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This is similar to 9/11 where politicians would act without thinking just to appear like they were doing something. Security theater was the norm for many year
by nostromo 7y ago
This is similar to 9/11 where politicians would act without thinking just to appear like they were doing something. Security theater was the norm for many years.
- anthm1988 7y agoBitter about human lives being prioritized over your stocks? Poor little psychos.
- quadrangle 7y agoI hope you're not saying that measures which actually achieve more social distancing is somehow theater.
- nostromo 7y agoIf our response has been commensurate with the threat or an overreaction is definitely an open question. One we probably won't be able to answer definitively for a while.
- yitianjian 7y agoI saw one really good comment - we'll know for sure if we under reacted, but we'll never know if we overreacted
- addicted 7y agoWhich is exactly why it isn’t an overreaction. Thanks to the lack of testing we have no idea how bad this is. And due to the severity of the worst case scenarios and relatively high probability of them be happening, in the absence of more information, an overreaction is indeed prudent. That’s what people don’t get. Uncertainty often increases the need for more action, it doesn’t reduce it.
- sershe 7y agoOmitting the rest of my argument (so that this can be hopefully kept more specific), arguing about this with people on HN actually made me think it's also part theater, just like airport security et al. Consider this merits aside, even if quarantine saves everyone and lack thereof kills everyone; we don't know that yet. If you are a mayor of Podunk, Nebrahoma, you have two choices. You can join in the quarantining with everyone else, and whatever damage that causes is not your fault. If someone literally comes to a town hall 2 years later to tell you they lost their job for 2 months, were evicted, got addicted to drugs and their life is ruined now, it will still be blamed on the virus and global economy and whatnot. Now, if you don't join, not only you won't achieve much due to the others' actions - if anything goes wrong you will be blamed for every dead grandma and your political career is over. There's really no incentive to not max out the quarantine theater, regardless of the relative merits of the measures taken.
- roywiggins 7y agoThey've relaxed the no-liquids rule now! for hand sanitizer only.
- jedberg 7y agoI've had a bottle of hand sanitizer in my bag for years and they've never once said anything. Either their security is so bad they've never caught it, or they've always been lax about sanitizer.
- jfoutz 7y agowhew. Good thing isopropyl alcohol isn't explosive in vapor form or someone might make a bomb!
- jfengel 7y agoOr at least, things claiming to be hand sanitizer. Which just makes the rule more absurd. If you've got a favorite shampoo, time to go looking for a nice large hand sanitizer bottle to transfer it to. (Though I wouldn't do that for contact lens saline, a thing I'd kinda like to bring on in large bottles, since the small ones are absurdly expensive and somewhat less available.)
- sfritz 7y agoThey technically allow large bottles of contact solution in carry-on because it's a medical necessity (https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/contact-lens-solution https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/...). I just keep it in my toiletries bag and they pull it out to run a quick test most of the time.
- jfengel 7y agoThat's good to know. Thank you.