video tldr: 3d x-rays have made bag scanners more effective at screening

It's a power play, nothing more.

It could well be zero: the turrurists aren't dumb and they also know it's security theater. But I have to admit that I genuinely do not (and cannot) know.

> Passengers who trigger the alarm at the scanners or magnetometers, however, will be required to take their shoes off for additional screening, according to the memo.

Every time an article about airport security is posted the comments are the same.

To prove that I'm sane and my memory has not been corrupted by time or cosmic rays I google "airline hijackings by year", I look at the graphs in google images, and I briefly wonder what happened in early 1970s and 2000s before remembering what happened in early 1970s and 2000s.

Then I murmur "that's some fantastically effective theater".

But the fact that TSA agents refused to acknowledge that it can work differently at each airport was certainly obnoxious.

For years, every time I went to Las Vegas from my home in Portland, the PDX TSA would have to tell everyone to take off their shoes, while the LAS TSA would tell everyone to keep their shoes on. Occasionally, someone would be like "Huh, that's different from $OTHER_AIRPORT" and the TSA agent would be like "Sir, it's the same everywhere".

Of course, PDX recently got a remodel and with it, new scanners, so now shoes can stay on.

I never asserted that. In fact I said something quite supporting what you said, at least for my context.

> giving elites pay-to-play treats

Ok, edge-lord.