We don’t know about you, but we were not planning on having to address ‘Bin Laden Was Right’ craziness this week. But this is where we are. As Twitchy readers know, yesterday a disturbing trend was spotted on TikTok of thousands of people reading — and agreeing with — Osama Bin Laden’s infamous ‘Letter To America’ where the terrorist explained why he attacked the United States.
As the saying goes, ‘We don’t want to live on this planet anymore.’
But since this happened, and since we DO live on this planet, we think it’s only fair to let those people know exactly what they are agreeing with. We’re all about education. Let’s start very simply: Bin Laden was a horrible writer.
So um, I read what I think is the “Letter to America,”!and it has really given me a more faceted view about Osama Bin Laden.
I mean, not only was he a tyrannical, psychopathic, mass-murdering terrorist, but he was also a really bad writer.
— Write Girl Problems (@WriteGrlProbs) November 16, 2023
LOL. It’s true. But that being said, let’s move on to the substance of the letter and leave the rhetoric and composition notes aside for another time.
For this, we turn to Michael Young, a theorist specializing in postmodernism who goes by the handle ‘Wokal Distance’ on Twitter. Young has studied the roots and impacts of ‘woke’ for years and he offered a thorough breakdown of the letter that had so many people fascinated.
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The letter @yashar is talking about here is attributed to Osama Bin Landen, and it is a masterpiece of political propaganda. Maybe the best example of propoganda that I have ever seen.Let’s go through it so we can see what’s happening here
/🧵https://t.co/x4bGdMhWQW https://t.co/3nVpRSOgEn— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
Recommended
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The writer adopts a brilliant strategy: using the ideas of American moralists (both left and right) to attack America’s moral authority.The goal is to use moral complaints that he knows will resonate with Americans in order the undercut America’s moral goodness.
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
This is an important starting point. Detest Bin Laden all you want (we do), but don’t underestimate his intelligence or ability to push America’s buttons.
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The attack proceeds like this;He uses the language of the moralists of the American right to attack American social morality. He attacks gambling, homosexuality, and sexual immorality generally; all of which are complaints that resonate with the American right.
Then…. pic.twitter.com/hQkDdL3Ah4
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
First, Bin Laden attacks aspects of our society that will resonate with conservatives.
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the writer uses the language of the moralists of the American left to attack America on left-wing grounds: He accuses America of poisoning nature, stealing oil, harming the poor, and occupying other nations.All of these complaints resonate deeply with the American left. pic.twitter.com/hIlv5gbQ0S
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
Then, his attack shifts to issues he knows will resonate with the left. The propaganda strategy is emerging. His next step is to position himself as above all of that.
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Appealing to both the right and left creates the appearance of being positioned above the fray and judging in a non partisan way.This is a clever trick as it attacks America from all angles, and from the inside on the basis of American Hypocrisy.
It’s very clever. pic.twitter.com/v0NXR4Ba5Z
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
This leaves him free to then attack the Jews. Because, of course, he attacks the Jews.
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Having appealed to left and right, and having subverted American moral authority, he then suggests a scapegoat, a common enemy, a group which can be blamed for this whole mess:The Jews.
This js propoganda against the Jews and blaming them for the worlds problems. pic.twitter.com/NzZdFTsooY
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
The call to his faith, to his standard, will then stand as the only true path. This is what cult leaders do.
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The author clearly is claiming moral authority, and he uses his religion as the basis for his moral authority. He build up their form of Islam as though it were just and pure and true. In this way he can adopt the posture of moral indignation; a powerful rhetorical posture. pic.twitter.com/A7xcHkUsm1— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
But here is the tricky part: it’s all a lie.
Bin Laden was not an environmentalist. He came from Saudi oil. The last thing he would have cared about was Greta Thunberg. Nor was Bin Laden a pure person when it came to things like pornography, as Young points out.
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As an example, the letter (attributed to Bin Laden) decries the American sex industry, while Bin Laden himself had a compound filled with enormous amounts of pornographySee the point?
The author doesn’t believe any of this, he’s trying to tickle the ears of anyone listening pic.twitter.com/RoXhqtqJjT
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
He doesn’t believe any of what he said. Any of it. He just wants other people to believe it. (Sound familiar? Like maybe, people who fly around on private jets telling you to give up all of your modern comforts?)
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Propagandizing against Jews and blaming them for everything.The letter is, now, having it’s desired effect on people.
Here, Yuri Bezmenov, a former Soviet spy explain the theory behind communist propaganda and subversion tactis. Many of which are present in this letter. pic.twitter.com/khfSQMHV1s
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
It’s all about subversion. This is not to say that Bin Laden was a Communist, strictly speaking, but many of the same principles (oppressor and oppressed) apply, and certainly all of the same tactics do.
After pointing out all of this subversion and hypocrisy, Young then lands on the critical point:
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The goal of the letter to to turn Americans against their own nation by causing them to lose fsith in their own society and civilization. This will lead them to become demoralized, to not know what is true, and to turn on America.This is what we see happening on tik tok.
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
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Forces on our culture have been attacking American cinfidence as unwarranted and just disguised power games and all the rest. As such Americans are not used to seeing moral strength, they are used to woke whining, or apologetic tail-between-the-legs conservatism.So…
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
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That sort of strong, ardent, confident, moral posturing is new to many Americans, and they find it attractive and persuasiveThere’s a lesson in there
To close, that letter was pure propaganda, and what these tiktoks show is that America is not ready for the propaganda war pic.twitter.com/oBwFVi1PmU
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) November 16, 2023
Let those last words be a warning. Bin Laden’s letter is currently appealing to many because it shows the illusion of moral strength and confidence, and many Americans (particularly young ones) have never seen moral strength before. At least not from our political leaders, nor many institutional leaders in corporate America or academia.
The letter is a complete lie, a total hypocritical manipulation, but it is important to understand why so many could be seduced by such a lie.
Mock the people who say they are taking a new look at Bin Laden (and we will), dismiss this as a TikTok fad (and it might be), but don’t lose the important lesson that Young explains here. If we want to win a propaganda war, we need to arm ourselves better for it. With the truth, but also with confidence and strength.
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