Why would you call it a gulag system, when most people in the US are in prison because of crimes committed*, not political oppression? That is a defining characteristic of the term “gulag”. Is it because the pure numbers (per capita) are similar?
* The drug war and the racism it’s built around are glaring exceptions, but still not anywhere near the totality of the gulag system
What constitutes a crime is often, and increasingly, political.
What pushes/forces people into crime is almost entirely political.
The for-profit prison industrial complex and the slave labor it provides are DEEPLY bound up in politics.
The for-profit (gulag) prison system here in the states is bigger, crueler and even less necessary than the one I was told in school was SO scary and such a crime against humanity.
Calling it a gulag system draws attention to the intentional cruelty that plagues this country, and (I hope) helps people consider that better methods are not only possible, they actually exist and work.
The gulag system in America is so fucking horrifying and crazy. Anyone who thinks this is a free country is drastically removed from reality.
Why would you call it a gulag system, when most people in the US are in prison because of crimes committed*, not political oppression? That is a defining characteristic of the term “gulag”. Is it because the pure numbers (per capita) are similar?
* The drug war and the racism it’s built around are glaring exceptions, but still not anywhere near the totality of the gulag system
I call it that for several reasons.