Ask A Genius 1475: “Alligator Alcatraz,” Language Evolution, and America’s Slide into Cruelty
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/08/07
Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen discuss “Alligator Alcatraz,” a reported $450M Florida detention center surrounded by swamps, symbolizing America’s growing dehumanization of migrants. Rosner ties this cruelty to evolutionary mismatches in diet, communication, and cognition—arguing that misinformation thrives today due to our biological bias for simplicity and lack of consequence.
Rick Rosner: So, a big chunk of Americans are getting even crazier and nastier—especially evident over the past few weeks with “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Scott Douglas Jacobsen:What?
Rosner: You’re not familiar with Alligator Alcatraz?
Jacobsen: I’m happily travelling the world right now, so no.
Rosner: In Florida, DeSantis and Trump have reportedly come together to build a $450 million detention facility in the Everglades, on the site of a decommissioned airport. It’s meant to house 5,000 people awaiting deportation. They’re calling it “Alligator Alcatraz” because it’s surrounded by swampland—and supposedly, if you try to escape, you risk getting eaten by alligators.
Jacobsen: That sounds like satire.
Rosner: People in Trump’s camp are loving it. People who aren’t are either ignoring it or seeing it for what it is—cruel. Deportees aren’t necessarily criminals. Overstaying a visa is a civil offence, not a criminal one. But that doesn’t matter to the people who want them gone. They want them out no matter what. If you’ve lived here for twenty years? Out. Married to an American? Out. Getting chemo? Out. And Alcatraz was for hardened criminals.
Now we’re treating immigrants and asylum seekers—many of whom have committed no crimes—as if they’re maximum-security threats. It’s dehumanizing. And we’ve talked before about what allows that thinking to thrive. Still, I was at the gym today and thinking about it more specifically.
Jacobsen: What did you come up with?
Rosner: There’s one big reason. Same reason why most Americans are overweight: we evolved under radically different conditions. We evolved to crave fat, salt, and sugar because those were scarce but essential. Now they’re everywhere. So we overconsume.
Same with language. We evolved language in a different environment from what we experience today. Initially, communication began with gestures—nonhuman primates use gestures. Then, maybe 200,000 years ago, early humans started using vocal sounds. By about 50,000 years ago, we had complex spoken language. Written language came only about 5,000 years ago—around 3000 BCE. That’s nothing in evolutionary terms. So our language brain is still wired for face-to-face, verbal communication.
In those face-to-face environments, lying had consequences. If someone were constantly wrong or full of shit, they’d be shunned—or worse. In a small tribe, misinformation had a cost. Now? Most communication is not face-to-face. And bullshit spreads with no consequences. And people can survive while believing complete nonsense.
Over 98% of humans now survive to reproductive age. Life isn’t harsh enough anymore to filter out the delusional. Plus, we’re wired to prefer simple messages. Simple ideas are easier to understand and remember. So, liars who keep it simple do well. So we’ve got no penalties for bullshitters, no penalties for people who believe bullshit, and a biological bias toward simplicity.
All of which makes it disturbingly easy to break people’s brains. Hence, the 20–30 million Americans who are now soft-core Nazis, entirely on board with anti-American values, and OK with the idea of migrants being eaten by alligators.
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