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You make a good point, but how would you implement this? Would you place artistic limits on directors? Why do you think that torture scenes are so popular in fi

You make a good point, but how would you implement this? Would you place artistic limits on directors? Why do you think that torture scenes are so popular in film and TV - is this an issue with filmmakers trying to satisfy a bloodthirsty audience?

jschwartzi 7y ago
Stop watching movies that glorify torture as an acceptable means of gathering information.
- filoleg 7y ago
  Not really a solution, because the people who need this advice the most are also very likely to be the ones to not follow it, as they like those movies.
- anigbrowl 7y ago
  I watch hardly any horror movies, and yet the continue to proliferate. Why? Really, this idea of shifting personal behavior and hoping the market/economy as a whole will follow is advanced for some many problems, and in general it is a dismal failure. Why would you even expect it to work? Theaters might stop booking movies that are unpopular, but there is zero social penalty for going to see a movie; and in any case, most movies are watched at home, as is porn. Where is the evidence for this working? Over what timescale? How is it to be measured, especially when streaming video viewership is far less transparent than even old-fashioned box office and movie rental receipts? It's little more than a statement of religious faith in the market, and doesn't even engage with the possibility that vicious as well as virtuous cycles exist and can be manipulated.
  - antepodius 7y ago
    I'm somewhat surprised at how many censor-happy people I see in this thread. I'd be interested to see a survey of the ages of the people here...
    - anigbrowl 7y ago
      I'm not sure why you are addressing this opinion to me.
      - antepodius 7y ago
        Neither am I, in retrospect.
    - ljm 7y ago
      I'm certainly not up for censorship. A lot of it just comes across as American power projection (always the good guy American torturing the bad foreigner doing evil things), which I guess is just a fact of life unless you avoid Hollywood and stick to international/art house cinema. Aside from glorifying war and torture, it's such a low-effort cliche and it fails at evoking disgust when it's shrouded in a plot that absolves the good guys of all wrong doing. You know, the end justifies the means, and a side-effect is that now people think torture is good so long as you think the victim is bad. Imagine how many people in Guantanamo have been subjected to over a decade of this treatment under the utterly delusional belief that they must have some information to offer and cannot, under any circumstance, be innocent, so therefore they deserve it. As a counter-example, Antichrist features some scenes that could be seen as torture if the story was reframed. Same with Nymphomania. While that kind of shock value is par for the course for Lars von Trier, it doesn't necessarily celebrate it. I'm sure plenty wanted to ban or censor that; I just wanted to see something genuinely disturbing.

jschwartzi 7y ago

Stop watching movies that glorify torture as an acceptable means of gathering information.

filoleg 7y ago
Not really a solution, because the people who need this advice the most are also very likely to be the ones to not follow it, as they like those movies.
anigbrowl 7y ago
I watch hardly any horror movies, and yet the continue to proliferate. Why? Really, this idea of shifting personal behavior and hoping the market/economy as a whole will follow is advanced for some many problems, and in general it is a dismal failure. Why would you even expect it to work? Theaters might stop booking movies that are unpopular, but there is zero social penalty for going to see a movie; and in any case, most movies are watched at home, as is porn. Where is the evidence for this working? Over what timescale? How is it to be measured, especially when streaming video viewership is far less transparent than even old-fashioned box office and movie rental receipts? It's little more than a statement of religious faith in the market, and doesn't even engage with the possibility that vicious as well as virtuous cycles exist and can be manipulated.
- antepodius 7y ago
  I'm somewhat surprised at how many censor-happy people I see in this thread. I'd be interested to see a survey of the ages of the people here...
  - anigbrowl 7y ago
    I'm not sure why you are addressing this opinion to me.
    - antepodius 7y ago
      Neither am I, in retrospect.
  - ljm 7y ago
    I'm certainly not up for censorship. A lot of it just comes across as American power projection (always the good guy American torturing the bad foreigner doing evil things), which I guess is just a fact of life unless you avoid Hollywood and stick to international/art house cinema. Aside from glorifying war and torture, it's such a low-effort cliche and it fails at evoking disgust when it's shrouded in a plot that absolves the good guys of all wrong doing. You know, the end justifies the means, and a side-effect is that now people think torture is good so long as you think the victim is bad. Imagine how many people in Guantanamo have been subjected to over a decade of this treatment under the utterly delusional belief that they must have some information to offer and cannot, under any circumstance, be innocent, so therefore they deserve it. As a counter-example, Antichrist features some scenes that could be seen as torture if the story was reframed. Same with Nymphomania. While that kind of shock value is par for the course for Lars von Trier, it doesn't necessarily celebrate it. I'm sure plenty wanted to ban or censor that; I just wanted to see something genuinely disturbing.