Concentration Camps and the Proper Lessons of History

Various fervent American patriots (with “patriot” defined as “one who refuses to admit or even contemplate the possibility that our country might be anything less than perfect”) are currently furious that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the term “concentration camps” to describe the concentration camps our government currently operates.

Conditions in those camps are so deplorable that just this week, according to Courthouse News:

The Trump administration argued in front of a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells, despite a settlement agreement that requires detainees be kept in “safe and sanitary” facilities.

But the patriots believe the real problem is using the term “concentration camp” to describe the facilities where children are kept in such conditions.

For all the pessimism I felt the day Trump won the election, I don't recall going so far as to predict we'd need less than three years before things got so bad, there would be actual debate over whether "concentration camps" is the proper term to describe facilities where we mass-incarcerate kids who committed no crime.

Thing is, I'd always heard that the reason we learn history is to hopefully learn from past mistakes and avoid repeating them. So if calling a concentration camp a "concentration camp" is unacceptable and leads to patriotic shrieks of “GODWIN!!”, what lessons can we properly learn from Nazi history before the Godwin-shouters shut the conversation down -- "Yeah, extermination camps where people are shoved into death chambers filled with insecticide are bad, but do not notice any of the less-fatal steps the Nazis took to get there?"

Do these patriots apply the same rules to other forms of learning? Like, in the days before meteorology, it was okay to say "Standing tall in the middle of a field during a lightning storm is very dangerous," but dishonest hyperbolic fearmongering to say "Hmm, I notice tall anvil-shaped clouds piling up on the horizon -- the same clouds that often lead to lightning storms"? I mean, it's not like seeing an anvil cloud guarantees you will be struck by lightning, after all.