🧩 BND Motif Index · M867
The new dark ages
The country is said to be sliding back into barbarism, executions made a public show, cruelty for its own sake, old rights undone: a new dark age.
- 6claims filed under it
- 2left shows it came up on
- 1center show it came up on
- 3claims retold online
⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.
A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.
🪜 Its family
what it rests on, what rests on it, and the motifs that answer it
🔗 goes with: 🧩 Cruel and unusual
🎙️ Who it came up with
the shows we follow where its claims came up, by the show's lean
⚖️ center 1
🐘 right 0
🦗 none of our right shows, so far
"Came up on" means one of its claims was heard on the show: told, reported or argued against. We don't yet mark which. Show leans are our own grouping of the shows we transcribe.
📰 In the news
the stories its claims were told about, the most told first (matched by our tools, so a link can be wrong)
- 📰 Trump cancels livestream of Fort Hood shooter's execution 2026-10-06 to 2026-10-18
- 📰 U.S. plans to livestream execution By firing squad draw bipartisan and international criticism 2026-10-11 to 2026-10-12
🧶 Its claims
what's been told in this shape, newest first, in our words, with where each was heard
- 2026-10-18 “Pete Hegseth suggested performing public executions via firing squad to make an example of criminals.”
🎙️ The MeidasTouch Podcast - 2026-10-14 “The Trump administration wants to live stream an execution.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-13 “The decision by the Trump administration to live stream executions is an unfortunate and regressive act.”
🎙️ BBC Global News Podcast - 2026-10-12 “Livestreaming Nidal Hasan's execution would restore American values, or shows how barbaric the country has become.” 🧶 people online
- 2026-10-11 “The Pentagon's decision to live stream a military execution is a move toward medieval barbarism.”
🎙️ HasanAbi (podcast) - 2026-10-11 “The Pentagon plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan.” 🧶 people online
M867 · first seen 2026-10-11 · last 2026-10-18 · what this is · how the index works