Games

Isn't that scene supposed to be an intentionally over the top satirical parody or whatever of the kind of torture porn popularised in pop culture after 9/11 by media like 24?

The game's villain makes the most sadistic and unhinged member of the cast torture some random guy who's fully cooperative but confused as to what they even want from him in order to maybe ID some other random person that the villain thinks maybe is doing something but he's not sure what so that another member of the cast can just extrajudicially kirk him from a ridge by a house party he's at.

Like it's entirely set up as this pointless, monstrous act that's being ordered by a fed who's just going off vibes and casually hurting people because that's what he does, and that not only was the torture unnecessary but also that there's nothing to even establish that the target was anything but just some guy who was probably some comprador businessman trying to distance himself from potential consequences in his own country considering he was clearly rich and taking shelter in the US. The feds are just there committing crimes against humanity using plausibly deniable assets to murk one of their own compradors out of pure racist vibes.

in the mission the FBI blackmails criminals (the player) to kidnap and torture an innocent man for information he was willing to give without being tortured, which is somewhat accurate to what U.S. agencies do irl. out of all the things in gta v, for example the transphobic (now removed npcs) to the anti-union stuff, to the fact that not a single female character is written in the story outside of being a feminist parody or a love interest. "by the book" isn't high up.

There's also a few missions where Trevor works for the literal ICE then later kills the ICE agents but after the damage was done, which at first thought what you were talking about.