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Yale professors Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley have made their careers studying authoritarianism across the globe. Now, they’re sharing their concerns about the rise of fascism in the U.S, where they say the situation has become so dire that they have decided to leave the country and their posts at the prestigious university to teach in Canada, warning that America is facing a “democratic emergency.”
“We’re like people on the Titanic, saying ‘Our ship can’t sink. We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship,’” Shore said in a new video essay for The New York Times. “And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”
In the video, Shore also referred to Nazi Germany and said the “lesson of 1933 is you get out sooner rather than later.”
The high-profile professors’ exits come as President Donald Trump continues his crackdown on higher education. In March, the Department of Education opened investigations into dozens of universities across the country over the schools’ diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has also cut funding for several elite colleges over allegations of antisemitism following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests last year. Earlier this week, the administration announced it would cut another $450 million in grants to Harvard University. That’s on top of $2.2 billion that was previously frozen.
Talking about American exceptionalism is basically a way to get people to fall into line.
timothy Snyder
Since taking office, the president has used the power of the federal government to target political enemies and those who publicly disagree with his administration. Trump’s attacks on universities are an extension of his campaign of retribution.
Stanley cited concerns over possible persecution if he stayed, saying he was going to the University of Toronto "because I want to do my work without the fear that I will be punished for my words.”
Stanley said that in times of fascism, it’s “essential to set up centers of resistance in places of relative safety.”
Although he shares his colleagues’ concerns, Snyder said he’s not leaving the university explicitly because of Trump, citing personal reasons, including his marriage to Shore. In a piece for the Yale Daily News explaining his exit from the university, Snyder noted “conversations about freedom and unfreedom” have become harder to have in the U.S.
The author of “On Tyranny” also offered a warning to Americans who believe fascism is only a problem abroad: “Talking about American exceptionalism is basically a way to get people to fall into line.”
“If you think that there’s this thing out there called ‘America’ and it’s exceptional ... that you don’t have to do anything, whatever is happening, it must be freedom,” Snyder said. “And so then what your definition of freedom is gets narrowed ... and soon you’re using the word ‘freedom’ but what you’re talking about is authoritarianism.”