If you absolutely have to fly, resist the porno-scanners and rent-a-gropers by opting out. Here’s a suggestion from a Redditor who absolutely must fly:
I don’t get the ‘stop flying’ thing. I fly because I need to and there is no alternative. I suggest civil disobedience. If we all create small irregularities to slow down the security queue the system will grind down to a halt. Keep some coins in your pocket. Keep a bottle of water in your carry-on. Do not remove the laptop on the first go. Choose the pat down over the scan. Keep a mobile in ax pocket. Etc
Great ideas. The government sold us out. The airlines don’t care. We need to fix this problem ourselves.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
George Donnelly,
I am the producer for Ernest Hancock, host of the “Declare Your Independence With Ernest Hancock” show. He would like to have you on the show to talk about this website.
Please email me at [email protected]
I completely agree that people should not fly if they don’t like what is happening. I just ask that EVERYONE take the PLEDGE, to hold Themselves and only Themselves Liable if another Terrorist Muslim gets on a plane or train and successfully blows themselves along with countless others into a thousand bloody pieces!!!!! If you can get everyone not to pass the buck and pitch a bitch when this happens then I fully support your issue!
911 was an inside job, so was the underwear bomber that led to the scanners being deployed. The scanners were purchased two years prior, the underwear bomber was just the excuse they needed to deploy them. The former head of Homeland Security (Chartoff) purchased the scanners, then retired from his job and became a director at one of the scanner manufacturers. You need to stop living in fear and you need to stop expecting that the government will protect you. All they need to detect chemical explosives is a few bomb-sniffing dogs. The scanners are are nothing but security theater to calm down the public by giving them a false sense of security, while teaching them to submit to authority. Your attitude plays right into the government’s plan to scare people into giving up their freedom.
Yawn.
I haven’t flown post-9/11 (more for financial reasons than political ones), but I have picked people up from the airport after 9/11. I’ve wandered around in PHL trying to navigate baggage claim and figure out wtf I’m doing.
No one questioned what I was doing, no one asked me if I needed help, and everyone just assumed I had every right to be there. Nothing was physically stopping me from strapping a bomb to myself, going up to the security checkpoints, and blowing up everyone in the vicinity. Clearly, a full body scan and intrusive “pat down” wouldn’t prevent that from occurring. When is the last time you can even recall a suicide bomber showing up to a US airport and blowing it to holy hell? I certainly can’t, and there were many years of flying prior to TSA and the US government’s ridiculous regulations.
Maybe, just maybe, 9/11 was an isolated incident. When Israelis are referring to our airline policies as ridiculous, harassing, and fascist, it’s time to re-evaluate them. (And no, this isn’t to open up a discussion about Israel and Palestine. I’m just pointing to the fact that Israel and Israelis actually have legitimate airport security concerns and they know we’re doin it rong.)
I’d love to hear a rational, logical, and intelligent argument from you about how the choice between a virtual strip search or a borderline sexual assault will somehow prevent terrorism.
GREAT idea.. and when you get mobbed by a bunch of irate travelers because you made them miss their flight don’t come crying to me.
I’m all for civil disobedience, but when it makes a difference. You think the minimum wage employees would really care one way or the other?
The diner sit downs worked because the owners of the diners were the ones seeing the actions. and it was affecting their bottom line.
Much better to fly only airlines that are less invasive and LET THEM KNOW WHY.
Can’t be done. The security is airport-level, not airline-level.
Then take the train, my point is still valid.
Or at least contact them, for crying out loud.
This affects the airlines and the travel industry and they do care. There are enough people saying they won’t fly now that it will rmake them pay attention because they are fighting for every dollar right now.
Yes, but we also need to let them know WHY we’re not flying, otherwise all this protest is moot.
Hi, TSA employee here, and I agree with many of the sentiments expressed here. I do what I can on the inside, but my views aren’t exactly popular with most coworkers, for obvious reasons.
My recommendation: this site is a great idea, and with enough people protesting and opting out TSA senior management might start paying attention; however, I don’t think most fliers are going to get the word via the web. I think it would be more effective to present people with brochures and representatives as they’re heading into the airport. That way, you can explain why they should take the extra time and hassle of the pat down. While I don’t think solicitation is allowed inside airports, I believe it is still protected outside the terminal. Just my two cents.
“I think it would be more effective to present people with brochures and representatives as they’re heading into the airport.”
I’m pretty sure there are some scheduled education/leafletting events at airports around the country. I want to say that they are accessible through the “We Won’t Fly” Facebook fan page, but I’m not certain on that. (Not affiliated with the site, I just know the guys who run it.)
Just changed my travel plans for the holidays. I’ll be driving for Thanksgiving, staying home for Christmas.
Until the insane, paranoid-delusionals trying to scare us into the Orwellian future quit it, I’m done flying.
Keep your $$$ in your wallet this holiday season.
Let the businesses dependent on travel falter until they send lobbyists to pad the wallets of politicians that will change this. $$$ talks in Washington, and for now, the “scare the hell out of the public” lobby is where the big bucks are. The private defense/security industry is making big money by groping your wife’s crotch and saying the boogie-man will get you if you don’t allow it.
Keep your dollars at home – $$$ is the only language Washington understands.
I’m of the mind that “Those who would give up Essential Liberty
to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
To me, an essential liberty is to not have someone looking under my clothes, or really even patting me down, when I haven’t done anything wrong. Common sense, maybe even common dignity, has disappeared in our current society for the sake of political correctness. So personally, I won’t fly unless I absolutely have to, and will opt out if I do.
Just don’t fly. I haven’t flown since 9/11. Trains and buses go just about anywhere and boats can take you overseas. If no one flies, things will change.
Just be ready for that full cavity search and/or arrest.
” A NATION OF SHEEP WILL BEGET A GOVERNMENT OF WOLVES. ” By Edward R. Murrow
When did the American public become so numb ? I would encourage everyone to not fly the week or weekend of Thanksgiving . The reason your government and airlines have been so quiet is because they are watching and waiting to see just how the traveling public will react. Will they fall for this or not ? The airlines will only react if the money stops coming in. They don’t really care about anything until it begins affect their bottom line. Airline employees and the traveling public will determine security going forward, not the TSA. However, it won’t be easy. You must yell, call and email to everyone you know. It doesn’t matter whether you are flying or not. This affects the future for us all and you must not just sit there watching. Forward every article you find to everyone you know and tell them, I want you to pay attention to this and forward this article to everyone you know. Do it now. Timing is critical for the next 2 weeks. Airline passengers must make a choice. Questions to ask yourself : Will I fly and authorize the TSA to violate my and my families civil rights and liberites ? Or will I tell TSA and the airlines to suck it and you won’t see our business until you come up with more meaningful security methods and treat your fellow human beings with respect and dignity. If you decide to fly and you walk thru the xray machine as told by the TSA, once you are on your flight with alot of time to think, please ask yourself, what price did I really just pay to fly today. What did I just give away that I can never get back ? So many people have died for your freedom, what would they say if they saw so many Americans just surrendering to the TSA.
Please also remember the TSA has spent millions and millions on these machines so they will put up an enormous fight, they will lie and they will deny to justify everything they are attempting to do now and their plans for the future. Stop the TSA now before they have grown too big and become intoxicated with power. For whatever reason if you decide to give in and I hope you don’t, refuse these xray machines and say ” I opt out ” and do not allow TSA to give you a menu of their excuses. SHUT TSA AIT DOWN NOW !
Will someone please make bumper stickers and get them online and easy to find and purchase.
The traveling public along with pilots, flight attendants and other airline employees will decide what is or is not acceptable airport security clearance. Not the TSA. They can only exist because of us. We have the power.
It’s all part of the MASTER PLAN. It’s not a matter of “if”, just a matter of “when”. The public is so distracted just trying to make it these days they don’t have time to focus on the ongoing erosion of civil liberties that we have seen over the last ten years or so. The airport security issue is a watershed issue and hopefully many Americans will “draw the line in the sand” on this one. The best way to express your opinion is to “vote” with your dollars, don’t fly. If enough people do this over the Thanksgiving weekend the airlines will have a meltdown in the executive offices. If you fly “opt out”, have your pat down done publicly and have someone video with a cell phone if possible. It’s not too late but time is running out.
Welcome to the internet.. here’s your tinfoil hat.
Pray tell me, good sir, what the government gets from this horrible horrible repression of our rights?
Oh and some proof would be nice too.
How about more than $200 million in contracts to favored crony companies making the unproven scanners, and god-knows-what fraction of the TSA’s $6-7 billion budget to other privileged interests, just for a start?
It IS a good start. Now show me the paperwork.
running around yelling “it’s a conspiracy!” without anything to actually back you up really only succeeds in making you look like a nutjob.
How bout this for a start? https://www.nowpublic.com/world/full-body-scanner-lobby-michael-chertoff-rapiscan-2552674.html
BTW, whether or not it’s “George Washington’s” “conspiracy” or not, it’s still a conspiracy. On that topic, I’d refer you to a dictionary.
Your comments imply that smart people do the the thinking and you and I are too stupid to come to any conclusion that the corporate government, and their lackeys, repeat. Your use of the term “conspiracy” is more like heresy. How dare a common citizen think for themselves. As long as the people are dis-empowered to not trust their own reasoning then we all lose.
It is not enough to opt out. When the TSA goon molest you, tell him/her that they are a filthy pervert. After 10,000 people call them perverts, I think some of them will quit. If they touch you, or your children, inappropriately call 911. When the police come inform them that you want to file a criminal complaint. After thousands of criminal complaints, the courts (or the politicians) will end this madness.
In certain low-tech developing countries in Asia, one is politely queued into a curtained area where a same gender officer politely pats one down leaving the passenger with dignity and person intact, one then points out own luggage (which has already been x-rayed and/or hand searched before check in) on the tarmac before it is loaded onto the plane. This takes no longer than with the US/Canada/EU modern shiny gadgets, and yet in Asia the whole procedure feels much more secure, humane and endearing…
We are learning a true lesson about poverty: mental, spiritual poverty vs. physical, material poverty. If a culture ceases to treat fellow beings which dignity and respect it ceases to be a civilized culture.