There have been tablets written in ancient Sumerian dating from 2,000 B.C. in which parents make this very same complaint. Old people have always been convinced the youth of the next generation were worse than they were in the "good old days."

The more I study history, the more I realize humans today are pretty much exactly the same as they were 50, 100, 500, 1000, 2000 and even 4000 years ago. Only our technology seems to change.

---

I'm no resident expert in torture and everything I say is hearsay and will be dismissed in a court of law. There's my disclaimer right there.

I have a source, completely confident, who I talked torture with. He said the same thing - torture is not very accurate as the tortured will do whatever it takes to get the torture to stop. That often means telling the torturer what the torturer wants to hear, which often isn't the truth.

The most effective way is to build a confidant. Takes more time, but it's more effective/accurate.

Now as a historian, let's take a look at witchcraft for example. "Witches" often were regular people who confessed to get the torturing to stop. They neither had powers nor even attempted practicing witchcraft. They just wanted the torturers to stop and confessing witchcraft was the means to get the torture to end.

So should we really be torturing people to get a confession when more likely than not, they're just telling you what you want to hear?

Reminds of the scene from "Spies Like Us."



There's your confession. Accurate? No.

Sure, you can say it's just a movie. But it's a perfect example of what happens in torture. Tell them what they want to hear and they'll stop torturing you, accurate or not.

---