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+title: Don't Fall For Fear Propaganda
+date: August 27, 2021 01:08
+---
+<p>
+I was recently traveling from a busy US airport. If you've been to a larger
+American airport in recent years, you may have noticed, near the security line,
+a bunch of booths from this company called Clear. They essentially allow you to
+exchange your personal information, including a biometric scan of your iris, in
+exchange for quicker processing through TSA security. (and they also take a
+monthly subscription fee, billed annually, so you pay even for months you're not
+traveling in)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I got to the airport, I was a little annoyed because the line through the
+security check looked really long. I had lots of spare time arriving at the
+airport, so I wasn't worried about missing my flight, but standing in an airport
+line is never fun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What annoyed me more, however, were Clear employees shouting as loud as they
+could, for everyone in the security line to hear, that "you're going to miss
+your flight!", "you're going to have to wait through this entire security
+line!", unless you enroll with Clear (which is quick, easy, and <i>only</i>
+requires you to give away a scan of your personally identifiable biometric data
+to some new, overfunded tech company).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was initially annoyed by this just because I'm not sympathetic to either
+marketing or privacy violating technologies. But I got really mad when I
+realized that
+
+<ol>
+  <li> the line was actually moving really fast; </li>
+  <li>
+    the spacer tape appeared to deliberately be set up in a way that made
+    the line visually appear as long as possible.
+  </li>
+</ol>
+
+What I mean by the second point is that there was an entire row of unutilized
+space that the line could have been directed to, but that row was the one
+<i>furthest away</i> from the spot you enter the security line from. This made
+it seem like there was an entire additional long bend to the line. Was this
+collusion between Clear and airport staff? I don't know. But Clear definitely
+capitalized on this illusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Like I said, the line was moving quickly, there were many TSA lines open
+processing a lot of people at a time. The Clear employees, standing by the line
+for hours at a time, would have known this, but of course they're going to use
+the scary looking queue as a fear tactics marketing opportunity. I got through
+the line in about 30 minutes, which is a perfectly reasonable amount of safety
+margin time any air traveler will include in their schedule.
+</p>
+
+<h3> Moral of the story </h3>
+<p>
+When you're being marketed something on the basis of fear (or on any basis,
+really, but especially when your emotional instincts might be exploited), take
+the time to really consider whether the bogeyman you're supposed to fear
+actually exists and is that scary. I'm sure you'll find other situations where
+similar logic applies.
+</p>