The New York Times continues to work tirelessly to maintain the narrative that the United States is now a fascist regime. Earlier, the Times demonstrated its view of balanced analysis by running a collection of legal opinions titled “A Road Map to Trump’s Lawless Presidency.” Now, it is featuring three Yale professors fleeing fascism for the safety of Canada, making direct references to the rise of the Nazis. The video is titled “These Yale Professors Study Fascism.”
All three professors are going permanently to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto. It appears that the systemic rollback of free speech for conservatives in Canada is not a deterrent for Yale professors longing to be free.
The seven-minute opinion video features the three scholars: Yale philosophy Professor Jason Stanley and history professors Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder (who are married).
Shore insisted that the United States is now a fascist country replicating the Nazi takeover. Indeed, she mocks those of us who believe that our constitutional system has proven itself for centuries as a guarantor of civil liberties, including our system of checks and balances. Shore dismisses such assurances while suggesting that the American people are a virtual ship of fools in not recognizing the fascists all around them: “The lesson of 1933 is that you get out sooner rather than later.” She added that Americans are
“like people on the Titanic saying, ‘Our ship can’t sink.’ We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship. We’ve got the biggest ship. Our ship can’t sink,” she said. “And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”
Professor Snyder declared that Americans are deluding themselves:
“If you think there is this thing out there called ‘America,’ and it’s exceptional, that means that you don’t have to do anything. Whatever is happening, it must be freedom. Soon, you are using the word freedom, what you are talking about is authoritarianism.”
The New York Times splices in ominous images of migrants being detained, children crying, and anti-Israel protesters being arrested. It also shows the image of Elon Musk’s alleged Nazi salute, a ridiculous claim fostered by the media.
Previously, Snyder did interviews claiming an oligarchic conspiracy led by Musk:
“we’re shifting from a democracy, which had some pretty heavy oligarchical streaks running through it, toward something like an oligarchy, in which I think it’s fair to say that it’s not Trump who’s the most important person. It’s Musk. Trump has debts. Musk has money. Trump has debts specifically to Musk for getting him elected. And I think the burden of proof is actually on Trump to show that he has any room for maneuver in this system. And it’s going to be interesting to see how congressional Republicans react, because what this particular oligarch wants is to break the federal government. And whatever their views might be, not — many of them don’t actually want the United States of America to cease to exist so that oligarchs can pick up the pieces.”
That is who the New York Times featured in its latest apocalyptic diatribe. What is interesting about one interview is how Snyder predicts Trump will engage in censorship through litigation, noting that it will not involve direct censorship barred by the First Amendment. He entirely ignores the massive censorship system of conservatives fostered by the Biden Administration on social media. That was apparently not something that you would speak out against, let alone leave the country over.
Professor Stanley’s past contributions to the political debate include his condemnation of “the right-wing hateosphere” in a diatribe that he later reaffirmed:
I am really, truly, embarrassed by the fact that my mild comment ‘F[**]k those assholes’ is being spread. This wildly understates my actual sentiments towards homophobic religious proponents of evil like Richard Swinburne, who use their status as professional philosophers to oppress others with less power. I am SO SORRY for using such mild language.
In the New York Times video, Stanley clinically explains that “you know you’re living in a fascist society when you’re constantly going over in your head the reasons why you’re safe. What we want is a country where none of us have to feel that way.”
It is a curious statement. Most of us fight to preserve our civil liberties to maintain a country that remains the longest, most stable, and most successful constitutional system in history. We do not dramatically pick up our things and stomp out of the country in a self-aggrandizing huff.
Losing elections can certainly make some “feel that way,” but for the rest of the country, it seemed like democracy at work. In the meantime, our courts are sorting out challenges to Trump executive orders, with many judges, including Trump appointees, ruling against the Administration. Those are the pesky “checks and balances” that Professor Shore blissfully dismissed in the New York Times video.
What is truly striking is that even Yale (which has purged virtually all conservatives from its faculty ranks) is not sufficiently “safe” for these three academic émigrés. They are going to the University of Toronto and Ontario to feel truly safe.
Of course, Ontario is not viewed as a safe space for many conservatives or contrarians. It proved hardly protective for University of Toronto professor emeritus Jordon Peterson when he was ordered to take mandatory training classes to curb his controversial writings. That order was upheld by successive Canadian courts.
So now these three academics will relocate to Toronto to teach Canadian students about fascism. They may, however, want to tread lightly on the subject of free speech.
You cannot fix “stupid.” Their departure is the Republic’s gain and Canada’s loss…, and life goes on.
Rosie O’Donnell was more articulate and honest than these 3 pseudo intellectuals . At least she spewed forth her hate of Trump and her TDS from Ireland and was quite forthright about it. Equally as crazy, however.
My world has been rocked by these 3 people and their migration north. One has to ask if they used the self deporting app provided by the Trump Administration to cross over into Canada and also did they ask for the $1000.00 to self deport (which has been offered also by the administration).
I would echo many here that this is a plus for the country. I have no problem with a loyal opposition. It’s needed and desired to keep the opposing party honest and on message and target but too many are going way off the rails and actually spouting desires for assassination and violence and have practiced it for years.
Why even former FBI director James Comey is noticing seashells on the beach preaching for 86ing 47. I fear it did not have the desired effect and was quickly removed.
On the other hand there are some Biden Administration people that have been stunned by the diplomatic pace of the Trump administration and have even said some good things about it. Now that is shattering.
We have all dealt with votes that did not go our way but you persevere if you still think you are right. Those that abandon the field lack commitment or really never believed in their cause in the first place.
GEB
The left & msn would have gone nuts if Trump had posted this.
“James Comey is noticing seashells on the beach preaching for 86ing 47”
I have little doubt that Comey intended his tweet to be seen as a nebulous threat, whether or not he arranged those shells himself. Either way, however, it only serves to show what an imbecile he is. For Comey’s information, and that of anyone else who has been babbling about his tweet, “86” is legacy restaurant slang. It is used to indicate to kitchen and wait staff that an item listed on the menu is unavailable, usually temporarily. This is typically because one or more of the ingredients to make the item have been completely consumed. It is quite a stretch to get from there to much of the speculation about what “86 47” is supposed to mean, since the beach provides no context.
Being they feel this way have they given up their American citizenship? When they need medical care will they be satisfied with the Canadian system? I understand many Canadians seek medical care in the USA? TDS has infected many Americans but it just proves how mentally and physically weak Americans have become. The highly educated seem to be most susceptible, but why? Could they be so personally insecure that they survive on unsubstantiated fears?
The New York Times continues to work tirelessly to maintain the narrative that the United States is now a fascist regime.
If only the NYT had been nearly as forthcoming, fearless and honest from 2020-2024 in reporting Biden’s neurocognitive decline, and his handlers that had the FBI raid the homes of countless Americans. the MSM and especially the NYT are the true Fascists
A.G. Sulzberger: A Free People Need a Free Press
The role of a free and independent press in a healthy democracy is under direct attack, with increasingly aggressive efforts to curtail and punish independent journalism.
NYT, May 13, 2025
How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts
And then there is the distorted, online version of himself, a product of often misleading videos that play into and reinforce voters’ longstanding concerns about his age and abilities. In the last two weeks, conservative news outlets, the Republican National Committee and the Trump team have circulated videos of Mr. Biden that lacked important context and twisted mundane moments to paint him in an unflattering light.
NYT, June 21, 2024
I’m a Neuroscientist. We’re Thinking About Biden’s Memory and Age in the Wrong Way.
There is forgetting, and there is Forgetting. If you’re over the age of 40, you’ve most likely experienced the frustration of trying to grasp that slippery word on the tip of your tongue. Colloquially, this might be described as forgetting, but most memory scientists would call this retrieval failure, meaning that the memory is there but we just can’t pull it up when we need it. On the other hand, Forgetting (with a capital F) is when a memory is seemingly lost or gone altogether.
NYT, Feb. 12, 2024
Memory Loss Requires Careful Diagnosis, Scientists Say
A federal investigator said that President Biden had “poor memory” and “diminished faculties.” But such a diagnosis would require close medical assessment, experts said.
NYT, Feb. 9, 2024
Joe Biden’s Stutter Is His Superpower
He already knows how to face down a bully.
NYT, Sept. 25, 2020
It is time to retire the term “fascism” from our political discourse. It has no meaning, and these three clearly haven’t a clue as to what constitutes fascism, which they confuse with (a) Nazism, (b) authoritarian governments, (c) dictatorships, and (d) all of the above. Fascism was an Italian ideology, first formulated in 1919 and supported by a variety of groups, from anarcho-syndicalists to futurists. It did not join forces with the Italian nationalists until three years later, and the regime evolved after 1922 from a coalition to a single-party state to a state with formally replaced parliament with corporations. Mussolini came to power in 1922, consolidated his hold on the government in 1925, and was popular in both Great Britain and the United States until 1935. He considered Hitler an idiot but ended up him as an ally, a long story which most British and American authors, including Snyder, Shore, and Stanley, from what I can gather from their use of the terms ‘fascist’ and their application of it to contemporary American society and government.
They are thinking of the NSDAP (Nazis) and Hitler, who came to power in 1933, consolidated his hold on the government and the party in 1934-35, rearmed Germany and attacked Poland in 1939 over his Italian ally’s objections, triggering a war which the Italians had warned him was inevitable.
The differences between the two regimes were obvious to contemporaries and have been described in detail and discussed at length by historians like Stanley Payne, George Mosse, Gilbert Allardyce, and Eugen Weber. For example, Italian Fascists sought to create a ‘new man,’ an aspiration of the early twentieth-century avant-garde, which included the Italian Futurists and many on both the left and the right, while the German Nazis sought to purify Germany of those with non-Aryan blood. Italian Fascists were nationalists of a sort, German Nazis were racists to the core. Fascist Italy sought to extend its colonial empire in order to advance in the great power club of the early 1900s, which included Britain (the leader, with the most colonies), France, the United States, Portugal, Russia (before 1917, the Soviet Union afterward), Japan, Belgium, and every other country, regardless of ideology , which had the means to conquer territories in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, a process that dated back to the 1500s. Germany had lost its overseas colonies in 1918, and Hitler sought to replace them by gaining living space (Lebensraum) in east-central and south-eastern Europe. Fascist Italy managed its colonies more or less like Britain and France did, including special citizen status for natives; Nazi Germany planned to enslave indigenous populations in its future empire before eliminating them altogether. In 1939, Hitler hoped to conquer Poland, conclude peace with Britain, then extend Germany’s empire further. In 1939, Mussolini was looking forward to celebrating twenty years of Fascist rule in 1942, an event for which he built a suburb near Rome, so he was seeking parity with Britain and France in the Mediterranean and recognition of Italy’s annexation of Ethiopia. Nazi Germany had concentration camps before the war and death camps during it; Italy ‘exiled’ dissidents to remote regions, usually in the southern provinces, before the war, and had internment camps during the war . . .
I could go on. The concept of fascism embraced by Snyder, Shore, & Stanley has very little to do with actual fascism, a bit more to do with Nazism, and nothing at all to do with the United States in 2025. If they were my teachers, whether in New Haven or Toronto, I would drop their courses while I could still get some tuition refunded.
Thank you for the synopsis, old guy. I remember seeing similar when I was deep into war history about 10-13 years ago, but this always bears light in current issues.
-Rabble
Them leaving the country is precisely what reducing the threat of fascism would demand.
Well, bye. Don’t let the screen door smack your butt on your way out.
In the eyes of the left a “fascist” is anyone who does not support open borders and censorship of anyone to the right of Mitch McConnell.
Good riddance to them all.
antonio
At this point, they’d probably call Mao a centrist.
-Rabble
As a Canadian who loves America, I am pleased to see that you’ve gotten rid of these three clowns. As a Canadian, I wish to help you’d keep your garbage in your own backyard.
You gave us Bieber. Consider it a fair trade.
With h/t to n.n. below:
Three blind Yale professors, three blind Yale professors, see how they run, see how they run . . .
Trump is dismantling Biden’s fascist government-media censorship complex. Trump is bringing economic freedom and less red tape from the central government. Trump is the real anti-fascist, which is why these fascism-loving professors are leaving (good riddance!). Trump will leave when there are no more guns in the valley.
It’s really hard work to get the underclass all the way up into the ruling class. It’s hilarious. Meanwhile DJT has to go to the middle east to get employers or people to buy goods made by Americans. The new ruling class simply thought printing money was sufficient.
The money financiers are global now and not really investing in American drugged labor.
Canada has no equivalent to the First Amendment. We learned that 30 years ago, with the censorship of the Karla Homolka trial.
But when did America become fascist? Not, apparently, when FBI SWAT teams arrested octogenarian abortion protestors in predawn raids.
It would be nice if all of such execrable professors moved out. How in the hell did such clueless history professors get hired?
Three Yale professors, three Yale professors, see how they scurry.
All those Canadian truckers were treated so well by that fair government. Where is the true fascism?
See ya! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Seems like a whole lot of projection
Since 2016, Snyder has been the archetype case of TDS.
I wonder if this is more of a real estate issue. People of means moving south for the winter or north for the summer. No mention of jettisoning US citizenship or the taxes imposed on permanent moves to foreign countries. Does the fascism end when Trump is term limited from running again? Or does it continue until voters stop electing who they want instead of who these academics want? Their virtue signaling looks more like a bid to be the lead lemmings running off the cliff.
Prof Turley writes, “What is interesting about one interview is how Snyder predicts Trump will engage in censorship through litigation, noting that it will not involve direct censorship barred by the First Amendment. He entirely ignores the massive censorship system of conservatives fostered by the Biden Administration on social media.”
They are not ignoring anything. There is no hypocrisy here. They don’t believe that Trump or anyone on the Right should be able to speak. It goes something like this. We think you’re a fascist, therefore, you don’t have the right to an opinion. Because why should we give a platform to a “fascist”? If you oppose illegal immigration, reparations, transgenderism, DEI, abortion, Hamas you’re a racist or a bigot, we don’t need to hear your reasons. We also don’t need to hear your opinion. So hypocrisy doesn’t really enter in this. Turley is still struggling with the notion that the left believes they will “look bad” because of their flip flops. They’re way past that. The left has no problem shouting for the Rule of Law, then targeting Trump before the election.