kind of a stretch, since things feel even weirder and more divisive now.

I feel like that 2026 reminds me of the period shortly after 9/11 and here is why:

• Americana and patriotic imagery being common (i.e. influx of American patriotism after 9/11 or the 250th anniversary of the US).
• Country music is popular.
• The media is somewhat similar (such as GTA III/Vice City, Sam Raidi's Spider-Man, or 28 Days Later for late 2001/2002 or GTA VI, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, or The Bone Temple for 2026).
• A World Cup is being held.
• The United States engages in a difficult war on a Muslim-majority country, with its authoritarianism and misogyny being used as a justification (Afghanistan and Iran).
• A divisive Republican president uses authoritarian measures against the population (Bush and the Patriot Act or Trump and Project 2025).
• A surge of sentiment against an Abrahamic religion is becoming more present (Muslims for late 2001/2002 or Jews for 2026), with said war being used as an excuse for said bigotry.
• A certain infamous figure becomes more well-known to the public (Osama bin Laden and Jeffery Epstein), with him being used as a stereotype against said Abrahamic religion.
• Several space missions are being held with excitement amongst the general public (the space shuttle takeoffs in 2002 or Artemis II for 2026).
• The economy was affected during the political events of both periods (such as the post-9/11 and Afghan war economy drops or the rise of gas prices following the Iran war).

I'm not sure if it's just me who notices the similarities, but this is what I've noticed so far, although it can be considered to be kind of a stretch, since things feel even weirder and more divisive now.

To be clear, this not racist to say, but the values in Muslim and Latin American countries are fundamentally different compared to the US, in which they are more conservative compared to the US, and I feel like that it indirectly led to the rise of certain rhetoric in recent years that backfired on the left.

For example, I feel like that the rise of antisemitism in recent years may be a result of this because for Islam, Jewish people are condemned in the Quran and Muhammad ordered the massacre of a Jewish tribe in Arabia, and for Latin Americans, most of them are Catholics, which used to consider all Jewish people to responsible for the death of Jesus Christ, which was only changed in the 60s, but even the Catholic Church adopts a more anti-Jewish stance compared to other Christian denominations. It leads to the antisemitic rhetoric that is present in Latin American or Islamic countries being brought over to the US, leading to said viewpoints becoming more common in the US.

Yet many people on the left during the past decade supported immigration from those regions because they thought that it would be racist to do so otherwise, ignoring that a lot of these same immigrants carry beliefs that are fundamentally different compared to what it is like in the US, and all it did was lead to it backfiring, since it led to outright Nazi-like rhetoric against Jewish people becoming more common in recent years without any sign of reversal.