Thinking about...

Dear Friends, One of the many wrongs of this last week has been an attempt by the Trump administration to destroy American higher education: by way of “compacts” in which universities and other institutions would sacrifice their independence and the freedoms of the students, staff and faculty in exchange for essentially nothing — a meaningless assurance though not a binding obligation that the government might perhaps then follow its legal and contractual obligations to fund research.

This amounts to an attempt to make American institutions of higher education resemble those in, for example, Russia: where the government is always present to enforce its daily ideological preferences and the universities and other schools must go along. The result of these “compacts” would be the pointless sacrifice of one area where the United States is still universally recognized as leading the world, which is our universities. These “compacts” would also mean huge economic losses as these institutions cease to operate according to the merit of ideas and following instead the whims of distant bureaucrats bound to a stale ideology.

In this video post I am reading aloud the petition (text below) formulated by the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors (my union), which you can read and sign by following the links or the buttons below. I urge you to please do so and to share this post with others who care about economic prosperity, social mobility, and freedom of expression.

Here is where you can sign the petition.

Here is the link to the AFT/AAUP petition.

Here is the text of the AFT/AAUP petition:

“We call on university leaders, faculty, staff and students to unite in rejecting the Trump compact and to defend the principle that no president has the right to buy obedience or sell off freedom.Colleges and universities are places of possibility, where big ideas get tested, diseases are cured, new technologies are invented, and students have an opportunity to learn and develop new skills. They are engines of opportunity, sites of free expression and economic hubs for whole communities, often serving as a major employer and healthcare provider in a region. As such, they are anchors of our democracy.

The Trump administration has put unprecedented and highly politicized regulations on institutions of higher education, pressured them with coercive funding threats, extorted promises to fall in line with a right-wing ideology, and upended long-held principles of civil rights, academic freedom, freedom of speech and equality of opportunity.

The actions are wrong. They are largely illegal, and they are losing in court.

Now the administration is planning to go even further—targeting not only the universities that President Donald Trump personally dislikes but the entire system of federally funded research across the country.

Currently, the federal government funds research based on peer review and scientific merit. Under the proposed Trump compact, it would make awards based on ideological fealty, taking taxpayer money and weaponizing it to undermine research and speech the current administration doesn’t like and punish people it disagrees with.

The Trump compact is not just wrong—it’s unconstitutional. It violates the First Amendment by forcing universities to surrender their right of free speech and academic freedom in exchange for federal funds. The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected this kind of coercion under the “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine, which says the government cannot use its spending power to force a person to give up a constitutional right—e.g., by dictating ideology or controlling thought.

Under the Trump compact, a successful childhood cancer research project could be cut off because the university allows trans athletes to play on a team. A lab focused on ensuring a clean water supply could be shut down because the university’s mission includes promoting diversity in the student body. A nursing school could lose critical funding because professors are teaching about women’s history.

This policy is a clumsy attempt at thought-policing that will have repercussions for all of society. It risks America’s world leadership in science, technology, innovation and healthcare, creating opportunities for our competitors and our enemies to take the lead. It sets us backward toward an era of less innovation, fewer cures for diseases and a shrinking economy.”

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Basic points on the rule of law, phantom conspiracies, big lies, and civic action.

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I spent the first few days of the month on or near the front in Ukraine and then in Kyiv, and now find upon my return an American reality that needs analysis and action. A few ideas here. Feel free to share. Thanks for being with me.

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How do Ukrainians endure?

When will the war end?

What kind of war is it?

Fresh from travels in southeastern Ukraine and meetings with soldiers, officers and other Ukrainians, I try to give some answers to these questions in this nine-minute video, filmed at sunrise a couple of days ago in Dnipro.

We, beyond Ukraine, are not merely observers who can ask questions, but responsible parties whose actions (and inaction) make the difference.

Ukrainians are paying the price for our indecision and now, in our own way, we are too. It can all be repaired, but we must be clear about where we are and what remains to be done.

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It took me a while, but I can now see a purpose in speaking to the discussion of my departure from Yale University for the University of Toronto. Hence this video.

I moved with the family last year, largely for family reasons, attracted personally by the prospect of a change to Toronto and to its Munk School in particular; both Yale and the University of Toronto dealt with the transition very gracefully. I loved being at Yale, and at the same time I am looking forward to some new possibilities in Toronto.

Because I regarded the departure as relevant to students and colleagues at the institution where I taught for almost a quarter century, I laid out my reasons for the move in my departure note to Yale.

Without speaking too directly in the video about private matters, I address four public framings of last year’s move which arose in recent weeks: (1) that I fled the present administration; (2) that I am a coward; (3) that leaving Yale is politically regressive; and (4) that I have disengaged.

None of these framings touches the circumstances of my decision. I address them because they tell us something about the moment that we are in.

I can see why personal attacks are tempting, and also where they lead. If we tear down others, we can tell ourselves that we are doing something ourselves — when in fact the opposite is true.

No one has to take me as their guiding light. We all though have to recognize that our allies are imperfect, and seek out what is best in those with whom we choose to work. Freedom is solidarity. The path to unfreedom passes through dismissal and disdain.

I am not a very on line person, so I wasn’t really aware that there was some sort of imbroglio until friends sent me nice messages (always a bad sign) and this wise essay by Rebecca Solnit (there are sentences in it that are worth reading twice; she is a perceptive person.)

Like I always do, I made this video in one take, improvising. There is one thing that I wish I had said to Americans but didn’t: I am still with you.

This past academic year, after the family move to Canada, and before and after the inauguration, I made appearances in Connecticut (twice), Illinois (three times), Michigan (twice), Ohio (seven times), Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New York (four times), Rhode Island (twice), Tennessee, Texas, and Washington DC (twice).

That’s in addition to a series of wonderful public events in Toronto and Vancouver and the two trips to Ukraine and the visits to eight European countries that I mention in the video.

I’m out there. I’m trying. In various places. And what I have to offer in one place has to do with things I learn from people in others. The photos below give a taste of where I was this last academic year, and what I was doing.

Other than these paragraphs, those photos, and the Yale letter, the video is what I have to say. There won’t be more. Let’s do the things that we can do.

TS, recorded 26 May, photo added 30 May, to be published 2 June 2025

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As the assault on American higher education continues, I’ve been asked to explain why I believe this policy is antisemitic. A new video is above.

The Trump people claim to be fighting antisemitism, and the media often accept that framing. I believe, on the contrary, that these actions are antisemitic in intention and in execution. The use of the word “antisemitism” as a covering pretext for defunding education empties the concept of meaning.

I have talked about this in various public gatherings in the US and written about it here, but thought that a video explainer might be helpful.

My background: I have written two books on the Holocaust as well as an introduction to Borowski’s Here in Our Auschwitz and a good deal else on the topic; have taught Holocaust history for two decades; have helped to supervise the use of Holocaust testimonies for the better part of my career and spend time with these sources. I sit on the International Auschwitz Council and have been awarded the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Medal. I note that Professor Christopher Browning, the very distinguished American scholar of the Holocaust, is making a similar case. Please read his essay.

I have given these matters some thought, and I hope you will consider. Please feel free as always to share this video.

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The president has issued an executive order entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Like most of these executive orders, it seems illegal on its face: the president can only execute the laws; he cannot just himself decide how our museums and parks will work or look.

But perhaps the deeper problem is the implicit claim: that the president himself has a monopoly on truth and sanity, that we and a few others can serve as a ministry of truth, that all the experience and knowledge and research that the rest of us have is nothing more than “ideology.”

It maintains that the United States has always been a paragon of freedom and that anyone who denies its automatic progress is disloyal. But freedom always means liberation from the people who tell you that whatever you are experiencing now is liberty, and that really you must do nothing but admire your leaders. And progress, never automatic, comes from self-knowledge and from struggle.

I spent the morning today at the National Museum of Civil Rights in Memphis, which provides a firm reminder of the need for memory and for discussion of events that make us uncomfortable — as good history always will. We need history not to confirm that how we feel now is right, but rather to teach us more about where we come from than we can know ourselves. This involves recognition that our pasts can be different, which enables the empathy that we will need for democracy. I recorded a few thoughts along these lines in this video; please watch and share.

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Here is my best guidance for action, rendered beautifully by the great John Lithgow. I first published these lessons more than eight years ago, in late 2016. They open the twenty chapters of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Millions of you, around the world, have put these lessons to good use; it has been humbling to learn how from courageous and creative dissenters, protestors, and oppositionists. I am delighted to have this special chance now to share the lessons again. I was honored when John, a wise advocate for civil discourse and civic engagement, volunteered to read them aloud.

Above is his film. Below is the text, excerpted from the book. Do share this.

1. Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

2. Defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about -- a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union -- and take its side.

3. Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multiple-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.

4. Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the swastikas and the other signs of hate. Do not look away, and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

5. Remember professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law state without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camp directors seek businessmen interested in cheap labor.

6. Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come.

7. Be reflective if you must be armed. If you carry a weapon in public service, may God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.

8. Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.

9. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.

10. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

11. Investigate. Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). Take responsibility for what you communicate with others.

12. Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life.

13. Practice corporeal politics. Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

(Nota bene, jumping away from the text for a moment: there will be chances to practice corporeal politics all over the USA on April 5th).

14. Establish a private life. Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks.

15. Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.

16. Learn from peers in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.

17. Listen for dangerous words. Be alert to use of the words "extremism" and "terrorism." Be alive to the fatal notions of "emergency" and "exception." Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

18. Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events in order to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it.

19. Be a patriot. Set a good example of what America means for the generations to come. They will need it.

20. Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, then all of us will die under tyranny.

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Film Credits: John Lithgow read. Sean McGowan, producer of PoliticsGirl, directed and edited. Special thanks to Abigail Disney, Susan Disney Lord, and Timothy Disney. The executive producer was David Bender.

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I was asked to make a shorter video summarizing the logic of negotiation. Here it is: five basic tests to establish whether what is proposed by Americans can be regarded as a Ukrainian-Russian peace process. I hope you find it useful, for example in evaluating claims made by the American president in his speech this evening. At the moment, American policy seems to meet none of these tests; it seems, in fact, designed to create the conditions for a broader and a longer war by excluding, exploiting and harming Ukraine, strengthening Russia, misconstruing the basic reality of the war, ignoring international law, and denying the need for any structure at all beyond the verbal assurances. But I wanted to lay these out these five tests in a neutral way to help people consider or themselves. Thanks for being with me. Please share this post.

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Wars are hard to end. Peace is easy to say but difficult to achieve. In this video, about ten minutes long, I spell out five logics that a successful mediator seeking peace would take into account:

the state of law; the beginning of the war; calculations of the future; paper vs. reality; and ceasefire vs. peace.

I have in mind the present Russo-Ukrainian war. But sometimes it helps to recall the fundamental principles. Please feel free to share this video.

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If you are thinking today about helping Ukrainians, consider Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian NGO that supports soldiers; United 24, the Ukrainian state platform for donations); RAZOM, an American NGO, tax-deductible for US citizens, which supports civilians; and BlueCheck Ukraine, which aims for efficient cooperation with Ukrainian groups and is also tax-deductible.

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