ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the PATRIOT Act,

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Patrick Henry's one-man show.

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Ba-dum-bum.

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Here's the excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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All right, and the question:

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The domestic changes that Nojeim describes occurred alongside... what?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, what does the question mean by

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"domestic changes"?

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No, not deciding to fire your butler.

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In the excerpt, the author refers

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to "new anti-terrorism measures" that

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"fit into three broad themes:

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secrecy, erosion of checks and balances,

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and circumventing long-standing personal privacy protections."

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Say that three times fast.

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All right, those measures collectively were

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policies in the PATRIOT Act,

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passed by Congress in October 2001 following the attacks

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of September 11th.

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Let's check out the answers and see what else happened

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around the same time this law came into effect.

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Did these domestic changes occur alongside B -

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economic policies that sought to make the world more interconnected?

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Well, hmm. After September 11th, the U.S. made little effort to

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increase economic interconnectivity, since

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things were a little dicey on the "let's all be friends" front.

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So it's not B.

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Was the PATRIOT Act accompanied by C -

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legislative reforms that promoted immigration from the Middle East?

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Well, actually, xenophobia and anti-Islamic sentiment

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were at an all-time high,

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so this doesn't really make sense, either.

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Could these domestic policy changes have been followed by D -

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immediate public backlash against the new measures?

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Well, quite the opposite, really.

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Many Americans reeling from the terrorist attacks

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enthusiastically supported the curtailment of civil liberties at home.

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So people were down to party

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with the government watching their party.

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That means the PATRIOT Act occurred alongside A -

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military intervention aimed at combatting terrorism.

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The U.S. responded quickly and boldly to the attacks of September 11th.

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Besides the PATRIOT Act,

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America invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001,

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and Iraq in March of 2003.

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So A is the correct answer.

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All of these actions were a part of the so-called

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"war on terror,"

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yet for all we did, the Saw movies managed

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to escape unscathed.

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Have you ever seen those Saw movies?

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It's like oh, my God, terrifying.

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Like I can't sit through them.

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