65 Million 'Illegal' People
Not only has cruelty become the norm, but it has also evolved into a form of entertainment for the masses to enjoy and have fun
My habit of doom-scrolling on Twitter brought me this yesterday. No, I don’t follow her, but I found it because lots of people were denouncing this post.
You have probably heard about the brand new Alligator Alcatraz detention center, which was created to hold undocumented people. However, given the right-wing contempt for due process, it remains to be seen if only people who haven’t regularized their legal status in the US will end up there.
The pictures that have emerged from the place —the New York Times describes it as having been “thrown together”— suggest that it was built to maximize the level of discomfort the people staying there will experience. It was, after all, built in a swamp.
Sure, we shouldn’t expect luxury, but if human beings are going to be taken there, at the very least, there are basic principles that must be respected.
And then came the jokes and the merch
Once the place was opened, Republicans and their followers were having a field day with jokes that suggested they expect people to die in this place, whether it is by the heat and humidity, or literally eaten by the local fauna. Some people even started selling merch to “commemorate” this accomplishment….
That’s what I voted for!
Call me crazy, but I don’t see the humor in the situation.
I can slightly understand taking to court people who did not go through the proper channels to move to the US. I would add that the current US administration has all but obliterated said proper channels, but, okay, let’s pretend for a moment that’s still actually a thing. Those people still deserve to be treated as humans BECAUSE THEY ARE.
And then you have tweets like the one you can see above: “Alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals.”
Some might say it’s nothing but a joke: “Of course, she doesn’t literally mean that she expects the alligators to eat people.” I say it is sick to even joke about it.
But then I started thinking, “Wait, where is that ‘65 million” number coming from?” After a little bit of digging, I realized that in 2022, the Hispanic/Latino population in the US was almost 64 million. By 2025, it’s likely to exceed 65 million.
This means that this woman is not only joking about alligators eating human beings, but is also suggesting that every single Latino person in the US is an undocumented immigrant, aka an ‘illegal.”