Is Torture Selective to Only A Certain People?

Events like the San Bernardino shooting and presidential candidate Donald Trump's views have shown the serious conflicts with the war on terror. These effects have all brought up the question of torture and who should be tortured. These questions and ideas about the view of the torturer and of the person being tortured is heavily influenced by the media and entertainment. The events and outlook of Middle Eastern countries have affected America's use of torture in entertainment and is a type of propaganda used to make Americans view the Middle East as the source of terror. It instills this "Us versus Them" attitude on those who are being tortured and affects the world either at a national or global level.

Currently, terrorism has been a big topic discussed not only in politics but in people's everyday lives. Terrorism is feared by many and it is very controversial on how to handle the torturing others. Conflicts like the Geneva Convention make some people believe that torturing terrorist is legally acceptable because the terrorist groups are not technically a nation. The problem with this is that since terrorists are not a part of their own nation many people who are not terrorists are being tortured also. What should America do? Should we assume that everyone is a terrorist? What makes a person a terrorist?

The event of the San Bernardino shooting that had happened a few months ago is an example of the unclear and stereotyped views of a terrorist. In the beginning of the investigation, the couple had not been linked to terrorism but had done a horrendous act. Later on, in the investigation, it was only after they had discovered that the wife had written a post on Facebook that indicated that she was an ISIS sympathizer. This argues that if a person had done the same act but was not linked to ISIS they would not be considered a terrorist. How does this make sense?

The scare of terrorism seems to have the American people linking terrorism to the Middle East in general. As an individual with roots from the Middle East, I can understand the stereotyping and discrimination I have received due to the color of my skin and the origins of my blood. This individual discrimination on people of the Middle East is seen on a larger scale with the fact of torture. Many people that have been mistakenly tortured and have been tortured because they "look like" a terrorist. The famous video game Grand Theft Auto Five has an example of this in a torture scene implemented in the game. The scene depicts a man from Azerbaijan, which in the video game " is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south.". In the game, this man is seen as the "Other" solely based on the reason that he is from the country that the terrorist in the game is from. The man ends up being a scapegoat for the terrorist group but this is not known before he gets tortured. The video depicts the torture as correct and that is was the duty of the man to do so. Phrases like "Do your patriotic duty" and "The nation demands it" are yelled at the torturer. This use of torture in the game seems to normalize torture and makes the torturer seem like a hero. This is propaganda that further instills the idea of "Us versus Them" in American culture.

This type of influence from the media needs to stop. It only makes torture seem normal and causes people to be careless about who they torture and how violence is handled. Torture depicted in entertainment and media makes people view violence as heroic and does not show the torture victim's perspective or how they are feeling about being tortured. The blindness to the severity of torture is seen from current political candidate Donald Trump. Trump stands for torture and thinks that terrorist and their families should be sentenced to death. He also thinks of  "all foreign Muslims as suspects by barring them from entry to the United States." His extreme comments on the torture of these people are seen as stereotyping and is due to the fear of terrorism that the American people have. Trump is using this "Us versus Them" mentality to get the vote, but he uses very unintelligible tactics. One example is the use of stereotyping. In his action to hinder foreign Muslims from entering the country, he is only further expanding the idea that all Muslims are terrorist which is far from the truth.