Researchers leave the USA "What we're seeing now - it's fascism"
Three renowned academics from Yale University who are critical of US President Donald Trump want to leave the USA. The reasons are drastic.
30.03.2025, 23:18
SDA
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- After the Trump administration used financial pressure to force US universities to make political compromises, three renowned US researchers are leaving the country for Canada.
- Fascism researcher Jason Stanley clearly states that the USA is now fascist.
- Historian Marci Shore even fears that a civil war could break out in the USA.
- The well-known historian and Trump critic Timothy Snyder is turning his back on Yale University.
Goodbye, USA: historians Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore and fascism researcher Jason Stanley are moving to Canada. In an interview with "Zeit Online", Stanley justified his move with the political developments in the USA.
His move was triggered by pressure from the US government on New York's Columbia University and its reaction. Fascism researcher Stanley had drastic words to say about the political situation in the USA.
When asked whether he would speak of fascist conditions in the country, he said: "Yes, of course. What other terms should we use?" Fascism is not just a dirty word, but a concept that helps to understand reality. "And what we're seeing now - that's fascism."
Shore, who is married to Snyder, told the newspaper "Toronto Today" that both the city of Toronto and the Munk School there are very attractive places. "But of course the American disaster played a role in our final decision." She feared that there would be a civil war.
Stanley on pressure on Columbia: "Pure harassment"
Stanley told "Zeit Online" that he decided to leave Yale when Columbia University "proved they were cowards." There was no legal basis for the government's threat to cut off federal funding to the university.
"It was pure harassment. And what does Columbia do? They obey everything that is demanded." A university thrives on freedom. "If I were teaching at Columbia today, I would know: one wrong word about the government or Israel - and I would be gone." In the future, he warned, government encroachment would increase.
Columbia had agreed last week to comprehensively revise its policies on protests, security rules and the Middle East Studies department.
The US government had previously put pressure on the university by announcing that it would only release 400 million US dollars in federal funding for the university if far-reaching changes were made.
The government had accused the university of failing to adequately protect Jewish students from harassment and threats on campus. The university was the scene of major pro-Palestinian protests last spring.
