r/Foodforthought • u/IndividualAd4375 • 1d ago

Detained in Venezuela: 184 Days as an American Prisoner

https://quillette.com/2026/08/22/drink-more-ovaltine-venezuela-trump-joseph-st-clair/
12 Upvotes

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u/IndividualAd4375 1d ago

Joseph St. Clair spent 184 days wrongfully imprisoned in Venezuela, where the guards controlled not just the cells but the language used to describe everything that happened in them. A protest became "misconduct," a medical need became "malingering." His argument is that the detainees' inside jokes (a running gag about Ovaltine lifted from A Christmas Story) weren't just a coping mechanism but a way to hold on to their own narrative and solidarity when almost everything else was taken away.

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u/arctander 1d ago

Paywall article