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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmericans are not ‘fine with torture,’ despite overheated claims
Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post warns us not to kid ourselves: Most Americans are fine with torture, even when you call it torture. Brittany Lyte of fivethirtyeight.com shows slightly more restraint while reporting Americans have grown more supportive of torture.
But have they? Public opinion polls have shown the contrary. The public has seldom been supportive of torture, even when presented with ticking time bomb scenarios where the intelligence is described as vital to stopping an impending terrorist attack. When asked about actual torture practices such as waterboarding or sexual humiliation, public support mostly collapses.We have compiled the most exhaustive archive of US and international public opinion data on torture dating back to 2001. Additionally, we have conducted three survey experiments to identify the boundaries and probe the nuances of public attitudes about torture. The archive includes items asking about support for torture, support for specific torture techniques, and even some surveys of American military personnel.
Our analysis, which is summarized in our 2010 paper, is that the American political and media elite badly overestimated public support for torture, especially in the early years of the war on terror and after the publicized events at Abu Ghraib. In this piece, we argued that the political and media elite came to false consensus. This is a coping mechanism long known to psychologists whereby we project our views onto others. We developed unique survey items that clearly showed widespread projection effects regarding torture, especially among those who were most supportive of these techniques.
However, nothing in our data supports Ingrahams overheated claim that Americans are fine with torture. Ingraham makes this claim by counting those who say that torture is never justified as opposed and all others as supportive. This is a mistake. The public is rarely comfortable with moral absolutes. Our work shows that it is wrong to lump those who say rarely into the supportive category, a conclusion also reached by Aaron Blake of The Fix.Furthermore, when Americans are asked about specific techniques that Senator John McCain says have dubious efficacy and risk our national honor, public support is far lower. A table from our 2010 paper, reproduced below, shows that 81% oppose electric shock, 58-81% oppose waterboarding, 84-89% oppose sexual humiliation, etc.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/americans-are-not-fine-with-torture-despite-overheated-claims/
kwolf68
(7,365 posts)are the usual suspects. Far-right Conservatives.
My Facebook was littered with picture of a man falling from the WTC on 9/11 with the caption that reads, "I don't give a shit how they get information from terrorists" or something like that.
So far the religious right friends have Yet to chime in. I guess they are trying to find a loophole in the Bible that allows them to support torture, as they are Conservative first, religious second.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)octoberlib
(14,971 posts)fadedrose
(10,044 posts)It remains up to another agency to punish the wrongdoers.
The UN should have something to say here.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)I would say most of the people I've talked to about torture over the years have been more indifferent than anything else, if it's not happening to them or anyone they care about then it's not really on their moral radar one way or the other.