In the 'talking head' shows on television, I've been seeing something happening that I find pretty disturbing.

People who are trying to trivialize this issue, and in the process, trivialize the experiences of the prisoners to whom these things have been done have gotten into a habit, a knee-jerk response, I might add, of saying that "worse things happen in frat parties and hazing rituals in the US".

I can't even begin to express how insideously evil I find this practice. Maybe worse things do happen at frat parties and hazing rituals in the US. I wouldn't know, myself, never having participated in either. But there is a HUGE difference between being a consentual participant in bizarre and self-destructive behaviors in a frat parties and hazing rituals, and being forcibly debased and dehumanized by people in positions of power and responsibility in a prison setting, where people are being held captive. It's like saying that rape is no worse than consentual sex. What happened to those prisoners was a form of rape, and there was nothing consentual about it. And the people who perpetrated it, and/or condoned it are guilty of a horrible abuse of power, among other things.

In my opinion, anyone who tries to equate what happened in that prison with what happens at frat parties, should have their face slapped. Hard.