Wow. I can't believe I haven't blogged in over a month. I really need to get back down to business.
The other day, in my American History class, I got into an argument with another student about torture. This teenage Neo-Con is convinced that
a. Our country should be torturing people and
b. Our country is not torturing people.
After a long debate about the moral inplications of torture (which clearly didn't have any effect on this kid), I brought up waterboarding. What did he say to that? "Waterboarding isn't torture!"
Whaaatt???
I looked up torture. I showed him the definition:
"1 a: anguish of body or mind : agony b: something that causes agony or pain
2: the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure
3: distortion or overrefinement of a meaning or an argument : straining"
Didn't simulated drowning seem to fall into the category of "something that causes agony or pain"? Didn't it seem that if you couldn't breathe you might feel "anguish of body or mind"? But no. He wasn't swayed. Apparently "just because Webster defined it" doesn't mean that definition is relevent in politics.
At this point, I gave up. Anyone who honestly believes simulated drowning isn't torture isn't going to buy anything that isn't said by one of the Republican idiots who run our government.
It starts you thinking, though. How many people in our country are really this brainwashed? And where is the world going if America decides that torture is OK?
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