My best friend recently came back from a 5-year stint living in Germany, and for their return to the States they took the train to London and then sailed home on the Queen Mary 2. Seemed like a lot more fun than flying for 8 hours with two kids.
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Hell, this is so depressing. And this just after there were reports that disabled people were more often victim of police violence, probably for similar reasons.
The monopoly on violence is a precarious thing, and damn, it needs to be handled a HELL of a lot better!
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Sue them for their annual budget and the pension of the current head of the TSA. Take everything they have and leave them with ashes.
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All of this momentary outrage is viewed by the TSA as a brief storm, soon to be eclipsed by some othere outrage, hopefully on someone elseâs watch. Letâs not hate on âa few bad applesâ who can be scapegoated with a firm wrist-slap, or maybe even dismissal, so some new undertrained prison guards can take their place.
No, I think itâs long past time to abolish the TSA in its current form. Theyâre not doing any good, and theyâre clearly doing harm. Anything less is just postponing the next crisis.
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Yup. Back in 2010, I read the GAOâs reports on the TSA. It wasnât impressed, and had been recommending better practices since 2002 that the TSA just flatly has ignored this whole time. TSA is a garbage agency and doesnât have any business existing. It doesnât do what it claims it sets out to accomplish, and it violates our civil liberties in the process. Along with hiring just very stupid jackbooted thugs who end up beating people and breaking shit.
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There arenât always solutions. Life isnât a TV show that resolves to something which is at least narratively satisfying.
To continue on we may have to pretend that all situations have perceivable solutions, much in the same way that scientists have to assume that the universe is intelligible to the three pounds of grey matter we carry around, but in both cases itâs an artifice, a pragmatic adoption of a mind-set, and not something with a demonstrable scientific or philosophical validity.
Itâs expedient for us to believe that there are solutions, but the world isnât really required to oblige.
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Gun-nuts usually argue that their guns are important to keep the evil government in check. So why is there never a good guy with a gun in situations like this?
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Here is their current shitball response:
AskTSA
â@AskTSA
Jul 1
Reports on the unfortunate situation in Memphis are inaccurate. Police responded when the passenger refused screening or to leave.
2 retweets
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When complacency replaces humanityâŚ
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Checked with a separately locked box of ammo at the front deskâŚ
No, all kidding aside, thereâs a certain element of numbers that wouldnât require supremacy of arms to override âauthorityâ at a check point.
I have a hard time thinking of a more obvious situation where a call to help another fellow human is happening, but everybody else stood byâŚ
Maybe if itâs the TSA literally beating a disabled mother with her own infant? I dunno. Whatâs the âtrigger pointâ for USAians to put themselves at some degree of risk to defend a fellow human?
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Humanity had not been replaced by complacency in this situation. It was on displayâthe darker side of it, that is.
I am curious if any bystanders verbally protested or shamed the TSA workers involved.
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Youâre probably 100% correct. What Iâd often like to consider âhumanityâ is a pipe dream and rare, while this more common shitty variety is the reality.
And we donât know about the verbal protest, but this is a situation where that was obviously not sufficient.
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I feel that 99.999% of all humans, at any given time in history, are basically goodâas individuals or as part of a community. Certain social situations foster a collective resistance to do âthe good thingâ, especially when that situation is further burdened with the weight of authority capable of imposing punishment.
On a much larger scale, human societies can achieve both great things (going into space) and terrible things (the Holocaust). On the whole, the great things vastly outweigh the terrible things. I take this as a good sign.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thompson_Jr.
But keep in mind that Thompson and his crew were very much in the minority. And that Thompsonâs decency brought him ostracism and contempt from the military, the government and the public of the time.
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The misleading headline implies that some Rodney King type shit. Iâm no fan of the TSA, but in all fairness the linked article does not say that they beat her. There was a scuffle and she was either forced to the floor or fell to the floor and hit her head.
Shouldnât happen either way.
When I trained in MMA, I would often describe to inquisitive people that Jiu-Jitsu is like working someone over with a bag full of oranges. Most didnât really believe me when I told them this. Maybe itâs just something you have to experience to understand.
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Yup. âOh, itâs all passive energy use. You see, when theyâre already falling (after you yank them into motion and trip them), you just make a fulcrum with your hip so twice the force is applied to their face. Then all you have to do is stand on their neck to gain the upper hand.â
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I believe such moves fall under their umbrella term of âPain Compliance.â
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Just tell those wealthy powerful people to smarten up!
Fair cop, Iâm damned lucky. I try to appreciate it, and I try to share, but anybody with privilege needs checking from time to time.
