I take the train a lot despite it taking longer and not being a good deal specifically to avoid dealing with the TSA. This would just keep me from traveling in general

Consider switching to a better country.

Consider the economic burden and complete lifestyle change to necessitate that.

Sneak, which country did you move to?

I have lived in Berlin since 2008.

Regardless of what laws are on the books of the respective countries, the state interferes in my day-to-day life vastly less in Germany than in the United States, and the interactions I do encounter are generally way, way less brain damaged than the idiocy perpetrated continuously by the TSA, idiot American cops, et al.

I did; before, during, and after doing just that.

The burden for some may be too much for leaving the country to be a more viable option than staying and fighting for change.

Also some would argue that you can't run forever.

I'm not running any more than someone who moved from e.g. Detroit to Manhattan (something I did in 2006).

Nations are terrible, leaky abstractions (intended to make you feel proud of things you have not done and hate people you have not met) and their use is discouraged.

Fighting for change against cowardly authoritarians themselves armed with machine guns and drones (like the Department of Homeland Security) is pointless without your own weapons, and I do not wish to take up arms. Anything less is ineffective, as Snowden and al-Awlaki and Nacchio (and perhaps Obama) have shown us.

Running from the USA would mean you run to another country which probably has the same proportion (or worse) of people that mindcrime is complaining about.

You could drive instead of taking the train.

Well considering Congress created TSA, it's unsurprising they're trying to feed us more of that shit sandwich.

Exactly, not to mention the fact that trains can stop. Buses can stop. We have all the security in planes not because they move, but because they have to keep moving.

Also they are massive, fragile, and explosive.

I don't have a family which might make me feel different. However, I'd rather be dead than live in a police state.

>Oh, hell no. The last thing we need is more dumbshits, who couldn't hack it at McDonalds, groping people and clogging up the transportation networks

What a shitty and ignorant comment to insult the employees as if they are the ones creating the rules and guidelines they follow. And just because they choose to work at TSA instead of McDonalds somehow makes them dumber is even more stupid.

"Just following orders" isn't a good enough excuse. There are plenty of jobs that I wouldn't take because I fundamentally disagree with what they entail. Being a stagehand for security theatre is one of them.

Being in a position to turn down a job is a privilege.

Still not an excuse:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Defense

In my experience, the TSA has difficulty distinguishing curves from angles. It is perhaps permissible that an X-ray machine lacks the appropriate resolution, but the human eye and brain are clearly capable of determining curved-tipped scissors from sharp-tipped scissors. Not so the federal security officers who beggar that species classification, and must query and ponder whenever they encounter examples of the former among my possessions.