Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/27/james-mitchell-war-criminal.html
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Jesus, I’d be tempted to be a clever wag by posting the “are the baddies?” meme, but that would imply that there was some kind of lingering question on the matter at this point when it comes to stuff like this.
Oh, well, I’m sure all the friends and family of the people we tortured are the forgiving sort willing to let bygones be bygones, and none of this has resulted in generational hatred toward us that will lead to long-term reprisals.
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Mondays are shitty enough, but that piece really bummed me out.
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Uh, seizure alert on aisle seven. The story’s GIF is kinda flashy.
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Ugh. This guy sounds like a Michael Shannon character.
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This shit is going to be used for fodder for terrorist recruitment forever.
This is exactly the kind of bullshit we should have never involved ourselves in and we were supposed to know better. One thing America never did no matter how fucked up we were we didn’t torture people.
A legacy of fear and paranoia still haunts this country in perverted ways that have ruined the country I grew up loving. A lot of conservatives say when they find out that I’m liberal even though I work in a very conservative field that I must hate America.
Shit like this is why I no longer respect my country.
Shit like this is why I don’t take conservatives to be good people.
I know that good and evil does not have a face to where I can say someone of a political bent I don’t like is evil but it sure seems like a lot of evil has been consistently perpetuated since I became an adult all by the same fucking people every goddamn year.
I miss the America I grew up being taught about the one where we didn’t torture people out of fear. The one where we didn’t hunt for new wars to start, contractors to source out war and “morality” to, and where it was patriotic to question authority for the good of the nation.
I hope before I die someday I get to see my country again the way I grew up seeing it
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“Yeah, sure we committed a few atrocities, sure we unleashed the odd certifiable hobbyist Torquemada on a few innocent victims … but the important thing to remember is that we always retain the moral high ground, because no matter how bad we get, we’re better than Those Other Guys. What’s that you say? Both sides are rotten, it’s only a difference of degree, and the difference is getting smaller by the day? Well, that’s some mighty unpatriotic thinking, son, and it fairly pains me to hear you say it. Makes me wonder if you mightn’t benefit from a little time with the Preacher yourself.”
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When, perchance, did you grow up in the non-torturing America? There’s been an awful lot of adventurism and casual proxy torture through Central America, MENA, and East Asia for an awful long time now.
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“Moderate torturer” has to be the most vile, the most apex of the oxymorons. Fuck everyone that advocates torture, there is zero evidence for successful extraction of useful intel.
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This is not just because of the original torture program, but because of the Obama administration’s coverup to prevent a reckoning. This is where voting for the lesser of two evils gets you. The gap between that and the greater just keeps getting narrower. We need to stop legitimizing this shit instead of compromising with the people doing it or the people covering it up.
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And we definitely know where not voting for the lesser of two evils gets us.
(hint: he’s orange and terrible)
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I guess he sleeps better thinking that. “At least I wasn’t one of the bad ones.”
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That is a false dichotomy. There are very seldom only two choices in reality, and there’s a lot of propaganda dedicated to making you think that there are only two, so that you further legitimize the system by backing one of them.
Here’s one example with the false dichotomy removed (but far from the only one, since there are even more options that I don’t mention)
Choices:
A) mass-murdering warmonger
B) Deranged narcissistic psychopath
C) Burn it all down and try to make something less completely shitty from the ashes
D) if C) is still not tenable. Work to undermine and delegitimize the shitty system that presented you with this “choice,” in hopes that C) will be more plausible some time in the future.
If the best the system can give you is someone who starts wars of aggression or protects torturers, you should be working against the system, not within it.
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We’ve always been at war with East Asia.
…
I was a junior in high school when the towers fell.
I know there have been plenty of atrocities in the past with the US, and probably will be far into the future. It just seems like a particular obnoxious latent cruelty has seized this country since I was in high school. The ends justify the means mentality, patriotism as a weapon against dissent…
Wait. This is just like Vietnam era, isnt it? We even have an impeachment trial with a Republican ordering cronies around again. I dunno though, I wasnt alive in the 70s.
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The psychologist’s eyes did indeed well up on a few occasions during his testimony this week, but the tears came when he was describing what he saw as his personal sacrifices.
But not before tearing up with that thought.
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Except in Presidential elections, of course.
Could you give me some examples of that process working in real life? I heard some folks in 2016 argue for that kind of accelerationism, but I’m not terribly convinced given how much damage Trump as done to date to our system of government with no superior alternative showing itself to replace it.
I can’t remember the source, but I saw a quote a long time ago from a former Soviet citizen something to the effect of “you mean you had a choice to pick someone who is less evil and you…didn’t take it?”
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That’s the operative term. Internet, cell phones, and emails make all this stuff visible now, whereas before…
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These people have names and addresses and should be made to answer for their torture.
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Slavery. Smallpox in blankets. Mass slaughter. Separation of families.
It’s been around for centuries.
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For military-industrial complex generational hatred is desirable. It’s also desirable for politicians - it provides a convenient distraction.
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