Fandom Is A Way Of Life
Adam Serwer notices that
We’re not seeing too many "professionals" argue the case for torture–instead we see those who believe fighting terrorists is about some kind of contest of will between Islam and the West romanticizing criminal behavior as "necessary" because, for some reason, they think protecting American society requires that take our cues from those we’re fighting.
As we bloggers say, just so. America’s pro-torture movement is an amateur (in all senses) phenomenon. The people extolling it are just buffs. They like the idea of it. They should have conventions. I do recommend avoiding the cosplay track if you go, though. And e warned, the politicking around the FanGOH selection will be fierce.
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Comment by Jim Henley —
September 10, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Loyal readers are the con committee. Name it; program it.
Pingback by An FBI Interrogator on the Effectiveness of Torture —
September 10, 2009 @ 9:55 am
[...] (link via Jim Henley) [...]
Comment by joe from Lowell —
September 10, 2009 @ 10:53 am
From what I’ve seen, it appears that the worst of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” were performed not by actual, career CIA professionals, but by contractors hired by political appointees.
Comment by Brian Moore —
September 10, 2009 @ 10:53 am
I’d think the reason for few professionals advocating is because they’re familiar with the practical issues: torturing people pisses other countries off, and there’s almost no tactical intelligence benefit that trumps the strategic loss.
There’s probably another angle too — they know all about the times they screwed up and got the wrong guy. Whereas the armchair James Bonds always imagine that they would be right.
Comment by dhex —
September 10, 2009 @ 11:36 am
more cynically, the professionals are aware that attaching one’s name to unpopular currents is stupid.
Comment by Patrick Nielsen Hayden —
September 10, 2009 @ 12:43 pm
Wasn’t one of these conventions the setting for an early issue of Sandman?
Comment by Jim Henley —
September 10, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
Oh Emm Gee but it was!
Comment by Barry —
September 10, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
In addition, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of calls for torturing current terrorists. For example, according to a citation in Wikipedia, Scott Roeder was tipped off to Dr. Tiller’s movements by source in Operation Rescue (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/256/story/69361.html).
In a situation where a muslim foreign terrorist was advised by a member within a sympathetic organization (which is probably the political arm of the terrorists), right-wingers could see the *need* for some serious torture of numerous members of that org, or at least those which survived the bombs and SEALs.
In addition, IIRC, there have been press reports that Roeder stated that there’d be more attacks (which is pretty much the same level of reliability that we generally have in such cases).
However, I have seen *zero* calls for torturing Roeder, and whomever he names as co-conspirators.
Why, one might think that these people have a double standard…….
Comment by Taktix® —
September 10, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
24 has done more to ruin the psyche of this country than an reality show ever made…
Comment by All Your Summer Songs —
September 10, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
Bring the convention to the MKE. It’s been a waste not to have anything going at the Midwest Air Center in August, with Gen-Con gone.
Bonus awesome: TortureCon replacing the Geneva Convention!
Comment by Gary Farber —
September 10, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
Since nobody, whether buffs, nor professionals, you refer to engages in torture or torture advocacy as a way of life, ITYM Torture Is Just A Goddamned Hobby.
Next, we must debate whether alleged terrists should be tortured by being pierced with two giant staples or three.
(Shit, I swear I had no idea I was mentioned in the above link, and never saw it before in my life before just googling to find something that referred to the Staple Wars (a mock fight in the fifties parodying the tendency of sf fans to feud over trivia.) (There’s a distinct lack of material on the web explaining the Staple Wars; the best I could find was the tiny bit in the Tucker bio I just linked.)
Comment by Seward —
September 10, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
The CATO daily podcast had a nice piece on torture a few days ago titled “Enhanced Justification Techniques”: http://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/podcast-archive.php
Comment by Jim Henley —
September 10, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
Only Thoreau’s brother has even begun to do the assignment. What kind of Loyal Readers are you people???
I think the name has to be CONtortion.
Comment by Gary Farber —
September 10, 2009 @ 11:18 pm
You could have a different name each year, as the British do with their annual national convention, the Eastercon; after CONtortion, how about CONtemptible?
Incidentally, for some reason I wrote above that the Staple Wars (should fanzines have two or three?) took place during the “fifties,” when I meant, of course, the Thirties.
I also screwed up my parentheses, which probably indicates my terrorist sympathies.
Comment by dhex —
September 11, 2009 @ 8:49 am
What kind of Loyal Readers are you people???
i know not enough about the whole convention thing to effectively parody it. sorry.