magiciansampras

Most people here hate TSA. They want to see it gone. Or at least severely pared down.

But we know from polls that the greater public disagrees with you. And they disagree by a pretty wide margin.

What explains this?

gojirasan

Most Americans are stupid, cowards. Dumb as fence posts and scared of their own shadows. At least that's my best guess.

chollie

Polls? I would like to see at least one comprehensive poll on public attitudes towards TSA. Breakdowns to include: non-fliers, folks who have not flown since the new procedures were instituted, folks who have not experienced the new patdowns.

The folks here are certainly more likely to be frequent fliers who have flown since the new procedures were instituted and thus more likely to have experienced the new patdowns.

I think there's an anecdotal 'poll' of one person in another thread on this forum. OP spoke to a non-frequent flier who was all for security, up to and including 'cavity searches'. OP proceeded to ask his friend if the the friend would be equally comfortable with his young daughter being subjected to patdowns. The friend's response suddenly shifted to a hope that he wouldn't be flying in the near future.

magiciansampras

Gallup to your rescue: http://www.gallup.com/poll/144920/Ai...-Security.aspx

Full methodology and cross-tabs: http://www.gallup.com/poll/File/1449...ov_24_2010.pdf

LessO2

Usage differences.

If the polls were to survey and extrapolate frequent fliers and the general public, you might get responses similar to here.

FriendlySkies

I think most people simply do not travel enough to care about TSA. For the Ma and Pa Kettle crowd, a body scan does not rattle them. Perhaps they do not understand the risks, or that these machines would not have caught Umar Farouck, or that Israel won't use them...

I've talked to so many friends and family that almost never travel, and none of them have heard any of these facts. In fact, they would spout the TSA lines about image deletion, etc.. That changed pretty quickly.

magiciansampras

You're not paying attention to the polls then; Gallup *did* talk to frequent fliers.

clifc

In the Gallup you cited they questioned people who had flown at least twice sometime in the last year. Many necessarily before the big rollouts. The survey doesn't accurately measure dissatisfaction with the full on grope for example.

magiciansampras

But importantly, most of those who *had* experienced the new measures, like the body scan, say they didn't mind it.

LessO2

YOU are not paying attention to what I am saying.

I said: "usage differences."

Look at Gallup's definition of a frequent flier. Two or more trips a year?

Your argument is based on Gallup's definition of a frequent flier. So, someone who takes a summer vacation, and then sees grandma at Christmas is defined as a frequent flier. Right.

I think it's safe to say that most people here fly significantly more than Gallup's definition of a frequent flier.

magiciansampras

If you look at the cross-tabs they're lumping together people who flew 2-4 times into one category and then 5+ times in another category. So it's not exactly true that only twice a year fliers are answering these questions. Many people that fly quite often are. @:-)

Saitek

Personally I feel most public polls are fixed.

magiciansampras

By whom?

Seat1A

+1!

i think the vast majority of flyers have no idea what is happening when they step into the scanner. i have ~50 friends on facebook, but when i posted an opt out experience, i had 5 likes in 20 minutes. people with a clue hate this with a passion, but we are a very small minority.

here's hoping we have good lawyers.

cardiomd

Sampras, how do you feel about the injustices of the Courts Union movement by Seikh Ahmed of Somalia? He has committed grave crimes that have led to much suffering of the people.

What? You don't know? You aren't riled up about it on an internet webforum?


It is lack of exposure / apathy / ignorance. Most people are not frequent fliers, and most don't really think about things other than what they see firsthand in their daily life.

The people that get angriest about the TSA would be educated frequent fliers. Although large in number, they are relatively rare compared with the population at large.