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Comment by jfrancis | Hacker News Reader

The key is to make the pat-down as time consuming and embarrassing as possible for the TSA staff. Follow these steps:

1) Refuse the body scanner and request a manual pat-down.

2) Ask to have a supervisor, or a second TSA staff, present during the pat-down. Explain that this is to ensure that no sexual harassment occurs.

3) If you are a guy, ask to have a female TSA staff member perform the pat-down. If your request is denied, calmly explain to the TSA guy that you are homosexual and that a pat-down by another guy will turn you on and will make you sexually extremely uncomfortable.

4) During the pat-down, make comments such as "Oh yeah, I like it when you touch me there!", or "Can I get a happy ending?"

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I think this would be great if the person performing the pat-down had great influence in setting security policy.

Unfortunately the people doing those jobs are extremely low on the chain of command that is setting the policies and paying the bills.

Disclaimer: I do not like the security theater. I'm just wondering if there is a better way to get more effective results without wasting your time and making the day frustrating for security people (who will most likely not be quitting their job or changing the policy).

Maybe if the TV news stations actually had an interest to bring it to people's attentions...

Maybe if a large percentage of people actually did it. Large enough of a percentage that it created huge delays, flight cancellations and caused huge amount of profit loss. Hurt them where they actually care about, their wallets/bank accounts.

But you are even further away. So actions like this might be more than what you would accomplish otherwise. If enough "executors" are annoyed and unhappy, maybe they will raise the issue to the next level. And so on.

They made their choices in their employment and in their implementation of policy, and they deserve what they get. They are quite directly "part of the problem".

No need to go that far. The easiest way to protest this is to DDoS the system - if a large enough proportion of the population consistent opts out of the backscatter, the system will collapse on itself.

There is no way TSA can clear a flight full of people using patdowns fast enough. All we need is enough people to refuse - no need to make special requests or other muck up the works.

Although a mass resistance would work, it's unlikely to happen, since it requires a large change in attitude and behaviour of a large percentage of the population.

if a large enough proportion of the population consistent opts out of the backscatter, the system will collapse on itself.

I disagree. Why in the world should the authorities care that the lines for "opt-outs" are incredibly long, and the machines are getting low usage?

If enough of the right people complain, people in authority start losing their jobs. That's why the authorities care.

They're concerned about driver's license lines, so why wouldn't this also concern them? Oh, wait...

Because when people (sheeple?) start missing their flights, they will lose their shit. Lots of rabble rabble (i.e. South Park) will follow, and TSA & the Feds absolutely will bend, as they have before.

> if a large enough proportion of the population consistent opts out of the backscatter, the system will collapse on itself.

>There is no way TSA can clear a flight full of people using patdowns fast enough

When you get to the airport and there is a 3-hour backlog for patdowns but no line for the ionizing radiation backscatter, are you going to miss your flight?

And what happens with people who go through the scanner, but get flagged for a patdown anyway...

> When you get to the airport and there is a 3-hour backlog for patdowns but no line for the ionizing radiation backscatter, are you going to miss your flight?

You should be at the airport a couple hours earlier...

Unfortunately for the heroic-hearted, the general populace will take the path of least resistance. What's a nude picture and extra radiation here and there when I have an important business deal to close in 4 hours?

I agree for points one and two, further points are the best way to go for a loooooooong journey in a little room. They have way more time than you have and they know it. The whole game is to make _you_ being embarrassed about the pat-down so you'll finally go through screening next time. This whole game is totally unbalanced in a way, your ressources to make them retreat are absolutely insignificant in front of the whole machine (on spot that is). The only way out of this craziness is political so don't hesitate to give a call, send a mail to people representing you.

  further points are the best way to go for a loooooooong
  journey in a little room. They have way more time than you
  have and they know it.

Well, one can dream that if every third passenger would start making request like this they won't have that much time anymore…

I'm going to make something better:

I will take some standard (t-shirts, shorts) clothing and metalize them, them I will sell them in airports, as a signal of protest. With your clothes metalized x-rays can't pass thought.

Make some metalized underwear and bras, sell em on the net. Might make some bank with that.

3) Just wear a cricket box. Tell them you love the game if they ask questions.

5) Count perforations in ceiling tiles in the room where they detain you for "additional screening"

6) Miss flight and lose non-refundable airfare

> 6) Miss flight and lose non-refundable airfare

It was the pilots that boycotted the sscanner this time.

6) Miss flight and get canned by airline

None of those things would make you miss your flight or get canned.

None of those things would make you miss your flight.

Yeah, people never miss their flights due to being detained by the TSA without a very good reason. Nobody has ever heard of that ever happening.

Great thinking. Let's just keep taking up the arse because otherwise we might be inconvenienced! I know that TSA has gotten worse literally every year but we wouldn't want to be inconvenienced. Far better to just hope that it works out on its own!

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