I want my children to grow up free, says philosopher and author Jason Stanley, who chose to leave the United States. He compares Trump's administration to a fascist regime.
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Jason Stanley followed the example of his colleague Timothy Snyder and left the United StatesPhoto: Privat
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Jason Stanley is the author of two popular books about fascism in the 20th century. The American Jew is now drawing parallels between Donald Trump's second term and these political systems. "What the Trump administration is doing right now is fascism," Stanley says.
At the end of March, the scientist announced that he was leaving the prestigious "Yale" University in the United States and moving to Canada, where he will work at the University of Toronto. Before him, the famous historian Timothy Snyder and his wife Marcy Shore also moved there. Both were history professors at "Yale".
"I worry that I will become a target of the government," Stanley says of his decision. According to him, researchers working at American universities who are not US citizens are currently threatened with deportation if they criticize Trump. "I'm leaving because my non-US colleagues can no longer talk about politics on social media, they risk having their visas revoked."
In his 2018 book "How Fascism Works: The Politics of "Us" and "Them" Stanley explains that fascism "dehumanizes various groups of the population" to justify "inhumane treatment of them - from repression to mass arrests and deportations".
The Trump administration has been accused of deporting migrants in violation of court orders and restricting free speech by cutting funding to universities and government agencies because they support diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies. According to Stanley, this can no longer be called simply "populism". The researcher believes that using this word simply mitigates the threat, because Trump's intolerance is fundamentally fascist.
Is Trump using anti-Semitism as a pretext?
The Trump administration has cut off funding to universities that have been protesting the war in Gaza, claiming that the institutions are encouraging anti-Semitism. However, Stanley recalls that "Jewish students at "Yale" were among the most heavily represented groups at the protests." He adds: "This regime draws a dividing line between good Jews and bad Jews. History has taught us what that leads to."
The division between right-wing "pro-Israel Jews" and "Jews like me and many of my students who criticize Israel's actions in Gaza" plays on a very dangerous anti-Semitic stereotype that claims that "we, American Jews, control the institutions", Stanley continues. The scholar says that "Yale" has not complied with the demands of the Trump administration and is protecting its people. However, he is concerned that other universities - such as Columbia - are bowing to the pressure. They have already promised to investigate pro-Palestinian protesters in order to avoid cutting their funding.
"If you agree to these demands, you are no longer a university", Stanley says. "A university is a place for free and critical thinking. In the US, given our relationship with Israel, it is perfectly normal to have protests demanding an end to military support for Israel."
"I want my children to grow up free"
Jason Stanley, Snyder and Shore, who immigrated to Toronto, are often asked why they left the US in a time of need. "The United States is becoming a scary place", Stanley says. "The University of Toronto could be a place where we could gather scholars and journalists and protect them more effectively than we could in the US."
Stanley wants to work in Toronto to create "the best center for the defense of democracy" and to host journalists from both democratic and authoritarian countries - such as the US and Russia. The scholar says he chose to move to Canada because he wanted to protect his children, who are black and Jewish. According to Stanley, the attacks on the honoring of African-American history are an attack on all black people in America. "I want my children to grow up free", he says.
Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder draw parallels between Trump's America and the authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe. "I could already feel the government starting to terrorize", she tells the "Kiev Independent". "My impulse was to take my children and escape this situation, which seemed very dark and terrifying."
Jason Stanley is adamant that even though he has left the United States, he will not abandon the fight at home. "I will fight for American democracy wherever I am," he is confident.