She finds the whole idea absurd. To Prof Marci Shore, the notion that the Guardian, or anyone else, should want to interview her about the future of the US is ridiculous. She’s an academic specialising in the history and culture of eastern Europe and describes herself as a “Slavicist”, yet here she is, suddenly besieged by international journalists keen to ask about the country in which she insists she has no expertise: her own. “It’s kind of baffling,” she says.
In fact, the explanation is simple enough. Last month, Shore, together with her husband and fellow scholar of European history, Timothy Snyder, and the academic Jason Stanley, made news around the world when they announced that they were moving from Yale University in the US to the University of Toronto in Canada. It was not the move itself so much as their motive that garnered attention. As the headline of a short video op-ed the trio made for the New York Times put it, “We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the US”.
Starkly, Shore invoked the ultimate warning from history. “The lesson of 1933 is: you get out sooner rather than later.” She seemed to be saying that what had happened then, in Germany, could happen now, in Donald Trump’s America – and that anyone tempted to accuse her of hyperbole or alarmism was making a mistake. “My colleagues and friends, they were walking around and saying, ‘We have checks and balances. So let’s inhale, checks and balances, exhale, checks and balances.’ I thought, my God, 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. We’ve got the biggest ship.’ And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”
"I’m affluent with the privilege & means to escape when I know it’s going to go bad &, trust me, it’s going to get bad.
Anyways, good luck, suckers!"
She’s using her position to educate, raise awareness, and validate the alarm several people are feeling. This is possibly the most impactful thing she can do at the moment. She is standing up and pointing out fascism. I guess she could stay after having done that, but then you get people going “if it’s so bad then why don’t you leave?!” And then she’s at even more risk of being disappeared. She is uprooting her family and life and in the process displaying how sincerely she believes that we’re headed down the wrong path. Is she doing it for her own benefit, yea, sure, but this article imho is more impactful than her going to a protest. I’ve sent it to some of my more normie friends already because we were just talking about this and they really don’t realize how bad things are already. They think I’m fear mongering. This article might help people realize what the reality is and take direct action that they didn’t think was necessary at this point. Is it cowardly to leave? Maybe. But she didn’t have to speak out, she could have left quietly, but she chose to make a statement. That’s more than a lot of people will end up doing, regardless of if they stay or not.
Why would you want to do something useful or productive when you could be making sarcastic posts on social media instead?
This, exactly. And running to Canada. Like fleeing the coming Nazi Germany by emigrating to Poland. Congratulations, you accomplished almost nothing.
Almost nothing? Canada might be sliding itself but I’m pretty sure it’s still way safer than the US
I think the Poland reference was insinuating that the US might invade Canada.
Yeah, I get that, but being jewish in nazi germany was safer than being jewish in poland until the invasion. Which we don’t have a crystal ball to predict would happen to canada. Seems unlikely.