For your safety

I travelled a lot. Spent weeks in airport terminal. Anyone that did so know that airport security is more or less bs.

Stumbled upon this comment on reddit that resonates with me. He nails exactly what it feels like.

It was so good, I had to share it with you all:

“As much as you hear things like 'take a few seconds to put a mask on ... it's not that hard and it saves lives' making you feel like an asshole if you balk, it hit me why this is all so unnerving. I've always found airport security to be the worst example of 'safety theatre,' in which you get tortured by uneducated people with power trips in the name of anti-terrorism. We all know taking my belt off and throwing my bottled water in the trash does nothing to keep the world safe ... it's just a way for "leaders" to show they're doing something to fight a problem they really don't know how to solve. It's stupid, and everyone knows it, but we all just shut up and put up with it to avoid being harassed. After all, it really affects only a small percentage of our lives.

The problem we have now is that that whole world has been turned into airport security. It's everywhere the second you leave your front door ... the mailman is walking around with a stupid mask on even though he does his job solo, while meanwhile handling hundreds of pieces of papers from all over the world. The plexiglass at the taco stand. The stupid circles on the ground showing you where to wait at the body lotion or fragrant candle stores ... you know, because they are "essential businesses" while public schools are somehow not.

Pointless mandates that have nothing to do with public health and everything to do with fueling political agendas and giving the clerk behind the counter at Dunkin' Donuts her jollies when she gets to scream "SIR! Please put your mask up!" the split second after she catches it slipping below your nose.

It's not about the good of society. It's about elected officials and other dipshits who know jackshit about public health sitting around on virtual meetings trying to dream up new inane rules to be enforced by insufferable dickheads just to make people feel like they're "making a difference" and "saving lives" mainly to have something to do to justify their fat paychecks.

[…]

I'm not a disease vector. I'm a human being. Let me live my life.”

This is exactly what it is (well, he avoids talking about obedience and compliance, but those dark twins are there. If you haven’t read Tranquility, Fearlessness and Freedom essay, do it now.

If you haven’t realized that “essential workers”, “new normal”, “lockdown”, are all part of a Double Speak from 1984, you haven’t paying attention. Well, it isn’t Double Speak per se… It’s more like Double Bullshit.

Out.

JP