Pete Hegseth’s obscene decision to livestream the December 3 execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan has generated worldwide revulsion and condemnation.
The US is facing worldwide condemnation over a “barbaric” plan to execute a disabled man by firing squad and livestream it to the public, with critics comparing the Trump administration to dictatorships in Iran and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of killing 13 people at a military base at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, would be livestreamed on 3 December.
The United Nations’ office of the high commissioner for human rights warned on Friday that broadcasting the killing would amount to a public execution and “breach the absolute prohibition of torture”.
…Hegseth gleefully confirmed the livestream plan after previously saying that the execution would be public. Speaking to the conservative broadcaster Real America’s Voice, he said people should be able to watch because they need to understand that there were “serious consequences” for such crimes.
The last public execution in the US was the hanging of a man in 1936 in Kentucky. There are no laws prohibiting them so why did they stop? Because of cultural and political revulsion for what had become seen as merely spectacles of cruelty that had no redeeming value.
The late, great George Carlin had a comedy routine on the death penalty back in 1996 where, in typical Carlin style, he took it way over the top, while embedding it is a more general critique of how the top 1% are exploiting the rest of us. He seemed prescient about Hegseth. While I think such a public execution would arouse revulsion, Carlin was far more cynical about Americans’ appetite for this kind of thing. He said that the death penalty does not mean anything unless you use it on people who are scared to die. It is no use executing drug dealers, you need to execute the people who launder the drug money, namely the bankers. He predicted that public executions would be a ratings blockbuster, bigger than the Super Bowl with the more horrifyingly gruesome the method, the bigger the audience to watch it. If the government sold advertising spots and sponsorships, that would generate so much revenue that it could eliminate the budget deficit.
Sadly, he may be right. My only concern is that Hegseth might see this video and get ideas.
From the Guardian article:
It wouldn’t be used to eliminate the budget deficit, though. It would just line the pockets of rich people.
Put Hesgeth on the squad and give him the only live rounds.
100% volunteers in such a firing squad.
Everyone in the military volunteered.
So put each and everyone in for a little TV interview before the TV execution starts. Same for the military court judge who handed down the death sentence and every military police officer who brought them there.
The one who tied the handcuffs on too.
All of them — close up, their personal beliefs that lead them to this point.
“Are you proud to be here, hero? Tell us why?”
No privacy needed: they are proud of their participation in taking this retribution.
Even now, years later, I cringe when I recall the extended passage in Casanova’s Memoirs in which he describes witnessing the grotesque execution of Robert-Francois Damiens, the deranged man whose weak attempt at assassinating France’s King Louis XV utterly failed. Damiens used a small penknife in his attempt and managed only to inflict a trivial wound.
Nevertheless, the punishment was savage. I will spare the terrible details. Casanova rented a room overlooking the public execution. Some of the people with him never cringed or looked away, whereas Casanova, no shrinking violent, did find some of it unbearable.
I have no desire to ever watch a live snuff film being created. But there are always those whose fascination with pain and cruelty compel them to watch and become aroused. In short, the maga personality has been around for a very long time.
re chigau@3: I would much rather see Kegsbreath, The Orange Turd, and all of the republican enablers up against the wall.