“When I saw Columbia completely capitulate, and I saw this vocabulary of, well, we’re going to work behind the scenes because we’re not going to get targeted – that whole way of thinking pre-supposes that some universities will get targeted, and you don’t want to be one of those universities, and that’s just a losing strategy,” he said.
Stanley added: “You’ve got to just band together and say an attack on one university is an attack on all universities. And maybe you lose that fight, but you’re certainly going to lose this one if you give up before you fight.
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 continues his research, 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.
“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.”
1000%
But how is fleeing the country not “giving up before you fight”?
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.
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 continues his research, 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.
It’s better than simply obeying & complying. It shows that there are punishing consequences - we lose our top educators etc
I assume he’s going to continue his work, just from outside the US. Giving up would mean stopping his work.
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