Jason Stanley
Appearances
Consider This from NPR
Who loses when Trump cuts funding to universities?
My work over the last decade has been calling attention to the rise of fascism in the United States. And you can only write so much. At some point, you have to do something.
Consider This from NPR
Who loses when Trump cuts funding to universities?
The federal government, this fascist regime, has figured out a way to target funds to universities. And what we're seeing are democratic institutions across the United States, including universities, capitulate to these demands.
Consider This from NPR
Who loses when Trump cuts funding to universities?
You can't win a war unless you recognize it's a war. This way, they're going to pick us off one by one. And history is watching here. If universities want to fight antisemitism, they need to stand up and say, no, we are not threats to American Jews. You are threatening American Jews. What's happening is like what Stalin did in the Soviet Union, setting up large groups of people for popular rage.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
A liberal arts education is worth nothing. Academia is a disaster. We should be teaching math, science, not this nonsense.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Well, it's interesting that the far right targets exactly the scholars who are studying elements of the far right. So they're trying to attack the aspects of scholarship that allow us to understand scholarship. their politics and their propaganda. A lot of the politics of the far right is the politics of disgust. And smell is, of course, a central feature of disgust.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
So I'm seeing that aspect recur. And then, of course, the very idea that there's scholarship that may problematize the ordinary status quo and that scholarship is done by women is taken as an existential threat.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Well, I believe Trump once said, I love the poorly educated. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated. We're the smartest people. We're the most loyal people. Education gives us the foundation to understand changing aspects of culture. What happens in the university is critical inquiry into the status quo.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
And so if you can attack that and represent it as somehow deviant or decadent, then you can go back to representing critique of the status quo as something terrifying.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Obviously, there's an element of truth, of legitimacy to the critique of the elite. If you can connect these institutions to a kind of repugnant elitism, which they are connected to, let's be frank, then you can marshal a populist movement against learning. What it enables is a politics that says – OK, the rich, snobby elite, those are the ones who are questioning your traditions.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Going into academia is an extremely difficult choice because it's almost impossible to get a tenure track job. This idea of academics as somehow a economically privileged class is fictional. And then notice the people who are advancing this sort of quote-unquote populist view are all themselves graduates of Harvard and Yale and Princeton.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Ron DeSantis, Yale, and then Harvard, Tom Cotton, Harvard, Harvard. But they're promoting this attack the university's line because it's politically efficacious.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
The humanities allows you to talk about anything. And that's a threat.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
So building on Ali's point, democracy is a system where we each play a role in the formation of the laws that govern us. You need to know history. You need to know the different social systems. You need to know the different perspectives of the citizens in your country. This issue that you're asking about is the core of the most important debate in U.S.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
intellectual history, the debate between Booker T. Washington and Du Bois.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Yeah. And Booker T. Washington said black Americans should forget about liberal education because freedom is just making money. It's just economic freedom. And Du Bois said, no, everyone needs a liberal education. Everybody needs a free liberal education because that's what democratic citizenship requires. The attack on the humanities is part of the worldwide authoritarian move.
It's Been a Minute
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Like you cannot speak freely in authoritarian countries. I can't go to China and give a rousing talk about the evils of a one-party state. That's not allowed. The humanities allows you to talk about anything. And that's a threat, the idea that you can talk about anything. Particularly, you can challenge the dominant ideologies. You can challenge the nation's greatness.