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Alex Honnold’s recent free-solo ascent of Taipei 101 was broadcast live on Netflix and the world watched as the elite climber scaled the 1,667-foot spire without ropes or a harness, completing the climb in about an hour and a half. This was not a stunt in the amateur sense but a carefully planned, historic athletic achievement that Netflix packaged as must-see live television.
Let’s be clear: Honnold is one of the greatest climbers of his generation, a man who built his life on taking calculated risks and mastering his craft the hard way. He chose to do this, he trained for it, and his record and resume show a lifetime of preparation that most Americans respect, even if we don’t all want to watch someone flirt with death on primetime.
That said, Netflix’s decision to turn a personal, dangerous pursuit into a profit-driven live spectacle crosses a line between admiration and moral negligence. The company admitted it had safety protocols, including a 10-second delay on the livestream to respond in case the worst happened, which is chilling evidence they understood the real possibility of catastrophic consequences.
And let’s not kid ourselves about the incentives at work: Honnold himself called the paycheck “embarrassingly small” for what he’s worth, but Netflix and the media machine around it won either way—views, buzz, subscriptions, and the cultural capital of staging a death-defying moment for entertainment. When corporations monetize mortality, you can bet some people with less skill and more bravado will try to imitate what they see.
Those copycats aren’t hypothetical; reports from Taipei and reactions online show imitators and would-be climbers already testing their luck, and viewers complained the broadcast’s pundit panel often ruined the live experience by talking over Honnold instead of showing a little restraint and respect. The predictable result of turning a dangerous act into mainstream spectacle is more danger, not less.
Conservatives believe in personal responsibility and the freedom to take risks, but freedom without common-sense accountability and decency from corporate platforms is a recipe for harm. Netflix and other media companies should be free to produce content, but responsible citizens should demand that the networks stop staging high-risk, live spectacles that normalize reckless behavior and exploit human life for clicks and brand cachet.
Alex Honnold deserves respect for his skill and courage, and we can admire his daring without celebrating the media circus that surrounds it. Americans should support individual liberty while insisting that businesses act responsibly, communities protect children and vulnerable people from dangerous imitations, and our culture stop treating mortal peril as interchangeable with entertainment.
