We need creativity and inspiration from leaders. These scholars can't offer either of those. We need to look to people who have supplanted authoritarianism for solutions not people who study the darkest humanity has to offer with little insight into hope. That video was fear mongering laced with evidence to justify their reasons for leaving steeped in fear. It cannot spur anything other than fear and anxiety. It is therefore not constructive or helpful for people who have no choice but to stay. If they want to leave they can but they don't need to make up a whole slew of excuses for why when the true reason is their courage was overshadowed by their fear.
Neil, this is a weak and petulant article. Tim Snyder is one your country’s most important thinkers at the moment and, although you paid brief lip service to that, you then went ahead and judged him harshly for a personal decision he made (about which you know very little). Which, for the record, he indicated was not directly related to your country’s current administration. That is downright disrespectful. You should also have the grace and foresight to know that alienating (and attempting to shame) your greatest allies is a particularly unwise strategy at any time, let alone a time like this, and that Tim Snyder will continue to contribute meaningfully to the fight against tyranny regardless of his geographical location, just as he has his entire career. When your tantrum is over you might want to consider retracting this article with an appropriate apology.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say the decision was not directly related to the current administration. They did not move to Canada because they always wanted to experience the country; they made it very clear that they are leaving because of Trump and what he is doing. And while yes, it was a personal decision, they went ahead and made it very, very public by filming an entire New York Times video about it. When you do something as public as that, you are not somehow immune to criticism.
Yes, no one is immune from criticism and I agree that any public NYT article/video invites scrutiny. From my perspective, the value of the NYT piece isn’t as a tourism promo for Canada (although I’m happy to have Tim Snyder and his colleagues residing close by), it’s to reach the wider public about the seriousness of the authoritarian threat. Yes, it’s a bit late to the party but I suspect that’s on the editors and not the subjects of the article because Snyder, as you know, is one of the early illuminators of this threat. I’d guess that you and I might generally agree that criticism should be fair and thoughtful and this article, based partly on some inaccurate information, doesn’t reflect that.
Furthermore, in my opinion, folks who choose to leave the country for the safety and/or welfare of their families ought not be labelled as cowards for it. Wasn’t the United States built by people doing just that? On a personal note, I am able to write this note today because my grandparents had the foresight to understand what was happening in Poland and Ukraine in the late-1930s and make it out of there while that was still possible. My grandfather subsequently joined the Canadian military. That was anything but cowardice. You and others may well have similar stories. There are lots of ways to join the battle.
Neil, I respect what you’re trying to accomplish in fighting the hopelessness and paralysis that many are experiencing in the face of all this but I don’t think that calling people cowards is the way to galvanize resolve or activate bystanders. And again, your choice of targets here alienates you from some particularly important writers—allies to the cause—to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude for helping set the guideposts for recognizing authoritarianism and drawing a roadmap for resistance. Instead, I’d respectfully suggest that you continue to clarify, refine and advertise that map and, in doing so, create hope and recruit people into the fight.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply. But I find Snyder’s claim that “I did not leave Yale because of anything Trump is doing” hard to believe. I think he is saying that as a means of deflecting the criticism he is getting from people like me (and others). In fact, Shore revealed that Trump's election did play a big role in their decision, telling Inside Higher Ed that “we didn’t make our final decision until after the November elections.” https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/03/26/fascism-scholars-trump-critics-leave-yale-canada
I think that Snyder knows how bad this looks, especially for someone like him, and that is why he has been trying to paint the decision as having been motivated by non-political factors. But the timing and the destination, combined with his wife's admission, tells a different tale.
I want to clarify that I agree with you when you say that people who leave the country for the safety and welfare of their families should not be labeled cowards for it. But the three people at issue here are not ordinary. They are leading voices—in Stanley and especially Snyder's case, the leading voices—on the very threat the country now faces. Their fame and public profile were not forced on them; they took it on by choice.
Whether they like it or not, I think this bestows on them a great deal of responsibility. The resistance against Trump needs leaders, including intellectual ones. Who else but Snyder and Stanley are supposed to serve in that role? They are by far the most well-known thinkers on the subject. Who else but them should explain to the American people the need to resist along with the historical context behind that imperative?
But they're not exactly in a great position to do that now that they have fled the very regime that they will now have to encourage others to stay and fight against.
In short, I am holding, as I think we all should hold, Snyder and Stanley to a much different standard than I would ordinary people—people who aren’t the world's leading scholars on fascism.
I disagree! I felt there was a fatalism to their argument as well as if authoritarianism is inevitable. They left out of fear. Being as brave as you can is a tenet in Snyder's book. As you can being the operative part of the statement. Lucky for them they have a choice. I hope they continue to speak out but their stance has less power. It feels a little hypocritical. They are also not the braintrust of a movement. They are scholars who offer the worst case scenarios to justify their own fears. Some people have no choice but to stay and their cavalier video does nothing to bolster the movement here.
Then don't make a highly public video about leaving centered around fascism. 2 things can also be true at once so he is leaving for multiple reasons and fascism rising in America is absolutely one of them.
I have heard it said :”If you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.” Anyone who is going to leave, please do ASAP. And please own up to it being all about YOU.
BTW Stanley has given an argument about how he does not want his children suffer what is coming, since they are Black. That should also be taken into account before judging them?
Your sarcasm does nothing to bolster their excuse. White privilege is not a trait that is sharable between white parents and children of color because it is inherently racist and based purely on skintone. The sooner children learn about the reality the sooner they can challenge the narrative and the system. Confidence is key to cultivating empowered children who don't runaway from problems and choose stand up to face them. We need to face down racist and fascist alike.
I'm speaking on people's reality. There is nothing ideological about the racist society we live in where there are 2 or more versions of the same place. People have to live in it all the time and it effects many things for people but many of them also have no choice but to stay even though it is becoming more authoritarian by the day.
Yeah but you’re not the world’s leading scholar of fascism. These are not regular people I’m talking about; they are the intellectual leaders Americans need to fight back against Trump. It’s different.
for the democracy many died to preserve, death of honor in the GOP & POTUS, expiry of a unified American community, passing of U.S. global leadership, demise of evidence-based truth, needless killing of DEI, lost human rights😢
We need creativity and inspiration from leaders. These scholars can't offer either of those. We need to look to people who have supplanted authoritarianism for solutions not people who study the darkest humanity has to offer with little insight into hope. That video was fear mongering laced with evidence to justify their reasons for leaving steeped in fear. It cannot spur anything other than fear and anxiety. It is therefore not constructive or helpful for people who have no choice but to stay. If they want to leave they can but they don't need to make up a whole slew of excuses for why when the true reason is their courage was overshadowed by their fear.
Neil, this is a weak and petulant article. Tim Snyder is one your country’s most important thinkers at the moment and, although you paid brief lip service to that, you then went ahead and judged him harshly for a personal decision he made (about which you know very little). Which, for the record, he indicated was not directly related to your country’s current administration. That is downright disrespectful. You should also have the grace and foresight to know that alienating (and attempting to shame) your greatest allies is a particularly unwise strategy at any time, let alone a time like this, and that Tim Snyder will continue to contribute meaningfully to the fight against tyranny regardless of his geographical location, just as he has his entire career. When your tantrum is over you might want to consider retracting this article with an appropriate apology.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say the decision was not directly related to the current administration. They did not move to Canada because they always wanted to experience the country; they made it very clear that they are leaving because of Trump and what he is doing. And while yes, it was a personal decision, they went ahead and made it very, very public by filming an entire New York Times video about it. When you do something as public as that, you are not somehow immune to criticism.
That's not accurate. Snyder wrote about his reasons for leaving Yale here: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/04/04/snyder-on-leaving-yale/
Yes, no one is immune from criticism and I agree that any public NYT article/video invites scrutiny. From my perspective, the value of the NYT piece isn’t as a tourism promo for Canada (although I’m happy to have Tim Snyder and his colleagues residing close by), it’s to reach the wider public about the seriousness of the authoritarian threat. Yes, it’s a bit late to the party but I suspect that’s on the editors and not the subjects of the article because Snyder, as you know, is one of the early illuminators of this threat. I’d guess that you and I might generally agree that criticism should be fair and thoughtful and this article, based partly on some inaccurate information, doesn’t reflect that.
Furthermore, in my opinion, folks who choose to leave the country for the safety and/or welfare of their families ought not be labelled as cowards for it. Wasn’t the United States built by people doing just that? On a personal note, I am able to write this note today because my grandparents had the foresight to understand what was happening in Poland and Ukraine in the late-1930s and make it out of there while that was still possible. My grandfather subsequently joined the Canadian military. That was anything but cowardice. You and others may well have similar stories. There are lots of ways to join the battle.
Neil, I respect what you’re trying to accomplish in fighting the hopelessness and paralysis that many are experiencing in the face of all this but I don’t think that calling people cowards is the way to galvanize resolve or activate bystanders. And again, your choice of targets here alienates you from some particularly important writers—allies to the cause—to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude for helping set the guideposts for recognizing authoritarianism and drawing a roadmap for resistance. Instead, I’d respectfully suggest that you continue to clarify, refine and advertise that map and, in doing so, create hope and recruit people into the fight.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply. But I find Snyder’s claim that “I did not leave Yale because of anything Trump is doing” hard to believe. I think he is saying that as a means of deflecting the criticism he is getting from people like me (and others). In fact, Shore revealed that Trump's election did play a big role in their decision, telling Inside Higher Ed that “we didn’t make our final decision until after the November elections.” https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/03/26/fascism-scholars-trump-critics-leave-yale-canada
I think that Snyder knows how bad this looks, especially for someone like him, and that is why he has been trying to paint the decision as having been motivated by non-political factors. But the timing and the destination, combined with his wife's admission, tells a different tale.
I want to clarify that I agree with you when you say that people who leave the country for the safety and welfare of their families should not be labeled cowards for it. But the three people at issue here are not ordinary. They are leading voices—in Stanley and especially Snyder's case, the leading voices—on the very threat the country now faces. Their fame and public profile were not forced on them; they took it on by choice.
Whether they like it or not, I think this bestows on them a great deal of responsibility. The resistance against Trump needs leaders, including intellectual ones. Who else but Snyder and Stanley are supposed to serve in that role? They are by far the most well-known thinkers on the subject. Who else but them should explain to the American people the need to resist along with the historical context behind that imperative?
But they're not exactly in a great position to do that now that they have fled the very regime that they will now have to encourage others to stay and fight against.
In short, I am holding, as I think we all should hold, Snyder and Stanley to a much different standard than I would ordinary people—people who aren’t the world's leading scholars on fascism.
I disagree! I felt there was a fatalism to their argument as well as if authoritarianism is inevitable. They left out of fear. Being as brave as you can is a tenet in Snyder's book. As you can being the operative part of the statement. Lucky for them they have a choice. I hope they continue to speak out but their stance has less power. It feels a little hypocritical. They are also not the braintrust of a movement. They are scholars who offer the worst case scenarios to justify their own fears. Some people have no choice but to stay and their cavalier video does nothing to bolster the movement here.
Snyder wrote about his reasons for leaving Yale here: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/04/04/snyder-on-leaving-yale/
Then don't make a highly public video about leaving centered around fascism. 2 things can also be true at once so he is leaving for multiple reasons and fascism rising in America is absolutely one of them.
I have heard it said :”If you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.” Anyone who is going to leave, please do ASAP. And please own up to it being all about YOU.
BTW Stanley has given an argument about how he does not want his children suffer what is coming, since they are Black. That should also be taken into account before judging them?
That's a weak argument. White people being protective of their black children's blackness is not empowerment it's fear mongering.
Glad if you're confident we'll all be fine, not to worry.
Your sarcasm does nothing to bolster their excuse. White privilege is not a trait that is sharable between white parents and children of color because it is inherently racist and based purely on skintone. The sooner children learn about the reality the sooner they can challenge the narrative and the system. Confidence is key to cultivating empowered children who don't runaway from problems and choose stand up to face them. We need to face down racist and fascist alike.
Worse than I thought -- Ideology first.
You must not have chidlren. Over and out.
I'm speaking on people's reality. There is nothing ideological about the racist society we live in where there are 2 or more versions of the same place. People have to live in it all the time and it effects many things for people but many of them also have no choice but to stay even though it is becoming more authoritarian by the day.
Timothy Snyder has said several times that he had moved / started moving to Canada in 2024, and not because of Trump.
I would live abroad if I didn’t have family here.
Yeah but you’re not the world’s leading scholar of fascism. These are not regular people I’m talking about; they are the intellectual leaders Americans need to fight back against Trump. It’s different.
Snyder wrote about his reasons for leaving Yale here: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/04/04/snyder-on-leaving-yale/
THIS MEMORIAL DAY WE WEEP
for the democracy many died to preserve, death of honor in the GOP & POTUS, expiry of a unified American community, passing of U.S. global leadership, demise of evidence-based truth, needless killing of DEI, lost human rights😢