It's anecdotal evidence, but I recently traveled to the US and was sadly reminded by how the "war on terror" is still very much alive in the American public con

It's anecdotal evidence, but I recently traveled to the US and was sadly reminded by how the "war on terror" is still very much alive in the American public conscious. I don't see the TSA situation improving until that happens. * The first thing I needed to do was get a visa. All my papers are stamped by the Department of Homeland Security, whose name reflects the post 9/11 mentality of the war on terror. * When dispatching my baggage, I noticed that Delta airlines offers a special discount for active U.S. military personnel. "You serve us, and we’re delighted to serve you", as they said. This reflects a country that has been constantly at war for a century. * After I board my flight I read Delta's in-flight magazine. They have an article about how Google is using targeted advertisements to fight "terrorists" and "extremists". Back home, the in flight magazine is full of vapid travel articles but here in the American airline we find an article bringing fear to light and suggesting a multinational corporation's information harvesting product as the solution. * After I land in the US I almost miss my connecting flight because of the enormous customs and TSA lines. What a way to feel welcome... * In my connecting flight, I get a quick refresher of what right-wing media can be in the US, as the passenger next to me has brought a newspaper and tuned the in-flight entertainment system to Fox News. * The newspaper has articles about a new 900 billion dollar defense bill and an article about new scanner technology being investigated by the TSA, which would allow laptops to stay inside the bag. The article suggested that this was the only way to speed up the lines. * I thought I already knew what Fox News was about, but it still managed to surprise me: * The Westminster car crash that injured 3 people was covered as a full blown attack. News insertions every 5 minutes. "Alert!" "Alert!" * One of the talk show hosts went on a product-placement segment about ancesty.com and how she could trace the ethnicity of her ancestors. The 5 white show hosts then spent a couple of minutes discussing her European ethnicity. In these times of racial tension and rising nationalism, things like this make me a little nervous. * After the ancestry.com segment, they jumped to a musical segment about the Camp4Heroes charity. Another reminder of the constant state of war that the US goes through, the large number of wounded veterans that are victims of it, and the special euphemisms that american english uses for these things: "heroes", "veterans", "serving the country", etc. * Fox news also aired news about Facebook excusing themselves that their surveilance network failed to stop fake news spread by terrorists. (As if the Google article from earlier wasn't enough).