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"If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended." How is it creepy? Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes o

"If You See Something, Say Something. Be Suspicious of Anything Unattended." How is it creepy? Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes or so on subways. This might even be something that city officials explicitly required.

throwanem 10y ago
The slogan and program are a Department of Homeland Security thing, so you see it in a lot more places than just NYC. My guess is it's a string attached to some sort of DHS funding.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
  My understanding is the slogan was originally from NYC, and they didn't want DHS to use it.
kbenson 10y ago
> Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes or so on subways. My point is more that it's creepy in general, not specifically because of these devices (but the relation to 1984's telescreens is obvious), and that if it's prevalent in NYC (which I assumed), then I definitely don't want to live there. To me that feels like living with a sensationalist newscast about past terrorism always playing in the background, and I don't think that's a good state of mind to keep your citizens in for a decade and a half without good, and recent cause. > How is it creepy? I think there's a trade-off to be made between security and how you prime your population with fear. Having frequent messages about being suspicious of any random items in the city in general, not a specific high value target such as an airport, falls too far on one side of the spectrum for me. That it's on a large screen capable of recording video and audio, well that doesn't help[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen
- mindslight 10y ago
  I infer you've never been to the US? NYC is the most emo about it, but the same basic terrorist religion is present in all state media - both government and "private". As always, cui bono.
  - kbenson 10y ago
    Born and raised in California. I haven't been to New York, but I have driven across the country before (but not for quite some time). > the same basic tragedy religion is present in all state media Yes, but it's less pronounced where I live at least. I think New York has possibly had some it's cultural identity subsumed by this, but that's is not entirely new. There are portions of the country where historical occurrences from much further in the past inform the mindset of the population (at least a little) to this day. Such as the civil war. I still think it's worth point out though, as urging people to be aware of suspicious activity everywhere is at best pointless, and possibly counter-productive. Either you can't relax, or you get a false sense of security about situations where heightened awareness is actually useful (such as large gatherings of people). In that respect, it's security theater.
    - mindslight 10y ago
      Yes, it is more pronounced in NYC. Other places lack an implicit pretext, so their "normal" is fewer allusions to that particular event. The entire meme of "terrorism" is counterproductive, unless your goal is to scare the population into helplessness. The people that create explosions and the ones who endlessly harp on the possibility of future destruction are essentially working for the same team.
morgante 10y ago
It being prevalent in NYC doesn't make it any less creepy. Honestly, the constant terrorism fear-mongering is one of my least favorite things about the city. A few horrible tragedies are apparently enough to turn a city into being fearful of strangers and "anything unattended" for years. In 99.999999% of cases, that unattended lunch box is just a lunch box that someone forgot. All this fear-mongering does is further aggravate human's inability to reason about low probability events.

throwanem 10y ago

The slogan and program are a Department of Homeland Security thing, so you see it in a lot more places than just NYC. My guess is it's a string attached to some sort of DHS funding.

GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
My understanding is the slogan was originally from NYC, and they didn't want DHS to use it.

kbenson 10y ago

> Have you ever visited New York, its announced every 15 minutes or so on subways. My point is more that it's creepy in general, not specifically because of these devices (but the relation to 1984's telescreens is obvious), and that if it's prevalent in NYC (which I assumed), then I definitely don't want to live there. To me that feels like living with a sensationalist newscast about past terrorism always playing in the background, and I don't think that's a good state of mind to keep your citizens in for a decade and a half without good, and recent cause. > How is it creepy? I think there's a trade-off to be made between security and how you prime your population with fear. Having frequent messages about being suspicious of any random items in the city in general, not a specific high value target such as an airport, falls too far on one side of the spectrum for me. That it's on a large screen capable of recording video and audio, well that doesn't help[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen

mindslight 10y ago
I infer you've never been to the US? NYC is the most emo about it, but the same basic terrorist religion is present in all state media - both government and "private". As always, cui bono.
- kbenson 10y ago
  Born and raised in California. I haven't been to New York, but I have driven across the country before (but not for quite some time). > the same basic tragedy religion is present in all state media Yes, but it's less pronounced where I live at least. I think New York has possibly had some it's cultural identity subsumed by this, but that's is not entirely new. There are portions of the country where historical occurrences from much further in the past inform the mindset of the population (at least a little) to this day. Such as the civil war. I still think it's worth point out though, as urging people to be aware of suspicious activity everywhere is at best pointless, and possibly counter-productive. Either you can't relax, or you get a false sense of security about situations where heightened awareness is actually useful (such as large gatherings of people). In that respect, it's security theater.
  - mindslight 10y ago
    Yes, it is more pronounced in NYC. Other places lack an implicit pretext, so their "normal" is fewer allusions to that particular event. The entire meme of "terrorism" is counterproductive, unless your goal is to scare the population into helplessness. The people that create explosions and the ones who endlessly harp on the possibility of future destruction are essentially working for the same team.

morgante 10y ago

It being prevalent in NYC doesn't make it any less creepy. Honestly, the constant terrorism fear-mongering is one of my least favorite things about the city. A few horrible tragedies are apparently enough to turn a city into being fearful of strangers and "anything unattended" for years. In 99.999999% of cases, that unattended lunch box is just a lunch box that someone forgot. All this fear-mongering does is further aggravate human's inability to reason about low probability events.