DoublePlus Ungood Thoughtcrime.

Some thoughts on the previous post, which I’d have put in comments, but the comment thread is so huge, I didn’t know if anyone would see them..so, uh…yeah:
I am horrified at the way this kid appears to have been treated. I think a BIG part of it was that he *IS* a kid, and a non-conformist kid at that. I was a non-conformist kid, and I am a non-conformist adult. I know how McWorld treats us…they just give adults less shit because adults stand up for themselves more than kids do. Maybe he didn’t handle himself well…but kids tend to react honestly to things…and I’d honestly freak out at someone if they gave me shit for the book I was reading. The authorities there clearly knew that they had over-reacted, because they fabricated a story about him making a bomb threat. Don’t lose sight of that.
Should airport security be tightened? Duh. It should have been brought into line with the EU years ago. Why wasn’t it? I dunno…but I’m willing to bet it had something to do with corporate profits.
I didn’t say that this was scary because I am against airport security. Let’s all get that straight. Remember that there was a commision formed specifically to address possible terrorism in the US, and their findings and reccomendations were ignored. Arianna Huffington has an interesting theory.
I was dismayed to read some comments that seemed to fall right in line with the “You’re with us or you’re with the Terrorists” rhetoric, seemingly heeding Ari Fleischer’s warning to “all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like [Bill Maher’s on PI]; there never is.” But I am happy that, now more than ever, we can all conduct ourselves here with dignity and aplomb, and argue ideas, not personalities.