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supercanuck

Is there something wrong with me that I am not even remotely outraged by this?

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I don't think so. I found these two very amusing even:

"@AmericanAir hello my name is Ibrahim I think you guys are the BOMB!!!!!!"

"@SouthwestAir I bake really good pies and my friends call me ″the bomb” am I still allowed to fly?"

No. There is a huge difference between a threat and a credible threat. I know that they have to take things seriously, but the entire thing is teenagers throwing eggs because they could see it wasnt credible from the first second, and teenagers love to throw eggs.

Well, it makes obvious what should already be obvious: that tweeting a threat is extremely easy, so without any additional information, the credibility of such a threat is extremely low. I don't know anything about the laws or policies around investigating terrorist threats, but I would hope that early in the process there is an attempt to estimate the credibility of a threat.

Not at all, and in fact it heartens me to see this. The young haven't yet been socially worn down into worrying about being punished for things that should not be crimes. Mass protesting by kids is one of the few ways we might be able to roll back the ridiculous draconian punishments for victimless "crimes".

19 here. on the contrary, i would say our generation, unlike yours, does not give law enforcement or the gov't the benefit of the doubt as you describe, because we have had a precedent of hostile gov't and law enforcement our entire life. we weren't here for Eisenhower, JFK, Carter, or even Clinton. we became politically aware during the Bush era. we are extremely aware of the possible consequences of our actions and have no expectation that we will be treated fairly by authority figures.

Well sure, (the general) you might intellectually know. But that doesn't mean you prudently avoid possible life-altering consequences. It's not the generation's views, but the fact that you're younger and have a sense of invincibility. I've never much trusted "authority", but there's no way I would ever join in this tweet-fest. Because after being through various confrontations myself, I have found it more pleasant to generally avoid them - even when everything ends up all right in the end.

Over here in post-everything Europe, young people today unfortunately don't have much to rebel against. It might not be good for teenagers if our society drifts towards a situation where rebellious actions are either shrugged off by everybody or, alternatively, will be used to ruin your life.

There needs to be a middle ground for the kids to explore.

I agree about the need for non-binary punishment, but it's nothing new to "this" generation. Computer cracking laws have been around for decades with the same life-altering draconian penalties. My point is the only way these things are going to actually change is for masses of people to play chicken with the establishment, and see if they're really willing to destroy so many people's lives rather than just a few isolated cases.

I get your point, but come on, don't a few of these seem like they might be a bit too close to a real threat? And in the process, require more work to disqualify them.

@AmericanAir the bomb goes of in 3 hours — Alden Fernandez ♥ (@AldoFernz) April 14, 2014

@AmericanAir I have a bomb under the next plane to take off — Army Jacket . (@ShyyLicious) April 14, 2014

@AmericanAir I’m gonna bomb your 737 jet — ▲ demi ▼ (@ddlovatosteddy) April 14, 2014

@AmericanAir You really seem to not care that i’m about to bomb your plane that’s headed to Paris. Btw, my name is Ahmed. — Allie (@ComedyBatman) April 14, 2014

I can't say I find those tweets to be that funny. I'm probably not outraged, but I'm definitely not amused by it.

Outraged that 1) someone tweeted a fake bomb threat, 2) that someone actually got arrested over it, 3) that an entire industry finds itself in the legal position of having to take action to respond to something as utterly effortless as some asshat sending a tweet, or 4) that a self-described journalist seems to be wringing his/her hands over the lack of credibility (gasp) in the Twitterverse?

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