Alligator Alcatraz

It's no longer news that Donald Trump delights in mocking people and is producing a presidency that offends human feelings. We already know that Trump enjoys frightening and shocking. But since the actions of a US president have echoes, imitators, and, likely, heirs, we can't consider the construction of Alligator Alcatraz and the obscene comments with which he has presented it as just another anecdote of his presidency.

The character's pathological behavior is contributing to normalizing a tendency of power: to eliminate people who cause trouble, physically if necessary. And to do it in broad daylight, boasting in front of the cameras. This has been going on: preemptive wars, selective assassinations, exclusion zones, surgical bombings with "smart" missiles, non-places like Guantánamo, razor blades in bars... they have been presented as temporary exceptions that have led to solutions. There are leaders who offer them culprits. Come, we'll see how the crocodiles eat them and we'll have a laugh. Lucky you, it didn't happen to you?

It's not funny, of course. If they can do it to someone, they can do it to us any day now. Trump's predecessor, George Bush, even used the term "compassionate conservatism," the idea that once the deal is done, we shouldn't forget the people who can't continue. Now, not even that. Zero compassion. Until recently, we were talking about the dehumanization of the adversary. Now it's the dehumanization of the other.