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1/10 Life was better before 9/11. I don’t mean that my life was better. I mean our society was better. Hyperpatriotism—which began with lapel pins and lower-third graphics on news reports—eventually spun into Muslim bans and permission for explicit bigotry. It fed hatred. It fed otherism.

2/10 The Patriot Act. Freedom fries. The Dept of Homeland Security. Our government surveilling its own citizens. All spinoffs from the tragedy. Fear became something we could legislate. Something we could monetize. Something we could use to justify things that would have seemed unthinkable before.

3/10 9/11 was, undoubtedly, a clash of civilizations—a desperate, warped sect of religion lashing out at a cultural empire with surgical precision and horrifying efficacy. Deadly strikes on our financial and military centers. The date itself a call sign for emergency.

4/10 And yet the heartbreaking heroism of firefighters, police officers, citizens—and anyone who could answer the call—leaves me awestruck still. Awestruck by their bravery and sacrifice. And broken knowing that the society they died protecting is, in so many ways, worse off since they perished.

6/10 A quarter century later, we also know that the government assured New Yorkers that the air around Ground Zero was safe without sufficient data to support that assurance. People trusted their government. Many went back to work. First responders kept working. And trust eroded further.

7/10 And all I feel is anger. Anger at the lies. At the avoidance of truth. At the cavalier way we failed to ask most Americans to sacrifice anything while leaving the heavy lifting to our soldiers, first responders and the myriad public servants who did whatever was needed.

8/10 Media platforms fed fear and hatred and reaped financial gain from it. Fear became programming. Outrage became a business model. And the First Amendment became the banner beneath which an industry of fearmongering could flourish.