Maybe I’m going to the wrong airports or something, but TSA agents are pretty friendly to me like 97% of the time. I had one incident where an agent confiscated a multitool off my keys and got snippy with me, and a few other times where security is busy and they’re more curt/loud, but I’ve never seen a TSA agent go on a power trip. Hell, one time my bag got randomly flagged for a check and as the guy was looking through, it he saw the books I had in there as my in-flight entertainment, and struck up a friendly conversation on book recommendations. All the while assuring me they didn’t actually find anything on the scan, it was just a random check (and implied that he thought the random checks were silly and ineffective).
I’m at least one of those and have had similar experiences. Turns out that people tend to be nicer to you if you fit into one of those categories (or both). I had to check my privilege after discovering this.
Maybe I’m going to the wrong airports or something, but TSA agents are pretty friendly to me like 97% of the time. I had one incident where an agent confiscated a multitool off my keys and got snippy with me, and a few other times where security is busy and they’re more curt/loud, but I’ve never seen a TSA agent go on a power trip. Hell, one time my bag got randomly flagged for a check and as the guy was looking through, it he saw the books I had in there as my in-flight entertainment, and struck up a friendly conversation on book recommendations. All the while assuring me they didn’t actually find anything on the scan, it was just a random check (and implied that he thought the random checks were silly and ineffective).
You may be white and/or attractive.
I’m at least one of those and have had similar experiences. Turns out that people tend to be nicer to you if you fit into one of those categories (or both). I had to check my privilege after discovering this.