Why on earth would she lie about that? I’d never heard of Ms. Filipovic before this incident, but unless she has some established reputation for dishonesty then I see no reason not to take her at her word on this. I wouldn’t have expected the TSA agent to be fired if I were in Ms. Filipovic’s place (if nothing else it seems like it would be easy for the agent to claim someone else had written the note), although unlike her I wouldn’t be broken up about it either.
I have a general problem with victim-blaming, and I don’t like your repeated suggestions that Ms. Filipovic was the one who should have been more “discreet” in this situation. She didn’t do anything wrong. The person who left an inappropriate note in her luggage did.
It’s not blaming the victim of a genuine inappropriate action by the TSA here to add a side note that she is capitalizing on the experience, and far from appearing to be a stunned victim, she is amused and just slightly annoyed. People always say they never intended for something to go viral when it does.
It also isn’t blaming the victim to say that packing any bullet-shaped, metallic object in a checked bag is going to draw scrutiny and it has nothing to do with it being a vibrator. That doesn’t mean it was appropriate in any way to put a personal note in her bag once it turned out to just be a vibrator. She is clearly not at all upset or embarrassed about the nature of the device itself being discovered, nor any invasion of privacy because that is a given in the world of air travel. Just that the agent, somewhat creepily, made a point to let her know they saw the device even if in an approving way, and she is right to complain about it. I think you may be taking my comments to mean support for the OP’s position, which they are not.
So what if she is? I’m not familiar with Jill Filipovic’s blogging or other writing, but much of it is presumably based on her own experiences. Why shouldn’t this particular experience be more grist for the mill?
That seems like a perfectly appropriate reaction to me. If I were in her place I hope I’d be able to see the humor in the situation.
And many of them are telling the truth. No one can accurately predict what things will go viral, some people have had embarrassing things go viral against their wishes (like that Star Wars kid), and plenty of people have tried and failed to get something to go viral.
This is The Pit. I’m entitled to find fault in the TSA, the victim, and the OP, without having to qualify my observations with a reason. I’m not posting with an agenda or trying to accomplish anything.
You are a blithering idiot. Nobody knows what’s going viral or when. There are entire schools of marketing dedicated to trying to figure it out, and for the most part they’re failing miserably.
Furthermore, if Ms. Filipovic had the uncanny ability to know in advance what is going to generate 200.000+ spikes of viewers on her blog and influence large national organizations, one would expect her to use this magical ability of hers every day and to flumox every organization on her shitlist, yes ? Or is it a monthly ritual, perhaps ? Was it granted by a mysterious being who’ll yank it away should she ever use her powerful abilities for Eeeevil ?
How the hell does it ? She noted something on her blog, presumably without any hope of achieving anything more than a couple dozen “Yeah, the TSA are assholes” comments from her fans. When it went further, she had an “oops” moment. Injecting any nefarious or insicere sentiments in this fairly banal sequence of events says more about you than her, I think.
:rolleyes:
Attention whoring ? I guess so, to the extent that any form of expression or art is attention whoring. Do you reckon writing a newspaper column, or publishing a book, or posting on this very board is primarily motivated by attention whoring ?
As for traffic and ad revenue being a basis for hosting a blog, yeah, you have fuck all understanding of the blogger mentality. Nobody gets into this thinking they’ll get super famous and make $$$ in their spare time - or if they do, they don’t last long. For the most part internet ads barely cover the cost of a running a large website. Know why ? Because in the history of the Internet nobody has ever clicked on an internet ad, ever. Hell, thanks to AdBlock, these days 90% of surfers don’t even see them.
You are a raging imbecile. Hoping that it goes viral, and posting to get traffic does not imply an absolute advance knowledge of exactly how popular it will ultimately be. In the case of a juicy TSA story, happening to an already known blogger, and involving a personal sex toy, this was a shoe-in. Your statements of disbelief that she could ever imagine the story would go viral either betray your utter, jaw-dropping ignorance or an insincere stance to troll something you can’t possibly believe is true.
I can’t really help your inability to comprehend what you read, you’re making the incorrect interpretation that the statement meant she could predict exactly the number of hits she would get. That isn’t what was said or implied. I quoted the number of hits that she did get, in answer to someone saying that blog didn’t add any significant traffic to her already very popular site - which was utter bullshit, it gets over 200 times the traffic of the next most popular entry.
Wow, you really must not read many blogs.
You apparently have fuck all understanding of what I wrote. Where did I say she got into blogging to get rich quick or relies solely on ad revenue to exist? She has a career outside of blogging but she gains fame, marketability and a number of other benefits from generating viral traffic to her blog not just ad revenue. I also said she is attention whoring a hot button issue of TSA and their invasive practices, etc. to get blog hits not trying to right a wrong at the TSA, and said herself she died laughing and didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. Yet she is continuing to blog about it even as she says she doesn’t want the publicity anymore, and doing things like naming new blogs “Getting My Joyce On”, etc. in an homage to the fame-grabbing entry she clearly doesn’t want forgotten.
These are both obvious slams against a person. I have a hard time seeing how “get your freak on,” could be read as meaning anything other than grrl power embrace your sexuality stuff.
In my opinion, it’s a cute note left by a well-meaning agent. People who get upset about that have a stick up their ass and not the fun vibrating kind either. I’m sorry if thinking the world could do with a little more sex and a little less job terminations is wrong.
If you don’t want to be called a cunt, don’t act like one. And if being called a cunt upsets you, then don’t ever call someone a dick, prick, ass, asshole, boob, or pussy.
Neither. The TSA blog is a one-directional announcement system paid for by taxpayers and written by anonymous authors who are employees of the TSA. They aren’t attention whoring or selling vibrators, books or ads. they are trying to head off thousands of calls and emails about it by posting an official statement and answering the question one time for everyone.
Could have been left off the blog and treated as an internal, private matter, though, right? I mean, if you expected Jill, an author and blogger to keep this experience to herself, TSA should have shown the same discretion.
But they didn’t, so both entities break even, right?
I didn’t expect her to do anything. I expressed disbelief that she had no idea the story would generate so much publicity, and that if her wish wasn’t to cause a lot of publicity or get anyone fired, posting photos of the note on Twitter and a popular blog was a very unusual way to show it. The TSA wouldn’t have blogged it if it was an internal, private matter. I’m not sure how something ‘could have been blogged and treated as a private, internal matter’. If she came to them directly, filed a complaint and they investigated and took action, I’m not at all sure they would blog it but if they did it would be to show transparency, full disclosure, etc. not to generate publicity for the TSA.
Being a paranoid type, I don’t leave my toothbrush by the sink at a hotel when I leave my room for the maid to wash the toilet or their ass with (I seem to remember a video of same some years ago).
So, the inappropriate note was left and you assume that was all there was to it. Good on ya for being so trusting. Me, I’d throw the vibrator (assuming I’d ever own one) out at the least. No telling where it was while the person took the time to write the note. :o or :eek:
Okay, I’m going to call this sideline discussion a break-even, because I can’t in good faith state exactly what Jill’s motives were when she posted a peculiar travel experience and also be “sure the TSA blogged solely to show transparency, full disclosure, etc, and not to generate publicity for the TSA.”
Since you seem to have inside information about the motives of each party, you are clearly in a better place to make a value judgment about each actor. I’m out.
I was thinking more about the people throwing hissy fits about cunt in this thread. I’ve never sent a vibrator through the airport but I have traveled via airlines, and honestly, I can’t really imagine getting that upset about it. I mean, take my underwear and Uzi’s post about being paranoid. I don’t need a note to suspect that a TSA agent wanked in my undies. In fact, it’s more likely in my mind that a TSA agent has time to wank in them or time to write a note but not both. So, really any time I don’t get a TSA note, I should probably just toss my undies to be safe. Or, I could not be a dillhole about the whole thing and understand that flying via air means people will be looking through my suitcase. Your mileage may vary and that’s fine but I probably won’t be sitting next to you on the suspicious train to paranoiaville, if only because if I open that door in my head, I’ll never get anything done ever again.
And Uzi, I saw a movie once where a fry cook rubbed a hamburger patty on his crotch. I still eat at restaurants.
She’s one step ahead of you. At least according to Perez Hilton (another socially conscious and not-in-it-for-the-fame-whoring blogger who gives a damn)
This should have been covered in TSA training, and I’m only a bit sorry that someone is out of a job but they should have known better and that was a very unprofessional note. They have laid their head on the chopping block of their own accord. If I found a note like that I’d have told people and shown it to them. So, from one raging cunt to another, good work.
It’s all so Beavis and Butthead “huh huh huh vibrator ha ha.”
If you tip the housekeeper that would remove temptation to clean the toilet with your toothbrush. Don’t be a dick to the housekeeper. Don’t leave notes when you find someones vibrator.
[Moderating] Jeffrey - or may I call you Dude? - anyway, calling other posters “cunts” is against the rules in the Pit. Please don’t do this in the future.