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I was disturbed to see this when I took the kids to see Zootopia this weekend. The protagonists threaten to harm a petty criminal, who then coughs up the infor

I was disturbed to see this when I took the kids to see Zootopia this weekend. The protagonists threaten to harm a petty criminal, who then coughs up the information they need. It made me wonder -- the writers seem to have been so careful with their message, so should I take this to mean they endorse torture along with racial tolerance?

mmsmatt 11y ago
So I wasn't the only one? That scene jerked me out of happy animation land and made me think of The Wire.
deleted 11y ago
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SilasX 11y ago
No, they were trying to make a plausible scene. Many people do give up information when threatened with torture. You probably even remember just such an instance from your grammar school days! However, because most people, even on HN, have a cognitive bias that forces them to prefer believing that their favored course of action has no downsides ("halo" bias), it has been popular to repeat the high-status meme that Torture Doesn't Work. Which is true -- it often doesn't "work" for many of the reasons given. But sometimes it does. Any position against torture that actually plugs into a consistent worldmodel will also accept that it does, in fact, sometimes work, and also have a way of appropriately weighing the ups and downs of any course of action without being tripped into rebranding every down as an up for the CoA you like, and up as a down for every CoA you don't like.
- sevensor 11y ago
  Regardless of whether it "works" sometimes, I consider torture unacceptable, inhumane, and bad policy. I don't give a fig for plausibility. This is a messagey children's movie with talking sloths. Having the good guys sweat a perp by threatening his life is something you don't just back into!
LgWoodenBadger 11y ago
The protagonist also blackmails another character into helping her. Not really the message I'd expect from a Disney movie.
- k__ 11y ago
  Well, it was a sociocritical movie.

mmsmatt 11y ago

So I wasn't the only one? That scene jerked me out of happy animation land and made me think of The Wire.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

SilasX 11y ago

No, they were trying to make a plausible scene. Many people do give up information when threatened with torture. You probably even remember just such an instance from your grammar school days! However, because most people, even on HN, have a cognitive bias that forces them to prefer believing that their favored course of action has no downsides ("halo" bias), it has been popular to repeat the high-status meme that Torture Doesn't Work. Which is true -- it often doesn't "work" for many of the reasons given. But sometimes it does. Any position against torture that actually plugs into a consistent worldmodel will also accept that it does, in fact, sometimes work, and also have a way of appropriately weighing the ups and downs of any course of action without being tripped into rebranding every down as an up for the CoA you like, and up as a down for every CoA you don't like.

sevensor 11y ago
Regardless of whether it "works" sometimes, I consider torture unacceptable, inhumane, and bad policy. I don't give a fig for plausibility. This is a messagey children's movie with talking sloths. Having the good guys sweat a perp by threatening his life is something you don't just back into!

LgWoodenBadger 11y ago

The protagonist also blackmails another character into helping her. Not really the message I'd expect from a Disney movie.

k__ 11y ago
Well, it was a sociocritical movie.