Why Authoritarians Target Universities First: A Warning From Professor Stanley
- August Tonthat
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
When authoritarian leaders come to power, their first target isn’t always the military or the press, it’s the universities. According to Yale professor Jason Stanley, that’s no coincidence. In a recent interview, Stanley explained why he’s leaving the United States after Donald Trump’s return to office: he believes the attack on higher education is a sign. He believes that this affront paves the road towards something deeper, something more malicious.
From Italy under Mussolini to modern-day Hungary and India, authoritarian governments have a history of silencing universities. That is because universities are full of young people who not only view the world, but question it as well. They ask questions that challenge authority and protest injustice-- this is exactly what authoritarians don't want. Challenges like these threaten a group that desires full control.
For Stanley, this issue is personal. He’s Jewish, the son of Holocaust survivors, and the father of two Black sons. He says the current political climate in the U.S. feels unsafe for his family, especially with growing racism, attacks on diversity programs, and antisemitism being used as a political weapon. He also worries that the real suffering of Palestinians in Gaza is being ignored, while Jewish identity is being misused to justify crackdowns on campus protests.
Recently, Stanley has been offered a job at the University of Toronto in Canada. He hopes that moving his family there will allow his sons more freedom and less peril; for the last thirty years, Canada has been a very Liberal country, and with the recent election results, it stands to stay that way. He hopes that the political climate there will allow more freedom to speak one's mind.
Stanley hopes that his decision to leave serves as a warning to the American people. If we want to protect democracy and combat authoritarian society, one must learn to protect the places where people learn to question power. Right now, those places are under serious threat.
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