I teach a college course on research design. One of the topics is surveys and privacy. I tell the students that marketing surveys are infamous for collecting people’s private information, especially those attached to product registration forms.
Have you ever wondered what your income, age, and the number of people living in your house have to do with registering a new stereo or appliance? Nothing. Companies are collecting information for marketing purposes, and some of it is very personal. Being asked to surrender that kind of information is really no different than a stranger coming up to you on the street and asking:
1. What is your race?
2. How many people are in your home?
3. What are your hobbies?
4. Do you have credit cards? If so, how many?
5. How much money do you make?
6. How old are you?
Kind of freaky, eh?
Many people don’t realize that this is an invasion of privacy, which might explain why many people don’t seem to realize that submitting to a scan or invasive pat down at the airport is also an invasion of privacy. Taking nude photos or touching the breasts of our wives and daughters at the airport is not a necessary evil to ensure safe travel – it is an unnecessary invasion of privacy, plain and freakin’ simple.
How did we get here? I don’t blame the president. I don’t blame the bosses at the TSA. I don’t even put all the blame on terrorists. I blame this invasion of privacy on those who have perpetuated the falsehood that it is wrong to profile.
“Oh no!” you say. We sheeple have been taught that it is wrong to profile (i.e., stereotype). “We can’t do that.”
Baloney. You do it all the time. That’s right. You stereotype all the time (i.e., form impressions of people based on past experience with similar looking and sounding people). You do it whenever you talk to a stranger. You do it whenever you walk away from a suspicious looking stranger. You do it whenever you ask someone for help on the side of the street or at a gas station. Stereotyping is human nature. Stereotypes are sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect - the fact that they are sometimes incorrect does not mean that we should ignore them. They are useful guides.
So enough already. Enough frisking of caucasian grandmothers with Utah accents. Enough patting down young American children who look like they’ve just gotten out of school. Enough frisking of WW II veterans carrying US passports. And enough taking nude photos of hispanic, native, black, and caucasian young women who dress and talk like Americans.
Enough already!
See that foreigner over there who dresses and talks like an easterner and carries a Saudi Arabian passport? That is the guy you should be giving an enhanced pat down because he dresses and talks like the kind of people who are currently trying to kill us. See that American over there who is dressed like a gang banger and looks like he could have weapons stored in his baggy pants? That is the guy you should be taking nude photos of. See that foreigner over there with a one-way ticket who is not checking any luggage? That is the person who should be taken aside for questioning.
Americans have been brained washed into thinking that stereotyping is un-American and a violation of our liberties. Rather than rely on useful stereotypes, we require everyone to go through nude body scanners or intrusive pat downs. In the name of preserving liberties (by not stereotyping), we’ve surrendered liberties (by subjecting everyone to scans). Are we living in some sort of bizzaro world?
A final note. No country faces more threats from terrorism than Israel, but Israel does not require its citizens to go through scanners or enhanced pat downs at airports. They don’t even have scanners. So how does Israel handle its security at airport check points? That’s right – it profiles.
(Please, no comments on the definition of stereotyping. I’ve read, studied, and taught this subject. And no comments on whether the scanner photos are really nude photos – they are sufficiently revealing to raise concerns. Also, I oppose any kind of stereotyping [accurate & inaccurate] that results in harmful discrimination.)
Have you ever wondered what your income, age, and the number of people living in your house have to do with registering a new stereo or appliance? Nothing. Companies are collecting information for marketing purposes, and some of it is very personal. Being asked to surrender that kind of information is really no different than a stranger coming up to you on the street and asking:
1. What is your race?
2. How many people are in your home?
3. What are your hobbies?
4. Do you have credit cards? If so, how many?
5. How much money do you make?
6. How old are you?
Kind of freaky, eh?
Many people don’t realize that this is an invasion of privacy, which might explain why many people don’t seem to realize that submitting to a scan or invasive pat down at the airport is also an invasion of privacy. Taking nude photos or touching the breasts of our wives and daughters at the airport is not a necessary evil to ensure safe travel – it is an unnecessary invasion of privacy, plain and freakin’ simple.
How did we get here? I don’t blame the president. I don’t blame the bosses at the TSA. I don’t even put all the blame on terrorists. I blame this invasion of privacy on those who have perpetuated the falsehood that it is wrong to profile.
“Oh no!” you say. We sheeple have been taught that it is wrong to profile (i.e., stereotype). “We can’t do that.”
Baloney. You do it all the time. That’s right. You stereotype all the time (i.e., form impressions of people based on past experience with similar looking and sounding people). You do it whenever you talk to a stranger. You do it whenever you walk away from a suspicious looking stranger. You do it whenever you ask someone for help on the side of the street or at a gas station. Stereotyping is human nature. Stereotypes are sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect - the fact that they are sometimes incorrect does not mean that we should ignore them. They are useful guides.
So enough already. Enough frisking of caucasian grandmothers with Utah accents. Enough patting down young American children who look like they’ve just gotten out of school. Enough frisking of WW II veterans carrying US passports. And enough taking nude photos of hispanic, native, black, and caucasian young women who dress and talk like Americans.
Enough already!
See that foreigner over there who dresses and talks like an easterner and carries a Saudi Arabian passport? That is the guy you should be giving an enhanced pat down because he dresses and talks like the kind of people who are currently trying to kill us. See that American over there who is dressed like a gang banger and looks like he could have weapons stored in his baggy pants? That is the guy you should be taking nude photos of. See that foreigner over there with a one-way ticket who is not checking any luggage? That is the person who should be taken aside for questioning.
Americans have been brained washed into thinking that stereotyping is un-American and a violation of our liberties. Rather than rely on useful stereotypes, we require everyone to go through nude body scanners or intrusive pat downs. In the name of preserving liberties (by not stereotyping), we’ve surrendered liberties (by subjecting everyone to scans). Are we living in some sort of bizzaro world?
A final note. No country faces more threats from terrorism than Israel, but Israel does not require its citizens to go through scanners or enhanced pat downs at airports. They don’t even have scanners. So how does Israel handle its security at airport check points? That’s right – it profiles.
(Please, no comments on the definition of stereotyping. I’ve read, studied, and taught this subject. And no comments on whether the scanner photos are really nude photos – they are sufficiently revealing to raise concerns. Also, I oppose any kind of stereotyping [accurate & inaccurate] that results in harmful discrimination.)
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