Spy On Thy Neighbor

[JGeropoulas]

I was talking to a client today and she relayed this story about her husband, who's an executive in a bank here in North Carolina:

Recently, he took a colleague from India to lunch. At some point, the conversation turned to hobbies and the Indian gentleman mentioned he enjoyed building and flying model airplanes. My client's husband paid the bill with his credit card and they left.

Later in the day, the husband was notified by his secretary that two men were there from the FBI and wanted to talk with him! Though completely baffled, of course he had them brought into his office. They proceeded to explain that someone at the restaurant had called to report that two men, one of whom looked Muslim, were overheard in a restaurant discussing building something to do with airplanes!

Ark's Quantum Quirk today, ("Sorry We Missed You...") is the perfect visual for this scenario.

 

[anart]

Nothing like the combination of mass media fear mongering and ignorance.

 

[Tarri]

The march of the brainlessly brainwashed.

Tarri

 

[dant]

Sadly, that is all it takes for a ignorant moron to report an "incident"
whatever it may be and for the fascist kops to come and ask you
questions.

So, it pays to watch what you say in public if you don't want the
flies to come and roost on you, or so it seems.

Innocence lost. sigh.

 

[NormaRegula]

I downloaded Ark's Quantum Quirk today to show some of my activist friends at a dinner this evening. At first they laughed, then became serious; with one stating what was on all of our minds - it's more real than funny.

Have things in the US gotten to a point where even satire makes us uncomfortable? Will the day come when something like the "Sorry, We Missed You" list passed around amongst friends leads to authorities knocking on doors because someone (maybe one of the "friends" or a stranger looking over a shoulder) called the cops and claimed subversive literature was being passed around?

Look at how the authorities responded to an innocent conversation per JGeropoulas' story. (Like real terrorists would talk about committing acts of terror in a public restaurant.) It almost makes me long for the days when people panicked over spilt baby powder and greeting card confetti. I used to think that was so silly...and things couldn't get any worse.