Showing this was not about security at all.
this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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It never was
One could argue surveillance and tracking is about security. They'd be wrong. But they could argue that.
It would only make sense if it was a one time fee, and you got your ID as a result.
We also know it’s not about security, or you couldn’t fly without one.
We know it’s a cash grab because they’re counting on a “built-in” amount of flyers who won’t have or will refuse to get ID with privacy issues. If, by some anomaly, more or all flyers acquire the ID, then we’d see maintenance fees added and the fee itself increased to maintain revenue certainty - but who are we kidding, those things will eventually happy anyways.
TSA says the fee will cover the administrative and IT costs associated with the ID verification program and ensure the expense is covered by the travelers and not the taxpayers.
Ah, that makes sense. It costs $45 per person to do exactly what they were doing without additional cost up until now.
Title leaves out "or passport."
In a push to get you to think you must have a Real ID, I've noticed the media constantly leaves out or minimizes the fact that a passport is sufficient to get you through an airport or any other place a Real ID is required.
So no extra fee of you have a passport.
We still need to go through the process to make sure that we verify who you are
As long as I don't have any weapons it shouldn't matter.
but how else will we track where everyone is all the time
Unless you are using a fake ID and fake credit card then they already have that data?
They know John Smith who lives at 123 Main Street in Bumbfuck, WI and who paid with credit card 1234567890123456 is flying from MSN to LAX on December 1st, 2025 and returning via the same route on December 3rd, 2025.
The RealID requirements are to, theoretically, streamline the process of matching person to face with more standardized ID requirements. Like all ID related legislature there is good and bad there.
But if your focus is on The Man tracking you? This changes nothing unless you are already actively committing fraud at MANY levels.
neat. there is no reason they even need an id. do you need one to gain access to the highways?
Most highways are publicly accessible (and still log you with a Flock(TM) camera anyway...). But if you want to use the priority lane in states like Colorado? Yeah, they need to scan your pass and they very much do.
The ID still matches the face/body to the Person. Its no different than checking if you are the person with a reservation at a hotel. That said, you can bet there is work in place to not actually need it through a mix of facial ID and profiling.
that’s my point. outside of a thin lane or three, which is probably considerable “private” - public infra should be accessible. Last I checked (abt six months ago) I did not need to show ID to hop on the brewster line into grand central.
it’s all just a cash grab and control theater / normalization at airports. there is nothing special about flying compared to trains, except of course: profit.
I did not need to show ID to hop on the brewster line into grand central.
Because those are public roads. Not high priority roads you pay for access to. Just like fully government funded buses and the like don't care if you have a ticket or not. Whereas those that are only subsidized tend to still require a pass/ticket/payment.
Also I'll just point out: Your car has a license plate. It is trivial to read those with an overhead camera. And, depending on the road/day, you can bet a cop will gladly run you down if they spot you have no license plate or decide they care about the polarized screen you put on top of it. At which point you can bet they'll want to see your ID and won't take "I am a sovereign citizen and this is a public road" as an answer.
there is nothing special about flying compared to trains
And you need to tie your body to your ticket when you get on a train. We tend to not care anywhere near as much about security with trains (because everyone knows bombs and box cutters only work if you are at least 100 feet above the ground!), but you can be damned sure the ticket machine where you inserted your cash took a picture of your face to go with it.
I genuinely don't care about what kind of libertarian nonsense you are on about hating the concept of IDs at all. My point was simply that if you think the RealID requirement has ANY bearing on The Man knowing where you are and where you are going then... you don't actually understand what your exposure is.
i should have clarified: “access” meant physical meatspace access not allowance.
A meme of jd vance is the most dangerous weapon of all
The agency warns that even then, there is no guarantee that individuals will be cleared to cross through the security checkpoint.
Bummer, that’s another $45 to re-check until they get it right. I’m guessing this will happen a lot.
I mean that's obvious. Otherwise you're just paying $45 to ignore the security checkpoint if you're guaranteed to get through with payment.
oh so it was never about security.
Oh no, guess I’ll have to not fly even harder 🤷♂️