snake pit

plural snake pits · alternative snakepit

1. A pit filled with snakes.
2. figurativelyAny institution (such as a school, prison, hospital, etc.) run in an inept or inhumane way, or full of hostile or treacherous people.

   He says he wants to bring “free speech” to the platform, but it’s a mystery what exactly that means, and how he would do so while preventing the service from devolving into a snake pit of hate and harassment even more venomous than it already is.

   2022 April 28, Farhad Manjoo, “Is Elon Musk Really That Bad?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   1 more example

   Her friends try to persuade her, even fool her, into taking her medication; when she refuses, they try to commit her. She leaves for Ireland, where she has scheduled a speaking tour. There, she is arrested and incarcerated in a real snake-pit: the Our Lady of Clare rest home. And as she tries to figure out how to get out she realizes […]

   1990 August 31, Amy Hoffman, “"Crazy" Or Just Crazy?”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 7, page 8