#Torture-and-the-Ticking-Bomb
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kjcharleswriter.com
One of the funniest things Ive ever seen was an exchange where a macho man was explaining that he'd torture a terrorist with the ticking time bomb justification, and someone else said 'Suppose the terrorist agreed to tell all if you personally gave him a blow job'.
March 11, 2026 at 8:27 AM
michaelstahlke.bsky.social
When I was in college I had actual tenured professors of philosophy use a ticking time bomb scenario from the Fox network drama television program 24 as a thought experiment of when torture would be acceptable. And I was always of the opinion of “fuck you, get someone else to do it”.
michaelstahlke.bsky.social Michael Stahlke @michaelstahlke.bsky.social · Jan 9
In all seriousness, I once had a fella who was paid by No Such Agency tell me that his boss was of the opinion that if your resignation didn’t make the front page of a major newspaper, you should keep on trucking. And I said that you have to face the man in the mirror when you shave.
January 10, 2025 at 1:36 AM
pervocracy.bsky.social
what if he had wheels?

what if he knew the location of a ticking time bomb and normally you wouldn't commit torture but it's the only way?

what if both of those things? would it be torture to let the air out of his tires?

what if god was one of us? just a slob like one of us?
May 1, 2026 at 2:26 PM
zinniajones.com
"The frequent use of ticking time bomb scenarios in storylines, as well as the main character, Jack Bauer portraying torture as normal, effective, acceptable and glamorous, was criticized by human rights activists, military officials, and experts in questioning and interrogation"
May 11, 2025 at 9:34 PM
rednecklefty.bsky.social
He's now acknowledging that the "ticking time bomb" scenario for justifying torture wasn't actually true? Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

An irony would be, if we were ever at war with North Korea, if some of his family were detained. Also, how does he feel about Korematsu?
May 3, 2025 at 12:59 PM
nora-hakase.bsky.social
I forget who wrote that the obvious answer to the ticking time bomb issue is: well if it's THAT important and There's No Other Option™ then go ahead and do a crime, and then stand fucking trial. But no, we legalized torture instead
July 28, 2024 at 6:00 AM
gdemonology.bsky.social
NEW PUBLICATION: "The Ticking Bomb Drone Strike: Drone Warfare and Emergency Ethics in Eye in the Sky", in a new book called Human Rights in the Age of Drones. I've written a lot on this film, and I'm proud to publish this concise version of my thoughts on it here:

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
Cover art for Human Rights in the Age of Drones, edited by Muhammad Waqar Azeem: a schematic of a predator drone on a grey background. Home Human Rights in the Age of Drones Chapter The Ticking Bomb Drone Strike: Drone Warfare and Emergency Ethics in Eye in the Sky Chapter First Online: 02 January 2026 pp 239–257 Cite this chapter Abstract The ticking bomb scenario is a thought experiment that dramatizes a falsely unambiguous decision point—a bomb is ticking, and a prisoner is tortured until they reveal the information that can prevent the bomb detonating—to frame a misleadingly persuasive narrative that attempts to justify torture. This chapter examines Gavin Hood’s 2015 film Eye in the Sky, which frames a classic ticking bomb scenario with the key difference that the violent political technology that provides the solution is a drone strike. This film is explicitly staged as a debate about the morality, ethics, and legality of drone warfare, including a foregrounded consideration of collateral damage and human rights. I argue here that it also reveals the limitations of any critique or understanding of drone warfare that relies on the granular basis of emergency ethics. The framing of the story telescopes towards an inevitable use of force, which, although it has regrettable consequences, is represented as justifiable and ethically defensible. Like arguments justifying liberal interventionism that position imperial violence such as military invasions as virtuous defences of human rights, Eye in the Sky’s ticking bomb narrative positions drones as a military technology with the potential to save lives. Eye in the Sky (2015) - a closeup shot of the surveillance camera mounted on the front of a military drone.
January 20, 2026 at 2:04 PM
interfluidity.com
(again, to distinguish, this is not waterboarding of high-level intelligence targets or the kind of ticking-time-bomb scenarios sold to the public to blur black and white views about torture. these are low-level, mass detainees.) 7/
October 21, 2024 at 10:07 PM
sethdmichaels.bsky.social
the same logic applies here as it does to the people who insist you need torture to be legal in ticking-time-bomb scenarios: if you think your lawbreaking was necessary and proper, you can explain it to a jury of your peers.
July 7, 2026 at 7:29 PM
vegashasfrozenover.bsky.social
Some folks just DONT mesh well, and become a ticking time bomb of an argument down the line

Someone can follow the rules 100% but just be a creep or act really weird that pushes the folks you WANT to keep away.

it is lowkey kinda torture to have to do that
March 5, 2026 at 3:25 AM
kerouac666.bsky.social
In the W torture era, I read an article with an interrogation specialist who recalled talking to writers for “24” and told them “ticking bomb” scenarios are entirely fictional and they asked why guys in the field thought they were real and he said, “Because of you! They learn it from movies and TV!”
October 31, 2025 at 5:03 AM
ausetkmt.bsky.social
📚💙🌎🧰 #BookDrop #booksky #Things #Lies #Whys #History

Some in america seem to believe there is a fine line that morals don't cross. look at the news and see for yourself, #america-is-torturing-people #on-it's-own-soil-right-now-in-2026 #Torture-and-the-Ticking-Bomb

os5.mycloud.com/action/share...
September 24, 2026 at 9:53 PM
capnrickysully.bsky.social
23yrs since the Iraq torture memos. All the excuses & fear mongering. An entire television series dedicated to their ticking time bomb bullshit.
Torture was even one of their rationales for the invasion. That’s how long it took for that evil to be openly turned against the American people.
July 2, 2025 at 12:43 PM
karlrruben.bsky.social
I thought we decided this under Bush II when we ignored the Geneva convention and started waterboarding detainees. They decided it was OK because there might be a ticking bomb somewhere. It seems like the torture apologists never came up with an answer for violating the law.
August 18, 2026 at 2:39 PM
iucounu.bsky.social
Jack’s superpower is that (apart from one notable exception in season 1) he is always right about what will happen and always makes the correct judgement. It’s an entire show made out of ticking time bomb scenarios in which the only way to stop the bomb really is torture (and it works, too!)
December 12, 2023 at 6:45 PM
babsi.bsky.social
"Ishrael" has brought back the Neo Nazis everywhere🥶

#Palestine #Gaza IS THE ONLY HOLOCAUST EVER-
THAT'S SUPPORTED FROM THE ENTIRE WORLD🤢

THE PROTECTED AND LEGALIZED GEN0CIDE MASS MURDER RAPE TORTURE STARVING OF CIVILIANS CHILDREN
ZIONIISTS ARE NEO NAZIS⚠️
www.palestinedeepdive.com/p/a-ticking-...
June 20, 2026 at 7:17 AM
summerofmoops.bsky.social
what if there was a ticking time bomb and you could torture someone to get the code and dramatically disarm the bomb with 1 second left to go, would you torture someone?
mcuban.bsky.social Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · Aug 24
Hypothetically. If complimenting trump meant that there would definitely be 2026 elections and the Dems would sweep Congress in a landslide , would you compliment Trump ?

Or, Is is that thought so abhorrent, you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. Even at the expense of staying the minority?
August 24, 2025 at 3:25 AM
johnbgilman.bsky.social
The Epstein torture and rape center at Zorro Ranch is still a ticking time bomb for the Epstein Administration disgracing DC right now.
www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Epstein survivor says it's not too late to expose what happened at his New Mexico ranch
Rachel Benavidez, who accused Jeffrey Epstein of assaulting her at his isolated Zorro Ranch, wants his enablers to be held accountable.
www.nbcnews.com
May 19, 2026 at 9:54 PM
climateball.bsky.social
truthout.org/articles/ter...
TERFs Are Drawing on the Same Fascist Arguments as Torture Advocates
Bigoted attacks on trans participation in sports and access to bathrooms outrageously rely on “ticking-bomb” rhetoric.
truthout.org
February 12, 2024 at 1:18 AM
reprievehq.bsky.social
The Kurdish authorities themselves described the prison camps as a ‘ticking time bomb’. Ministers in the UK chose to bury their heads in the sand to avoid facing up to the problem. And now this is the result: British families at risk of death, disappearance and torture.
January 20, 2026 at 5:12 PM
nivenus.bsky.social
Like, a lot of writers will make the argument that, of course, torture is wrong and we shouldn't do it but then they'll make an exception for drama and say "except if there's literally a ticking time bomb and then you gotta just do it cause what choice do you have?"
October 28, 2024 at 8:08 PM
ricardovalp.bsky.social
Trump handed Bukele a ticking time bomb that has now exploded, shattering the Salvadoran dictator's international image. The global media and social platforms are set to be flooded with horror stories about Bukele’s torture chambers.

www.reuters.com/world/americ...
El Salvador to send detained Venezuelans to Caracas in prison swap for Americans, sources say
El Salvador's government will send detained Venezuelans to Caracas in exchange for Americans held in Venezuela, two U.S. government officials told Reuters on Friday.
www.reuters.com
July 18, 2025 at 5:27 PM
lessdismalsci.bsky.social
You don’t make torture laws based on ticking time bomb hypotheticals, you make it for 99.9% of cases and figure if torture is really the right thing to do in a situation a jury will agree. Same here.
January 25, 2024 at 3:45 PM
epsteinweb.bsky.social
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EFTA00149896 | EFTA00149907 terror cell nicknamed the Beatles for their British accents. They claim they didn't participate in torture and executions, but do admit abuse." Engel said the case against the two "has been held up with a British court ruling the US won't get crucial evidence from British investigators unless the death penalty is off the table. ... American officials tell NBC News, the US is determined to arrange for the two men to face charges in an American courtroom." NBC News (7/23, 6.14M) reports the two men "for the first time admitted their involvement in the captivity of Kayla, an aid worker who was tortured and sexually abused before her death in 2015." Elsheikh "got into more detail, saying, 'I took an email from her myself; meaning he got an email address the Islamic State militant group could use to demand ransom from the family. 'She was in a large room, it was dark, and she was alone, and ... she was very scared." In one email reviewed by NBC News, ISIS "demanded the Muellers pay 5 million euros and threatened that if the demands weren't met, they would send the family 'a picture of Kayla's dead body." UN Report Warns ISIS Exploiting Coronavirus Security Gaps To Relaunch Insurgency. CNN (7/23, Cruickshank, Analyst, 83.16M) reports that, according to a report submitted to the UN Security Council that was made public on Thursday, there has been "a significant rise in ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria, with the group exploiting security gaps in Iraq caused by the coronavirus pandemic to relaunch and invigorate its rural insurgency in the country." The wideranging report, "put together by the UN monitoring team that tracks the global jihadi terror threat, states that the group is consolidating in Iraq and Syria and 'showing confidence in its ability to increasingly operate in a brazen manner in its former core area." It states that the "number of ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria 'increased significantly in early 2020 as compared with the same period in 2019." IS Prisoner Issue A Ticking Time Bomb For The West. BBC News Online (UK) (7/24, 1.02M) reports the latent danger "posed by thousands of defeated and captured fighters who joined the Islamic State (IS) group is festering and growing in the squalid, overcrowded prison camps of north-east Syria, where riots and attempted breakouts are becoming commonplace." IS has "vowed to liberate them, along with their wives and dependents, while a people-smuggling network is reportedly being put together using bribery to secure covert releases." When IS lost the "last of its self-declared caliphate at Baghuz in Syria in March 2019 thousands of its surviving members were rounded up and interned indefinitely in camps run by the Syrian Kurds who had fought them." COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE DNI Declassifies Document Showing FBI Used Trump's Candidate Briefing To Advance Russia Probe. Politico (7/23, Cheney, Desiderio, 4.29M) reports that, according to a newly declassified document obtained by POLITICO, President Trump's first intelligence briefing "as a candidate in August 2016 was led by FBI agents who had just opened an investigation into his team's ties to Russia." The document, "a seven-page summary of Trump's intelligence briefing by the agent who helped lead it, was filed as part of the so-called Crossfire Hurricane probe, the codename for the bureau's broader Russia investigation." DNI Ratcliffe "declassified the document, along with two others, on Thursday and sent them to Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who have been investigating the origins of the probe." The documents are the "latest in a series of disclosures by Ratcliffe to congressional Republicans seeking to support claims by Trump and his allies that the FBI investigation of Trump was politically motivated and corrupt." The Washington Times (7/23, Scarborough, 492K) reports a Republican congressional source said, "Every part of this FBI investigation stunk to high heaven, and it turns out even the EFTA00149907 Epstein Web iOS app on the App Store.
April 22, 2026 at 8:34 PM
grantforks.bsky.social
After 9/11 there was an earnest but one-sided debate on torture. The Bush admin argued the "ticking bomb" justified torture. Maybe that moral calculous works, idk.

But the debate was never about corner cases. It was about standard operating procedures. That bait and switch still makes me furious.
September 21, 2024 at 3:17 AM