over the cliff, onto the rocks.: Taxi to the Dark Side

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Taxi to the Dark Side

h/t monkeyfister
cross-posted at war without comment

4 comments:

Steve Bates said...: I waited about 24 hours to comment because that is possibly the single most depressing documentary I have seen since the beginning of the Bushist regime. Regrettably, waiting 24 hours didn't help: it's still overwhelmingly depressing.

What do we do now?; Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:25:00 PM
hipparchia said...: what do we do now? i don't know. and you're right about it being depressing, i've only made it about halfway through the video so far.; Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:45:00 PM
Dawn Coyote said...: I watched the whole thing. What stands out for me is something that wasn't covered in the film: the shift in the national consciousness as it tries to digest its new identity as a state that commits human rights abuses, that is a torturer. I see it in the trend toward mainstream films and porn with strong elements of torture, and in the matter-of-fact way people now discuss torture and the erosion of the constitution, and I think that there's no way the US is going to purge itself of this poison anytime soon.

The watershed moment came for me when I first saw Bush's January 2003 sotu address - the one where he bragged, "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries.

And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies."

I remember hearing those words come out of his mouth and sitting there in stunned disbelief that a US President could brag about killing people, could speak such an obscenity so publically—it was something I'd never have believed possible until that moment.

When the reaction to it was mild to non-existent, I knew the country had turned a corner.; Sunday, April 20, 2008 2:08:00 PM
hipparchia said...: And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies."

i remember that too, dc, and my reaction was pretty much the same as yours: stunned disbelief.

i'm hoping that a significant protion of the public's silence on this is a combination of (1) they're still too stunned to react properly, and (2) the media not reporting on stuff like this nearly as early or as often as they should have been.

we'll get an idea on the public's true sentiment on election day. i'm going to be cautiously optimistic for now, mostly because it's too depressing otherwise.; Sunday, April 20, 2008 2:39:00 PM