The Internet was already a very different place back then. These days, most people are on a few very large platforms. Back then it was a lot of smaller sites and forums, whose individual vibes depended a lot on its own moderation policies.

I spent much of that day with other players of the MUD-style game I played at the time, figuratively huddling together, sharing updates about our people in NYC as we heard from them.

For a time, I think, people were kind of stunned. The US had thought itself invulnerable, you understand.

But it wasn’t very long before the raging islamophobia began, and a hard turn toward the direction of fascism. But also the reaction to that. The split was stark.

And is still going on to this day, I suppose.

So no, people didn’t quite stop being dicks. If anything they only started dicking harder.