[pfooti]

I opt out every time, or did before I got precheck (I know, irony). I never had anything remotely like this experience, and my shaving soap has set off the gas chromatograph machine twice. I still bring it with me when I travel (it doesn't always trigger the machine, but that's a different discussion about the pointlessness of a machine with a lousy false positive rate being used to test for something with a vanishingly small prior).

My secret? I'm an average looking White Male in the US. Nobody ever thinks _even for a second_ that I could be a threat. Last time my soap got me taken to secondary screening, TSA left me alone in the room with their walkie talkie charging station. With all my stuff. Unsupervised.

[wirelessest]

I'm in the same position. And use the same day bag for train travel as my carry-on, meaning I've brought packs of razor blades on planes by accident more than once. (And a hunting knife once after a camping trip). The theater around keeping us safe is really about protecting us from non-whites