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The reference to Powerpoint caught me off guard too, if only because of how informal that is. "Should we kill him?" "I dunno, where's the slide deck? Are the
by nickelcitymario 6y ago
The reference to Powerpoint caught me off guard too, if only because of how informal that is.
"Should we kill him?"
"I dunno, where's the slide deck? Are the slides convincing?"
...that just seems like an absolutely terrible way to decide between life and death.
I know that on the one hand we're just talking about a file format, and the data has to exchange hands somehow. But it bothers me that the same tool I use to convince my bosses to, say, pay for a monthly subscription, is also being used by someone else to convince their bosses to approve killing human beings.
Perhaps the reason this bugs me is it breaks the illusion of expertise and sophistication. It proves, once again, that people are just people, no matter what job functions they happen to have.
(Also: It raises certain questions. Like: Is a person more or less likely to be killed if their powerpoint deck is ugly? Does typography impact these decisions?)
- suprfsat 6y agoCHAIRMAN: What was your position.? CICCI: Well at first like everyone else I, I was a soldier. CHAIRMAN: What is that? CICCI: A button you know SENATOR, come on. CHAIRMAN: No I don't know. Tell me. CICCI: Well -- when the boss says push a button on I guy -- I push a button. See SENATOR. QUESTADT: You mean you kill people. CICCI: I what? QUESTADT: You kill people at the -- uh -- at the behest of your superiors? [CICCI's lawyer tells him to say yes.] CICCI: Yea -- that's right Counselor.
- maxerickson 6y agoIt's not particularly a departure from the traditional method where, under the fog of war, individual soldiers decide whether to shoot or not. (Not a defense of killing people based on slide decks, more of a comment on the historical consequences of war and military occupations)
- nickelcitymario 6y agoAgreed. In a sense, perhaps I should be glad that they use something as common as a slide deck, because it acts as a reminder that war is just everyday people killing other everyday people.
- RobertoG 6y agoIt's not exactly the same, a soldier, under the fog of war, is scare of the consequences of acting. A guy in his living room using Zoom is less so.
- moksly 6y agoYou have to wonder why they are even having the conversation. It’ll be 20 years since 9/11 this year. Some of the people who are getting killed as terrorists weren’t even born when it happened. Are they even a threat to us? Maybe they are, but I frankly think that you gotta wonder why we’re still killing terrorists in the Middle East.