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The story
News that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plans to have the execution of Nidal Hasan — who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009 and has lived in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down, since being shot during his capture — broadcast live has sparked discussion on the German-language Lemmy community c/dach. Rather than serious debate over the death penalty itself, the thread was dominated by irony and dark jokes about turning an execution into a spectacle, comparisons to “The Hunger Games” and “The Running Man,” and jokes about finding a sponsor — alongside a few voices raising the psychological toll on the executioner.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth intends to have the execution of a shooter broadcast live. In 2009, the man killed 13 people at a military base.
Source: zeit.de / Read the original article here
What people said
They could always make it pay-per-view and throw in a bit more action (please, for the love of god, no)
Remember when a beige suit was the biggest 'controversy' a US president could cause?
Can't wait to see who sponsors this execution… Red Bull, giving you wings?
Still waiting for the monster trucks to show up
I'd bet more on 'The Hunger Games' angle. Fits the American Dream perfectly.
You say 'it's no joke for the guy who has to pull the trigger' — but nobody's forcing him to. I manage to kill zero people every single day just by not shooting anyone.
It says he's 'paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair' — but this is no joke for the person who has to do the shooting either, no matter how brainwashed they were at the time.
Saying 'there's no need to shoot at all' is a pretty bold claim in the context of a military execution.
The real problem was 'brown people,' not suits.
Coca-Cola.
And the 'bread' part? That'll be Russian military diesel.
Yeah, just saw that too.
Guess we'll find out whether people have learned anything in the last ten years.
(That famous image of Charlie Brown falling flat every time Lucy yanks the football away)
Background and Key Points
Many European countries have abolished the death penalty outright, and the reactions in this thread are written against that backdrop. The jokes zeroed in on the fact that this is a death sentence handed down by a U.S. military court-martial, and that the inmate — paralyzed from the waist down after being shot during his capture — would simply be executed as-is. Comparisons to “a circus,” “The Hunger Games,” and “The Running Man” reflect discomfort with the very idea of turning an execution into entertainment, and the question of the psychological burden on the executioner echoes real ethical debates over methods of capital punishment. Satire outweighed serious policy discussion in the thread, but underneath it lies the broader question of where to draw the line between the death penalty, news reporting, and entertainment.
*This article is a condensed, loosely translated excerpt from the thread “USA: Hinrichtung von US-Amokläufer soll live übertragen werden” on the overseas forum Lemmy c/dach. The editorial team bears responsibility for the translation.
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