[freq_flyer_]

Are we that far off? Granted, I was still in high school in 1999, but I fly pretty frequently for work now and while it is different on it's surface, it doesn't feel that different overall.

I think part of that is the fact that the TSA is so bad at their jobs that it feels like a joke going through it. The worst part is that they know that they are a joke -- they freely admit that they miss between 70%-80% of weapons passing through.

[poulsbohemian]

Here's the worst part about it - if you are TSA-pre, it's really no different than travel in the '80s or '90s - you keep all your gear on, walk through a metal detector. Takes about 30 seconds. On the other hand, if you didn't pay for TSA-pre, then it could be an hour+ worth of waiting in line to go through a degrading and yes incompetently administered experience.

So to my thinking it isn't even the dystopian aspect of big brother watching and prodding, it's the further disgust of big brother separating the haves and have nots. Some animals are more equal than others.

[amf12]

> if you are TSA-pre, it's really no different than travel in the '80s or '90s - you keep all your gear on, walk through a metal detector. Takes about 30 seconds.

And here's the kicker, you can get TSA pre by paying for premium seats. At this point having non-pre passengers having to take their laptops, shoes and jackets off is just a way to inconvenience us and has nothing to do with security.

[skgoa]

It has always been security theater. It's meant to make people feel like a lot is being done for their security.

[wool_gather]

> it's really no different than travel in the '80s or '90s

Don't forget that getting TSA Pre involves an in-person background check interview (complete with fingerprinting). There's no escape; you just get to decide if you want to pay to have a "not a criminal" permanent file created for you, or be treated like a criminal for free, repeatedly and in small doses.

[godelski]

Innocent until proven guilty, right?

[inetknght]

Imagine how the kids of today will feel about the lack of internet privacy tomorrow.

Growing up without something really makes you not know what you're missing; if you don't know what you're missing, it won't feel so awful when you don't have it.

[sametmax]

They have no idea what privacy mean. They upload their all life on internet.

The problem with privacy is not that people try to take it away. It's that most people don't care.

[buth_lika]

I think it will feel awful, but in ways people cannot articulate and will blame themselves for.

A tiger born in a cage who experiences nothing but being fed every now will behave and feel very much worse than a free one. Children who were never treated with respect and never saw anyone else treated with respect don't suffer less harm in their development just because they don't know the difference.

I think at some very basic level, privacy is an obligatory requirement of becoming an individual person. An important part of the person grows when reflecting, when being alone with one's conscience, that's just as necessary as facing others. If you get all of either and none of the other, there's going to be a price.

Or take lead for example, if we increased our average exposure by a lot, that wouldn't mean that it now doesn't damage our central nervous system and organs anymore, not even for those who never knew lower levels of exposure. You can have the negative consequences without awareness of what is going on, and without any means to make it better.

A lot of the pressures already get relieved by consumerism at best, cruelty towards victims and identification with abusers at worst -- instead of being channeled towards the causes, it gets channeled towards what will make it worse. I think the rock bottom of that would a world unrecognizable even to Edgar Allan Poe.

[bnjms]

I was in junior high in 1999 and boarding is immensely different. You could go with your family to the gate or meet them upon arrival. I recall running down the exit to meet my grandparents as a child. I hear there are passes available but the feel now is all wrong.

Why no one set off a bomb in a TSA cattle line I cannot understand. USA built a perfect target. I assume the TSA is some sort of jobs program but I cannot understand who benefits from it.

[kasey_junk]

In many airports they’ve started using contract workers for line management, machine support, etc.

Those contract workers come from giant firms like Aramark.

[ridgeguy]

I flew when I could exit a departure lounge and walk up mobile stairs to enter the aircraft with no screening whatsoever. Like, none.

Yeah, it feels really different.

[jalk]

Domestic or are you talking about the sixties here?

[ridgeguy]

Both.