alt Hacker Newsi hate that $5 wrench meme. Randall Monroe of xkcd is ordinarily such a smart guy but he really didn't do his research with his $5 wrench attack idea. Torturers don't hit people in the head with something hard. Not the ones who are any good at their job anyway. Easy way to concuss someone or have them die of shock before they tell you what you need to know.
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> Torturers don't hit people in the head
The comic doesn't say hit the person in the head, it says "hit him with this $5 wrench", and did not specify what to hit.
A sophisticated in-depth treatise on torture wouldn't fit neatly into a 2 panel webcomic. If you email Randall, maybe he'll make a comic just about torture for you, but either way, the $5 wrench gets the meaning across well enough. Personally, I haven't given much thought on how to torture someone into giving me information they don't want to tell but I'm grateful someone's done that work, hopefully on the side of good and not evil.
The XKCD comic just said hit them, not necessarily in the head. Personally, I know I wouldn't last ten seconds with a pair of broken kneecaps.
Jokes are hard.