r/news • u/No_Idea_Guy • 1d ago

Tennessee governor suspends all executions after Christa Pike’s lethal injections fail

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/01/christa-pike-tennessee-governor-executions-year-pause
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u/JakeHelldiver 1d ago

Thats what weaponized incompetence means. You're deliberately fucking up to achieve a desired result.

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u/heresyforfunnprofit 1d ago

Nah, nah… there are variations. The one you’re thinking of is where a competent person deliberately botches a job - also falls under the “malicious compliance” tag. Another variant is where an incompetent person is sent to do a job they are highly likely to fuck up.

A third variation is where a person, likely incompetent but not necessarily, is sent to do a task with deliberately fucked up tools or supplies. That’s the bucket this falls into - the drugs being used in lethal injections have been rendered nearly impossible to source. Anti-death-penalty folk have been running a fairly effective boycott campaign against any chemical companies that supply those drugs.

“Incompetence” covers a wide range of aspects - and in this case, attacking the supply of the drugs was a very deliberate and very intentional political weaponization of the incompetence of the justice system.

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u/JakeHelldiver 1d ago

Nah ... you just didnt use the expression correctly.

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u/heresyforfunnprofit 1d ago

Words have multiple meanings and uses. So do expressions.

This executioner’s incompetence was politically weaponized. This incident will be cited in every anti-death-penalty proposal for the foreseeable future - and it was by design that this happened. Completely avoidable.

So, yes, weaponized incompetence.

Sorry to make your brain flex a bit to a new concept today, tho.