[mquander]

It's not super easy to figure out what things other people might be scared of if it never occurred to you to be scared of them yourself. If I saw someone walking around with a bunch of electronics draped over themselves it wouldn't cross my mind to be afraid of them; as a result, I wouldn't have thought twice about doing it (until this and the other more recently publicized case of freakouts.)

It's not as if there's a high school civics lecture on the topic of Strange American Fears, and parents don't tell their kids not to have something that looks like a bunch of messy electronics, so I'm not sure where she is supposed to go and figure this out. As a result, it's hard for me to say she did something wrong.

[Nadya]

>It's not super easy to figure out what things other people might be scared of if it never occurred to you to be scared of them yourself.

I don't agree with this claim. In fact, I think it's extremely easy to identify what might scare other people. So much so that it can be reduced to a single question:

"Is this outside the norm?"

Doesn't matter if it's full body tattoos, 30 body piercings, electronics plastered all over you, you're lit up like an X-mas tree, wearing a full-body suit, wearing a balaclava, what have you. Do you see other people doing it? No? Chances are you're going to raise suspicion and suspicion not only can cause fear but I argue it will cause fear.

Normality is a social comfort zone. Nobody bats an eye at anyone who isn't standing out from the crowd.

Now before anyone tries to wage some sort of moral war against me for stating how things are. I don't pass any judgement on if this is "good" or "bad" behavior. However, there is an evolutionary explanation for this: "People who don't fit with your community are outsiders. Outsiders can be friend or foe. Be suspicious of them."

Nobody would be scared of what they were wearing if they were at a Hackathon or some place where "this is normal". But they were at an airport. That isn't normal for an airport.

[DougMerritt]

> Doesn't matter if it's full body tattoos, 30 body piercings, electronics plastered all over you

So not only do you agree she deserved to be arrested, you also claim that anyone with tattoos and/or piercings who goes to an airport should also be arrested?

Unbelievable.

Civil liberties should not hinge on looking just like everyone else, following the herd, never daring to be creative, etc.

[Nadya]

I'm not sure how you read my post and got that message out of it without purposefully being dishonest.

>Civil liberties should not hinge on looking just like everyone else, following the herd, never daring to be creative, etc.

You even explicitly went out of your way to ignore what I said.

>Now before anyone tries to wage some sort of moral war against me for stating how things are. I don't pass any judgement on if this is "good" or "bad" behavior.

Take your moral war elsewhere, because I'm not interested in this discussion. I'm stating how things are. Not how they "should" be. Not how you want them to be. Not how I want them to be. How they currently are. "What they are" and "what they should be" are not the same thing. Am I being patronizing enough to make my point crystal clear?

>never daring to be creative

This is a strawman. Dare to be creative at hackathons and art conventions - not an airport. Ever heard the phrase "time and place"?

[DougMerritt]

> Dare to be creative at hackathons and art conventions - not an airport. Ever heard the phrase "time and place"?

Remove tattoos and piercings at the airport, really?

> stating how things are

Like hell. Your view of things 100% implies that Star was in fact culpable for her own arrest, which isn't true, so I don't believe your disclaimers that you are just neutrally commenting.

> without purposefully being dishonest...

> ...Am I being patronizing enough to make my point crystal clear?

That you're being an ass? Sure.

[Nadya]

>Remove tattoos and piercings at the airport, really?

Why are you so stuck on one of several examples? Open carrying is legal in many states. Go for a workout outside a police station while open carrying, let me know how that works out. Just do some jumping jacks across the street. Nothing illegal but it will certainly draw some unwanted attention from the police!

>Like hell.

It's what happened and why it happened. She wore something outside of the ordinary, grabbed unwanted attention, and was arrested. Which part of that is a false statement?

[DougMerritt]

> She wore something outside of the ordinary, grabbed unwanted attention, and was arrested. Which part of that is a false statement?

If that's all you had said, then sure, that's just the facts.

My interpretation of your tone was that you were unsympathetic to Star, while I felt and feel great sympathy to her, and outrage towards the people who mistreated her.

Somehow a lot of idiots in the world have gotten the idea that digital electronics resemble a bomb, which is deeply retarded considering that it only resembles a timer, with no sign of an explosive.

I fault the idiots, not Star, and I am surely going to be upset with anyone who seems unsympathetic to what happened to her.

[IanDrake]

Scare people...not arrestable. I think you misread what was written.

[IanDrake]

Airport and schools have been targets of shootings and bombings. This isn't some wild eyed paranoia.

While it nice to know some people would rather literally die than be politically incorrect, I prefer to take caution around people I perceive to be a threat.

Again, look at the pics of her "device" and her for that matter. A crude triggering mechanism wouldn't look much different from a distance.