Political Blog #1 (American Concentration Camps)

INTRODUCTION

I've been trying to write down some of my political thoughts again. I used to write a lot about them last year, but with everything going on I kinda shut down for a while. I debated posting about this on my main account, but I figure it's pretty safe here.

So if you're in the United States you are probably very aware of everything going on right now, and if you're not in the United States you've probably at least heard about it by now. Basically, to summarize, there's a lot of issues going on in our politics. Many people are fearing that the USA is going down the same road as Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Mass deportations and ICE raids have begun in many cities, there's been talk of using the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp as a place to hold illegal immigrants, trans people are being attacked by executive orders being signed by Trump which have been targeting healthcare for trans people under 19 and passports for all ages, Elon Musk locked government workers out of their computers that contained the personal information of basically everyone and probably more that I can't think to list right now.

A lot of people are comparing the current administration to the beginning of the Nazi regime. A lot of people are discussing how far down this road we will go, and what can we expect to happen in the next 4 years.

AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS

This was the main topic that prompted me to write this today. A lot of people have been asking "How long do we have 'til we begin to see concentration camps or concentration camp-like facilities?" Some people think this has already begun, others think it won't happen at all. I want to insert my own view into this conversation.

I think that the idea of concentration camps popping up in the United States within the next 4 years is not impossible. It's sad, but I believe it's true.

I believe part of the reason people refuse to believe in this possibility is that they don't fully understand what the concentration camps were. Most people think that concentration camp is synonymous with death camp, when in reality those were two distinct things. Death camps were a type of concentration camp that took the idea to the extreme. The goal was to squeeze as much as possible out of the prisoners and then systematically murder them, whereas in the average concentration camp prisoners would often be forced to do hard labor and would suffer extremely poor living conditions and abuse, however, the difference was that the typical concentration camp functioned more like a prison. It was like the bridge between prison to death camp. It was possible to be released from the average concentration camp and then readmitted, and it was justified by the fact that technically the people who were sent to concentration camps were criminals according to the laws set by the Nazi regime. 

The poor treatment of these people was excused by labeling them as criminals and by concealing the true extent of the cruelty that took place in the camps. This encouraged citizens to become ignorant and apathetic to what was being done. I believe that if we ever see a version of concentration camps being created in the US, this is how it will start out. I also think that this idea is much closer to reality than people realize because a lot of the groundwork that would allow this to happen already exists.

I thought about what would have to happen in order for concentration camps to pop up in the United States and I simplified it into 7 steps that would have to be taken in order to justify the creation of concentration camps or concentration camp-like facilities.

1. Strip away the rights of prisoners. Normalize the cruel treatment of prisoners. Portray the idea to the public that prisoners are undeserving of dignity and proper treatment.
2. Prepare the infrastructure. Convert already existing buildings to prison-like environments or build new ones.
3. Shift the public opinion against the target groups. Demonize the target groups as violent, untrustworthy, scheming, troublesome, unwell and any other negative attributes you can ascribe them.
4. Crack down on the target group. Harass members of the target group in public life and encourage non-members of that group to do the same. Create new rules that attack the target group. Sow fear and division among members of the target group.
5. Criminalize the target group. Make certain aspects of the target group illegal or accuse the target group of already engaging in illegal or immoral activities.
6. Arrest members of the target group and hold them in the previously created facilities.
7. Justify the cruelty towards the target groups by stating that they are criminals and prisoners and that they are no longer entitled to dignity and their rights.

In America we've already normalized the poor treatment of prisoners. We allow prisoners to be abused and mistreated, to live in unfit conditions, to be prevented from seeing loved ones and to be used and exploited as cheap labor by companies for profit. I'll skip the details for now and go into it in another post to prevent this one from becoming longer than it already is, but you can see for yourself by just simply talking to the average American. Ask them about the treatment of prisoners in the American prison system and you'll likely hear them justify it with statements like "They're criminals", "They shouldn't have broken the law then" and things like that, suggesting that they deserve it.

In America we could easily use some of our larger and more extreme prisons as concentration camps. The jump from American prison to concentration camp isn't really that big when you think about it. Prisons are already used as a way to control certain populations, most notably the black population that exists in America is known to be specifically more targeted by law enforcement and is noticeably given worse punishments in the criminal justice system than people of other races who commit the same crimes. We haven't even yet taken into account the reports of schools being shut down and converted into what have been referred to as "detention centers" that began popping up around 2023, or the talk of converting the already existing Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp into a facility that can hold 30,000 illegal immigrants that could not be deported for whatever reason.

We've also seen a large shift in public opinion against certain groups, most prominently immigrants and trans people. There has been a popular narrative being spread about these groups being dangerous, uncivilized and lesser. A strong attempt to dehumanize these groups has been made by people with influence.

Then we get to the current step we're on, step 4. We probably entered the beginning of step 4 a few years ago, but now we're starting to see it stronger. Using the example of immigrants and trans people again, we're starting to see a strong push to enact legislation against these groups as well as a change in narrative that is more aggressive of accusing the groups of violence and immorality. We've also seen people of influence begin toying with the ideas of "doing something" about these groups more publicly, usually suggesting their criminalization.

So what am I trying to say with all this? I guess what I'm trying to say is, we are not very far away from things getting really, really bad, and I think people need to realize how close we actually are to even the most unthinkable things happening in this country. I wrote this to give my own two cents on the topic of America following in the steps of Nazi Germany since many people seem to either not fully understand or be unaware of how far things have already gotten, and how much has already been prepared, allowing for atrocities we never thought would happen in America to become a very real possibility. If you're looking for anything to take from this, I'd say start looking into Nazi Germany because we're following that timeline almost identically and it'll probably give you an idea of what we might expect in the future, and also start thinking and talking about what's going on. Don't ignore what's happening and try to do something to get involved, even if it's something really small, because something is always better than nothing. Also make sure you're keeping up with everything and staying safe in these uncertain times.

I'm going to end this post here. I've been writing for about an hour and it's getting really long and my back is starting to hurt from sitting at my desk with poor posture. I'll probably continue writing blogs about political topics. I'll probably write something about the American criminal justice system, that old rumor that went around about trans people identifying as cats and going to the bathroom in litter boxes, as well as whatever else happens in the future or pops into my head. I didn't really proof read this so if anything is weird of off, let me know in the comments I guess. But anyway, that's it for now. I'll try to respond to any comments and continue writing about this later.