Young adults may have an even more positive view of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden than once believed.
Many were shocked when some young Americans embraced bin Laden's letter that justified 9/11 in a trend of TikTok videos in November 2023, but the overall level of support was hard to gauge on such a widely available platform.
Bin Laden's letter to U.S. citizens was released just over a year after the 9/11 terror attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans. In it, the terrorist leader justified the killing of civilians with roundabout logic and called the U.S. the "worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind."
Just over a month after the disturbing TikTok trend, a Daily Mail poll of Americans voters revealed that 31% of young voters believe bin Laden had "good" views.
That number is a combination of 18- to 29-year-old voters who said bin Laden's "views were good but his actions were bad" (23%) and those who said that both his views and actions were good (8%).
Black respondents were the second-most likely group to share this view, with 29% agreeing his views were good. Voters over 65 years old were least likely to agree with bin Laden's views, at around 2%.
At the same time, 20% of 18- to 29-year-olds said that they either have a somewhat positive or completely positive view of bin Laden. When adding in those who said they have a "mix of positive and negative" views of bin Laden, that number jumps to 37%.
Again, black Americans had the most positive view of bin Laden of any racial group at 18%.
Just 10% of Democrats had a somewhat or completely positive view of bin Laden, while Republicans said the same at a rate of 9%.
NEW POLL: 3 in 10 American Youth Sympathize with Osama Bin Laden\n\n"What is wrong with our youth? How do they not realize the horrors of terrorism?"\n\nThree in Ten (3 in 10) Gen Z poll respondents and nearly the same of all Black Americans agree that 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden\xe2\x80\xa6— (@)
In total, 14% of American voters said that bin Laden had some good in terms of his actions and/or views. That number was composed of 5% who said his views and actions were positive, 9% who said only his views were good; 7% said they didn't know, while 76% said he was bad across the board.
The poll was reportedly conducted for the outlet by J.L. Partners and asked 1,000 Americans.
"It is hard to avoid the conclusion that there is a cancer in the American body politic: a small but sizeable group of its youngest voters," said James Johnson, founder of J.L. Partners.
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TikTok has been home to young people making complete fools of themselves since its inception — but it just got a whole lot worse.
A new trend has emerged on the platform after some of its users discovered a letter written by Osama bin Laden after 9/11 in which he explains why the attacks were carried out.
In the letter, bin Laden claims he attacked us because we attacked them first. He also makes clear how anti-Semitic he is, taking a moment in the letter to bring attention to “the devastating Jewish control of capital.”
In the TikTok videos, users claim their views of America and the attacks on 9/11 have been completely changed.
“I will never look at life the same; I will never look at this country the same,” one TikTok user said.
“I did want to mention in reading the letter I could only think of this tweet that I saw the other day: ‘Under settler colonialism any kind of resistance is branded as terrorist because the only acceptable violence is violence by the occupier,’” another user said.
Sara Gonzales is ready to end it all, and by that she means her show.
“I just want to end it all and walk off set and just shut everything down and go home,” she says, in complete shock after watching the TikTok videos.
“Can you believe that heartfelt message from Osama bin Laden that couldn’t possibly have been propaganda? Right? He couldn’t possibly have been trying to brainwash anyone or manipulate any details or anything; when would a terrorist ever do that?” Gonzales says, mocking the TikTok users.
“Then again, there are these young Americans who are just dumb enough to just eat it right up and be like ‘Wow, maybe we should have been on team Osama bin Laden after all,’” she adds.
In another video, a TikTok user shows herself cheering in reaction to the news in 2011 that Bin Laden had been killed. She then cuts to herself in 2023 sadly “reading his letter and knowing he was right.”
“It’s hard to fathom that this is really what we’re living in in 2023,” Gonzales says.
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Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ | 11/17/23