Idiots, Ideologues, and Just Plain Interested: The Individuals who Engage in Amateur Waterboarding on the Internet

2018/01/09 by Myles Balfe · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking #Digital Games and Media #Themes in Literature Analysis #Torture #Amateur #Ideology #Situated #Transformational leadership #Psychology #Criminology #Social psychology #Sociology #Politics #Media studies #Political science #Law

paper · doi:10.1080/01639625.2017.1410617

openalex publication_date 2018/01/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06

Abstract

This article examines 65 amateur waterboarding videos to investigate why ordinary people become involved in waterboarding. There appears to be several explanations for this involvement: thrill-seeking, ideology, and educational reasons. The article highlights waterboarding’s dangers, and its potentially transformational effects on individuals. Findings are situated in relation to Michel Foucault’s work on torture, and what is known about health professional involvement in experimental torture during the War on Terror.

Citations

• Determining Sample Size
• The Toxicity of Torture: The Cultural Structure of US Political Discourse of Waterboarding
• Discipline and Punish

Cited by

• Waterboarding [wikipedia]

Related

• Survival Strategies while Engaging in Deviant Behaviors: The Case of Amateur Waterboarding Torture
• Historicizing waterboarding as a severe torture norm
• The Toxicity of Torture: The Cultural Structure of US Political Discourse of Waterboarding
• Cyborgs of the Western Pacific: Underwater Human Enhancement
• Torture and Religious Practice1