Nornagest comments on Open thread, Feb. 23 - Mar. 1, 2015 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: MrMind 23 February 2015 08:01AM

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Comment author: Nornagest 24 February 2015 08:34:22PM *  0 points [-]

Have I not made it clear enough that I think this is a stupid idea? It's totally a stupid idea, and it will get you arrested if you try it. I just don't think that it's likely to crank up the terrorist paranoia machine. That machine might be idiotic and humorless and prone to overreaction, but it's set up to pattern-match to certain things -- bombs, hijackings, threats to airplanes or big dramatic monuments, guys with beards or turbans -- that this doesn't fit.

There's a big difference between doing something that could be construed as a bomb threat, however tangentially, and aping the forms of a bad superhero movie precisely to make a point about the harmlessness of what you're doing.

Comment author: Lumifer 24 February 2015 08:55:05PM -1 points [-]

but it's set up to pattern-match to certain things

Yeah, well...

To go full trope, get a few hysterical moms screaming at the local bigwigs "The TV said there's dihydrogen monoxide in our water supply!! OH NO!!! WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!" and there might well be pressure to make an example of the miscreant. Do you feel lucky, punk? X-D