‘So Performative’: Yale Professors Brutally Mocked for Self-Deporting From U.S. Over ‘Fascism’ Fears
Screenshot via New York Times
Three Yale professors were roasted on social media after they collectively declared they are leaving the United States over their fears of fascism.
Professors Jason Stanley, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder all took part in a video essay for The New York Times in which they laid out their concerns.
“We’re like people on the Titanic saying our ship can’t sink,” Shore, a professor of history, told The Times. “And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”
Shore said the “lesson of 1933 is you get out sooner rather than later.”
Stanley, who teaches philosophy, said he’s self-deporting in protest of President Donald Trump and his administration, fearing there could be retribution against his work in the United States.
“I want to do my work without the fear that I will be punished for my words,” he said.
Snyder, who teaches history, said he has more personal reasons for leaving for Toronto, but he shares his colleagues’ concerns about the current administration.
Critics mocked the professors, chalking it up to “performance art” that shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“This is so performative. If you think the threat is serious when by any definition you’re an exceptionally privileged person (they’re all Yale profs) then the honorable thing to do is stay here and fight and/or make lots of money by writing about it on your substack,” pollster Nate Silver wrote on X.
“I am relieved to learn there is no fascism to study here,” Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto wrote.
Stanley previously announced his decision to ditch the United States to work at the University of Toronto, saying he fears the U.S/ could become a “fascist dictatorship.”
“I will continue to throw punches against fascism and bullies from Canada. Don’t worry. I have two Black and Jewish kids. I think my kids actually are more important to me than anything else,” he told MSNBC about the decision.
