{"id":31665,"date":"2026-06-29T20:04:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=31665"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:04:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:04:33","slug":"the-trump-administrations-shameless-snuff-film-fixation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=31665","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Administration\u2019s Shameless Snuff-Film Fixation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"wp-block-intercept-editors-note\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-intercept-editors-note__content\">\n<p><span class=\"has-underline\">With the wreckage<\/span> of the Twin Towers still smoldering in October 2001, Tom Engelhardt started sending emails to a select group of friends and colleagues to make sense of that increasingly imperial moment.<\/p>\n<p>Tom was a renowned book editor with an eye for the idiosyncratic masterpiece: Studs Terkel\u2019s oral histories, Matt Groening\u2019s pre-Simpsons \u201cLife Is Hell\u201d books, Art Spiegelman\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning \u201cMaus,\u201d Chalmers Johnson\u2019s prescient \u201cBlowback,\u201d among them.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2002, TomDispatch gained its name and quickly became a staple of the progressive media landscape, providing its readers \u201ca regular antidote to the mainstream media,\u201d as its tagline reads. Over the following 20-plus years, TomDispatch grew into a home for thoughtful and provocative writing that questioned American empire. It\u2019s published thinkers including Johnson, Andy Bacevich, Mike Davis, Barbara Ehrenreich, Ann Jones, Howard Zinn, and many others; and has been syndicated by publications such as The\u00a0Nation and\u00a0Salon; cited in newspapers from the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0to the\u00a0Washington Post; translated into more than a dozen languages; and read by millions.<\/p>\n<p>After a quarter-century of publishing groundbreaking essays at a breakneck pace, Tom has handed over the reins of the site he has built into an institution of progressive media. And he has entrusted TomDispatch to me, and to The Intercept.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been a TomDispatch reader since its earliest days, and a contributor for more than two decades, rising from research director to managing editor, and editing thousands of essays along the way. I also authored hundreds of TomDispatch articles of my own, covering U.S. national security and foreign policy, and reported from locales as diverse as the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City to former U.S. battlefields in Vietnam to a killing field in South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>I also worked as a freelance reporter, specializing in exposing crimes of war. A decade ago, I began writing for The Intercept, reporting from conflict and crisis zones around the world, investigating civilian casualties from Cambodia to Somalia; drone strikes from Libya to Yemen; secret wars across Africa and the Middle East; even an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lately I\u2019ve broken news on the Trump administration\u2019s wars from the Middle East to Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>In an era marked by the demise of iconic newspapers and online outlets,\u00a0TomDispatch\u00a0has been a staple of the independent media ecosphere. Similarly, The Intercept has weathered extreme economic pressures and stands as one of the bulwarks of nonprofit journalism, investigating the most powerful individuals and institutions to expose crime, corruption, and injustice. I\u2019m proud to help unite these two iconic independent media outlets at a time when the free press is ever more under siege.<\/p>\n<p>At The Intercept, TomDispatch will remain devoted to well-crafted essays, tough-minded commentary, and hard-hitting analysis. We will dig below the headlines \u2014 in TomDispatch\u2019s signature style \u2014 taking you on an unexpected journey while analyzing and exploring the vast, vexing, and violent forces shaping an increasingly imperial America and a world on the brink. We aim to live up to the standard set by Tom and the demands of these troubled times. TomDispatch remains and will always be \u201ca regular antidote to the mainstream media.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Below, you\u2019ll find the latest edition.<\/p>\n<p><em>Nick Turse, editor of TomDispatch<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2 id=\"h-turning-murder-into-content\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Turning Murder Into Content<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Half a decade later and I still remember his voice. A young man lies on the ground, begging, pleading, screaming as another man, swinging a machete, forces him to place his right arm on a small wooden bench. The attacker wants to make things easier on himself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it was never going to be easy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The assailant begins hacking away. Swinging the panga again and again and again, taunting his victim as he delivers the blows. It unfolds slowly. You learn that even for a strong man with a large, sharp blade, it\u2019s difficult to amputate an arm. Excruciatingly difficult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s got to be the longest 1 minute and 18 seconds ever. After the final swing, you see the victim kicking his legs back and forth \u2014 in a way I\u2019ve never seen another human move \u2014 writhing in agony on the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a while, my sources in conflict zones, and others who knew I investigated atrocities,\u00a0would regularly send me such gruesome videos. There was the man lying in a street in the Democratic Republic of Congo as an assailant with a machete attempts to cut off his leg below the knee; I can still remember the exact sound of his cries. There\u2019s the video of the captured Kurdish fighters. I recall how the second woman to be killed \u2014 just before she\u2019s shot, point blank, in the head \u2014 watches the execution of her comrade. She doesn\u2019t plead or cry or even flinch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I would dutifully watch the videos, analyze them, and then pitch an article if I could make something of the footage. \u201cYou are going to die,\u201d said a Cameroonian soldier, speaking to a group of women he referred to as \u201cBH\u201d \u2014 shorthand for the terrorist group, Boko Haram. In that video, which I <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2018\/07\/26\/cameroon-executions-us-ally\/\">reported on for The Intercept<\/a> back in 2018, soldiers force their victims to kneel, including a woman with a toddler strapped to her back. One of those men directs the tiny girl to stand next to her mother. He then pulls the little girl\u2019s shirt over her head, blindfolding her.\u00a0You can guess what follows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Videos of war zone violence, from Myanmar to Ukraine to the Middle East, have proliferated even more in the years since. Drones <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/TerrifyingAsFuck\/comments\/1ileges\/ukrainian_fpv_drone_chasing_a_lone_russian\/\">chasing panicked soldiers<\/a>, or even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/HairRaising\/comments\/1kygizt\/an_exhausted_russian_soldier_accepting_his_fate\/\">toying with their quarry<\/a>, before killing them, have grown into a popular modern motif. And graphic video of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/war\/comments\/1tord76\/extremely_graphic_aftermath_of_a_guerrilla_ambush\/\">ambushes<\/a>, executions, and traditional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/war\/comments\/1tstew2\/thai_soldiers_posing_for_a_photo_with_the_body_of\/\">trophy \u201cphotos\u201d<\/a> are a commonplace. This type of footage, which used to lurk at LiveLeak and deeper recesses of the internet, is now more ubiquitous, circulating in more accessible online locales like Reddit.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(cta)[0] --><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watching footage of such slaughter comes with a price. In 2015, <a href=\"http:\/\/eyewitnessmediahub.com\/research\/vicarious-trauma\/executive-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eyewitness Media Hub<\/a>\u00a0conducted a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/eyewitnessmediahub.com\/research\/vicarious-trauma\/methodology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">survey<\/a>\u00a0of people who often work with graphic \u201cuser-generated content.\u201d Even back then, more than half of the 209 respondents reported that they viewed distressing media several times weekly. Twelve percent of the responding journalists and almost a quarter of the human rights and humanitarian workers said they viewed such traumatic content daily. Forty percent of respondents said that viewing such distressing images and video had a negative impact on their personal lives, leaving them with feelings of isolation, flashbacks, nightmares, and other stress-related symptoms.\u00a0One quarter reported high or even very high \u201cprofessional adverse effects.\u201d More recently, a 2023 study of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vastbc.ca\/articles\/secondary-trauma-of-war-impact-on-work-functioning-of-media-professionals\">300 Pakistani journalists<\/a> found more than 66 percent reported experiencing indirect trauma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/dartcenter.org\/resources\/handling-traumatic-imagery-developing-standard-operating-procedure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Intrusive recollections<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 re-seeing traumatic images one has been working with \u2014 are not unusual,\u201d wrote Gavin Rees at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, where I was once a fellow. \u201cOur brains are designed to form vivid pictures of disturbing things, so you may experience images popping back into consciousness at unexpected moments.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Strange as it may sound, some gruesome videos have had more staying power than horrors I saw in person.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve certainly found this to be true. As a conflict and crisis reporter, I saw some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjr.org\/special_report\/south-sudan-uganda.php\">disturbing things in the field<\/a> which lodged in my brain. But strange as it may sound, some gruesome videos have had more staying power than horrors I saw in person. It\u2019s a phenomenon that I\u2019ve also encountered among other journalists, soldiers, veterans, and witnesses of war violence. I once knew a man who saw something incredibly traumatic \u2014 an almost unthinkable atrocity \u2014 which his mind blocked out almost entirely. He watched a movie where nearly the same type of murder-spectacle played out and was horrified. He told me that after watching the film, he couldn\u2019t believe someone would do such a thing \u2014 and yet, he had seen exactly that same horror show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent months, my laptop has been filling up with a different type of snuff film. The footage is very similar to those Cameroonian clips: defenseless people being slaughtered as the murderers film. In these cases, however, the videos are shared not by some low-ranking murderer or accomplice-in-arms. The first of them was posted on social media by the commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces, President Donald Trump. Several later videos were posted online by self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The most recent clips have been shared by a military command headed by a four-star Marine Corps general, Southern Command chief Gen. Francis L. Donovan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under Operation Southern Spear,\u00a0the U.S. military has\u00a0conducted\u00a0more than 60 attacks on so-called drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/11\/17\/trump-boat-strikes-death-toll-caribbean-pacific\/\">killing<\/a> more than 200 civilians, since September 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Experts in the laws of war, as well as members of Congress\u00a0from <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/09\/10\/trump-venezuela-boat-attack-drone\/\">both parties<\/a>, say the strikes are illegal,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/12\/venezuela-boat-strikes-video-press-coverage\/\">extrajudicial killings<\/a>. These summary executions are a deviation from the standard practice in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/podcasts\/collateral-damage\/\">long-running U.S. war on drugs<\/a>, in which law enforcement agencies generally <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/09\/26\/trump-venezuela-boat-strike-drugs\/\">detained<\/a>\u00a0suspected drug smugglers\u00a0and brought them to trial. After each of these double or triple or <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/06\/10\/trump-boat-strikes-human-trafficking-victims\/\">mass murders<\/a>, Trump, Hegseth, or SOUTHCOM have posted a video of those civilians being executed from above.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Snuff films have become a signature of the second Trump administration. Just eight days after Trump took office for a second time, Sebastian Gorka, the senior counterterrorism director on the National Security Council, said he presented Trump with a target in Somalia. \u201cKill him!\u2019\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/27\/trump-war-isis-somalia-sebastian-gorka\/\">Trump replied<\/a>, and the man was slain in an airstrike. \u201cHe declassified the video because the president wanted to post it. So he posts the video of the hammers of hell being dropped on this ISIS leader,\u201d Gorka <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dx9Isa0tUGg\">recalled<\/a> with a laugh. \u201cPresident puts it on Truth Social. \u2026 He got 120 million likes in like 18 hours. And at the bottom of that post, he wrote, \u2018We will find you and we will kill you.\u2019 Which we have made into the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/15\/podcast-trump-counterterrorism-strategy\/\">motto of our directorate<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This cavalier attitude toward turning murder into online content stands in stark contrast to past U.S. military responses to videos of killings released by foes. Twenty years ago, U.S. military officials condemned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/news\/541966\/us-officials-condemn-video-mutilated-soldiers\">terrorist \u201csnuff films\u201d<\/a> \u2014 snipers filming their kills \u2014 in Iraq.\u00a0And when it came to a video of two dead American troops shared online, the U.S.-led Multinational Division Baghdad \u201ccondemn[ed] the release of the video in the strongest of terms.\u201d The command added: \u201cIt demonstrates the barbaric and brutal nature of the terrorists and their complete disregard for human life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A decade later, as the Islamic State group released shocking execution videos, one of Hegseth\u2019s predecessors \u2014 Chuck Hagel \u2014 expressed revulsion at the group\u2019s spectacle of slaughter. \u201cI think regardless of your background, your experience, just as a human being with having some sense of decency and respect for human life and other people, it makes you sick to your stomach,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.war.gov\/News\/Transcripts\/Transcript\/Article\/606924\/remarks-by-secretary-hagel-at-the-naval-war-college-newport-rhode-island\/\">said<\/a> of the group\u2019s videos of the killing of defenseless civilians. \u201cBut it again reminds of the kind of brutality and the barbarism that is afoot in some of these areas of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Gorka \u2014 back then the national security editor of Breitbart News \u2014 had a different takeaway. He also mentioned ISIS\u2019s brutality but seemingly with more than a hint of admiration. \u201cEvery American, everybody who stands for the values of this republic needs to watch these videos because then you understand the nature of the threat of the brutality of the people we\u2019re facing,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/clips\/2014\/09\/14\/breitbarts-gorka-every-american-should-watch-isis-beheading-video\/\">said<\/a> of ISIS\u2019s snuff films in 2014. \u201cIt\u2019s very, very slick. Think about one thing \u2014 just two weeks ago, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al Qaeda, issued a 55-minute lecture in Arabic. \u2026 That\u2019s not going to bring you recruits. That\u2019s not going to further your cause as a jihadist. These people do instant little messages. They do these short videos. They have a very, very professional audio\/visual social media crew.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether or not Gorka has been the driving force behind the snuff film fixation, the Trump administration seems to be larded up with MAGA minions channeling their inner ISIS. When the Iran war began, military officials began spoon-feeding Trump so-called highlight reels of strikes on targets, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/white-house\/trump-receives-daily-video-montage-briefing-iran-war-rcna263912\">reporting by NBC<\/a>: \u201cThe daily montage typically runs for about two minutes, sometimes longer, the officials said. One described each daily video as a series of clips of \u2018stuff blowing up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House has then taken such footage and spliced in clips from action films, TV shows, and video games to create online content. In one, the White House combined clips from Nintendo\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WhiteHouse\/status\/2032115039985881556?s=20\">Wii Sports<\/a> with videos of attacks on Iran. Another \u2014 captioned \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WhiteHouse\/status\/2031895801064985021\">STRIKE<\/a>\u201d \u2014 featured a former professional bowler, anthropomorphic AI bowling pins labeled \u201cIranian regime officials,\u201d a fake fighter jet, and real airstrike footage. Videos of airstrikes were also combined with short clips \u2014 \u201cGladiator,\u201d \u201cBraveheart,\u201d \u201cJohn Wick,\u201d \u201cSuperman,\u201d \u201cBetter Call Saul,\u201d \u201cDragon Ball Z\u201d \u2014 to create \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WhiteHouse\/status\/2029741548791853331\">JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY<\/a>,\u201d a video posted by the White House and eagerly shared online by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Kaelan47\/status\/2029778795889131954\">top administration officials<\/a>. It ends with a voiceover saying \u201cflawless victory\u201d \u2014 an audio clip from the video game \u201cMortal Kombat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip. We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie,\u201d Ben Stiller, who directed and starred in the movie \u201cTropic Thunder,\u201d featured in the aforementioned Justice video, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BenStiller\/status\/2029989426948870182?lang=en\">wrote<\/a> on social media. Three months later, the White House\u2019s murderous mash-up remains on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The White House employs a media strategy that melds influence operations with influencer culture, muddying the news cycle, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/31\/nick-shirley-videos-minnesota-somali-day-cares-fraud-claims\/\">laundering lies<\/a>, and countering critical coverage by <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/09\/08\/trump-chicago-ice-dhs-apocalypse-now\/\">flooding the zone<\/a> with shoddy propaganda, TikTok-style memes, rancid <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WhiteHouse\/status\/2061620269483987217\">AI slop<\/a>, and music videos. \u201cWe\u2019re here. We\u2019re in your face. It\u2019s irreverent. It\u2019s unapologetic,\u201d Kaelan Dorr, a deputy assistant to the president who runs the digital media team, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2025\/03\/06\/trump-white-house-media-social-influencers\/\">told the Washington Post<\/a> last year, after countering criticism of its brutal anti-immigrant policies with social media that turned federal viciousness into a joke. The Trump administration\u2019s viral war porn provides another layer of calloused cruelty obscuring the human costs of America\u2019s global killing spree.<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-embed flex-col items-center print:hidden\" id=\"third-party--article-mid\" data-module=\"InlineNewsletter\" data-module-source=\"web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\">\n<div class=\"-mx-5 sm:-mx-10 p-5 sm:px-10 xl:-ml-5 lg:mr-0 xl:px-5 bg-accentLight hidden\" data-name=\"subscribed\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-light uppercase text-[30px] leading-8 text-white tracking-[0.01em] mb-0\">\n      We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. 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Delivered to you.          <\/span><br \/>\n          <span class=\"group-[.default]:hidden\"><br \/>\n            Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept?          <\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/now\/?referrer_post_id=518620&amp;referrer_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2F2026%2F06%2F29%2Ftomdispatch-trump-war-killing-videos%2F&amp;source=web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\" class=\"group-[.default]:hidden border border-accentLight text-accentLight font-sans px-5 py-3.5 inline-flex items-center gap-3 text-[20px] font-bold\" data-action=\"handleDonate\"><br \/>\n          Become a member          <span class=\"font-icons icon-TI_Arrow_02_Right\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"font-sans text-accentLight text-[10px] leading-[13px] text-balance [&amp;_a]:text-accentLight [&amp;_a]:font-bold [&amp;_a:hover]:underline group-[.subscribed]:hidden\">\n<p>By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/privacy-policy\/\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/terms-use\/\">Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(newsletter)[0] --><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a 2002 New Yorker essay on images of the suffering wrought by war or torture, Susan Sontag reflected on photographs of Black victims of lynchings from the 1890s to the 1930s. \u201cThe lynching pictures tell us about human wickedness. About inhumanity. They force us to think about the extent of the evil unleashed specifically by racism. Intrinsic to the perpetration of this evil is the shamelessness of photographing it,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2002\/12\/09\/looking-at-war\">she wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe pictures were taken as souvenirs and made, some of them, into postcards; more than a few show grinning spectators, good churchgoing citizens, as most of them had to be, posing for a camera with the backdrop of a naked, charred, mutilated body hanging from a tree.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration\u2019s snuff films are no less dehumanizing or shameless \u2014 even if the victims are censored in the footage \u2014 and the cheering replies on social media celebrating the boat strikes and murder memes are the modern-day equivalent of those churchgoers\u2019 grins. But unlike the singular images of horrific violence meted out on black victims across the U.S., we are \u2014 100 years later \u2014 drowning in endless videos of boat strikes and drone attacks and impacting missiles and bombs dropped on apartment buildings. The voyeuristic nature of the content dehumanizes the victims and debases us all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump, Hegseth, Gorka, and Donovan might be immune to any shame, regret, or guilt. Serial killers \u2014 people who murder a series of victims over a period of time \u2014 often lack empathy or remorse. But the entire <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/drone-papers\/\">kill chain involved in strikes<\/a> and the propaganda apparatus that transforms footage of murders into social media content is filled with thousands of people \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/23\/boat-strikes-venezuela-hegseth-bradley-legal\/\">military personnel<\/a>, members of the intelligence community, White House workers, and others \u2014 for whom these videos might not be so easy to dismiss and forget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the Trump administration\u2019s boat strike footage plays like the movies of his childhood, flickering black-and-white footage, and the movies of his parents\u2019 youth, silent films. You don\u2019t hear the explosion of a missile\u2019s impact or the cries of the wounded and dying. In that respect, it\u2019s different than a homemade video of a young man having his arm hacked off with a machete. Those sounds, those cries got stuck in my head \u2014 more so than even the visual horror. The Americans who make the snuff films possible might be spared this. But in the end, that might actually be worse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A veteran once told me of a murder he replayed again and again in his head for the rest of his life. Like the boat strike footage, he said there was no sound. That\u2019s what he said was so terrifying. This veteran always saw the victim, mouth agape, screaming in agony. But he could never conjure a soundtrack. It was awful. Unnerving. Maddening. Agonizing. It caused his head to ache, his chest to tighten, and his guts to twist into knots. This horrific hush was deafening. He told me that, decades and decades later, it was \u2014 above all \u2014 this \u201csilent scream\u201d that tortured him.<a id=\"_msocom_1\"\/><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>#Trump #Administrations #Shameless #SnuffFilm #Fixation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the wreckage of the Twin &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[246],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}