Alan Dershowitz and legalized torture
example ·
retold in 3 talks
Dershowitz advocates regulated torture, complete with medical supervision, to prevent abuse. Žižek argues this normalization is the true danger: even if one might torture out of despair, it must remain an acknowledged atrocity, not a legalized protocol.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“You know something, you have to be tortured, but don't worry, it will be done in a proper way. The doctor will examine you, he will determine how much pain you can endure without getting a heart attack.”
“All prisons should have doctors where... you should be tortured and then doctor comes and examines you and decides how much torture will not hurt you... I find this obscene.”
“I should at least remain aware that out of pure despair I did something terrifying. The ethical catastrophe is when this is normalized, legalized.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
dogmatism (as progress)
×1
ethico-political regress
×1
de-eventalization
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Elvis Presley1Salah Abdeslam1Karsten Nordal Hauken1Alan Dershowitz3Michael Tolkin1Vasili Arkhipov1Reza Aslan1Karl Rosenkranz1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
Dershowitz advocates regulated torture, complete with medical supervision, to prevent abuse. Žižek argues this normalization is the true danger: even if one might torture out of despair, it must remain an acknowledged atrocity, not a legalized protocol., illustrating dogma,normalization of the unthinkable,torture debate
Dershowitz proposed state-regulated torture complete with prison doctors to certify how much a prisoner can withstand without permanent harm, Žižek uses this as the obscene endpoint of normalizing torture through liberal proceduralism., illustrating normalization of horror,torture debate,ethical dogmatism vs. realism
Žižek engages with Dershowitz's argument for medically supervised legal torture: he does not deny he might personally succumb in extremis, but insists the ethical line is keeping it prohibited so that transgressing it remains shameful., illustrating ethico-political regress,de-eventalization