The ticking-time-bomb torture scenario presupposes racialized suspicion

Evidence

That torture is even conceivable to some at the supposed limit so as to elicit information where there is “pending attack” – the case of “the ticking time bomb” – must necessarily take its cue from such silenced racisms. That they are planning such an inconceivably horrifying act – suicide bombing, beheadings, and so on – licenses extreme counter-action to limit possible devastation. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1869

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s earlier material on moral panics: the ‘ticking bomb’ is an imaginary scenario whose plausibility rests on a pre-existing stereotype, much as panic narratives rely on pre-sensitized audiences.