Public Executions, Defense Tech, and the New Authoritarian Aesthetic

When a Fox News personality turns a state killing into a livestream spectacle, it’s already a chilling sign of where our politics are headed. When that spectacle finds fans among powerful defense-tech executives—people who build the tools of war, policing, and surveillance—it becomes something else entirely: a warning flare about the kind of society these elites are trying to normalize.

Mother Jones recently reported that Pete Hegseth’s livestream of a firing squad execution has attracted open support from figures like Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of Anduril Industries, a rising giant in autonomous weapons and AI-driven border tech. Luckey has proudly declared, “I have been outspoken on wanting public executions for over a decade,” defending “public and brutal” executions as a good thing.

This is not just about one grotesque TV event. It’s about the convergence of right‑wing media, militarized technology, and authoritarian punishment—and what that means for democracy, human rights, and the communities most targeted by state violence.

—

1. What Happened—and Why It Matters

The core story is simple and disturbing:

– Pete Hegseth, a high-profile conservative commentator, used his platform to turn a firing squad execution into a kind of media event.
– Instead of treating state killing as a grave, solemn act, the broadcast framed it as something close to entertainment and moral theater.
– In the aftermath, key figures in the defense-tech world—most notably Palmer Luckey—publicly praised not only the livestream, but the broader idea of “public and brutal” executions.

This matters for at least three reasons:

1. It mainstreams cruelty: When executions are presented as content—something to watch, react to, and monetize—it erodes the taboo around state violence.
2. It signals elite support for authoritarianism: Defense contractors and tech entrepreneurs are not just random fans; they are shaping the future of warfare, policing, and border control.
3. It connects punitive spectacle with advanced technology: The same people building autonomous drones and surveillance platforms are cheering on public executions. That alignment should alarm anyone who cares about civil liberties and human dignity.

—

2. Background: Who’s Involved and What’s at Stake

To understand the stakes, it helps to know who the key players are and what they do.

Pete Hegseth and the “Execution Livestream”

Pete Hegseth is a familiar face on Fox News and a long-time booster of militarism and “law and order” politics. His decision to host and promote a firing squad execution as a media event fits a broader pattern of:

– Glorifying state violence as a sign of strength
– Framing harsh punishment as moral clarity
– Casting critics of the death penalty as weak, “soft on crime,” or unpatriotic

Turning an execution into a livestream blurs the line between news and spectacle. It also echoes a grim history: from lynching postcards to public hangings, the United States has a long tradition of turning state or mob violence into a show.

Palmer Luckey, Anduril, and the Defense-Tech Boom

Palmer Luckey is best known for founding Oculus (later acquired by Meta) and then Anduril Industries, a defense-tech company that:

– Builds autonomous drones and AI-powered sensor systems
– Contracts with the Department of Defense, Customs and Border Protection, and foreign militaries
– Markets itself as the Silicon Valley answer to a “slow” Pentagon, promising faster, more agile warfighting tools

Anduril is part of a broader wave of firms—alongside companies like Palantir—that blend big data, AI, and national security. These companies pitch themselves as innovators and patriots, but their products often deepen surveillance and militarization at home and abroad.

So when Luckey celebrates “public and brutal” executions, he’s not just speaking as a private citizen with a dark personal taste. He’s speaking as someone whose business is to arm the state, especially in ways that automate and expand its power.

—

3. A Progressive Analysis: Punishment, Power, and Spectacle

From a progressive perspective, this story is not an isolated outrage. It’s a window into a larger authoritarian project.

Normalizing State Violence as Entertainment

Public executions—whether in medieval town squares or modern livestreams—have always served a political purpose: to dramatize the power of the state and the supposed righteousness of its violence.

By broadcasting an execution, Hegseth and his supporters:

– Reframe killing as a moral spectacle: The audience is invited to see death as justice, closure, or even catharsis.
– Dehumanize the condemned person: Their life story, context, or potential innocence becomes secondary to the spectacle.
– Desensitize the public: The more we see state violence treated as normal content, the easier it becomes to accept other forms of cruelty.

For progressives, the concern isn’t only about individual executions. It’s about the broader cultural shift toward accepting—and even enjoying—state brutality as part of our media diet.

The Carceral State Meets High-Tech Militarism

The alliance between defense-tech executives and punitive media personalities is not accidental. It reflects a shared worldview:

– Human beings are threats to be managed, not rights-bearing individuals.
– Security and order justify almost any level of force.
– Technology and violence are tools for social control, not last resorts.

Companies like Anduril and Palantir already profit from:

– Militarized borders: Autonomous surveillance towers, AI-driven tracking, and drones that monitor migrants.
– Policing and intelligence: Software that aggregates data, predicts “risk,” and enables more aggressive enforcement.
– Overseas warfare: Tools that make it easier to wage remote, low-accountability conflicts.

When leaders in this sector embrace public executions, it reinforces a dangerous logic: if the state can kill publicly and proudly, why should there be limits on what it can surveil, detain, or bomb?

Authoritarian Aesthetics and the Culture War

There’s also a cultural angle. Public executions fit neatly into the broader right-wing aesthetic of “toughness” and “retribution”:

– Harsh punishment becomes a badge of seriousness.
– Mercy, rehabilitation, and due process are framed as weakness.
– Violence is recast as moral clarity.

This is the same ecosystem that celebrates police brutality, demonizes protest movements, and calls for military deployments against civilians. The execution livestream is one more piece of that puzzle.

—

4. Why This Matters for Social Justice and Progressive Values

At the heart of progressive politics is a simple conviction: every person has inherent dignity, and the state’s power must be constrained by human rights, due process, and equality.

Public executions and their cheerleaders threaten that conviction on multiple fronts.

Targeting the Most Vulnerable

The death penalty in the United States is not applied evenly. It falls hardest on:

– Poor people who can’t afford strong legal representation
– Black and brown communities
– People tried in jurisdictions with long histories of racial bias and over-policing

Turning executions into public spectacles doesn’t make the system fairer; it doubles down on its cruelty. It invites the broader public to endorse the state’s harshest punishments against the people it already marginalizes most.

Expanding the Logic of Punishment

Once we accept that the state can kill publicly for “justice,” it becomes easier to justify:

– Longer sentences and harsher conditions in prisons
– Expanded policing and surveillance
– More militarized responses to social problems like addiction, homelessness, and protest

In this sense, the execution livestream is not just about one person’s death. It’s about legitimizing a broader punitive system that undermines social justice at every turn.

Tech-Driven Authoritarianism

Progressives have long warned about the dangers of merging unregulated tech power with state violence. When defense-tech executives openly endorse brutal punishment, those warnings become even more urgent.

If the people designing autonomous weapons, border AI, and predictive policing tools see public executions as a positive good, we should ask:

– How will they design their systems?
– Whose lives will they deem expendable?
– What safeguards will they resist?

The answer, historically, is that marginalized communities bear the brunt of experimentation and abuse.

—

5. What You Can Do—and How to Stay Informed

This story is disturbing, but it’s not hopeless. There are concrete steps people can take to resist the normalization of state violence and tech-driven authoritarianism.

1. Support Organizations Fighting the Death Penalty and State Violence

Consider supporting or following groups that:

– Work to end the death penalty (e.g., Equal Justice USA, Death Penalty Information Center)
– Challenge mass incarceration and police violence (e.g., Movement for Black Lives, local abolitionist organizations)
– Advocate for civil liberties and privacy (e.g., ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation)

These organizations provide resources, campaigns, and ways to get involved locally.

2. Push for Tech Accountability

If you’re in tech, academia, or policy:

– Advocate for ethical guidelines that bar collaboration with projects that expand lethal or carceral state power.
– Support worker organizing inside tech firms to resist contracts with agencies like ICE, CBP, or militaries engaged in abuses.
– Back legislation and regulations that increase transparency and limits on AI and surveillance tech.

3. Challenge the Culture of Punitive Spectacle

In conversations, classrooms, and social media:

– Refuse to share or amplify content that turns executions or state violence into spectacle.
– Highlight the human stories behind those targeted by the death penalty and policing.
– Promote narratives centered on restorative justice, rehabilitation, and community safety without punishment.

4. Stay Informed and Critical

Media literacy is crucial. When you see stories about crime, punishment, and national security:

– Ask who benefits from harsher punishment or expanded surveillance.
– Look for coverage from outlets that center human rights and systemic analysis, not just sensational details.
– Read investigative reporting that connects the dots between tech firms, government contracts, and civil liberties.

The Mother Jones piece on Hegseth’s execution livestream and its fans in the defense industry is a good example of this kind of reporting. It shows how media, tech, and state power intersect—and why we need to pay attention.

—

The push to normalize “public and brutal” executions is not just a moral outrage; it’s a political project. It aims to harden the public’s heart, expand the state’s power, and clear the way for a future where high-tech tools and old-fashioned cruelty work hand in hand.

Resisting that future means insisting on the dignity of every person, challenging the fusion of tech and militarism, and refusing to let death become content.

Read the original Mother Jones article here:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/hasan-hegseth-firing-squad-livestream-execution-palantir-anduril-luckey/

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash