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CBC
26-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
It's not us — it's them. Why it's time to end the affair with the U.S.
It has to be done. It's time to break up with America: "You have to see the catastrophe for what it is," says intellectual historian, Marci Shore. She wouldn't normally give the world relationship advice but she feels an urgent need to send a clear message. "This is the end of the affair." Professor Shore, who has been studying the history of totalitarianism for nearly 30 years, blames the U.S. for the failed romance. To put it simply, it's not us — it's them. "You cannot trust this government. You cannot trust the United States. Don't think you can finesse the situation you are dealing with, you're looking into an abyss," she said in a lecture delivered at the Toronto Metropolitan University in April, as part of its International Issues Discussion series. Shore says she's devastated that she can no longer rely on her country to defend democracy. As a scholar who has studied the arc of fascism in Eastern Europe, she saw the red flags waving well ahead of many others. "If I panicked sooner than most other Americans, it's not because I was any smarter, but because I had been watching what was going on in Russia and Ukraine." Shore and her husband Timothy Snyder are two of three prominent Yale scholars who recently accepted teaching posts at the University of Toronto. While the offer was on the table before the U.S. election, Professor Shore says the re-election of Donald Trump tipped the scales. IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed spoke to Marci Shore about her talk. Here is an excerpt from their conversation. You often make references to words from the Russian language to help us understand what is going on in this moment. In your speech, you referred to the Slavic word for 'laying bare.' What's the word? Obnazhaya. It's the idea that there's no attempt to cover up wrongdoing anymore. A recent example, I guess, might be President Trump accepting a luxury jet from Qatar. So you'd expect this kind of blatant disregard for accepted norms would cause outrage. Why doesn't it? That's one of the curious phenomenon. Obnazhaya is a word... used to describe the aesthetic methods of the avant-garde, that you lay bare the device. You show people what you're doing. And it then became a kind of theme of the political technologists, the postmodern spin doctors, who bring Putin to power. What is remarkable about our system is that nothing is hidden. All of the ugliness is right there, not disguised by any architectural excesses. And that's the whole strategy. There's something disempowering about it. Another example of 'laying bare' could be the extraordinary moment that we saw in the Oval Office, where, Ukrainian President Zelensky is basically being admonished publicly by JD Vance, and Donald Trump. What new insight, if any, did you glean about the moment that we're in? That was one of the most revolting things I've ever seen on television. I think it affected me very viscerally on a couple different levels. I would point to at least three things. One is as a historian of Stalinism, that motif of you must say 'thank you.' You have to say 'thanks'. This is first of all what the abusive husband says to his wife. This is also what the people being interrogated by the Stalinist secret police hear from their interrogators. This is what the victims of the show trials are made to do. You thank the party for giving you your just punishment. In fact, Lech Wałęsa and a whole collection of former Polish political prisoners, including several people I know well and who sat in prison in communist Poland, wrote a letter saying, this is how our secret police interrogator spoke to us. Then the second thing was 'laying bare' of the fact that everything is transactional, everything is a game. Zelensky's response was perfect, we're not playing cards. Because for him it was not a game, for him he's responsible for the lives of these millions of people. But then I think what really punched me in the stomach was Trump saying to Zelensky, he [Zelensky] has such hatred for Putin. It's really hard to make a deal with someone who's got this hatred. And when you are watching day after day your city's burned and your children buried alive under rubble, and these young journalists captured and dismembered and tied to boards and tortured with electric shocks, you might not feel very warmly toward that person. You might not even have 'let's make a deal' kind of feelings toward that person. And the moral nihilism of not being even able to make that empathetic leap, I just thought we are looking into an abyss. For him to be admonished for it is beyond everything. You talk bluntly about Europe, as well as Canada, needing to recognize that this is the end of the affair as you describe it with America, and its commitment to defending democracy. And we're seeing signs of it on a daily basis, the questioning of NATO and the need to protect Europe against the possible Russian threat. Do you see any signs that this message is actually sinking in either here in Canada or in Europe? I'm not yet qualified to comment on Canadian politics. But the wake-up call to Europe, it's clearly going in that direction, but too slowly. And the fact that those four presidents went to Kyiv was a very good sign. I think that the grotesque scene in the Oval Office helped that. But it's very, very hard I think for Europeans than Canadians, to let go of that myth of America as the land of the free and the home of the brave. Gabrielis Landbergis, the former foreign minister of Lithuania, just gave this New York Times interview a couple of days ago, and he said, you have to understand it's like ripping through our bodies. It's like you're tearing your heart out. You grow up with this idea of the arsenal of democracy and what it means to have that taken away. And it doesn't mean that all Americans have changed their mind. I constantly get messages from Americans saying, 'please tell all the Canadians you see that we still love them. Please tell them that this is not representative of us.' Certainly, that's not what everybody feels but the people in power should absolutely not be trusted. The idea that you can get inside Trump's psyche and figure out how to have a good relationship with him, I think that's a mistake because there's no operative: true, false, good, evil — it's only what is advantageous or disadvantageous to him at any given moment in time. You've only been in Canada for a few months but I'm curious what you've been able to glean looking at your home country of the United States from this side: any new insights observing from over here? Well, I feel calmer here. I'm in a very privileged position, because now I've given myself a little bit of distance. Canada always felt to me like a place that was less edgy, which was part of the appeal, even independently of American politics. It's a place where there are gun control laws. It's a place where there's more of a social support system. It's a place where I feel in my kids' schools that there's less of a competitive edge among the kids, among the parents. And so I feel like it gives me a little space to take a deep breath, but I also feel guilty about being in this relatively safe place and taking advantage of it. But does it in any way inform your thinking about what is happening in your country? Do you have more clarity or a different posture being here and watching what's happening in the States? I would say the one thing I thought about was the way in which all the Canadian commentators were saying that it was Trump's election that saved the Liberal Party in Canada because it warned people about what could happen. That sense of could people be attentive to what was happening across the border in such a way that would shake them into responsibility for themselves, I found that quite inspiring. If this is, as you say, the end of the end-of-history, what do you hope comes next? My fantasy when I'm not being a neurotic catastrophist is that there will be a domino effect of the fall of tyranny, that Putin's regime will fall, that Lukashenko's regime will fall, the Iranian regime will fall, that Trump's regime would fall. That there'll be a complete Ukrainian victory and that Ukraine will be the vanguard no longer of catching up with the West — the [Francis] Fukuyama end-of-history model that we're all moving inevitably and exorbitantly to liberal democracy, and you should follow the people who are further along down the road. We know now that that did not work.
New York Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Seeing a Tide of Fascism: Flee or Fight?
To the Editor: Re 'We Study Fascism, and We're Leaving the U.S.' (Opinion video, May 14): As a British historian and the author of a book on totalitarian Russia and the fall of Communism, I am worried that there have been too few coherent warnings of the isolationism and the threats to American democracy posed by the Trump administration — until I saw this eloquent video. Here in France there is talk of demanding that the Statue of Liberty — that beacon of freedom given to the United States by this country — be returned to Europe. As a child of a diplomatic family living in Communist Bulgaria in the 1960s, I witnessed directly the fear that a totalitarian state can induce in a population. I worry for America, and I desperately hope that it can reverse the tide of fascism threatening the independence of its universities, courts and admirable media. This video clearly lays out the challenges posed to the United States, which we Europeans have for so long respected and admired. Myles Sanderson Paris The writer is the author of the book 'Secret Service in the Cold War.' To the Editor: What Profs. Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley say is undeniably true: The United States is rapidly descending into fascism.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Everything is translation' — 13th Book Arsenal festival in Kyiv to bridge gaps between language and war
The 13th Book Arsenal festival, one of Ukraine's premier interdisciplinary cultural events attracting voices from across the country and around the globe, will take place in Kyiv from May 29 to June 1. Over the course of four days, the festival offers a number of discussion panels, book presentations, public interviews, and even some film and musical performances that all relate to the theme of this year's festival. This year's program is curated by American historian Marci Shore and Ukrainian journalist Oksana Forostyna, who together have shaped the events of the festival around the theme 'Everything is Translation.' The theme invites both participants and attendees to explore the untranslatable — and to consider what the gaps in language reveal about the invisible boundaries between cultures, perspectives, and human experience, particularly in times of war. Each year, the festival's curators choose a theme that reflects the cultural climate. Last year's Book Arsenal, the first to take place since the start of the full-scale war, was centered around the theme 'Life on the Edge.' In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 theme was 'Optimistis-Skeptics.' 'One of the most important tasks for the festival's team now is to create the safest and most inclusive festival space possible,' Yuliia Kozlovets, the director of Book Arsenal, told the Kyiv Independent. 'The theme of war is a cross-cutting one, when stands of military and volunteer initiatives are an organic part of the festival space. Because this is our Ukrainian contemporary culture, and this is our life today.' For this year's festival, the Kyiv Independent joins Book Arsenal as an official media partner, further underscoring its commitment to fostering critical dialogue and elevating Ukrainian voices on the world stage. Several of the Kyiv Independent's team members — editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko, chief executive officer Daryna Shevchenko, War Crimes Investigation Unit reporter Danylo Mokryk, and culture reporter Kate Tsurkan — will take part in panel discussions at this year's Book Arsenal festival. The full schedule for this year's Book Arsenal is available on the festival's website. While events featuring international speakers on the main stage will be held in English, most of the program will be conducted in Ukrainian. However, several Ukrainian publishers — including Ukraїner, Projector, Rodovid, IST Publishing, and #knygolove — will offer a selection of their books in English translation for purchase. Mystetskyi Arsenal's art books, which highlight Ukraine's artistic heritage, showcase prominent contemporary artists, and document experimental projects on key cultural movements, will also be available in bilingual Ukrainian-English editions. The official opening of this year's Book Arsenal festival is scheduled for 5 p.m. on May 29, but attendees can begin to enter the premises of Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv's National Art and Culture Museum Complex, from 4 p.m. Tickets for the festival can be purchased online or at the ticket counter at Mystetskyi Arsenal – either 200 hryvnias ($5) for a one-day ticket of 500 hryvnias ($12) for all four days of the festival. (in English unless otherwise stated): Panel discussion 'Everything is Translation' featuring Ukrainian poets Iya Kiva and Ostap Slyvynsky, and Polish poet ariel rosé, moderated by Swedish literary critic Carl Henrik Fredriksson. Taking place at 6 p.m. on May 29, the conversation will explore how translation can be used as a tool against imperialism, particularly in times of war. French journalists Doan Bui and Emmanuel Carrère will join several Ukrainian colleagues for a unique live performance at 8 p.m. on May 29 — a staged retelling of powerful wartime journalism from local and international reporters, photographers, and artists. On May 30, Danylo Mokryk from the Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigations Unit will speak on the panel 'Reportage as Investigation: A Conversation on the Practice of Long-Form Reporting,' alongside Magdalena Sodomkova. Moderated by Tetiana Pushnova, the event is organized in partnership with the Czech Centre in Kyiv and will begin at 2:30 p.m. The Kyiv Independent's editor-in-chief Olga Rudenko and culture reporter Kate Tsurkan will join Ukrainian author Myroslav Laiuk in the panel discussion 'War of Narratives. Do We Have Anything to Counter Russian Influence on the Vision of This War Abroad?' Moderated by Julia Tymoshenko, the event will take place in Ukrainian on May 30 at 6 p.m. The Kyiv Independent's chief executive officer Daryna Shevchenko will moderate a panel titled 'The Ukrainian Narrative: A Strategic Script. How to Speak Effectively About Ukraine Abroad?' Scheduled at 7 p.m. on May 30, the discussion will feature Viktoriia Narizhna, Vira Kuryko, Halyna Skipalska, and Olha Kari, and is co-organized by the Kyiv Independent. On June 1 at 3 p.m., British journalist Peter Pomerantsev will discuss his new book 'How to Win the Information War?' in conversation with Olga Rudenko. Founder of Spravdi Liubov Tsybulska will also speak with American journalist Simon Shuster on the topic 'How a book can change the attitude toward Ukraine on the world stage' on June 1 at 5 p.m. Read also: Russia killed Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina — but not her words or quest for justice We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Woke Yale professors announce they're fleeing the US as historian compares living in America to the Titanic
Three liberal professors at Yale University say they're jumping ship from the United States, saying the country is headed toward fascism under Donald Trump and even comparing it to being on the Titanic. Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley are all professors at the Ivy League institution, with Stanley already having told MSNBC in April that he's running away from America. Now, the other two are bolting as well, with the trio set to take up new jobs at the University of Toronto. The three released a video for the New York Times Opinion section where Stanley led them in saying he wants 'Americans to realize that this is a democratic emergency.' 'We're like people on the Titanic saying our ship can't sink,' Shore added. 'And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can't sink.' Snyder claims he is not leaving because of Trump or a slide towards fascism, 'but that would be a reasonable thing to do.' He claims he is largely leaving to support his family and teach at a university where he can host 'conversations about freedom.' Stanley directly takes aim at Trump, believing he will retaliate against dissenters. 'I want to do my work without the fear that I will be punished for my words,' he said. Shore cited previous fascist regimes and said that the lesson is 'to get out sooner than later.' Stanley advised that Americans 'set up centers of resistance in places of relative safety.' They specifically cited college students being removed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for radical anti-Israel views. Stanley, an American citizen who's at no risk of deportation, previously explained how he's accepted a job offer at the Canadian college as a result, eager to escape with his family. The Ivy League processor went on to chide rival schools like Columbia, for what he billed as bowing to Trump's crackdown. On Friday, the school's interim president resigned from her role just one week, seemingly in protest of its decision to change several policies to satisfy Trump administration demands. 'This crackdown, Columbia's capitulation to this, is a grave sign about the future of academic freedom,' he told Cabrera on the set of her eponymous show. 'Hauling people off the street and sending them to Louisiana prisons like they did at Tufts University for co-authoring op-eds in the student newspaper' is another sign, he continued. Stanley had been referring to recently arrested Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was detained last Tuesday by ICE officials outside Boston, off-campus. Threatening to leave America has been a hobby horse of the elites and wealthy since Trump's first term. Many have been flocking to exclusive pockets of Britain in record numbers in a desperate bid to escape life under Trump. The so-called 'Donald Dash' has been backed up by Home Office figures this week which revealed that applications for UK citizenship soared in the last quarter of 2024, rising 40 per cent year on year. In fact more than 6,100 US citizens applied last year, the most since records began two decades ago and 26 per cent more than in 2023. Celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi, designer Tom Ford and Hollywood star couple Ryan Gosling and his wife Eva Mendes are among those who have fled America for the UK. Other high-profile stars including actress America Ferrera are rumoured to have relocated to the UK. The Ugly Betty star was allegedly spotted checking out schools in west London - after saying she wanted to leave the US when Trump was elected. Trump's election victory cemented Ugly Betty star Ferrera's decision to flee the US in search of the 'best opportunities' for her children in the UK. 'America is sick that Donald Trump is President again,' an insider told exclusively last November. 'She is devastated that Kamala lost. She thought the country she lived in was better than that.' Others have quit for the benefit of their children, including Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, while others including British Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner has hinted at 'getting the f*** out of America due to gun violence and the overturning of Roe v Wade. American actress Elizabeth Olsen, who lived in Richmond, south-west London, with her rock star husband Robbie Arnett during Covid, said in November that she thinks she is 'supposed to live in England'. She told The Standard: 'I don't think I'm supposed to live in the United States. London feels like a place you can work very hard and diligently, and you can stop, and you can be in parks and nature.' She added: 'I know every country has its faults, but anytime you leave the United States, your nervous system shifts. You're not consciously preparing for a random act of violence to occur.' British actress Minnie Driver said last July that she had returned to the UK after 27 years of living in Los Angeles, and would not return to a Republican state if Trump was re-elected – although she would be 'somewhat insulated' in California. Home Office data shows applications by Americans have risen steadily since the end of 2022. They surged in the last quarter of 2024 in particular, rising 40 per cent year on year to about 1,700.
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
We Study Fascism. And We're Leaving the U.S.
Legal residents of the United States sent to foreign prisons without due process. Students detained after voicing their opinions. Federal judges threatened with impeachment for ruling against the administration's priorities. In the Opinion video above, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley, all professors at Yale and experts in authoritarianism, explain why America is especially vulnerable to a democratic backsliding — and why they are leaving the United States to take up positions at the University of Toronto. Professor Stanley is leaving the United States as an act of protest against the Trump administration's attacks on civil liberties. 'I want Americans to realize that this is a democratic emergency,' he said. Professor Shore, who has spent two decades writing about the history of authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe, is leaving because of what she sees as the sharp regression of American democracy. 'We're like people on the Titanic saying our ship can't sink,' she said. 'And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can't sink.' Professor Snyder's reasons are more complicated. Primarily, he's leaving to support his wife, Professor Shore, and their children, and to teach at a large public university in Toronto, a place he says can host conversations about freedom. At the same time, he shares the concerns expressed by his colleagues, and worries that those kinds of conversations will become ever harder to have in the United States. 'I did not leave Yale because of Donald Trump, or because of Columbia, or because of threats to Yale — but that would be a reasonable thing to do and that is a decision that people will make,' he wrote in a Yale Daily News article explaining his decision to leave. Their motives differ but their analysis is the same: ignoring or downplaying attacks on the rule of law, the courts and universities spells trouble for our democracy.
