# Alligator Auschwitz **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 31, 2025, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533 "2025-07-31T00:21:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/21 "2025-07-31T20:17:12Z")
They’re already killing people by not providing timely medical attention. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/22 "2025-07-31T20:19:40Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > That comparison, as we now know, was vastly overblown. > > I think Trump’s current policy is certainly worse than his 2019 policy. I don’t see any evidence that it’s _that much_ worse. What I do know is that family that remained in El Salvador, reported that a husband from a relative (he was a bad apple, but…) was arrested for shooting a gun towards a neighborhood guard building. What the wife told us was that one guard in the Salvadorean prison advised her to not keep looking for the whereabouts of the husband anymore. Because of his behavior she was told that the husband will not make it. The wife, remembering how undesirables were disposed during the civil war, understood that she would never see him again (as in, not even seeing his remains either). That is not strange, and I would say, an expected worse result of moving the concentration camps out of ~~Germany~~ the US. “It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.” –Theodor Reik, Not Mark Twain. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/23 "2025-07-31T20:35:59Z")
Gator Gulag. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/24 "2025-07-31T20:39:15Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > I think Trump’s current policy is certainly worse than his 2019 policy. I don’t see any evidence that it’s _that much_ worse. I think the big difference is that there are fewer sane and competent people in Trump’s inner circle this time around, plus a vastly weakened federal government that’s going to struggle to provide any sort of oversight. I was only half-joking about “Alligator Andersonville” earlier - I don’t think they’re going to start building gas chambers, but I can see a situation where they keep sending people there, while slashing funding for food and medicine, and blocking anyone critical of the administration from visiting the camps until you’ve got a bunch of human skeletons in the cells and a bunch of corpses getting hastily dumped in the bayou. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/25 "2025-07-31T20:53:31Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I was only half-joking about “Alligator Andersonville” earlier That would indeed be one level of “bad” that falls somewhere between a prison and a death camp. I certainly hope it never gets as bad as that, but that would be a more accurate (if less well known) nickname. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/26 "2025-07-31T20:57:04Z")
Yeah, that’s my “worst case scenario that has a reasonable chance of actually happening,” but I don’t think it’ll get quite that bad. “Alligator Abu Ghraib” is I think where it’ll actually wind up, if it’s not already basically there. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/27 "2025-07-31T20:57:27Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > that would be a more accurate (if less well known) nickname How? Andersonville was a POW camp, the people in Alligator Alcatraz are not POWs. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/28 "2025-07-31T21:00:26Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Andersonville was a POW camp, the people in Alligator Alcatraz are not POWs. Remember, if you ever want to compare two different things, first make sure they’re identical in every respect, otherwise the comparison falls completely apart! ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/29 "2025-07-31T21:02:04Z")
It speaks to the general level of evil; worse than a real prison, where prisoners’ basic needs for food, shelter, and medical care are met, but not as bad as a Nazi death camp, where prisoners are murdered as fast as possible. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/30 "2025-07-31T21:02:20Z")
That’s what’s being argued in the rejection of _Alligator Auschwitz_. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/31 "2025-07-31T21:03:05Z")
Is it really, though? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/32 "2025-07-31T21:03:26Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Gator Gulag. I like this one. Hits the appropriate level of evil without implying that the inmates have done anything to deserve being there. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/33 "2025-07-31T21:05:59Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > That’s what’s being argued in the rejection of _Alligator Auschwitz_. Not really. Presumably, the central point of calling it _Alligator Auschwitz_ is to emphasize the mistreatment of the people being held there. Therefore, the analogy you use should match the level of mistreatment at play. Note that no one is objecting to the term on the basis of the prison not being located in Poland, or not housing mostly Jews, because neither of those characteristics led to the term _Auschwitz_ being chosen. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/34 "2025-07-31T21:07:30Z")
Remember that Auschwitz wasn’t a death camp when it opened, it was just a regular German concentration camp for the first couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/35 "2025-07-31T21:09:44Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Remember that Auschwitz wasn’t a death camp when it opened, it was just a regular German concentration camp for the first couple of years No one is referencing Auschwitz to allude to it’s earlier incarnation, any more than references to someone being _Hitlerlike_ should be taken to mean _middling at painting_. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/36 "2025-07-31T21:23:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Is there any reason to suppose that this won’t be a death camp? As in, literal gas chambers or other facilities for mass murder in as quick and efficient a way as possible? No. It’s bad, but not even one-tenth that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/37 "2025-07-31T21:27:03Z")
To be clear, I don’t care that deeply about the name. even if I think the original suggestion might be seen as insensitive (going too far in the opposite direction). I’m not blaming anyone or anything. And I am occasionally unintentionally insensitive myself. It is clear the actual thing is more offensive than whatever moniker. But even Andersonville might be “too soon”. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/38 "2025-07-31T21:28:04Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > No one is referencing Auschwitz to allude to it’s earlier incarnation, any more than references to someone being _Hitlerlike_ should be taken to mean _middling at painting_. Clearly, you’ve never seen any of my Thomas Kinkade rants. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/39 "2025-07-31T21:29:33Z")
I vote for “Gator Gulag”. Seems to come the closest to what the place is. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533/40 "2025-07-31T21:42:47Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > We can still workshop this. How about “Alligator Andersonville?” I dont hate it. > [@snowthx](#): > > Gator Gulag. I can live with that. > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > I like this one. Hits the appropriate level of evil without implying that the inmates have done anything to deserve being there. Has a mod been contacted about the title of this thread? I know Miller is here, but this isnt his forum. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alligator-auschwitz/1021533.md?page=3)