Is just such a shock from being in China. Just got harassed and essentially threatened for being a socialist. They searched my bags and commented on my China flag and my little red books and my copy of Blackshirts and Reds. Fucking police state. The security in China is strict, but they don’t give a fuck about your thoughts, whereas this guy was very aggressive about “consequences” for being a socialist.
This has made me realize I really need to up my commie game then because border agents have never said a peep to me. I'm affiliated with 2 anarchist orgs, 1 Marxist-Leninist party, and 1 homeless support network. I thought my name would be on a file by now wtf. Fucking Immigration feds are calling me a liberal.
Border control has never stopped me when I've come back to the US from abroad, and I've left the US twice this year already. I had a bag with the Disco Elysium commie symbol (the stars and antlers) but that's probably too subtle. I'm also very visibly non-binary
Ugh do I need to tattoo a sickle and hammer on my face
American survielance really is a paper tiger, they dont have the time or resources to actually monitor 90% of the shit they want you to think they can.
Almost all of the data they collect ends up on a server in Utah, which is very convenient if you become a "person of interest" and they want to build a file on you, but if you're still a face in the crowd they basically don't know anything.
When I was a teen and traveling I would always, always get picked for extra search. I wore all black, had long hair, and black fingernails. TSA is just going off vibes.
So you're saying I need to seem more commie and more punk? I'm already both of those things but I gotta try harder it seems.
Maybe your vibe is too hinged and you need to move in a more visibly unhinged direction
Man if you can get away without being harassed, I say stick to whatever you’re doing. I have been secondary searched every time I go through TSA since I was a 14 year old kid, and it gets really fucking old. Not to mention the constant profiling by police on the streets. I’ll never forget going clothing shopping with my father at Kohls, walking out and seeing a cop crawling through the parking lot, telling my dad, “stay close when I pull out, this cop is going to pull me over” and being right. If he hadn’t been there to say, “why the fuck are you harassing my son?” I would have gone to jail on suspicion of murder that day because I am brown and had long hair and apparently someone else did too.
It might. It however needs to be actually accessed. If they don't think it necessary, then they likely won't bother.
I'm not American, so I'm just going off of what I've heard from others. So maybe it isn't as prevalent as I thought. I just assumed based on what I've heard from American comrades that being questioned at airports about communism is just a normal thing they do, but I'm going off of secondhand accounts.