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I'd be a lot more inclined to believe this if when the programs came to light the government de-classified the details that supported the theory you suggest. S
by mjevans 10y ago
I'd be a lot more inclined to believe this if when the programs came to light the government de-classified the details that supported the theory you suggest.
Since they've said nothing I'm going to continue to use Occam's Razor and believe that they did it either as a form of revenge or because they mistakenly believed in cargo cult of that being how stuff was done (likely thanks to Hollywood).
- true_religion 10y agoConsidering the direct parallels someone would draw between scientifically studied torture and nazi experiments, I'd be surprised if anyone was allowed to officially sign off on this.
- closeparen 10y agoHollywood tends to focus on short, intense scenes of pain stimulus such as beating, electrocution, etc. with a tearful confession coming after a few minutes. The torture program had much more to do with long-term engineering of a prisoner's environment with the goal of breaking down his humanity and spirit over a period of months and years: stress positions, sleep deprivation, loud music, extreme temperatures, and repeated fruitless water-boarding. I don't think we get to blame Hollywood for this. More like the techniques that our "advisors" were refining and teaching to repressive anti-communist regimes throughout the 20th century, finally applied by us instead of by proxy.
- getpost 10y agoActually, we do get to blame Hollywood (partly). http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2008/03/05_torture.shtml http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2008/03/05_torture.s... When I was a child/teen, it was popular to wonder about the effects of TV violence, and now we know. It appears many people are unable to distinguish between TV and reality. Monkey see, monkey do.