Give someone an ID badge and a badge and they’re like the Gestapo. “What book am I reading? How to fly an Airbus 321 ‘cuz like it’s my first time and all”
LOL! Funny, but will earn you a trip to a special screening room.
re: “Give someone an ID badge and a badge and they’re like the Gestapo”
YES, that is the point! The people who turned the TSA into the organization they are today knew that.
The famous academic study which described how to change people with the use of uniforms and fake authority is known as the “Stanford Prison Experiment,” but real life precursors of the TSA include the Sturmabteilung, which was eventually folded into the Gestapo. The first large scale action of the Sturmabteilung was setting up checkpoints in front of private businesses, changing both the Sturmabteilung members and the general public in the process.
Yes, it’s not just the power given to the agency itself, it’s the power given to the individual inspectors. What I find totally unnerving is that most of these “agents” (at least in major metropolitan areas where I’ve observed them) are NOT American born. MANY look to be muslim, many have thick accents. Most could not get a real job in the private sector, yet they now have the power to decide who gets on a plane and who doesn’t. Plus the power to confiscate anything they like from your baggage. I will bet a large sum that when they confiscate things of value, those things go home with them.