To understand this video, you first must familiarize yourself with ASMR. ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, is that tingle you feel up your neck when someone, say, whispers in your ear. YouTube is full of ASMR videos. This editor doesn’t get the tingle effect, but he does find the sounds of a haircut very relaxing. Other videos feature whispering, tapping, or hair brushing.
The other day, the White House put out an ASMR video featuring the sights and sounds of an illegal alien deportation flight. No words, no narration, just sights and sounds.
ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight 🔊 pic.twitter.com/O6L1iYt9b4
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 18, 2025
The video has racked up 78 million views over the course of a day, but the New York Times’ Lydia Polgreen compares the video to a snuff film.
The cruelty of this video is breathtaking. It is like a snuff film for the American idea, tweeted from the official White House handle. https://t.co/eq0QYW7vYu
— Lydia Polgreen (@lpolgreen) February 19, 2025
“The cruelty of this video is breathtaking,” she says, with no clue of why this individual is in shackles and being deported. Is he a murderer? A child rapist? What about the cruelty coming from illegal immigrants?
The trafficked, raped, murdered and abused women and childen are unavailable for comment
— Smoke yer Joyful Cheap Fake (@Jlisa42067) February 19, 2025
Fuck those American women who were murdered and raped is basically what you’re saying
— marilyn maupin (@marilynmaupin) February 19, 2025
I guess I’m into to deportation porn, because I could watch this all day.
— Pags 🇺🇸 (@bigdog0668) February 19, 2025
Straight into my ears
— Dee (@dnad2alphabravo) February 19, 2025
They’re illegal aliens. Some of them are criminals for other reasons. This isn’t cruel. It’s being kind to your own families.
— Chamanit (@Chamanit1) February 19, 2025
Recommended
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Get in touch with their victims and they’ll educate you on “cruelty”. Until then, STFU.
— Paul V. Rea (@PaulVRea) February 19, 2025
I saw nothing cruel in this video. I saw the consequences of actions being realized.
— yuckyduck (@ahappypappy) February 19, 2025
If you think this is cruelty, you don’t know cruelty.
— Halfwitticism (@halfwitticism) February 19, 2025
Would you mind specifying what exactly is so cruel about sending a criminal who is here illegally, but has been convicted of more egregious crimes as well, back to his home country?
— What’s Going On Here? (@WhatsGoingOn_33) February 19, 2025
It’s cruel because the Trump administration is doing it, simple as that.
Please name which of your family and friends you volunteer to be victims of these known criminals.
Be specific.
— fiery, but mostly peaceful (@fierybutmostly1) February 19, 2025
There’s nothing cruel shown in the video. Polgreen’s just upset that the White House passed it off as an ASMR video. We could listen to it all day.
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