Nope. At some point "fuck you, you're invading my privacy no matter what you do" is entirely valid. When I have to take off my flip-flops and pour out my coffee, we're not being pragmatic or safe, we're cracking skulls because it's fun. The TSA exists so that we don't have to normalize foreign policy. The TSA exists as a giant pork-barrel project. The TSA exists so that people with no control and no understanding will worry less because they feel if their rights are being trampled they must be safer. I don't fucking fly El Al. I fly Virgin. If you can't determine whether or not a lethal quantity of explosives isn't on my person without resorting to a strip search, you need to check your foreign policy. Entrusting knuckle-dragging bean counters with the task of keeping me safe isn't helping a fucking thing. Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer, wrote the two books that became SYRIANA. He opens one of them by pointing out that despite the massive intelligence apparatus at our disposal, what crashed a hijacked passenger jet into a field in Pennsylvania wasn't the CIA, NSA, State Dept or any other agency, it was concerned citizens doing the right thing. He could have gone on to point out that the same was true for the Shoe Bomber, the Underwear Bomber and those guys who make us all pour out our coffee now. Just because you're cool with it does NOT mean I have to be. Your canard about 60 people in a tube simply illustrates that you have a surface-level understanding of the situation and don't want to understand any deeper.
Fine. You're smarter than the rest of the world, the intelligence community is useless at stopping terror attacks, and American foreign policy is evil. The TSA is useless, and they enjoy strip-searching people. Somehow, it's fun for underpaid government workers with low morale to be constantly accused of being perverted and trampling on the rights of others. You're making this way too simple, and saying things way too matter-of-factly for us to have an interesting discussion. FYI, accusing me of "not wanting to understand any deeper" is completely uncalled for (beyond the fact that it's not true.)
I've thought about it more than most people. | the intelligence community is useless at stopping terror attacks| Largely. More en pointe, however, the intelligence community isn't the TSA. Wholly and completely. | and they enjoy strip-searching people| It is demonstrably so. You're a white guy. So am I. I have friends. He's Moroccan. She's Persian. You don't wanna hear their stories. I know a lady who quit the TSA at LAX to work for the DMV in Compton. The reason they're constantly accused is they're constantly provoking accusation. The Swedish have to worry about terrorism a lot less than the Israelis because they provoke a lot less terrorism. I say that being Jewish enough to qualify for the Right of Return. I'm not trying to have a discussion, I'm trying to shut you up. The TSA is evil. Demonstrably, factually evil. They are keeping no one safe and their ultimate goal is not liberty or safety, it is self-preservation. "I don't see the problem with pornoscanners?" "The Israelis don't respect rights so neither should we?" This isn't deserving of a conversation, it's deserving of a beatdown.You're smarter than the rest of the world
The TSA is useless
Somehow, it's fun for underpaid government workers with low morale to be constantly accused of being perverted and trampling on the rights of others
You're making this way too simple
and saying things way too matter-of-factly for us to have an interesting discussion.
FYI, accusing me of "not wanting to understand any deeper" is completely uncalled for (beyond the fact that it's not true.)