But how is fleeing the country not “giving up before you fight”?
Trying to seriously answer… he’s a researcher that studies fascism, so his most effective means of fighting is to continue his work. He’s a more valuable fighter as a researcher than he is as a guy on picket lines. If he’s able to find refuge to continue working, it’s a net gain for everyone - specially if he continues advocating, like he is already doing by talking about this with media.
He praised other faculty at Yale for standing up against the attacks on their profession and said he wished he could stay and fight with them.
“But how could you speak out loudly if you’re not an American citizen?” he questioned. “And if you can’t speak out loudly if you’re not an American citizen, when will they come for the American citizens? It’s inevitable.”
“I don’t see it as fleeing at all,” he said. “I see it as joining Canada, which is a target of Trump, just like Yale is a target of Trump.”
I was going to post this quote in response. I would even go harsher in terminology.
Its a war and you can either die on the bad side or desert to the good side and try to help them win.
All this talk of “you should fight back instead of fleeing” is stupid. Fighting back on the political level is what they should have done before the election.
Now that time is over for the US and the only way to internally “fight back” is militant resistance. There is no middle ground anymore. If you speak out too loud you will get disappeared so the only thing that would be worth doing is going all out from the start as hard as you can before they catch you. In other words terrorism…
I dont fault people for not being willing to do that.
Stanley’s profile has also risen since then after the publication of several books on propaganda and fascism. The Munk school is building a program with the view that there’s an “international struggle against democracy” and provides a “very exciting intellectual opportunity”, he said.
“I don’t see it as fleeing at all,” he said. “I see it as joining Canada, which is a target of Trump, just like Yale is a target of Trump.”
Anti fascists are usually the first targets of fascists. Maybe it’s not common knowledge, but the first Nazi concentration camps were for political prisoners. Predominantly leftist antifascists. Open opposition to the Nazis was usually a death sentence… thought not as much as being Jewish or Slavic. The crime of antifascism was not as severe as being racially impure. If you were Aryan, they still nominally wanted you to stick around and make babies.
Anyone who is familiar with the Nazi rise to power has been sounding the alarm bells ever since Trump won the election. He has been open about his intentions to create a fascist America. He is currently in the process of nazifying the American federal government (firing everyone who would oppose him and hiring only ultra-nationalist white supremacist allies). He is also currently in the process of solidifying white supremacy and American exceptionalism as official government institutions (destroying all documentation on queer people and racial minorities, destroying all public acknowledgment of black Americans and women who had significant roles in American history). He is also in the process of turning ICE and the Department of Homeland Security into private militias of the government sent out to round up dissidents. He is openly discussing mass murder and imperialist war mongering. His government is torpedoing relationships with all non-fascist nations and attempting to assert some kind of inherent superiority of American people on an international political scale.
These round ups will escalate. Like the nazis they will begin rounding up other people too. It won’t stop with political prisoners. It will extend to all Palestinians, all Muslims, all queer people. It’s already functionally extended to all immigrants from Mexico or Southern America, and even legal descendants of immigrants from those places. The math is clear. Trump is creating a fascist dictatorship. The time to get out is now, while you have the chance. Those outroads won’t last forever. We are watching one of the most significant political epochs of the modern era begin. Unlike anything seen since the second world war. I think we will all probably look back on this time in shock and horror at how systematically every possible safeguard to prevent this failed. I do not blame this man at all for fleeing. I have been considering fleeing the continent entirely. I’m in Canada. But I know how these things go. I’m not anxious to stick around and find out what happens to trans women in occupied Canada.
One professor is not the same as a university. He’s talking about universities rolling over, because they are (or were, it’s kind of too late now) the ones in this situation that have the power to take a meaningful stance.
But how is fleeing the country not “giving up before you fight”?
Trying to seriously answer… he’s a researcher that studies fascism, so his most effective means of fighting is to continue his work. He’s a more valuable fighter as a researcher than he is as a guy on picket lines. If he’s able to find refuge to continue working, it’s a net gain for everyone - specially if he continues advocating, like he is already doing by talking about this with media.
I was going to post this quote in response. I would even go harsher in terminology. Its a war and you can either die on the bad side or desert to the good side and try to help them win.
All this talk of “you should fight back instead of fleeing” is stupid. Fighting back on the political level is what they should have done before the election.
Now that time is over for the US and the only way to internally “fight back” is militant resistance. There is no middle ground anymore. If you speak out too loud you will get disappeared so the only thing that would be worth doing is going all out from the start as hard as you can before they catch you. In other words terrorism…
I dont fault people for not being willing to do that.
Elbows the fuck up.
I assume he’s going to continue his work, just from outside the US. Giving up would mean stopping his work.
Anti fascists are usually the first targets of fascists. Maybe it’s not common knowledge, but the first Nazi concentration camps were for political prisoners. Predominantly leftist antifascists. Open opposition to the Nazis was usually a death sentence… thought not as much as being Jewish or Slavic. The crime of antifascism was not as severe as being racially impure. If you were Aryan, they still nominally wanted you to stick around and make babies.
Anyone who is familiar with the Nazi rise to power has been sounding the alarm bells ever since Trump won the election. He has been open about his intentions to create a fascist America. He is currently in the process of nazifying the American federal government (firing everyone who would oppose him and hiring only ultra-nationalist white supremacist allies). He is also currently in the process of solidifying white supremacy and American exceptionalism as official government institutions (destroying all documentation on queer people and racial minorities, destroying all public acknowledgment of black Americans and women who had significant roles in American history). He is also in the process of turning ICE and the Department of Homeland Security into private militias of the government sent out to round up dissidents. He is openly discussing mass murder and imperialist war mongering. His government is torpedoing relationships with all non-fascist nations and attempting to assert some kind of inherent superiority of American people on an international political scale.
These round ups will escalate. Like the nazis they will begin rounding up other people too. It won’t stop with political prisoners. It will extend to all Palestinians, all Muslims, all queer people. It’s already functionally extended to all immigrants from Mexico or Southern America, and even legal descendants of immigrants from those places. The math is clear. Trump is creating a fascist dictatorship. The time to get out is now, while you have the chance. Those outroads won’t last forever. We are watching one of the most significant political epochs of the modern era begin. Unlike anything seen since the second world war. I think we will all probably look back on this time in shock and horror at how systematically every possible safeguard to prevent this failed. I do not blame this man at all for fleeing. I have been considering fleeing the continent entirely. I’m in Canada. But I know how these things go. I’m not anxious to stick around and find out what happens to trans women in occupied Canada.
One professor is not the same as a university. He’s talking about universities rolling over, because they are (or were, it’s kind of too late now) the ones in this situation that have the power to take a meaningful stance.
It’s better than simply obeying & complying. It shows that there are punishing consequences - we lose our top educators etc