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Waxing Hyperbolic

Waxing Hyperbolic

Some people are all aflutter (aTwitter?) because Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez called the detention centers at the southern border "concentration camps" and they automatically jumped from concentration camp to "Nazi Death Camp".

Brittanica's definition of concentration camp: "… internment centre for political prisoners and members of national or minority groups who are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, or punishment, usually by executive decree or military order."

America has a well-documented history of concentration camps, including the detention of Natives, Chinese, Germans, Japanese, and Mohammad Ali.

But that is not to say that Ocasio-Cortez's statement is correct: "[Concentration camps] are … to be distinguished from refugee camps or detention and relocation centres for the temporary accommodation of large numbers of displaced persons." – Brittanica

Summarily, Ocasio-Cortez is guilty of hyperbole, but her detractors are guilty of hyping her hyperbole thus creating a vortex of vitribolic nonsense from which there is no escape.

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