Atwood thinks Star Wars caused 9/11?

[Ran]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up that Timothy McVeigh cited Star Wars as part of his justification for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing:

 

Quote

... space-age clerical workers inside the Death Star. Those people weren't storm troopers. But they were vital to the operations of the Evil Empire. And when Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star, the movie audiences cheered. The bad guys were beaten. That was all that really mattered.

I suspect it likelier that Atwood is conflating that with the WTC attack.

[polishgenius]

8 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I’d be pissed off at that interviewer for those comments, considering how casually the powers that be destroy not just single buildings but entire cities. Have you looked at what’s left of Syrian cities lately? Maybe Margaret Atwood was responsible for that too?

Why are you being so aggressive? Where did I even faintly imply that Margaret Atwood was responsible for anything?

 

 

8 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

 

Yes, she meant Star Wars, that’s obvious, did I say it wasn’t?

 

Well, trying to work out what she might have meant instead did kind of imply that.

 

5 hours ago, maarsen said:

In addition to what FB said, Margaret Atwood grew up reading SF and it has always been her first love. She is not late to the game. I have heard her being interviewed many times and she does have a rather dry wit that does not translate well into print. She also started her writing career as a poet. Keep that in mind also. 

This might be fair- it is hard to tell with some of the stuff she says on the small amount of attention I pay to her. My perception of her is a bit coloured by knowing a couple of people from Toronto who've come across her on ocassion and don't like her much, but I don't have any real knowledge of her.

That said, I don't know what she grew up reading but her wrongful insistence that she didn't write SF was stupid, patronising and annoying. If she'd said it once I might buy the sense of humour excuse on that one but she kept saying it.

 

[Darth Richard II]

I believe it was her publisher that pushed her to deny that she writes SF back int he early 80s.

 

[Darth Richard II]

9 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

I’d be pissed off at that interviewer for those comments, considering how casually the powers that be destroy not just single buildings but entire cities. Have you looked at what’s left of Syrian cities lately? Maybe Margaret Atwood was responsible for that too?

Yes, she meant Star Wars, that’s obvious, did I say it wasn’t? But that doesn’t mean she’s not confusing it with something else and has latched onto Star Wars in her head.

As for the moon landing, do you know where she’s from? A city called Sudbury, where NASA trained all the moon mission astronauts. Some cynical northerners have always said, oh for sure, they went to the moon, did they? It’s been a joke up north for years. Most people think she was joking, except the right wing press. Fox News tried to set up shop in  Canada and Atwood signed a petition to the regulators demanding they not grant a license because what they broadcast was hate speech, and also because in Canada there’s a regulation that actually requires news stations to broadcast the truth. Many stories suddenly appeared about Atwood saying she was a nut case who couldn’t be believed.

In any event there are many theories about what inspired Bin Laden to crash planes into buildings, at least she believes they did it. Do you know how many thousands of people in the US believe 9/11 was arranged by Bush? That it was a US government conspiracy? That crashing a plane into the buildings couldn’t bring them down? Those are the crazy people, not someone who thought Star Wars could have been the inspiration. I don’t think Bin Laden left notes about that.

Oh man, I fucking HATE 9/11 truthers. This all came up i the conspiracy thread, but I hated them so much I started becoming active in the anti truther movement? I guess you could call it. I got way too much into arguing with those idiots back in the day.

I need to re educate myself more but I don't believe Bin Laden had much to do with the planning other than that one cronies of his came up with the whole idea and Bin Laden went "Cool idea".

And yeah I can definitely see Fox news hating her.

[IheartIheartTesla]

Star Wars didnt cause 9/11; but its hard to ignore the parallels between an evil empire that oppresses entire populations and has access to weapons of mass destruction (and has used them in the past) and our current world. No wonder the rebels were forced to become terrorists and use violence to achieve their aims.

At least the rebels didnt target civilians, did they? Did they?

[polishgenius]

38 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

I believe it was her publisher that pushed her to deny that she writes SF back int he early 80s.

 

She was doing it as recently as the early 2000s.

[Fragile Bird]

Atwood is a bit of a weird duck, mainly because she speaks in a flat monotone that drives listeners insane. However, she is still a much loved figure in Canada, and that love is often expressed by mocking her on Canadian comedy shows. The Royal Canadian Air Farce regularly spoofed her. Here's an example that put her up against Toronto's crazy mayor, the late Rob Ford. It was particularly funny because the actor has her monotone down pat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PORE1jgd7UU

[Astromech]

35 minutes ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

Star Wars didnt cause 9/11; but its hard to ignore the parallels between an evil empire that oppresses entire populations and has access to weapons of mass destruction (and has used them in the past) and our current world. No wonder the rebels were forced to become terrorists and use violence to achieve their aims.

At least the rebels didnt target civilians, did they? Did they?

Han shot first!

 And the Galactic Empire was only bringing order to the galaxy. Can't have an omelette without some broken eggs

[Darth Richard II]

Well, to be fair, she isn't the first to equate 9/11 with the death star blowing up. There are videos all over the place.

[Liver and Onions]

In fairness to the rebels in the first Star Wars, the Death Star WAS about to blow up Princess Leia and the rebel leadership. So they couldn't time their attack with the off hours of clerical workers. I'm sure other sci-fi works have explored the idea that the rebel side can't just blow up the bad guys' stuff willy nilly. I think Blake's 7 deals with that a bit.

Sadly, if Star Wars has indeed inspired anybody to commit horrible crimes, it just gives credence to the ol' chestnut that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. Which is why character-centered morality is something worth examining in all works of fiction- it's not "okay" just because the good guys did it.

[TheKitttenGuard]

The ethics of blowing up Death Stars has been debated for a long time:

Spoiler

 

 

[Werthead]

I thought the angle was going to be a fresh revelation that they'd found a copy of The Phantom Menace in Bin Laden's movie collection or something.

[Corvinus85]

ahh, the never ending cycle of life imitates art imitates life...

Japanse pilots go kamikaze in WWII, Lucas makes a film about flyers blowing big shit up, terrorists fly into the Twin Towers, Disney makes a film about flyers blowing big shit up... Atwood may have just inadvertently given up the plot for Episode IX.

[john]

Oh, the new series of the Handmaids Tale comes out in like a week.  That’d explain it.