Drone technology produces a strong moral buffering effect that offsets visual proximity to victims.

Evidence

The filtered nature of perception, the figurative reduction of the enemy, the nonreciprocity of the fields of perception, and the dislocation of the phenomenological unity of the action are all factors that, when combined, produce a strong “moral buffering” effect. Thus, offsetting the visual proximity, the device presents its operators with powerful means of distancing. But this form of experience also presents a second important characteristic: the fact that the violence of warfare is being exercised from a peaceful zone. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In other words, the argument here is that, so far as the capacity for discrimination goes, the drone technology destroys the traditionally established link between visual acuteness and physical proximity. The proximity of the operator is no longer necessarily a pertinent factor in the identification of targets. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1016 (#expands, via linked claim)

All that the operators can see are little figures blurred into facelessness. A former CIA officer declares, “You could see these little figures scurrying and the explosion going off and when the smoke cleared, there was just rubble and charred stuff.” This figurative reduction of human targets helps to make the homicide easier: “There’s no flesh on your monitor, just coordinates.” One is never spattered by the adversary’s blood. No doubt the absence of any physical soiling corresponds to less of a sense of moral soiling. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 404 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Drone technology produces a combined morale-buffering effect on operators; Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407; Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 404 (+3 more)

Related

• Drone technology produces a combined morale-buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.96)
• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.94)
• Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing (similarity 0.93)
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. (similarity 0.92)
• Drone killing is reduced to clicking on tiny on-screen figures (similarity 0.86)
• Eliminating reciprocal exposure to violence makes drones look like cowardly weapons. (similarity 0.86)
• Drones lower political, economic, and ethical costs of war (similarity 0.86)
• Drone targeting hinged on remote visual guesses about sex and combatant status (similarity 0.84)
• Drone warfare creates a new ethical-political norm neither war nor peace (similarity 0.83)
• Drone warfare deactivates the democratic critique rooted in exposable lives (similarity 0.83)
• Drones create a moral hazard that shifts risk onto others. (similarity 0.83)
• Drone war turns strategic evaluation into disconnected body counts. (similarity 0.83)
• Drone surveillance transforms the panopticon from a punishing to an annihilating gaze. (similarity 0.83)
• Drone psychopathology lies in produced compartmentalization, not operator trauma (similarity 0.82)
• Drones deactivate democratic war critique by removing citizens’ exposure to death. (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators #corroborates (0.95) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. #expands (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 1016
• Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing #exemplifies (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 404
• Drones lower political, economic, and ethical costs of war #qualifies (0.50)