I’m just going to be grossly hyperbolic and probably ill-informed but here goes: The right-wing was all spooked about “the terrorists” blowing them up while they did the snow bird thing moving to Florida or vacations somewhere with a tropical beach. They, being of fierce loyalty to the corporate lords, allowed their lords to put in (maybe)tumor inducing, overpriced, super privacy smashing x-ray machines. For those who refused this method, enhanced pat down tactics were introduced that would affect young and old. In reality, let’s just blame the corporatist political glad handing that allowed this costly, wholly invasive chicanery on the corporatists in general, be they left or right…(here comes the hyperbole) mostly the xenophobic right.
This TSA debacle isn’t going to end any time soon it seems. And I’m pretty sure 90% of the right wing fervor doesn’t dip very low on the salary line to the ma and pa guntotin’, Muslim hatin’, flag waving’ underclass that comprises most of the GOP. I hope there’s a Fox News poll or something that asks how many of the viewers have flown in recent memory. I’m fairly certain it’s close to nil.
The bigger picture problem is that once we gift wrapped most of our constitutional rights and the ability to protect ourselves after 9/11, we didn’t really think about the long term repercussions of being a society lead by fear of another attack. I’m not heartless enough to believe that a heightened awareness wasn’t warranted after that horrible day, but now a decade later, ummm…how about being safe but also intelligent on the matter as a whole? There seems to be nothing but a large money grab based off xenophobic fears and the thought of the rapture and apocalyptic fever dreams. Shore up your canned goods, buy this 50 pound back pack with only two weeks worth of food, and by food we mean fortified soggy cardboard pieces!
I’m getting off track here, and so easily. We want the most protection that can be afforded to us, but refuse to acknowledge that that will come with some unpleasantness. I find it appalling that right-wing pundits are accusing TSA employees of “groping”, “shaming” and other negative connotations, when this is the fear land that they wanted. This is how you get people to support unwarranted armed invasions in foreign countries. This is how you provide the “we’ve protected you” mantra that you’ll wave around come election season. This is how you get that mound of corporate infused campaign money, by buying overpriced cancer machines that humiliate people on a regular basis. Oh, but you can refuse to be scanned, this is where the “groping” mechanism comes in.
Before we get too far, this isn’t a defense of anything the TSA is doing or how there is some buffoonery and racism in profiling fliers within the TSA element. I have to fence in my argument against something like this because it does rest squarely in the “gray area” of life: do you want to be safe or sorry? My beef is this right-wing fervor over people being treated like the sheep that they have been only scoffed at from high above in the pundit class. I guess it’s one thing to talk down to them, but then to take that molestation to the physical level is off limits, unless it’s by their hand it seems.
Yes, there is some blame to be levied against “the terrorists” who have gotten more creative in explosive placement. But again, are we better safe than sorry, that we have to check toddlers and grannies adult diapers? The surprise element justifies this, you’ll never know what they’ll think of next!
It’s heartbreaking to read about disabled people being “groped”, or babies diapers being swung open to check for bombs. It’s sometimes hilarious to see homophobic dudes get all testy over someone touching their junk. To these dudes, I say get your ass in the x-ray thing! To the others, I say, either don’t fly with your fucking kids, take a train or ride the bus. Yup, that’s what I’m saying to you.
Somewhere along the line, and I guess in my mind while writing this column, is that flying is a privilege and not a god given constitutional right. If you want to fly you must comply! Don’t want your baby’s diaper checked, then don’t fly. “But Mayor, I’ll miss (insert Hallmark holiday)!” You may say. “Too bad!” , I say.
Jonah Goldberg’s recent column on the TSA’s “Passenger Jihad” got me to thinking about this. I had thought about it early on when people were complaining of the “enhanced pat down techniques”. What the news media failed to mention, for the most part, is that the enhanced pat down came with a refusal to hop in the cancer tube and get your body rendered polygonally naked and sent to some guy in a undisclosed room to make sure you weren’t backing anything more than what the good lord gave you. Then came the outrages as TSA agents were being accused of “groping”, “fondling”, “cupping the breasts”. As a man I was asked if I would be angered by someone’s “enhanced pat down” technique my child or wife. If she had it coming, I’d reply. But seriously, no I wouldn’t because this is what I gave up to make sure I wasn’t exploded by an explosion from someone’s asshole.
On top of all this, most of these would be “the terrorists” got caught by average citizens on the very planes they were trying to explode. No doubt doing their most xenophobic duty of eyeballing any odd brown people with funny accents, but none the less their American duty to not be exploded by a bomb taped to some guys ball sack.
Jonah Goldberg tells the tale of what Israelis do in their country with airport security”: just lengthy interviews by security, anyone who, I guess, answers poorly is denied flight. That human judgment is what preserves the day, and that these robot TSA agents are just soulless groping machines looking to get their kicks. I forgot to mention, Mr. Goldberg housed his column in this Dune world where the humans defeated robots or some shit, all to dove tail in to this “Well, look what Israel does,” bullshit. My argument against this is a few-fold. One, I’m sure the “Hey how’s it going!” interview implementation is fine and all in a country as small as Israel. Its’ that old boondoggle of trying to do something that works for a few smaller nations, and then trying to bring it the U.S. with it’s millions and millions of people. A better idea would be to try what China does with it airports.
The question no one asks is what the TSA agents think about all this? Surely this is a thankless job made more rough by some Mr. Macho trying out his best John Wayne and threatening you for doing your job. That people seem to think you’re a pervert because you have to do you job and touch people in and around their “no-no” areas. Never mind that no one really asked for their input in making security checks quicker and safer by a more streamlined implementation of checks and interviews with suspicious targets. Never mind that this has been done in the past and still yet “the terrorists” have managed to still get explosives and such on to the plane itself.
To talk of them as robots is to dehumanize them further. They’re still people, just like the ones Mr. Goldberg and the rest of the right wing yank at heartstrings for, even though they could honestly give a shit less about these people. It’s not like any of those people will be sitting in first class, after all.
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