sometimes i want to go around to every person who writes action/superhero/genre media for a living and sit them down and tell them all that TORTURE DOESN’T WORK. they have got to stop showing that it does. even for fiction reasons. even for their fun movie where nothing else works like it does in real life. TORTURE DOESN’T WORK AND IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO STOP SAYING THAT IT DOES. at the very least.
and then i want to go and tell all fanfiction writers., too, that TORTURE DOESN’T WORK. please think about this before you write a little hurt/comfort scene about torture, even.
why do i want to do this? i obviously, above all, believe that torture is morally abhorrent and should never be used on that basis alone. but the justification we are given - by governments, by military, by anyone with power who wants to defend it - is that torture works. they might try and act contrite, but they say they’re making hard decisions - they’ve got to do it, sorry! they have our best interests at heart! it’s all bullshit. torture doesn’t work:
Chronic and severe stress compromises integrated psychological functioning, impairing recall, and facilitating the incorporation of information contained in leading questions, and the captive and interrogator both might not know this subtle process of incorporation has occurred. Torture fails during interrogation because torture is an assault on our core integrated, social, psychological, and neural functioning. Given what we know of the brain, memory, mood and cognition, it is little surprise that the signal-to-noise ratio from torture is so poor.
and so all these films and tv shows and comics and books and yes, it filters down into fanfiction… when they make it seem like whether or not you respond to torture is about how morally pure you are (which is what it boils down to when we see our heroes being tortured and they are able to just repeat one line in response), they are buying into the idea that torture works, that humans are capable of a rational response to it. often stories which show us heroes resisting torture will show the same heroes torturing (correct) information out of villains. see how that works? if you’re a hero, you can just repeat your name and serial number and survive. if you’re a villain, you’ll give in and say the truth.
both of these boil down to the same thing: torture works. and not only does it function as an interrogation technique, it also functions as a morality test.
in reality, people usually say things that will make torture end as quickly as possible. this is not conjecture, this is known. the idea that torture works is (incorrect!) folk-psychology, propping up extremely vicious, psychological warefare used by states such as the UK and US against states, peoples, and military groups that it wants to quash.
where do fanfic writers (and other writers!) get their ideas about things like torture from? largely forms of mass-media, or from mass-media informed works like fanfic. i say this because it’s where i have encountered every piece of information i have ever received about torture that i haven’t personally sought out.
a vast number of big budget films - marvel films, other action films, so much stuff - are funded by the CIA and US military. TV, too. they have script control and influence on the storytelling. you don’t think it props up their international regime of terror against the rest of the world to put this out there the idea that torture works? you don’t think it helps them keep using it? because i do. i think it props them up. it helps keep propping them up. because it makes us think, maybe even unconsciously - wow, this sounds awful. but maybe - but sometimes - but i can see how - but if it saves lives here -
no. torture doesn’t save lives. it destroys them.
and look, fanfic writers are not the powerful people to target here. this post is not angry at fanfic writers, because i understand. we live in the soup of the culture that has been created by military and corporate interests! but i do just - if i can get one person to think before they decide to write a scene about their newest fandom crush being SO RIGHTEOUS and SO GOOD that he can carefully not say anything under extreme torture… look. i just think we need to do what we can to break free from the thought patterns around torture that the US/UK/etc military puts there.
apologies if this doesn’t totally make sense - i am tired and ill and just. i hate it. every time i see torture written about like this, i hate it so much. whether or not we realise it, the way the media represents torture directly helps prop up the very real use of torture against people around the world. please, please think about it.
