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Comment by benchaney | Hacker News Reader

TSA precheck is working exactly as it is supposed to. The purpose of airport security in general isn't to make anyone safer. It is security theatre. Precheck allows people to opt out of the pointless security screening for a cost. It is just a racket. I'm sure a determined attacker could get around precheck, but that missed the point. TSA screenings were never intended to be secure in any meaningful way anyway.

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It is a genius program, Congress gave autonomy to Homeland Security to raise or lower security thresholds. No representative could EVER roll back the Patriot Act, you can never accurately point out that any of it is security theatre in case something actually did happen. You can never actually argue for making Americans less safe. So letting Homeland Security have discretion over it with their various programs is actually pretty genius.

I'm glad this is the only comment on this article, the TSA is an inane joke. It's easy enough to slip weapons etc. through airport security. (I've brought a pack of blades for my safety razor on almost every flight I've taken since around 2010, and never been questioned about it.) Even if security were actually tight, the fact that pilots are armed and behind blast doors during flight means it would be pointless anyway.

No, that would only be "pointless" if someone wanted to hijack the plane. If they wanted to blow it up, then armed pilots behind doors wouldn't make a difference.

If they're going to blow something up, why not a bus or a train or a bridge or a cruise boat or something? There's not so many people on an airplane that it's like it's your only opportunity to kill a lot of people.

The only (rational) reason I can imagine that makes planes different is that you can use it as a missile to attack a larger target.

Not to mention it just creates another place to attack civilians. All lined up, lots of luggage and other people around to trip over, tired and bored passengers who have been on their feet for awhile.

Let's not forget it's a great 'make work' program for former military personnel.

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