I'm a historian of totalitarianism. I

look at fascist rhetoric. I've been

thinking about the sources of the worst

kinds of history for a quarter of a

century. Experts say the constitutional

crisis is here now. The Trump

administration deporting hundreds of men

without a trial. A massive purge at the

FBI to make people afraid of speaking

out against him.

I'm leaving to the University of Toronto

because I want to do my work without the

fear that I will be punished for my

words. The lesson of 1933 is you get out

sooner rather than later.

I've spent a lot of time in the last

decade trying to prepare people if Trump

were elected once, let alone twice. Look

what happened. Is this crazy? I did not

flee Trump. But if people are going to

leave the United States or leave

American universities, there are reasons

for

that. One thing you can definitely learn

from Russians is that it's essential to

set up centers of resistance in places

of relative safety. We want to make sure

that if there is a political crisis in

the US that Americans are organized.

We've just gotten started. You haven't

even seen anything yet. It's all just

kicking off.

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." And 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. Our ship

can't sink." And what you know as a

historian is that there is no such thing

as a ship that can't sink.

The golden age of America has only just

begun. America has long had an

exceptionalist narrative. Fascism can

happen elsewhere, but not here. But

talking about American exceptionalism is

basically a way to get people to fall

into line. If you think that there's

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. And so

then what your definition of freedom is

just gets narrowed and narrowed and

narrowed and narrowed. And soon you're

using the word freedom, but what you're

talking about is authoritarianism.

Tony Morrison warned us, "The descent

into a final solution is not a

jump. It's one

step and then another.

alone.

We are seeing those steps accelerated

right now.

There are some words in Russian in

particular that I feel help us to

understand what's happening in the

United States because we now have those

phenomena. It's the idea that the powers

that be can do anything they want to you

and you have no

recourse. This not knowing who is next

creates a state of paralysis in society.

The tough student whose visa was removed

because she co-authored an article in

the tough student newspaper.

I thought, what would I do if guys in

masks tried to grab my student? Would I

scream? Would I run away? Would I try to

pull the mask off? Would I try to

videotape the scene? Would I try to pull

the guys off of her? Maybe I would get

scared and run away. The truth is, I

don't know. Not knowing terrified me.

It's a deliberate act of

terror. It's not necessary. It's just

being done to create a spirit of us and

them.

It's a a word in Russian for corruption,

but it's larger than corruption. It

refers to a kind of existential state in

which not only everything, but everyone

can be bought or sold. Critics are

calling this a quidd proquo deal between

Adams and President Trump. I'm committed

to buying and owning Gaza. He made 2.5

billion today and he made 900 million.

There's an expression in Polish, I found

myself at the very bottom. And then I

heard knocking from

below in Russian that gets abbreviated

to there is no bottom.

We cannot allow a handful of communist

radical left judges to obstruct the

enforcement of our laws. What starts to

matter is not what is concealed, but

what has been normalized. There's no

limit to the depravity. President Trump

did not rule out the possibility of a

third term and the sadism. The White

House released this video titled ASMR,

illegal alien deportation flight. And

the cruelty that we are watching now

play out in real time. This facility is

one of the tools in our toolkit that we

will use.

You have to continually ask yourself the

question, is this okay?

Is there a line I wouldn't cross? Is

there something I would not do?

People say, "Oh, the Democrats should be

doing more. They should be fixing

things." But if you want the Democrats

to do things, you have to create the

platform for them. You have to create

the spectacle, the pageantry, the

positive energy, the physical place

where they can come to you.

Poland recently went through a shift

towards

authoritarianism. Unlike in Russia,

unlike in Hungary, the media remained a

place in Poland where you could

criticize the regime. And as a result,

democracy returned.

The moral of Poland is that our

democratic institutions, the media, the

university, and the courts are

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essential. 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.