I find this a bit odd given Boingboings stance on the TSA. Asking the military-industrial complex to double down on hysterical stupidity seems an unwise choice. I see a future where we are not allowed to take anything on board a flight, and are herded on board in a police-state mandated complimentary paper onesie…
It also seems to me that the items used were terrifying on their own. Blech to mentos and energy drinks.
I think the point is that the hysteria over confiscating certain items is unfounded considering that the next threat is something that’s probably improvised and not on the checklist, but I agree. Unless something changes in a major way, we’re heading down the path you describe. The only way to maintain order will be to keep your head down, do nothing that arouses suspicion, never question authority, have your papers ready at all times, and above all, OBEY and CONSUME.
My thought exactly. It’s as if Booth wants a near-term future where only the cops and the military can fly at all. The rest of us might make a bomb out of our spleen or something.
The only solution is to leave our most dangerous weapons, our minds, at the TSA checkpoint.
Right, but if we prohibit nail clippers on planes, that inconveniences mere, mortal, physical citizens; if we prohibit the sale of toxins to those people, it inconveniences the important, powerful, citizens, aka corporations. See now why we have to do one and can’t do the other?
I have to believe you are perfectly aware that his statement is to the opposite intent than the conclusion you choose to read into it. What you’ve done is, IMHO, a bit of victim blaming there.
After all, What response could the authorities possibly have to dissent and protest other than a crackdown and more restrictions?
I think the point they are trying to make is that trying to make something 100% safe is impossible, and trying is a huge waste of time and resources. Even if you attempt to get rid of the obvious threats, there are the non-obvious ones always lurking.
For YEARS I took 4" knives on planes and never managed to stab anyone. Nor did anyone else. Banning something from one freak occurrence is irrational.
Count me among the confused with these videos.
While the makery is very clever, all they seem to show is that very dedicated, creative individual can come up with come absolutely shitty weapons even with the TSA security precautions. A grenade where the user demonstrating the destructive power takes cover behind a blast shield of corrugated cardboard? Change point blank through drywall at 260 fps? So, as dangerous as a recreational paintball gun, except to the person using it. Great. What is the purpose of break action loading on a weapon that pretty clearly destroys itself after a single shot and likely disable the hands of a user I wonder?
If anything, it reinforces the fact that security theater apparently works, because this is the best a dedicated, creative individual could do.
Of course, none of it is as scary as an able bodied adult screaming and swinging a chair from the food court.
The TSA as it is inconveniences large subsidized corporations right now; they’re called airlines.
How is it inconvenient? If the TSA weren’t there the airlines would have to do their own security at a not insignificant expense. Certainly it’s more convenient than the realistic alternatives. (I do not like the TSA, but I agree their primary mission is a sound one, execution of that mission is something else entirely)
Terrifying? Those are adorable weapons!
I think this is already a requirement, isn’t it?
The goal of a terrorist is to create terror and press their targets to change their behavior (usually for the worse in the short term). Killing people is a tool for that. If someone used a Red Bull bazooka on an airplane, it would cause a terrible outcry and put us under an even worse burden of oppression.
Sure they are flashy but deadly is hyperbole. This is just fear mongering and link baiting. As previous comments have said, they are interesting for their creativeness and “makery”, but they are attention seeking articles. Keep it coming but please lay off the exaggeration.
My only thought is the same as any other time I see stuff like this: do we really need to publish how-to manuals for this kind of thing?
Asinine bullshit. These things are about as “terrifying” as a child’s Nerf gun. They’re far more likely to kill the user than anyone else. Is Boingboing so desperate for click counts that they resort to using yellow journalism in their clickbait headlines? You pukes should be ashamed of yourselves.
Well, unless you can get a pair of those special sunglasses. . .
Bullshit. Their primary mission is to provide parasitic scum an opportunity to rip off the taxpayers through getting government contracts to buy crap. Go look up how many billions of dollars worth of equipment the TSA has sitting in storage that has been paid for and NEVER used. The secondary purpose of the TSA is to provide security theather so that politicians with the balls of gnats and the morals of lamprey eels can bloviater about how they’re making America safer. The tertiary purpose of the TSA is to give our government of wannabe rules a mechanism for infringing on civil rights and habituating the stupid pig/sheep who make up the vast majority of the American public to the idea of the having no recourse against government fiat.
