I got flagged for a random TSA pat down once and the agent asked me if I had any metal in my body. I replied “I have an IUD”. The agent freaks out and starts flagging other agents over. She musters all her calm and says “Please repeat that you have an IED on you” to which I had to say “no, an IUD, a copper intrauterine device, for birth control”. She didn’t know what an IUD was and I had to explain it to her. I bet she’ll remember now!
One of my jobs when I was younger was to administer the electronic certification exams for TSA agents. When I tell you that the majority of the candidates legitimately didn't know how to type their name in a computer with a keyboard and mouse, I tell no lie. I had to teach most candidates the basics of using a mouse and keyboard (this was in the early 2000s).
It really was never about security, but the theater of it. And the people they notoriously look for aren't the type that could actually discover dangers, anyway; and it's been proven on many occasions. In the US, we tend to pick the worst solution to a problem, then blame the political opponents when it doesn't work, rather than come up with a competent solution.
Really the only thing that has changed that stopped future 9/11 styled attacks was hardening of cockpit doors from an actual security standpoint. However passengers reacting to hijackers now because it's no longer "oh we are going to Cuba I guess" but "I could be in a missile now" instead is also occuring.
Yeah you see how even just getting a rowdy now gets you ziptied and duct-tapped to a chair. If someone was actually trying to effect an attack I don't think they'd survive to see the landing. People get on planes these days with a "Wish a motherfucker would" mindset as opposed to the pre-9/11 mindset of "they just want money, this is a minor inconvenience"
We could have a good solution for $10 and have government employees, or we could spend $100, my buddies pocket $99.99, and then blame it on working class people when it fails.
America has been massively successful at what it was intended to do- create huge amounts of wealth for the few on top. Almost every single “failure” people talk about was a conscious decision with specific intended consequences.
As a big proponent of POSIWID and good, sustainable systems engineering, it typically - as, I think, in this case - is representative of a system created very much not by conscious decisions. It's a perspective that is relevant when perverse incentives are failing to be correctly identified. Like if, in the classic Cobra Effect scenario, if government officials saw the rise in Cobra populations as a result of their culling initiative and decided to raise the bounty higher because it's an initiative to reduce cobra numbers, failing to respect the reality that it actually increases them.
This is not irrelevant to the discussion about the US' absurdly Laissez-faire economic and regulatory policies - they tend to reach their misnomer status in a similar way. It's not that anyone is making conscious and concerted efforts to maintain inequality - at least, not well - it's that stacks of decisions made by powerful people to benefit themselves in the short-term have the effect of increasing systemic instability, and the long-term negative consequences are too slow-moving for policy makers to notice, or sometimes even live through.
I got a pat down last week solely because I had a bow on my outfit. No pockets. Thin outfit bc it was like 100°. They didn’t even untie the bow. They could have because my outfit had a zipper to keep it on, not the bow. It felt like theater. 🎭
Oh it is both incredibly fun and eye opening having to audit any security. I was a simulated opponent during combat manoeuvres a few times and the amount of sabotage, smuggling and theft you get away with is worrisome. Success is honestly a question of your fearlessness to try.
I use an old school, double edge razor to shave, and forgot to put my toiletries in my checked luggage on one leg of a tour. TSA caught the razor and told me I need to throw away my blade. What they missed was the 10-pack of replacement blades in the same bag.
That’s not even restricted to the TSA though. Somehow 99% of the population is clueless about computers. Every company I work with uses them every day and their employees all sign in. 90% of new employees need you to hold their hand and forcefully drag them through the login process as if their last job never had a computer.
“Don’t worry I’m a tech person 🤪.” - someone who’s going to make a 5 minute issue into an hour long one.
I work with local goverments (city hall). I watched a user pick up the mouse and try to move it in the air and said "the arrow was not moving on the screen...."
15.4k
u/mariahmce 29d ago
I got flagged for a random TSA pat down once and the agent asked me if I had any metal in my body. I replied “I have an IUD”. The agent freaks out and starts flagging other agents over. She musters all her calm and says “Please repeat that you have an IED on you” to which I had to say “no, an IUD, a copper intrauterine device, for birth control”. She didn’t know what an IUD was and I had to explain it to her. I bet she’ll remember now!