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The New Wilderness (Idle Words)

The large tech companies point to our willing use of their services as proof that people don’t really care about their privacy. But this is like arguing that inmates are happy to be in jail because they use the prison library. Confronted with the reality of a monitored world, people make the rational decision to make the best of it.

I disagree. This analogy is false.

It’s more like you’ve come to my house for a party. You notice all the cameras outside the hose, and a few inside the house. I tell you that I have recording devices in my living room.

You express your discomfort but I’ve told you that the devices are staying. I’ve told you that you are free to leave at any time. But yet, you decided to hangout in my lounge complaining to all my guests about how I should offer more vegan options.

It’s my house. It’s my party. Please leave if you don’t like the house rules. You need my permission to stay. You can choose to leave any any time.

I think the author is conflating privacy and anonymity.

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Woman Sues TSA Over A ‘Humiliating’ Strip Search by Theresa Brain (In Homeland Security)

Rhonda Mengert, whose age was not given, filed suit last Wednesday against the TSA and two unnamed employees for a search that she said was not only unwarranted but also humiliating enough to veer into the traumatic.

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… It was during the pat-down that they encountered the feminine hygiene product.

“Literally millions of women in the United States wear such items on any given day, and therefore finding one during a TSA pat-down is not at all an uncommon occurrence,” the complaint notes.

Then they told her to drop her drawers.

“I was just stunned; stunned when they said that I had to do that,” Mengert told KLAS-TV. “It’s surreal… I was accosted. I had no personal ability to protect myself against them; they took it away.”

She acquiesced to that demand as well, removed the articles of clothing, got dressed again, and then asked to leave. They ignored her, according to the complaint — not once but three times.

Finally, the fourth time she asked, they let her go.

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On Managing Pain by Tim Carmody (kottke.org)

We’ve got to get over our weird Puritanical crap about pain and pain medication and accept the fact that in certain contexts, we need the drugs. And by “we,” I mean myself, the medical system; everybody. We can’t be responsible for the entire opioid epidemic every second of every day. Sometimes we just need to be able to go to sleep.

My wife is on pain medication and acupuncture for her fibromyalgia pain. She’s managed her health condition for about ten years, with varying degrees of success. I’m sure I know what I would do if someone judged her medical choices without and understanding of her situation.