{
  "id": 14301430,
  "title": "Lord Of The Rings-inspired defense companies love live-streamed executions",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/13/lord-of-the-rings-inspired-defense-companies-love-live-streamed",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-13T19:47:44.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The A.V. Club",
    "slug": "the-a-v-club",
    "url": "https://www.avclub.com/lord-of-the-rings-inspired-tech-execs-love-public-executions"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Defense tech industry executives, influenced by the dark themes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s \"Lord of the Rings,\" are eager to witness the live-streaming of executions, according to Palmer Luckey. Luckey, co-founder of Anduril, a company that produces autonomous killing machines, expressed his view on social media platform X, stating that public executions are \"normal, good, and aligned with our natural and national order.\" Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also announced his intention to live-stream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. While the Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr has not yet commented on whether he will permit broadcasters to air the government-funded shooting, many have raised concerns about the potential harm public executions could have on the national psyche. Some have drawn parallels between this type of violence and the disturbing spectacles seen in dictatorships. Luckey, who has advocated for public executions for over a decade, believes that executions should be public and brutal, not private and medicalized. He cites 300-year-old teachings of George Washington as justification for his stance. Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, who also shares Luckey's views on public executions, argued that Palantir and other military tech companies are not barbaric, but society today is too soft and harming its citizens. Despite their moral reservations, Luckey and Lonsdale have both received substantial funding from Peter Thiel, a known supporter of anti-Christ return and AI regulation.",
  "summary": "Executives at Anduril and Palantir are giddy at the prospect of watching a man be gunned down on the internet.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}