Unbelievably Cruel ASMR Video by the White House of Deporting Immigrants
This afternoon on Twitter, the official White House account posted an ASMR video of an immigrant deportation flight. Elon Musk quoted-tweeted the video with “Haha wow 🧌🏅”. Here’s a screen recording I made of the video & tweet:
A popular genre on YouTube, ASMR videos are designed to trigger feelings of relaxation and low-grade euphoria through sounds and imagery. In this video, the Trump White House invites us to relax to the clinking of handcuffs, the rattling of chains, and other sounds of immigrants being shackled like criminals and placed on flights out of the country. Some of those being deported are not criminals, are being imprisoned in countries other than their own, could be sent to a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, or might be sent back to countries with autocratic regimes to face persecution or death.
This is unfathomably cruel and monstrous. Vile. Evil. The stuff of sadistic dictators and terrorists. Nazis. People who killed cats for fun when they were kids. From the top down, the people serving in the Trump administration are sick, inhuman, heartless. This video absolutely gutted me. I am so very ashamed to be an American today. (via @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social)
Comments 4
People often assume the emotions associated with cruelty are hatred and anger, but it’s actually pleasure and joy. Fascists relish their cruelty. They roll it around on their tongue like a mouthful of full-bodied wine. They laugh as they harm.
https://bsky.app/profile/sharonk.bsky.social/post/3liia43mlms2a
I think most people are intuitively aware of this but something like the official White House account posting an “ASMR” video of shackled immigrants is not just cruel for its own sake, it’s intentional envelope-pushing to ramp up to desensitization over inhumane detention, camps, and deaths
I've seen a few comments on social media saying that we should ignore things like this, that they are a distraction from what is "really" going on. I disagree. Imagery like this is always a central part of the fascist project, a celebration of their control over vilified groups (among other things). This video reminded me of the postcards of lynchings of Black Americans after the Civil War that were distributed or collected as souvenirs.
Gift link.
The actual story of the shackled people being deported without even being told where they were being taken — maybe to countries where they’d face torture or death — while their terrified children cried.😢
The White House posted that pic with “ASMR” tag.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/world/americas/trump-migrant-deportation-panama.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yU4.hm16.pModEKD3TIBy&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:vumzskfjncyfwn3lsprn5fsf/bafkreicy2opsoruf5java6rignkdpddwke2t7qqiu7vbw2bl3sz6xybqwy@jpeg
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