• samus12345@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Realistically, what could a single person do to prevent either 9/11 or the Covid pandemic from happening? Not much.

    Now, the assassination of a certain person who wasn’t in politics the time might do some good…

    • Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It depends on how far back you go and who you contact about he incident and the evidence to solidify the claim. 9/11 could have been stopped relatively easily with a few days notice to national security. The air force could have shot both planes out of the sky. Just call the civilian deaths a tragic casalty of terrorism and use it to help fuel the war. The twin towers could have been shut down that day.

      But you’ve gotta materialize right in front of the commander in chief, bring a mountain of carbon datable evidence like news papers and original classified docs, and hope that you don’t get brained on the spot before you make your case.

      As for covid, you probably can’t stop it but maybe better warn and prepare world governments so they can get their population ready through subtle conditioning like trying to get wearing mask be a fashon trend or advertising bidets heavily as the new rich yuppie thing to show as a status symbol.

      • state_electrician
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        2 months ago

        Scientists have been talking about a big pandemic for years before Covid. Nobody cared. If I ever get to time travel, I’ll use it for personal gain. That’s the only way something good’ll come out of it.

      • lugal@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Bringing evidence from the future is cheating. They wouldn’t believe you if you told them the truth but if you say you are a terrorist and placed a bomb in the world trade center, they might evacuate it

        • Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Cheating? I didn’t think there were rules covering time-based warfare. Damn. Wheres the fun if you can’t cause some temporal paradoxes and get a few people stuck in Groundhog Day scenarios. Where’s the freedom?

      • Delphia@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You dont notify the government directly, you notify the news desks of MSNBC, Fox, ABC and the major newspapers. Do it via express postage envelopes a few days out, include any publicly available info on hijackers, flight numbers and times.

        The Government might ignore it as a hoax, but not if they know that the information has come via every major news outlet in the country. They have to act.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Call in a bomb threat for the 4 planes to the FBI.

      Hoard a warehouse full of toilet paper and profiteer from it.

      I dont know what to do about Covid though.

    • Siegfried@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      “Hey pentagon have you thought of … downing those planes?”

      Op 1, it was the pentagon’s plan all along. 9/11 happens anyway. You die.

      Op 2, pentagon’s official spits his coffee, you prevent 9/11 but after that… can you really be trusted? You die.

      Op 3, pentagon’s official laughs at you, 9/11 happens. You can’t be trusted. You die.

    • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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      2 months ago

      With prior knowledge of the event and 2 weeks head start? You could do so much including the drastic actions that would result in less lives lost.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If you’re going by the comic, you only have 1 day. 18 and a half years for Covid, though.

        • lengau@midwest.social
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          2 months ago

          If you’re a time traveller you could build up credibility with other things too. Start contacting a journalist with predictions of future headlines. Go back to October 2000 and say what’s going to happen with Bush v. Gore. Then in like July 2001 meet up with them, explain that you’re a time traveller which is how you know this, and show them the video.

      • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Fewer*

        But what could you do without throwing your life away? Basically you would have to hijack a plane to increase security. Regular appeals by a person claiming to be a time traveler… might not be taken seriously.

        • Triasha@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Hijacking a plane wouldn’t be enough. Plane highjackings were nothing new. They were even common back in the 60’s. Conventional wisdom was you cooperate with the highjackers. They have to land eventually.

          Nobody anticipated suicide highjackers.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          2 months ago

          Fewer*

          https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/less

          The traditional view is that less applies to matters of degree, value, or amount and modifies collective nouns, mass nouns, or nouns denoting an abstract whole while fewer applies to matters of number and modifies plural nouns. Less has been used to modify plural nouns since the days of King Alfred and the usage, though roundly decried, appears to be increasing.

    • RidderSport@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      Prevent 9/11 probably unrealistic, but you could pull the fire alarm prior to the attack and thereby save lifes

    • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      Go to the cops and prove you are from the future. Get there a few days early with the lottery numbers on a piece of paper or smth. That might get them to take you seriously. Of course they will never let you go back.

    • saigot@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      covid for sure, but one guy with a smuggled knife could have a pretty good chance of stopping at least one of the planes

      • Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Just call with a bomb threat, they take that shit seriously and it would have emptied planes and buildings. Call the PD and threaten both towers, the pentagon, and the airport.

        • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          They wouldn’t buy the attack on the Pentagon. I can’t see a scenario where you could threaten the military central of the US that somehow it was endangered from within or outside.

          The airport would be a better bet back then.