On Tuesday night’s All In, MSNBC host Chris Hayes had on several guests defending left-wing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent comments comparing detention facilities to concentration camps. Hayes opened up the subject discussing President Trump’s reelection launch: “The crowd a few minutes ago reportedly chanting ‘Lock her up.’ The desire to see other people behind bars in prison, detained, has kind of been a core part of the message from the beginning.” Well yes, American’s do in fact want to see criminals locked up, that’s not too extraordinary.
Adam Serwer, a writer for The Atlantic, claimed that Trump is just playing psychological games for no apparent reason: “Well look, the fact that the emotional stress that this causes the population being targeted is actually more important to Trump than actually carrying it out.” He went on; “And so it is actually very clear that hurting those people emotionally or scaring them or frightening them is of more importance to the President than actually carrying out the task that he set for himself…” So, apparently Trump just enjoys messing with illegal immigrants, his policies have nothing to do with the fact that the U.S. has a national security crisis.
Hayes then turned it over to Andrea Pitzer, author of One Night Long, a book about the history of concentration camps: “You’re qualified to weigh in on this. What do you say?”
Pitzer responded: “I would say that for 40 years before Auschwitz, we had concentration camps, things that were called concentration camps. What we’re doing now fits very cleanly inside that tradition.” After insinuating that Trump was leading the country towards another state of Nazism, she continued to argue that it doesn’t matter what concentration camps are called: “I don’t think we have to get stuck on that term. I wrote a history of the term. I had to use that term. And what I would really like people to know is the same thing is happening here now.”
Never mind the fact that attempting to secure the border from actual criminals and various threats is vastly different then the years leading up to the Holocaust where legal citizens were rounded up due to antisemitism.
Hayes prompted Pitzer to go on with this shameful narrative: “The motivating logic here, talk about those examples before the Nazis. Detention of some subgroup in some camp setting where things start to go awry. What is the motivating political logic that we've seen there?”
She responded: “It's a scapegoat group is often the genesis of that. It explains a problem in the country or in the region, and you push it on to a group of vulnerable people that you can label as somehow infecting society…” Looks like MSNBC has done a good job of deceiving the U.S. population that illegal immigration is perfectly harmless and even beneficial to society.
She concluded: “This is not a national security crisis. This is a humanitarian, but we're using the language of war to detain civilians. So this is really mixing things up in a very dangerous way.” In the liberal media upside down world, defending illegal immigrants is more important than protecting your own citizens. It’s not a national security crisis but a fictional crisis made for social justice warriors who have nothing better to do.
Here is the transcript form the June 18 episode of All In:
All In with Chris Hayes
06/18/19
8:32:17 PM ET
CHRIS HAYES: There is also the fact that it doesn't strike me as an accident that this is the day before. He is sort of boasting of this the day before he is doing his sort of pretend relaunch. The crowd a few minutes ago reportedly chanting "Lock her up." The desire to see other people behind bars in prison, detained is kind of been a core part of the message from the beginning.
ADAM SERWER [THE ATLANTIC STAFF WRITER]: Well, look, the fact that the emotional stress that this causes the population being targeted is actually more important to Trump than actually carrying it out. Because by announcing it, he has actually undermined I.C.E.'s ability to carry out the task at hand, but he has scared the crap out of a lot of people who in many cases, their only crime is being here without authorization. And so it is actually very clear that hurting those people emotionally or scaring them or frightening them is of more importance to the President than actually carrying out the task that he set for himself, which is getting them all out of the country.
HAYES: You know, there is this sort of controversy erupted today. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referred to them as concentration camps. Republicans were saying they were outraged by the term. Your book is a history of concentration camps. You're qualified to weigh in on this. What do you say?
ANDREA PITZER [AUTHOR ‘ONE NIGHT LONG’]: I would say that for 40 years before Auschwitz, we had concentration camps, things that were called concentration camps. What we're doing now fits very cleanly inside that tradition. At the same time, the death camps, which were on top of the existing concentration camp system, including Auschwitz and a series of other camps in which you had gas chambers, mass killings, that is a singular moment in history. And for the people who want to respect that, I think that's fine and that's important. If we want to call it irregular detention, if we want to call it extrajudicial detention, I don't think we have to get stuck on that term. I wrote a history of the term. I had to use that term. And what I would really like people to know is the same thing is happening here now.
HAYES: What is the motivating logic, and Adam, I'll come back to you about the sort of political underbelly. The motivating logic here, talk about those examples before the Nazis. Detention of some subgroup in some camp setting where things start to go awry. What is the motivating political logic that we've seen there?
PITZER: It's a scape goat group is often the genesis of that. It explains a problem in the country or in the region, and you push it on to a group of vulnerable people that you can label as somehow infecting society, a national security threat to a society. Maybe it's in wartime. Maybe it's not. We've sort of done injecting a war setting to the border. This is not a national security crisis. This is a humanitarian but we're using the language of war to detain civilians. So this is really mixing things up in a very dangerous way.
