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In an age of unrelenting and seemingly accelerating demands on one’s attention, knowing what to reserve outrage for is becoming one of life’s most difficult challenges. Never has this been more apparent than in the wake of the last week or so’s political news from the United States.

The latest onslaught began with the spectacle of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who strutted about last Thursday as he announced his plans to livestream the execution by firing squad of a former U.S. military officer convicted by court-martial and sentenced to death for the terrorist murder of 12 fellow soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood in 2009.

In an age of unrelenting and seemingly accelerating demands on one’s attention, knowing what to reserve outrage for is becoming one of life’s most difficult challenges. Never has this been more apparent than in the wake of the last week or so’s political news from the United States.

The latest onslaught began with the spectacle of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who strutted about last Thursday as he announced his plans to livestream the execution by firing squad of a former U.S. military officer convicted by court-martial and sentenced to death for the terrorist murder of 12 fellow soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood in 2009.

It is not clear whether Hegseth, a man who seems to take crudeness as a virtue, researched the history of state executions before going public with this plan. If he had, he would have quickly learned two things that would give a sensible and morally informed defense secretary pause: The U.S. military hasn’t performed a public execution in 90 years, and the countries that continue to enact rituals like these, such as Iran and Afghanistan under the Taliban, head the list of nations that the United States has long routinely deplored as barbaric. Credit Hegseth for understanding his boss, though. Asked if he supported public executions, U.S. President Donald Trump replied with a single word: “Absolutely.”

A day after Hegseth’s announcement,........

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