'Game over': Yale fascism expert moving to Canada because US is becoming a 'dictatorship' [View all]

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https://www.alternet.org/jason-stanley-canada-trump/

'Game over': Yale fascism expert moving to Canada because US is becoming a 'dictatorship'

Alex HendersonMarch 27, 2025

Quite often, Americans who threaten to leave the United States for political reasons don't follow through when they see how complex the immigration laws of other countries can be. But during Donald Trump's second presidency, some well-known Americans really are expressing their worries about the United States' current political climate by moving to other countries.

Liberal actress Rosie O'Donnell, an outspoken Trump critic, is now living in the Republic of Ireland. And Jason Stanley, a Yale University professor known for his expertise on fascism, is accepting a job offer in Canada — as he fears the U.S. is becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Stanley, author of the 2018 book, "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them," accepted a position at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. And he is speaking out about his reasons for leaving the U.S.

Stanley told the website The Daily Nous that he is moving to Canada "to raise my kids in a country that is not tilting towards a fascist dictatorship." And he believes that Columbia University in New York City and other colleges are making a huge mistake by capitulating to Trump rather than fighting back against his war on academia.

"When I saw Columbia completely capitulate," Stanley told the Daily Nous, "and I saw this vocabulary of: well, we're going to work behind the scenes because we're not going to get targeted — that whole way of thinking pre-supposes that some universities will get targeted, and you don't want to be one of those universities. And that's just a losing strategy. You've got to just band together and say an attack on one university is an attack on all universities. And maybe you lose that fight, but you’re certainly going to lose this one if you give up before you fight."

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