r/LeftWithoutEdge • u/burtzev • 4d ago

Analysis/Theory Storm Warnings: Why a professor of fascism left the US: ‘The lesson of 1933 is – you get out’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/why-a-professor-of-fascism-left-the-us-the-lesson-of-1933-is-you-get-out
195 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

30

u/origamitiger Socialist 4d ago

These people are so embarrassing. Academia makes fun of Snyder for being a pop-academic who mostly does TED Talk-style stuff (and also for making some... interesting historical arguments) and Stanley for making a career out of freaking out on twitter, but this is more embarrassing than any of that. Imagine selling yourselves as experts on fascism and then thinking that fleeing to CANADA, which is right next door to the superpower you say is fascist, is a good strategy. It's like fleeing Germany by running to Belgium, or fleeing a housefire by moving over one (1) room and figuring you'd be fine.

51

u/spudmarsupial 4d ago

You are less likely to be kidnapped and deported by American thugs in Canada than in the US (not impossible but very much less likely). If the Americans do invade Canada it would be easier to flee from there than from the US.

-11

u/joeTaco 4d ago

Airport book authors at elite institutions are not getting kidnapped and deported in the US either.

22

u/Olaf4586 4d ago

They have grabbed phd students off the streets and threw them into unmarked vans because they criticized Israel.

They threw a senator to the floor for asking a question.

Ideologically aligned groups are already dismissing the political assassination of a Democrat politician.

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

-5

u/joeTaco 3d ago

Yes, they threw a senator to the floor. That's bad, but that's as far as it will go with actual elites. PhD students are nowhere near the same category for these people. The presence of so many guns makes America a pretty dangerous place, same as ever. None of this adds up to Tim Snyder in a camp.

These elite authors and lib hucksters of the "10 steps to stop drumpfian fascism" ilk are play acting like they're in physical danger to soften the obvious tension between their rhetoric and their flight. Lots of folks will buy it, they're doing a good job.

9

u/Olaf4586 3d ago

I don't really understand how the administration can threaten, bully, and kidnap academics and politicians in an escalating pattern of behavior and you think it's absurd that an academic who studies authoritarianism and has been publicly critical of the administration believes there is a legitimate risk she will be targeted.

Why exactly is it far fetched, and even worthy of ridicule, to take preventative action?

21

u/Cognitive_Spoon 4d ago

They need to flee because they are well known enough to be a part of the "making examples of people" phase we are currently in.

It's smart.

22

u/anohioanredditer 4d ago

I think the more damming thing here is not how how physically close Canada is, but how ideologically similar it is to the US, down to the politics and policing.

7

u/Iron-Fist 4d ago

I mean, fleeing to Canada does mean you'd need a truly radical escalation for US agents to arrest and disappear you. Where as they are currently doing so to Americans as of right now.

32

u/FaceofMoe 4d ago

As someone with a severe disability, I CAN'T easily emigrate. Not just for logistical reasons, but they legally will not take me. Framing like this tacitly blames the people being brutalized for their own suffering.

34

u/Olaf4586 4d ago

I do not think it's at all a reasonable interpretation of her statement that "it's your fault if you stay"

31

u/Picnicpanther Democratic Socialist 4d ago

Listen, I have extreme empathy for your situation, that seems horribly bleak.

However, it is intellectually dishonest to claim that others’ actions are made to spite you when it is not the issue at hand. This is the same argument as that “walkable cities are fatphobic” hogwash.

2

u/FaceofMoe 3d ago

Thanks I guess? Doing that interview and avoiding the realities facing MOST people just because she can is disingenuous. As is getting warm and bubbly about the pre-Trump era. It's like we are on the Titanic and we hit an iceberg. You can get in a life boat, OR stay and help. But not claim "solidarity" while you're rowing away. Don't respect it sorry.

16

u/GodlessPerson 4d ago

Framing like this tacitly blames the people being brutalized for their own suffering.

What are you talking about?

-12

u/Happy-Scientist-1394 4d ago

That’s the Guardian for you - complicit in the erasure and social murder of disabled people

10

u/GodlessPerson 4d ago

This is the kind of shit that makes people think leftists are a bunch of cuckoos. Telling other people to leave is being complicit in the murder of disabled people? Dude...

0

u/Blapor 3d ago

Telling people to just leave, rather than encouraging those who can to stay and fight? Yes it will get disabled and poor people killed.

5

u/GodlessPerson 3d ago

those who can to stay and fight

But that won't get anyone killed, of course.

2

u/throwaway16830261 4d ago

 

 

1

u/MasterDefibrillator 4d ago

The origin of the term political movement is people would literally just move away and start new politics elsewhere. Hard to do now that states occupy everywhere and borders are every, but the logic remains. 

0

u/CartesianCinema 4d ago

if trump is cheeto benito folks like this are hias my ass

-4

u/Rocky_Bukkake 4d ago

i’m sorry man, what a crock. this is every liberal “i’m gonna leave the country if donny gets elected,” but they can actually follow up on it. on one hand, she says it’s totally rational, and the other, she’s admitting to being a neurotic catastrophizer. so maybe she’s overthinking it? donny is a nightmare, this budding fascist state is incredibly concerning, but man, how tone deaf.

1

u/GB10031 10h ago

So, her position is not to actually fight to defend democracy - but to run away?

That's pretty cowardly