Brian4Liberty
05-04-2015, 10:50 AM
Despite what TV tells us, torture is still not effective or heroic (http://rare.us/story/despite-what-tv-tells-us-torture-is-still-not-effective-or-heroic/)
Bonnie Kristian - May 4, 2015
Reason’s Noah Berlatsky argues that Netflix’s popular new original series Daredevil “celebrates the violent interrogations inflicted by its main character.”
“The Daredevil series on Netflix is about how one man, alone and with right in his heart, can change a city for the better using only one weapon: torture,” he writes.
Berlatsky continues: “The show spends a lot of moral energy worrying about whether or not Daredevil/Matt Murdock will or won’t commit murder. But violence short of actually killing someone is barely even greeted with a shrug. Claire, the nurse, has no compunction about using her medical knowledge in the service of torture, and the show doesn’t even seem to realize that anyone might have such reservations.”
“Daredevil doesn’t torture any women—only the bad guys do that—but he cheerfully beats a 73-year-old man, a junkie who’s barely able to stand, and various men who pose no immediate threat to the hero or anyone else. There’s no time-bomb scenario—torture is just what heroes do,”
“Daredevil even tortures one guy in order to find a new tailor,” Berlatsky observes.
As others have noticed, torture has become increasingly normalized on TV and objections are rarely raised by anyone but the tortured. As viewers, we are encouraged to know that the person being tortured 1) deserves it and 2) really does have information our hero is trying to get. Given this omniscient perspective, we are supposed to view torture scenes with a pragmatic clarity impossible in real life.
...
The problem is the real life use of torture isn’t nearly so straightforward. As we saw with the release of the Senate torture report last year, our government tortured people—and it did not work. The CIA’s use of torture was not effective in obtaining life-saving information; it set back counterterrorism efforts and even endangered American soldiers’ lives.
The methods used by the CIA were exceedingly gruesome and uncomfortably close to techniques used by the Soviet KGB and, yes, the Nazis. At least 26 of the 119 people tortured were entirely innocent—and many were detained even after the CIA realized its mistake in arresting them.
One of those 26 was a mentally challenged man who was tortured so that his cries of pain could be taped and played to his family to coerce confessions. And all of these activities were highly illegal under our Constitution as well as multiple treaties our government has signed.
This is really horrific stuff—which most Americans still yet endorse. And, not coincidentally, it’s also not very different from what you can watch on Netflix.
...
More: http://rare.us/story/despite-what-tv-tells-us-torture-is-still-not-effective-or-heroic/
Bonnie Kristian - May 4, 2015
Reason’s Noah Berlatsky argues that Netflix’s popular new original series Daredevil “celebrates the violent interrogations inflicted by its main character.”
“The Daredevil series on Netflix is about how one man, alone and with right in his heart, can change a city for the better using only one weapon: torture,” he writes.
Berlatsky continues: “The show spends a lot of moral energy worrying about whether or not Daredevil/Matt Murdock will or won’t commit murder. But violence short of actually killing someone is barely even greeted with a shrug. Claire, the nurse, has no compunction about using her medical knowledge in the service of torture, and the show doesn’t even seem to realize that anyone might have such reservations.”
“Daredevil doesn’t torture any women—only the bad guys do that—but he cheerfully beats a 73-year-old man, a junkie who’s barely able to stand, and various men who pose no immediate threat to the hero or anyone else. There’s no time-bomb scenario—torture is just what heroes do,”
“Daredevil even tortures one guy in order to find a new tailor,” Berlatsky observes.
As others have noticed, torture has become increasingly normalized on TV and objections are rarely raised by anyone but the tortured. As viewers, we are encouraged to know that the person being tortured 1) deserves it and 2) really does have information our hero is trying to get. Given this omniscient perspective, we are supposed to view torture scenes with a pragmatic clarity impossible in real life.
...
The problem is the real life use of torture isn’t nearly so straightforward. As we saw with the release of the Senate torture report last year, our government tortured people—and it did not work. The CIA’s use of torture was not effective in obtaining life-saving information; it set back counterterrorism efforts and even endangered American soldiers’ lives.
The methods used by the CIA were exceedingly gruesome and uncomfortably close to techniques used by the Soviet KGB and, yes, the Nazis. At least 26 of the 119 people tortured were entirely innocent—and many were detained even after the CIA realized its mistake in arresting them.
One of those 26 was a mentally challenged man who was tortured so that his cries of pain could be taped and played to his family to coerce confessions. And all of these activities were highly illegal under our Constitution as well as multiple treaties our government has signed.
This is really horrific stuff—which most Americans still yet endorse. And, not coincidentally, it’s also not very different from what you can watch on Netflix.
...
More: http://rare.us/story/despite-what-tv-tells-us-torture-is-still-not-effective-or-heroic/