Just Saying -- the soapbox thread

[Frag Magnet]

The War on Terror has done a pretty good job of disrupting the kind of terrorist networks/funding that can pull off big attacks (whether it's been worth the cost or not is another question entirely). Additionally, there are certain law enforcement reforms (at least in the US anyway) which have been very good at breaking up terrorist attacks before they can be executed. The FBI, for instance, has gotten extremely good at selling fake explosives to would-be terrorists.

But, yeah, 99.99% of what we see is, as EBRAddict put it, pure security theater.

Since the airport security was... altered, let's say (I don't want to get into effectiveness), the true nutters have changed to either "lone wolf" attacks, where they fill some useful idiot's head with nonsense and then send him out with no knowledge of any planned attacks on their part, or the European style attacks we've seen, where a truck is stolen, and driven into large gatherings of people -- what can we do, ban trucks? Put bollards up, everywhere?

In any sort of criminal behavior there's always going to be an element of what when I was in the army I called "TTP (tactics, tools, procedures) Whack-A-Mole"---people are thinking, creative, resourceful creatures and it's difficult to stop them from doing things they've set their mind to doing. While certain physical security measures are simply prudent, I've advocated primarily focusing on motive for a long time now because, as much as I liked blowing up dickheads' IEDs, it's just a hell of a lot more effective than trying to deal with what happens after you've already crossed the point of failure (a person who's willing and motivated to kill as many people as possible).

Personally I think the war on terror has achieved the complete opposite. There is more terrorist activity now. And its uncontrollable right now. The big network may have been smashed, but it just went local, creating a giant Al Qaida brand, which has now been joined with the more trendy ISIS brand. The war also got sidetracked into doing stupid stuff, like invading Iraq and toppling one secular Arab regime after the other, leading to the chaos that gave rise to the rival and far more deadly ISIS brand. Almost the entire Sahara is now an Al Qaida no go zone, ISIS is popping up in Afghanistan, the Taliban are doing more then just holding their own. And the worst of all, like alanp said, you don't even need a network any more. Any lone wolf, radicalized by watching propaganda online can turn deadly. That Arab young man you see on the street by the bus stop? He can now be a suicide bomber. Or pull a knife. Or drive his car into people. Or her, as when it comes to terrorism, suddenly they don't discriminate any more.

Yeah, the big attacks will probably not happen. But those are like plane accidents. They don't happen that often, and the chances of being caught in one are like being hit by lightning, not that high. The lone wolf attack, that's more like car accidents, far more likely to happen, far more random. So, I'd say, the war on terror has failed. Abysmally.

Any which way someone's opinion falls on this issue, it's definitely a big, complicated mess with a whole lot of uncertainty and unknowables thrown in. Like, we have no idea what terrorism would look like today without the GWOT; certainly different but we can't know if it would be overall better or worse. We have no idea what the collapse of Iraq would have looked like (the "stability" of Saddam's regime we now know was a veneer which was peeling rapidly) nor how the aftermath would have played out.

We also don't know if and to what extent the GWOT may have attenuated the behavior of certain nations who like to fund terrorism without getting caught in the act and called out for it (think: KGB funding/training/equipping of terrorists during operations SIG and TAYFUN).

I think it's safe to say that there's been a mixed bag of results and whether the overall result is a net positive or negative is really difficult to parse. Hopefully things are better now than they would of been but I honestly don't know if that's true or not.

[stringsthings]

Why did the chicken cross the road?

[alanp]

In any sort of criminal behavior there's always going to be an element of what when I was in the army I called "TTP (tactics, tools, procedures) Whack-A-Mole"---people are thinking, creative, resourceful creatures and it's difficult to stop them from doing things they've set their mind to doing.

I can't remember the author, but in the 90s I read an interesting PDF that talked about how, in computer game design, you (as a designer) are up against humans, who are very good at optimizing, and how they will find the most reward for least effort path in your game.

Wish I could remember it better.

[alanp]

Very interesting video essay, this -- I have played KOTOR 2, but I hadn't thought of it in terms of deconstructionism. I had noticed the deconstructionist themes in TLJ, but hadn't chased it down like this guy does.

[Willybomb]

how they will find the most reward for least effort path in your game.

The perfect example of this (and I had a friend who was a master at it - these are his strategies, before the internet) is in the original X-com 1.  Want money?  All you have to do is build laser pistols flat out every cycle, and sell them off.  Nothing else gives you a better cost vs profit result, nearly to the point of breaking the game.

In Simcity 2000, the trick is to build everything along the lines of a 9x9 square, putting your water pump in the center square...

[alanp]

https://www.theoryoffun.com

Found that PDF!

[alanp]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6140955/British-Qantas-passenger-moaned-staff-called-Miss-Doctor-hits-trolls.html

I was reading this article, and so help me, all I could think of was that Austin Powers clip.

[thesmokingman]

I recently had this discussion with my wife with regards to exactly this whole notion of insisting on being called doctor ... if you've earned your doctorate, you've earned the right to be a dick about being called doctor.

[m-Kresol]

For me, I understand that she wants to be called Dr. in this case, when the flight attendend looked at her ticket and saw it, but it's not like she's no longer a woman so "Miss" should be totally fine.
In Austria, when you have an academic title, it's common to show it (it's printed on your insurrance and bank cards, etc.). I personally never liked that. Sure it comes in handy, if you want to fix an appointment and you are "the Doctor", but should it? Isn't it supposed to be unimportant what title the person has (still talking about the appointment thing)?

IMHO, this is a case of first-world problems. Still not a reason to be a dick about it online. She worked for her title and it's her right to be proud of that. I guess it comes down to how proud you actually are of it and how modest you are.

[somnif]

For me, I understand that she wants to be called Dr. in this case, when the flight attendend looked at her ticket and saw it, but it's not like she's no longer a woman so "Miss" should be totally fine.
In Austria, when you have an academic title, it's common to show it (it's printed on your insurrance and bank cards, etc.). I personally never liked that. Sure it comes in handy, if you want to fix an appointment and you are "the Doctor", but should it? Isn't it supposed to be unimportant what title the person has (still talking about the appointment thing)?

IMHO, this is a case of first-world problems. Still not a reason to be a dick about it online. She worked for her title and it's her right to be proud of that. I guess it comes down to how proud you actually are of it and how modest you are.

In some cases it can be a real pet peeve for people. One of my former lab directors was a woman, who had a doctorate. Her husband did not. But, their household was constantly getting mail addressed to "Dr. and Mrs. Zutshi". There was always the assumption that the male in the house was the doctor, and she just the wife. It really became a point of aggravation given how often it came up.

In this case the ladies title was listed on the ticket and its possible it was a similar situation. Perhaps she thought the stewardess was assuming she was the "plus one" of a doctor. I don't know for certain, but I can get it becoming a sticking point for people.

[Muadzin]

I have a university degree, I almost never use it. And I certainly don't insist to be called by it by others, even though I could, which I think is a sign of an inflated ego. The way I see it anyone can get an university degree, and having gotten one myself, I find them utterly meaningless. The only persons deserving to be called doctor on a daily basis are medical staff, as its part of their function. This person seems to have both an inflated ego and playing the sexism/victim card, which to me makes this person double useless. The people who do all the behind the scenes work that keep the university this person studied on working are more useful to society then this person is. This person deserves all the scorn this person got, although it could have been done more nicely. But that's not so much sexism as how the anonymity of the internet seems to take away all civility from people.

[reddesert]

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I remember an old story from a industrial lab I did an internship in, where one of the secretaries told my friend, "The scientists are ok until they get a PhD, then they get full of themselves." I resolved not to do that. I did get a PhD, but I never expect to be called Dr. something.

On the other hand, I have lots of friends who also have doctorates in scientific research, and the women are constantly being undervalued, condescended to, taken for students, mansplained to about their own work (I dislike that phrase, but it's accurate here), and so on. So more of them have started insisting on using the professional title. However, they want to use it in the professional context, not at the coffee shop. That's where this went off the rails, I think.

[midwayfair]

Just because someone writes or says something publicly doesn't mean it needs to be discussed, especially when someone's obviously venting. I don't understand why it's so hard for people to just read a complaint and move on instead of trying to put someone in their place. How that was worth a news article or even the time required to respond to the tweet is beyond me.

And I also agree that if someone dedicates half their life to the single minded pursuit of a narrow topic they've earned the right to once in a while insist on being called by their title. I'd insist on being called Sir if I got knighted. I'd also walk around in a frigging suit of armor and ride a damn horse. 'Cause that's what knights do.

I have a university degree, I almost never use it.

A "university degree" -- do you mean a bachelor's or a doctorate? Because those aren't the same thing.

[somnif]

Also, just as an aside, you can bloody well bet I am going to insist I am called "Master" once I finish my MS!

[EBK]

Also, just as an aside, you can bloody well bet I am going to insist I am called "Master" once I finish my MS!

I heard the "M" in MS stood for "More", i.e.:

BS = Bull Shit
MS = More Shit
PhD = Piled higher and Deeper

By the way, I have a MS and a JD degree, but the best honorific title I have is that my kids call me "Daddy".