The TSA and the clash of competing hysterias

[mbranesf]

For some reason, I've had a hard time deciding how I really feel about the TSA's "enhanced" airport passenger screening procedures. On one hand, I agree with the sentiment that it's wholly ridiculous and laughable security theater that does nothing to protect anyone and is most probably a violation of our Constitutional promise of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Since when, after all, is simply traveling around the country "probable cause" for criminal investigation? On the other hand, the pragmatic part of me says, "If you don't want someone groping your junk, then just walk through the fucking scanner!" Here's a video from YouTube of a little kid getting patted down. It's pretty creepy and stupid, but why did it even happen? Why didn't he go through the scanner? 

Oh. That's right. Because the scanner is evil, too. I remember last year after the "underwear bomber" when these new scanners were introduced and there was a hilarious battle of the moral panics: puritan loons complained that images of little kids going through the machine would create a bonanza for the supposedly limitless child porn industry (yet we are forced to behold naked babies' asses on baby-related commercials on TV all the time and they say nothing about it--go figure). This was funny because these were probably the same people ideologically who were previously saying that absolutely everything and anything needs to be done to stop the evil Muslims in their plots to kill you, and you and YOU! 

So the scanner violates silly prudishness and the pat-downs TAKE AWAY OUR RIGHTS!!!! You know who we Americans have to blame for this ridonkulous situation? No one but ourselves. The entire point and purpose of the enemy's attack on us on 9/11 (now considered politically the Holiest of Holies) was to instill terror in this country and cause us to shed our liberal and democratic legal traditions and cultural openness. It was an attack specifically calculated to unravel the fabric of this country's former glory. I've noticed some people say, almost a decade later, in response to these airport security procedures, "The terrorists have won." Actually, they won a long fucking time ago and they continue to win as long as we continue to fight this stupid phony-baloney war against them by tearing ourselves down. And you know what else? A lot of the same people whining now about their rights being violated by the back-scatter machine or the pat-down will be among the first to clamor for fresh new rounds of fascism the next time there is a terrorist attack in this country.

Think the TSA and Homeland Security have gone too far? Look in the mirror, America. You asked for it.

Comments

[red bakersen (from livejournal.com)]

You're right. I've been saying the same thing.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/11/22/do-body-scanners-make-us-safer/a-waste-of-money-and-time

[kehrli.livejournal.com]

Or some of us have been openly outspoken about every step and find even the backscatter machine to be deeply problematic.

Now that we're required to declare our genders on plane tickets, I'm not incredibly excited about the future in which TSA agents are required to visually or physically inspect my body thus uncovering "discrepancies."

I have one trans friend who was already required to do both the scan and the grope because what they saw in the scan confused them.

For cisgendered people, I guess it could just be "silly prudishness" but for me it isn't. If that's hysteria, then fine, I'll just keep hysterically screaming until somebody in government decides to listen.

I don't intend on being particularly argumentative. I'm just not entirely sure how, "But you don't care about ALL rights* at other times, so just shut up and take it, America!" is helping. This IS a violation of our rights, and for me it may even be both emotionally and physically dangerous depending on how tolerant TSA decides to be. If the other people who are willing to be outspoken against it make strange bedfellows for me, so be it.

I'm also somewhat confused... so you feel as if the security theater is a bad thing, yet you're annoyed when other people finally notice?

Actually, they won a long fucking time ago and they continue to win as long as we continue to fight this stupid phony-baloney war against them by tearing ourselves down.

So... we should just wave our little flags and say rah rah rah America and strip on command because authority told us to? Let's all agree with one another and find strength in that, no matter what it requires of us?

*This magical "you" that both does and doesn't include everybody.

[mbranesf.livejournal.com]

I totally get what you're saying about this related to cisgendered people, and I sympathize. I think TSA and all the other apparatuses of the national security state need to suck it up and deal with the fact that not everyone fits physically into just one of two sexes and start being sensitive to that. But since that won't happen right away, then yeah, that IS something to scream about, and I'll scream with you. But I think we can probably completely forget about any hope of this ridiculous security culture relaxing any time soon, if ever. The enemy pretty much won right away. They cemented their victory by just letting us do stupid shit like enact the Patriot Act and found the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA and establish extralegal prisons and all the other excesses that have come to pass in the years since. I guess I have much less confidence than you seem to have in the will of Americans to constructively resist any of this and actually work to change it. What I see happening is this: another attack happens, we freak out and then tip all the way over into paranoia and fascism.

I agree with where you're coming from. I just don't think there's any chance of rolling things like airport security back to the Pre-Underwear Bomber Era. But, hey, doesn't hurt to try, and I think on the particular issue of cisgendered people and making these people in authority respect them, it's a fight well worth having and may actually do some good. But there's probably still going to be scanners and pat-downs from now on.