Dark side of the force

[greatbear]

I'm practically in stitches over this. Society is doomed, the tairists have won, it's all over but the crying.

The city of Boston has been thrown into a panic by an advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force. For those not in the know, ATHF is a subversive animated thing run on Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" segment of not-for-the-kiddies fare late at night. It seems that these LED panels were placed in various locations around bridges, overpasses, etc. With a pixellated character giving the finger, the devices were seen by some small-minded, live-in-fear people as perhaps a bomb or something. The 'authorities' arrested and charged a man hired to place the adverts with 'placing a hoax device' and disorderly conduct. From the article: "Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world".

A hoax device. It's a damn ad. And kinda clever if you ask me, though one that would really only work with the cognoscenti.

Such stupid, fear mongering people. Grow the hell up and get a damn spine. Too bad the city didnt devolve into a total panic situation. To me, that would have been comedy gold. You get what you deserve, and if living in such unfounded, unnecessary fear is how you run your life, then cower and be as dysfunctional as the fools you are.

Comments

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Well, sure, but this sort of thing (or the experience at any airport nowtimes) clearly demonstrates that terrorism works. It's not about the people in this particular building or on that particular plane, it's about the vast damage to the economy and morale and focus of the country as a whole. Look at the money, time and brainpower we feel compelled to divert to utterly ineffectual window dressing (everyone take off your shoes before passing through airport security, now!) so that we feel like we're Doing Something About The Problem...even though traffic crashes and cigarettes prematurely end far more lives than all the terrorist acts ever. That's an ugly fact, and it's one nobody wants to admit, but it's a fact nevertheless.