Less than meets the eye (a blast from the past)

It's indisputable that this decade has so far been worse than any others in modern times, but our descent into fascism is not new. Each decade of my lifetime has been worse than the one before it – with the exception of the 2010s.

It was already so bad by 2008 that it was almost impossible to engage in air travel in the U.S. without being manhandled extensively. The Big Cleaning has yielded a 2008 piece that says a G.I. Joe toy created a stir at Los Angeles International Airport. Security staff considered the toy a dangerous weapon, because G.I. Joe carried a 2-inch plastic rifle. A passenger was not allowed to board with this toy.

It wasn't just the good ol' U.S. and A. In London, a man was stopped by airport security for wearing a Transformers t-shirt showing a cartoon robot. He couldn't board unless he changed his shirt.

These incidents were apparently because of "temporary" measures put in place after 9/11. Yet these "temporary" measures were still in place 7 years after the attacks. In fact, they're still in place now – 21 years after 9/11. This is proof that when the government enacts a "temporary" measure, it could very well become permanent. Hence, 2 weeks to "flatten the curve" has become permanent masking.

This wasn't even entirely new with 9/11. An online commenter said that back before 9/11, their children had a pencil sharpener permanently confiscated because it was a miniature replica of a cannon. They missed their flight because security crews wasted so much time inspecting the pencil sharpener.