Twenty-five years after Islamic terrorists carried out the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, a disturbing new survey reveals that more than one in five college students believe the United States DESERVED the September 11, 2001, attacks.
According to the New York Post, citing Buckley Institute’s 2026 National Undergraduate Study, 21.8% of the 803 full-time four-year college students under age 25 surveyed said they agreed (11.0% strongly, 10.8% somewhat).
Another 71.7% disagreed (63.2% strongly), and 6.5% were unsure. The poll was conducted September 5–14, 2026, by Inquire LLC.
These students were not even born when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001, murdering nearly 3,000 innocent Americans.
The finding puts a large slice of today’s college generation in the same camp as radical leftist streamer Hasan Piker, who has publicly claimed America “deserved 9/11.” Liberals in the survey were more likely to agree than conservatives or moderates.
The September 11 finding was hardly the only troubling revelation.
According to the Buckley Institute, 44.6% of surveyed students agreed that physical violence can be justified to stop someone from expressing what they consider hate speech.
Another 39.7% agreed that offensive speech should be subject to criminal prosecution.
And 45.8% believed it is sometimes appropriate to shout down or disrupt a speaker on campus.
So much for the supposed defenders of tolerance and free expression!
The findings also revealed a significant preference for socialism among surveyed students.
When asked whether they would prefer to live under capitalism or socialism, 41.6% chose socialism, compared with just 27.8% who selected capitalism. Another 30.7% were unsure.
The Buckley Institute reported that students who preferred socialism were also more likely to agree that America deserved September 11.
Among socialism-supporting respondents, 33% agreed with that statement, compared with 18% of students who preferred capitalism.
The survey also found that 50.2% chose a statement describing America as inextricably linked to white supremacy, while just 39% selected a statement arguing that the country continues to make progress toward equality.
And 48.3% agreed that they could not bring themselves to be close friends with someone affiliated with a different political party because that person likely held unacceptable opinions.
This is the predictable result of years of campus radicalism. The Gateway Pundit has repeatedly documented how universities twist the memory of 9/11.
Just weeks before the poll’s field dates, a 9/11 memorial display of 2,977 American flags at California State University Stanislaus was vandalized with pro-Palestine graffiti on the 25th anniversary. Young America’s Foundation President Scott Walker called the defacement “disgraceful.”
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Earlier Gateway Pundit reporting highlighted how left-wing educational materials and courses downplay al-Qaeda’s responsibility, frame the attacks through the lens of “Islamophobia,” and in some cases blame American foreign policy or “white supremacy” rather than the terrorists who carried them out.
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