The "terrists" have won

[altivo]

When people believe that anything with like "wires and batteries" is a bomb:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/boston.bombscare/index.html

This is incredibly childish and stupid. Have we fallen so far that there is no common sense left at all? Apparently so.

Better ban all cell phones from everywhere. Flashlights too. No more PDAs or laptop computers either, because they have wires and batteries in them. Jeez! Maybe we should just ban all batteries and make the sale or distribution of batteries illegal?

This is what terrorism really is, folks. Making you so afraid of everything that you are a quivering pile of jelly unable to perform the daily necessities of life.

The real terrorists in the US are the people promoting this "fear everything, trust nothing" attitude.

Comments

[plushlover.livejournal.com]

Americans have become such complete pussies. It's absolutely shameful...

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Reading between the lines on this story, it seems that they were arrested more because they embarrassed the police than anything else.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it would be even worse had they embarrassed big bad [stupid] federal agents. Yet these same advertising gadgets were distributed in a dozen other cities without incident.

Lemmings. All it takes is one to do something stupid and hundreds more will follow.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You won't like this answer, probably, but it's in part due to the constant harping on "terrorists, terrorists, terrorists" coming from the administration in Washington.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Terrorism! Fear your neighbor! Buy a gun! Lock your doors!

When I was in town today (a nice lil' place of 5,000), I didn't bother taking the keys out of the car when I went into a cafe for lunch. When I go to the city overnight I don't bother locking up the house. Gosh, we must be armed to the teeth here to feel so safe!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, you just don't have a political regime that is promoting fear in order to keep its own power secure.

[alaskawolf.livejournal.com]

you know i cant wait to see the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie :)

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

I still haven't seen an article that actually says *why* they thought the things were bombs or whatever. Admittedly, placing them at bridges/tunnels/hospitals would make me slightly concerned if I were the one receiving reports of devices found around the city, but still it just smacks of stupid overreaction.

The things are basically souped up Lite Brites. Sheesh.

[plushlover.livejournal.com]

It goes back a long time before that. America lost its balls after Vietnam. We've been a nation of self-despising cowards ever since...

[baphnedia.livejournal.com]

I was going to leave a comment about this - the 'Scare the public' mindset has been used to greater and greater degrees since at least the start of the cold war. We've become so mentally conditioned for exploitation that where, in the '70's, a $0.40 increase in the price of gas caused an energy crisis, to where we've doubled the price of gas rather quietly. (granted the price has started to drop again - $2.19/gal in my area instead of $3.++)

[calydor.livejournal.com]

The article uses the phrase "in a post 9/11 era" at one point to say why this is such an unacceptable practice.

I guess that's why gas stoves were made illegal after World War II, right?

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but seriously - yes, 9/11 was a tragedy, mourn the losses and all that, but then GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON. We had a fireworks factory blow up a couple of years, eradicated EVERYTHING in about a 3/4 mile radius. Fortunately very few deaths. Do we constantly fear seeing fireworks? No. We made some stricter rules about fireworks handling in general, and that was it! We moved on, and so should America.

Of course, on TV right now is a cult-like Danish series from the 70s, depicting life as it was in the 1930s and onward in Denmark. Scary thing is, a lot of it is like hearing about America in the present day.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

You know that the rest of the world was rather amused that anyone would consider $3/gal a HIGH price?

Here in the UK, unleaded is about $7.70/gal today.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

The things are basically souped up Lite Brites. Sheesh.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. Or even, "What, theses guys never saw a Lite-Brite?" Even though I am not all familiar with the character being depicted, seeing one photo of the device(s) made it clear the thing was a display.

I disagree with Altivo on this one, overall. This is not the result of big scary administration stuff (And there is much overreaction in implementation I will agree. It's good to be alert, but one must think and be able to decide what is a real concern and what is not.), but the much more real and much more insidious general ignorance and zero intelligence (mistakenly called zero tolerance) policies that are designed to relieve people of the burden of thinking at all. This leads to "I don't know what it is. It must be bad. EVERYBODY PANIC!" nonsense that just happened.

The interesting (and perhaps reassuring?) is that these things were in other cities and there was no big scare in those places.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Someone at Time Warner was really dumb to think this sort of thing wouldn't raise eyebrows, at least.

But having said that, I must admit to a little fantasy where the apprehension of the guys putting up the devices was the opening shot in the ultimate exposure of how STUPID this fear foisted off on us by the Bushies has become. Time Warner on the side of common sense, leading the battle against the war on tare-ism?

Nah, it could only happen in the movies. <sigh>

[miktar.livejournal.com]

I was quite shocked myself. Not because people reacted in this way, I expected that. Not because the bomb squads were called in, that bit seems perfectly normal in the fear-centric America these days.

What shocked me, is how I only found out about this today, when I was checking news yesterday like a vulture (Wednesdays are Newsday for me). The media practically ignored the whole thing, /until/ it became a bombscare. Several reports indicate the advertising campaign has been running for a week now in several states - but not a chirp about it anywhere, not even Boingboing.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, well. I think I can bear to skip that.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, it was just advertising. Nobody cares about advertising except ad executives and the advertisers. The rest of the world tolerates or ignores it. The campaign sounds stupid to me, but the overreaction in Boston is moronic. Right up there with the old H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" panic.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

In the days of Henry Luce, it might have happened. In the day of the AOL-Time-Warner media conglomerate board room, not a chance they would take any action that might embarrass the Republican party or any of its adherents.

Take my word for that. I'm a survivor of Life at Time Inc. Eight years of it in fact.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. Like the reason that hemp fiber can't be grown in the US, because federal agents are too stupid to tell it from marijuana.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

Just noticed a grave typo in my comment, of course it should say that the factory blew up a couple of years AGO, not that it was exploding for a couple of years.

Hemp fiber can't be grown in the US? What the hell do you make ropes out of, nylon only?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

these things were in other cities and there was no big scare in those places

Because it's a herd/flock/lemming reaction thing. No nervous nellie happened to spot one elsewhere and "do the patriotic thing" of reporting it. All it takes is one nut case to start a stampede, but without that one nutcase, the rest of the sheep remain placid.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's a very complicated issue, though. In the UK, there are usually transportation alternatives available. In much of the US, there are none. I'm not saying that shouldn't be fixed, but it's the way things are. The entire US economy is oil-dependent because it is ultimately automobile dependent. In many cases, where there once were other modes of transportation they have actually been dismantled. When I was a child in Detroit, for instance, we had streetcars and interurban rail. The automakers and oil companies actually bought those up and closed them down in order to promote automobile use and gasoline consumption.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There are still hemp ropes, but the fiber has to be imported. Other fibers, such as sisal and jute are also used. However, if you go to buy rope here, chances are most of the available options will indeed be synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon, or polyethylene. You have to hunt for the natural fiber stuff.

I can buy imported hemp fiber, I can buy fabric made from hemp fiber. But if I plant any seeds I am subject to arrest and fine or imprisonment. Yes, it's utterly moronic, but the useless paranoia about drugs is all pervasive here.

[miktar.livejournal.com]

I like the campaign, but that's because I like it when people think outside the box a little, and surprise you. I like creative marketing, I'll admit - I've always felt it was a field I could do well in.

But you are right, the Boston panic was wholly unwarranted.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

*shrug* Oil prices are kept artificially low in the US, so what can we expect? Our gov't slaps plenty of tax on petrol, as they should. (Though improving public transport with the proceeds would be nice, too...)