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Comment by flipp3r | Hacker News Reader

> people who are so self centered that they would demand that Americans risk the very real threat of deadly terrorist attacks (...)

Europeans being self-centered? It's us not wanting to hand our computers to USA agencies, known to clone your harddrive and/or implant other crap on it. Agencies who can hold you indefinitely and are affiliated with other 3 letter agencies who do worse. ( See https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa... )

Do you think it would be fair to treat Americans going on vacation to any European country like this? Just let me clone your phone and laptop friend, it's for your own safety /s

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I dont think that Europeans are self centered, I think the people complaining about being required to check in their laptops to prevent likely terrorist attacks are being self centered in doing so.

The government cant clone or access your information just because you put it in storage rather than carry on.

I will complain because we have zero evidence of credible threat, and a huge amount of evidence of incompetence on the part of the agencies tasked with securing air travel. I will complain because the world is full of people who confuse "we did something" with "we did the right thing". I will complain because people seem to turn off their critical-thinking faculties when it comes to travel and security. I will complain because there is a long history of "temporary" restrictions which become permanent and serve only to enrich suppliers of screening equipment. I will complain for many reasons.

Most of all, I will complain because the world is a dangerous place and I know this, and I know that 100% "safety" is impossible, and even if it were the price would be far higher than I am willing to pay.

>I will complain because we have zero evidence of credible threat,

because you didn't read the article where it talked about the evidence of a credible threat.

> I think the people complaining about being required to check in their laptops to prevent likely terrorist attacks are being self centered in doing so.

Since the current administration has a credibility problem, people just think it's ridiculous security theater. Incredible claims require incredible evidence.

>the very real threat of deadly terrorist attacks

Are you trolling? The following is a list of "threats" more real than terrorism: (Note that money would be better spent on teaching the Heimlech maneuver by several orders of magnitude)

Heart Disease Cancer Lung Disease Stroke Alzheimers Diabetes Flu Kidney Disease Suicide Car accident Falling Assault by gun Choking on food

You'd save infinitely more lives since spending on any of these since there will most likely be 0 deaths from airline related terrorism.

So, people are concluding that this is theater designed to deflect away from the firing of Comey, which was executed in the dumbest manner possible.

> The government cant clone or access your information just because you put it in storage rather than carry on.

Of course they can. Someone can go in the hold before takeoff and have their way.

You make it sound like Donald Trump himself dug up the terrorist plans and issued the order. In all likelihood he wasn't even aware of it until after it was issued, it's not the president's duty to oversee stuff like this. This order was issued by the DHS, the head of which is John Kelly who is hardly a Trump lapdog.

If the position of the users of this forum is that everything to US government does for the next four years is wrong just because Trump holds the executive seat - then we need to have a 4 year politics ban because this is going to be unbearable. This has nothing to do with Trump and the fact that he is even being brought up in this discussion is crazy.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Please stop making this a Trump issue. It has nothing to do with him. As I stated, the threat from terrorism is so tiny as to be not worth mentioning under our current security status. The order itself is ridiculous beyond belief. You can still have phones, tablets or any number of other electronic devices than run on lithium ion batteries made into explosives. You wouldn't need much blast force in a confined space like an airplane cabin since the explosive pressure increases because of reflection. Simple solution to this ban, carry on two iPads.

The main point is I'm more worried dying on my daily walk around the block than this "threat" as the TSA has never stopped a would-be terrorist from boarding a plane.

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