• chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    28·
    1 year ago

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-40090809

    https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-pain-of-listening-using-music-as-a-weapon-at-guantanamo-a-672177.html

    Metallica singer James Hetfield has said he is proud that his music is used against enemies of the US

    Metallica’s Enter Sandman had became a particular favourite at the height of the War on Terror, when US interrogators admitted using music to break the resistance of captives in Iraq. The goal was to deprive them of sleep and offend their cultural sensibilities.

    Unco-operative prisoners were exposed to children’s TV music from Sesame Street, and the purple singing dinosaur Barney.

    Sergeant Mark Hadsell of the Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops) told Newsweek magazine: "These people haven’t heard heavy metal. They can’t take it.

    “If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That’s when we come in and talk to them.”

      • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
        36·
        1 year ago

        Oh, are you just now learning that America has been the bad guys pretty much since the beginning?

      • chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I don’t know what to tell you; the same site has Hetfield making a statement that’s pretty to the contrary:

        https://blabbermouth.net/news/james-hetfield-is-honored-metallica-music-was-used-by-us-military-to-help-us-stay-safe

        Asked by Thrasher magazine in a recent interview if he is offended at all by the CIA’s use of METALLICA’s music to torture prisoners, Hetfield said: “Ha! We’ve tortured people with it for a long time. A lot longer than the CIA.”

        He continued: "I’ve got nothing to say about that, really. I’m honored my country is using something to help us stay safe, if they are. But then again, once the music is out, I don’t have control over that. Just like how someone’s giving it away online. They’re using it to do what they do.

        So really he couldn’t give a shit.

        In the article you linked, it sounds like Metallica’s PR people did the asking; the interview with Ulrich is pretty equivocal:

        With the debate over the military and CIA’s use of torture front and center in the news lately, Maddow also asked Ulrich how he felt about METALLICA’s music being used to psychologically torture prisoners of war. “There is a lot of METALLICA music that’s helping a lot of scared 18-, 19- and 20-year-old kids out there who are out on the front lines and who are doing a hell of a job on behalf of you and me and the rest of us,” he said. “But obviously when you hear stories like the one you’re telling, it all seems so bizarre and so strange that METALLICA’s music, which generally sort of facilitates bringing people together, is used in these bizarre circumstances. It’s certainly not something that we in any way advocate or condone.”

        So not going to advocate or condone the use of their music in torture.

        • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          It is possible that James and his bandmates have different opinions about it. Hetfield has always come across as a bit dumb/rednecky(?) fwiw.

          However the band as a whole did ask the US army to stop using their music.