I'm getting way past tired of our government, all branches and both parties, justifying and explaining things based on the sprecter of the threat of terism. It is complete and utter bullshit. Rougly 3000 people were killed in the 911 attacks. All the spying and security theater since has uncovered and prevented pretty much nothing of substance.
Meanwhile, well follow me below the toxic omelette --
3000 deaths from our major terist attack, that's roughly the annual toll from food borne illness. Every year, roughly 1 in 6 Americans, 48 million of us, suffer from some sort of food poisoning. This incidence of toxic food results in roughly 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths annually. So, tell me about all this terism.
"Oh, it would be vastly greater without the Thousands Standing Around, mostly groping people & stealing their water bottles?" No, there is no evidence of that.
"It would be far, far worse without tons of spying and eavesdropping?"There is no evidence of that either.
"We must sacrifice our freedoms, of speech, association, assembly and press to protect ourselves from the oh so scary , deadly communists terists hiding under every bed?" Absolute effing bullshit. Not only is this factually untrue, but it is also illogical.
The putative need to sacrifice a little freedom for security, to protect one's liberties is not only oxymoronic, it is hypermoronic. You have a limited amount of freedom, a small set of rights, especially with the government treating most of them as mere priveleges. There are an infinitude of possible phantom threats they can and will wave at you to get you to waive ever more and more freedom. Get serious.
Meanwhile, it is pretty obvious that they don't give a shit about your security and safety. One 911 attack's worth of deaths from foodborne illness per year If they gave a shit about you, those Thousands Standing Around wouldn't be grouping your meat at airports, but would be at packing plants, inspecting the meat, fruits and veggies that make one in 6 of us sick every year. They wouldn't be confiscating water, but ensuring its purity and safety. The NSA would be helping to inspect incoming cargoes of food at ports of entry, not trying to figure out how to construe innocent statements by pacifists as some threat so they can flag them as potential terists.
So, what about it? Well, call it out, work to end it. Don't go along, but resist. Since this is putatively a representative democracy, let 'em hear from you. Tell them all to knock it off, from the lowest elected official on up, and if they are Dems, threaten to withhold support if they do not, no contributions, no precinct walking, no telephone calls, etc. Maybe you believe that third parties are hopeless, but they don't know you believe that, threaten to go Green, or stay home. Spread the word too if you're a social media type. Meanwhile, do some monkeywrenching. I hope to do a diary on that soon, but you're creative people, you can think of stuff yourself.