Hasan Piker is far from alone in expressing that view.
A surprising new poll found that more than one in five US college students believe the country was deserving of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
According to the Buckley Institute survey, 22% of respondents agreed with the statement, “America deserved Sept. 11.” The al Qaeda attacks in 2001 involved hijacked planes striking New York’s World Trade Center, destroying the Twin Towers and killing nearly 3,000 people.
By comparison, 72% rejected the statement and 6% said they were unsure. The survey included 803 undergraduate students from across the United States.
Most of the students surveyed were not yet born when the devastating attacks took place 25 years ago.
Their responses echoed comments from left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who said in 2019 that America “deserved 9/11.” He has also recently argued that the US military has engaged in more terrorism than al Qaeda.
The Buckley Institute’s annual survey also found that college students have moved further toward socialism while expressing increasingly negative views of Israel.
When asked which economic system they would prefer, 42% selected socialism.
Only 28% chose capitalism, while 30% said they had no opinion.
The 14-point advantage for socialism represents the widest margin recorded since the institute began asking the question five years ago.
Almost half of respondents, or 47%, agreed that “while socialist countries like Cuba and the Soviet Union have not been perfect, they offer a better economic model than capitalist countries like the United States.”
Just 33% said they considered the US capitalist system the stronger economic model, the poll showed.
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The survey also indicated that unfavorable views of Israel have increased over the past year.
When asked whether Palestine or Israel was the stronger US ally, 38% chose Palestine and 25% selected Israel. That marked a 9-point shift away from Israel compared with last year’s results.
More respondents also described racism as an ongoing systemic issue in the United States.
Fifty percent agreed that the country remains deeply connected to white supremacy and that most minorities continue to be shut out of the American promise of equality.
Meanwhile, 39% said the nation was making progress on racial equality and extending that promise to more people.
The debate over free speech produced another divided result: 40% said offensive speech should be subject to criminal penalties, while 52% disagreed.
“This year’s survey demonstrates that censorious attitudes remain stubbornly high on America’s college campuses,” said Lauren Noble, founder and executive director of the Buckley Institute.
“During the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, America’s college students have swung heavily in favor of socialism. Alarmingly, those same students are more likely to support shout downs, violence to stop hate speech, and other tools of censorship.”
On the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports, most undergraduates opposed allowing participation based solely on an athlete’s gender identity.
One-third said transgender athletes should compete in whichever gender category feels most comfortable to them. However, 53% said that policy would be unfair to female athletes because biological differences between men and women create a disadvantage, according to the poll.
The Buckley Institute takes its name from William F. Buckley Jr., a prominent conservative leader who founded National Review, hosted PBS’ “Firing Line” and ran for New York City mayor in 1965 as the Conservative Party’s candidate.
Inquire LLC conducted the national survey for the Buckley Institute from Sept. 5 through Sept. 14. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.