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To ask your thoughts on Channel 4 programme about disability airing tonight?

57 replies

MistressoftheDarkSide · 21/10/2026 13:11

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/channel-4-nazi-the-experiment-b3070016.html?reloaded=1&fbclid=IwdGRjcAVFiipjbGNrBUWKImV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YFc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeMnOMNjpsjouMyg6BrdvW82ambeLHfmUZ3oKc56dJLQAZVdyFsH_-2xJQDIc_aem_BlWdHKD7gRgVBetx0tInhA

Thought I'd bring your attention to this.

Thoughts?

Channel 4 to recreate Nazi conditions for disabled people in new TV experiment

Provocative new show explores whether members of the public will spot Nazi ideology today if it’s ‘repackaged and made to appear acceptable’

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/channel-4-nazi-the-experiment-b3070016.html?fbclid=IwdGRjcAVFiipjbGNrBUWKImV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YFc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeMnOMNjpsjouMyg6BrdvW82ambeLHfmUZ3oKc56dJLQAZVdyFsH_-2xJQDIc_aem_BlWdHKD7gRgVBetx0tInhA&reloaded=1

OP posts:
FionnulaTheCooler · 21/10/2026 13:14

I wasn't aware of this but it looks interesting. I'll set the sky box to record it.

Ratherhaveacupofteaandabiscuit · 21/10/2026 13:20

Christ on a bike!

I am really not sure if this is a good idea or not.

I will make myself watch though so thanks for posting this.

I am a disabled person, have been so for about the past ten years.

Before that I was a nurse for people with learning disabilities so I have experienced disability from two sides.

I used to fight discrimination on behalf of and with my patients and thought I got it but becoming visibly disabled myself has still been an eye opener.

So much ignorance, prejudice and even outright hatred.

Having initially improved over time the situation is actually much worse now than when I first started nursing back in the 80s.

randomchap · 21/10/2026 13:23

It could be exploitative crap, or an interesting way of showing how the world has changed for people with disabilities. Can't really comment until watching it

ThreeNewWords · 21/10/2026 13:26

Hmmm. It looks potentially sensationalist and cynical. I wonder how they will 'repackage' forced sterilisation and murder to fit progressive ideas.

However, it may be that it will at least confront head-on the concerns that assisted dying might, in effect, amount to the creation of an atmosphere in which "better off dead" is something that people think is an acceptable attitude towards people with disabilities. That might be a programme worth watching.

I guess that on bamance I just don't trust Channel Four to do this without having a primary concern for the bottom line. But, who knows. Perhaps better to wait and see. And they do seem to have active direction and participation from relevant organisations led by people with disabilities

Catza · 21/10/2026 13:59

Your title is misleading. This programme is not about disability but (appears to be) about dangerous political ideologies sold to gullible public under the guise of progressive ideas. I am sure it will be an interesting and horrifying watch.

Ablondiebutagoody · 21/10/2026 14:07

It looks shit

AnneLovesGilbert · 21/10/2026 14:15

They added that with disability rights currently “under threat in the UK and around the world”, they hope the documentary will show that “the chances of repeating the past are far higher than we think”.

This, from the article, isn’t very specific. Do they mean reviewing benefits for disabled people or the rise of assisted dying in other countries?

If it’s the latter it’s an interesting take.

MildlyUnimpressed · 21/10/2026 14:27

I hope they bring up the very concerning change to DoLS legislation.

www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/the-biggest-rollback-of-disability-rights-in-a-generation-charities-respond-to-supreme-court-ruling/

MistressoftheDarkSide · 21/10/2026 15:18

I'm in several minds about it. I don't have any access to TV that requires being a license holder, so will have to wait for it to come up on YouTube or similar.

I think the concept echoes alarming thoughts that I've had about the direction of the current zeirgeist, and which have been dismissed by others as paranoia.

I am very concerned about the use of highly sophisticated propaganda to influence public opinion against minority groups, particularly the most vulnerable and where this programme will fall in terms of its impact.

I picked this up from a FB post, and many comments underneath were sadly telling.... invoking cost / benefit arguments and a few that verged on outright Holocaust denial. There was a predictable flavour of dehumanisation and minimisation of the challenges vulnerable people and their families face in the current climate.

Overall it makes me queasy that we're living in a world where these discussions are also viewed as ratings grabbing "entertainment". The recent Trump intention to livestream an execution by firing squad, thankfully rowed back on, was an absolute WTF moment with the regression of "civilisation" writ large.

Assisted dying? All shades of confusion due to personal experience, but not something I'd trust the state with without much more investigation.

Overall, if anyone does watch it tonight, I'd be grateful for thoughts and insights till I can get to see it myself.

OP posts:
MildlyUnimpressed · 21/10/2026 15:35

Why don’t you just watch it on your browser? They don’t know you don’t have a tv licence, nothing will happen.

Catza · 21/10/2026 15:55

You can watch Channel 4 programmes on browser in catch-up mode one hour after airing. You don't need a TV license for that as it is for live television and iPlayer only.

TemperanceWest · 21/10/2026 16:00

Thanks for highlighting this @MistressoftheDarkSide . I don't think you are paranoid at all. You only have to read some MN threads to see the direction things are going in in terms of attitudes towards disabled people.

Boomer55 · 21/10/2026 16:08

80 years ago. A maniac in charge of Germany. Even as someone with disabilities, I think, no just leave it be. Old history.

TemperanceWest · 21/10/2026 16:14

Boomer55 · 21/10/2026 16:08

80 years ago. A maniac in charge of Germany. Even as someone with disabilities, I think, no just leave it be. Old history.

I don't agree. There are attitudes to disabled people, sometimes expressed on MN, that show that it isn't old history at all. There have been posters advocating warehousing disabled people, for example.

PocketSand · 21/10/2026 16:14

The experiment is about disability in the sense of an imaginary home for assisted living for the disabled. It is packaged using current progressive ‘ideas’ but is actually run according to nazi ideology of the past.

The experiment is whether people will recognise Nazi ideology wearing a new suit in the context of support for the disabled being rebranded as an economic issue of affordability.

SerendipityJane · 21/10/2026 16:27

worth remembering that this really happened.

Sensitive content
To ask your thoughts on Channel 4 programme about disability airing tonight?
OutOfTheOtherSide · 21/10/2026 16:52

Ablondiebutagoody · 21/10/2026 14:07

It looks shit

😂

SerendipityJane · 21/10/2026 17:06

PocketSand · 21/10/2026 16:14

The experiment is about disability in the sense of an imaginary home for assisted living for the disabled. It is packaged using current progressive ‘ideas’ but is actually run according to nazi ideology of the past.

The experiment is whether people will recognise Nazi ideology wearing a new suit in the context of support for the disabled being rebranded as an economic issue of affordability.

The experiment is whether people will recognise Nazi ideology wearing a new suit in the context of support for the disabled being rebranded as an economic issue of affordability.

I would wager that even if some folk recognised it as Nazi ideology, they would still champion it. I mean only in the past week have we heard elected officials quite comfortable with concentration camps.

PocketSand · 21/10/2026 17:16

In which case we, or our children, are fucked. When I hear people saying we just can’t afford PIP I worry where they will go when they realise that people with mild anxiety and depression have never qualified and were a straw target.

AnneLovesGilbert · 21/10/2026 23:41

I mean only in the past week have we heard elected officials quite comfortable with concentration camps

Who said that?

BluebellBeth · 21/10/2026 23:45

I thought it was really good. I suspect it's gone right over a lot of peoples heads though. The faces the teacher bloke pulled were epic! I was pulling similar myself just watching.

voyagevoyaaaage · 22/10/2026 07:33

Well that was interesting...and The Daily Mail have an article actually condemning the conditions on the home and talking about the stance taken by the programme makers sympathetically (how awful is it that that surprises me!).

Sartre · 22/10/2026 07:43

This was the room in the Holocaust museum in Nottingham where I started to cry. I have a DS with autism and it wasn’t worth thinking about. I say this as someone who is half Jewish so have also felt the generational trauma from family. This programme sounds crass, standard channel 4.