The article critiques the Trump administration's use of social media to present its mass deportation policies as entertainment, comparing modern audiences to the ancient Romans who reveled in public spectacles of brutality. It argues that this normalization of cruelty desensitizes people, making them numb to the suffering of others. By featuring televised moments of ICE raids involving media personalities, the administration aims to engage voters in a reality-show narrative, reinforcing a social divide and a perception of an 'us versus them' mentality regarding immigration.
"The Trump administration is now trying to showcase its program of mass deportation as reality-show style entertainment, through which voters will rationalize their cruelty."
"Turning human suffering into spectacle did not die out in antiquity. Instead, we have social media and reality television, which allow even more of a remove from what the audience sees."
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