In telling us why they are fleeing Trump America, three Yale professors prove they are unqualified for their jobs
The “Poison Ivy League” may have finally
gotten better!
Good riddance! In a New York Times op-ed on May 14, 2025, three former Yale professors attempted to explain why they have quit their jobs at Yale and moved to teach in Canada at the University of Toronto.
Unbeknownst to them, their idiotic and ignorant reasons for leaving demonstrated that they are actually completely unqualified to be college professors, and that Yale (and the United States) will be better off without them.
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.
As noted in this analysis of their actions, all three say they are doing this because they have studied fascism and thus “equate ‘Make America Great Again’ with Adolf Hitler’s ‘Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.'”
The analogy is so weak and incoherent as to be laughable. As the essayist in this second link notes, it cheapens the meaning of fascism and in fact suggests these three “professors” don’t have the slightest idea what the word means, despite their claim they have studied it.
More important however are the three quirks of personality illustrated by their position and actions that signify why their are unqualified to be professors to begin with.
First, they clearly live in the leftist intellectual bubble which sees Trump as the personification of evil, as the new Hitler, yet cannot really cite any examples that demonstrate even slightly a similarity. These three “intellectuals” seem to know nothing in detail about what Trump has done, both for good or ill. All they know is the 2-dimensional paper cutout portrayed by the leftist press that has little to do with reality.
For a college professor this lack of a wider curiosity and willingness to explore other points of view is a major disqualification for their work.
Second, they illustrate incredible ignorance, not only about Trump but about the totalitarian fascist movements they claim to study. While there are certainly aspects of this fascism that has crept into American political culture, to ascribe them all to Trump and his Republican supporters illustrates mind-blowing partisanship and close-mindedness.
More important, the comparison is wildly absurd, as expressed by these individuals. Trump and the right at this moment bear no resemblance at all to the fascist movements of the past. Trump is not arresting opponents wholesale, merely because they oppose him — unlike what was done to him and his supporters during the Biden administration. All Trump is doing is cleaning house, firing many government workers and ending many government grants that by law he has the right to do as the elected head of the executive branch of government. That these leftists don’t like it doesn’t make it “fascist.”
For these college professors to make such shallow and ignorant claims illustrates their lack of qualifications for their job. They simply don’t know very much, think they do, and thus likely end up teaching propaganda not history.
Finally and most important, they exhibit a certainty about their opinions that is frightening, especially because of their ignorance and close-mindedness illustrated by points one and two above. No one has a lock on the truth, and the very essence of modern civilization, expressed best during the Enlightenment in the 1700s, is to question everything and doubt all. You might have opinions, based on good data, but if you ever believe your opinions can never be wrong you have entered hell. Or to use Oliver Cromwell’s words, as expressed by scientist Jacob Bronowski in episode 11 of his brilliant television series, The Ascent of Man: “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”
For a college professor to be so certain, without doubt, is the most significant disqualification for their work.
So, to put it bluntly, this exodus of these unqualified professors is maybe the best thing that could happen to Yale, and many of the other poison ivy American universities that have become since the 1960s junk heaps of leftist propaganda and indoctrination. Let these unqualified Marxists flee. We will be better off without them.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Gee, thanks guys. Guess it is time to leave canada eh.
Especially with Carney at the helm, such people will make canada a cesspool, worse than ever.
If one has not noticed, all the recounts go in favor of the liberals. Guess statistics mean nothing!
In the Alternate Universe, they were deported to Alberta and are busily processing tar-sands, by hand.
Timeghost History
Between the Wars: 1934 (part 2of 4)
“Civil War in Austria; Not All Fascists Are Nazis”
https://youtu.be/sqYTTOHc7yM
20:45
I will hazard a small guess that these professors had been pursuing these gigs the Great White North for a while, and finally having secured them, they move out, but not before they roll an opportunistic stink bomb into the room as they leave. It’s just an act of spite on the heals of a personal opportunity or career change.
Lame. If I guess right, it doesn’t say much for their character. Hope they aren’t in any position of responsibility.
It’s not an airport, you don’t have to announce your departure.
And all the ones who said they’d leave, most haven’t.
” . . .and to teach at a large public university in Toronto, a place he says can host conversations about freedom.”
Unlike, say, one of the Ivy’s.
Have these people not noticed that there is no wailing and gnashing of teeth on their departure? That there is no broad public outcry to reverse the ‘lame drain’ of Liberal intellectuals?
“Fine, we’re leaving! Uh, hello? I said we were leaving. Anyone?”
This is the result of “Higher Education” (See: Indoctrination and introduction to self-hate) in America:
https://youtube.com/shorts/v5RJ36mBqaM?si=HvrEhyR1uciaNZsh
The enemy has been working within for many years.
These 3 profs were part of the group of profs who are 99% liberal. Ooops – applies to just about all profs except engineering/Comp Sci who may still be < 50% libs. DEI for everyone but conservatives. Maybe other schools will provide a few more emigrants.
Fleeing to Canada isn’t likely to be a long-term “solution” to their discontents. Now that the Parasite Provinces of Canada have seen fit to elect a transnational progressive with three passports as their newest Prime Minister, the Prairie Provinces – tiring of being both punching bags and piggy banks for their Eastern “betters” are, in all likelihood, going to leave the Canadian Federation – whether to join the US or simply to escape additional rough handling by Ontario and Quebec. That will leave our three expat academics in a rump Canada that can no longer live in the style to which it has become accustomed. Among the luxuries it soon will be ill-able to afford are the salaries of carpetbagging professors, none of whom, I strongly suspect, has yet burned their US passports or formally renounced their American citizenship.
Bob & Doug McKenzie w/Geddy Lee
“Take Off to the Great White North” (1981)
https://youtu.be/3-bAMoZtzy0
4:46
Were the clues “Yale” and “Professor”? Actually one or the other would do, both are redundant.
The fact is, these fools will be missed by NO ONE.
They can cry and spit and scream all they want, but few, if any, will take notice or really care.
They needed to publicly announce their departure because they are, in effect, childish babies, upset because they are unable to have anything and everything to their liking.
This bunch silent when we all but had an intifadah at Columbia?
Phill O wrote: “If one has not noticed, all the recounts go in favor of the liberals. Guess statistics mean nothing!”
What I have noticed about recounts is that the second count is always considered more correct than the first, as though somehow the first count was performed carelessly.
Another thing I noticed, especially after the 2000 U.S. presidential election, is that the Democrats, the liberals, are willing to keep recounting until they get a count in which they win, then that particular count becomes the correct count. California Democrats have changed that state’s election laws to favor political parties that operate the way Democrats operate.
_______________
John wrote: “And all the ones who said they’d leave, most haven’t.”
Some actors have left in the past, but then they return in order to make another movie. Apparently they think the U.S.A. is a nice place to visit, especially to earn money, but they don’t want to live here. They are willing to take, but they are unwilling to contribute.
Hopefully radical leftists moving to Canada will become a thing.
Trump asked the IRS to revoke Harvard’s tax exempt status, and Trump has stopped $2 billion dollars in federal grants to Harvard for their failure to address anti-Semitism. Hit them in the wallet.
I find the echo chamber nature of these comments a bit disturbing. That there are real problems should not be in dispute. That the cure is a single individual issuing executive orders should be in dispute. This has been an increasing problem for the last several decades. The staggering walk between opposing parties doing the issuing is not a good thing for the nation.
I work with a lot of people from the immigrant community that are an asset to this country and most of them are seriously concerned about the random crap coming out of Washington. The tariff mess is another concern. We have problems, and Trump doesn’t look like the answer any more than the professors in this article.
john hare related: “I work with a lot of people from the immigrant community that are an asset to this country . . .”
They sure are, and, I’d wager, law-abiding.
And opined: “Trump doesn’t look like the answer any more than the professors in this article.”
I’m not sure many of those voting for DJT think he is. Trump is the Populist offering hope to those oppressed by Woke; mostly White people. I do not make light, here. ‘A [restriction] by any other name . . ‘ Trump is the anti-Democrat, and after the past several years, that’s good enough for the majority. In 2024, as in 2016; not so much pro-Trump, as disaster-averse. We’ve lived the alternative.
Freedom in Canada?
Have they spoken to Peterson or the truckers?
Democrat cultists use “fascist”, as well as racist, sexist, white supremacist and Nazi, exactly the same way that small children use “poopy head” and ” booger eater”, for the same reasons and with the same level of maturity.
They resort to mindless, slanderous name-calling because they have the emotional maturity of five-year-olds.
If there is no ship that can’t sink, then why is it the Titanic, professor Drama Queen?
The left has gone COMPLETELY INSANE! They can no longer distinguish white from black, right from wrong, Freedom from fascism! They see ONLY what they have been TOLD and TAUGHT for decades! It seems they are what we Southerners refer to as backassward! Every action that the biden bunglers took against PRESIDENT TRUMP and his supporters was “justice” even though the charges were bogus and manufactured. ACTUAL evidence and actions are considered “attacks on freedom” when it’s done NOW!
So, let’s clasp our hands, look toward Heaven, and give THANKS that these three are LEAVING the USA and PRAY that they find the utopia they seek and encourage THOUSANDS of other “perfessers” to join them in that wondrous winter land of Canadian Communism! They’re not QUITE there yet, but well on their way!
PS – their “round ham” is NOT bacon!!
To Peterson and the truckers I’d add Mark Steyn, who has a few things to say about what passes for free speech in Canada. These “learned” academics are a classic example of ‘free speech for me, but not for thee’. Until it isn’t. They should be careful what they wish for. Or maybe they never read Orwell?
Shallow Minded Reader … perhaps the best clue is “professor AT Yale”.
IIRC, Professor Glenn Reynolds is a Yale graduate and a professor, but teaches elsewhere – and I wouldn’t put him in the same pigeonhole as these drones.
*******************
john hare … the random stuff that was going on along our borders for years before now is also concerning.
As are fragile, offshore supply chains in a hostile world that exploits our free markets while restricting theirs. Not to mention at least one nation using our markets to build wealth to underwrite their efforts at totalitarian expansionism.
When Congress and the judiciary forget that their primary mission is to secure the life and liberty of the individual, sometimes all you have left is an executive order to secure those rights, albeit temporarily.
Trump isn’t perfect … just better than the alternatives.
John hare wrote: “That there are real problems should not be in dispute. That the cure is a single individual issuing executive orders should be in dispute. This has been an increasing problem for the last several decades.”
The president is hired to be the leader of the government — “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” By design a single individual issues executive orders.
“I work with a lot of people from the immigrant community that are an asset to this country and most of them are seriously concerned about the random crap coming out of Washington.”
Immigrants tend to be assets; they have been vetted and are welcome. It is the illegal aliens that tend to be a drain.
“We have problems, and Trump doesn’t look like the answer any more than the professors in this article.”
This makes it sound as though you think that one person is the answer. This is contradictory to your analysis that no one person should have control over the situation.
________________
stan wrote: “They resort to mindless, slanderous name-calling because they have the emotional maturity of five-year-olds.”
I disagree completely. Three-year-olds.
________________
Greg the Geologist wrote: “Or maybe they never read Orwell?”
They may not have read Mien Kampf or Das Kapital either. I’m not sure how much they really understand, as they most likely parrot what they have heard from the Democratic leadership and the celebrities who often declare that they will leave the U.S. if they don’t get their way. Indeed: three-year-olds.
Edward and Greg the Geologist: What is much worse is that these three incompetents have likely never read the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, or any of the writings of our Founding Fathers. They haven’t the slightest idea how our governmental system works, nor do they care. All that matters to them, like three-year-olds, is to get their way, and if they don’t they throw a tantrum.
This is our system, this is our process and that is why the political warfare is fought every day.
Anyone can become a politically empowered actor / politician, but that does not for one minute mean that they have any understanding of what the Constitution intends to structure and provide. Their empowerment can be solely a result of their persona, will and their ability to deceive and blame others for the problems of the world that they claim to have the ability to solve and lead on.
The system and the process, the political warfare over time that the Constitution structures gets to the needed result.
Politicians and government are not in the truth and morality business; they are in the power and control business. American as well as anti-American ego manacle political players want and seek the power alike. And it is the resulting fight, the warfare, the battle that keeps the system healthy.
And as we can now clearly see due to the last 4 years of politics in particular in America those political interests and actors will do ANYTHING in order to retain their political power and control.
ANYTHING!
Up to and including putting their opponents in jail or worse.
If I was going to leave the states Canada would be the first nation I would move to. But I do not want the snow.
Australia would be the second except their guns law2s would keep me from leaving.
As for the left leaving. I do truly believe they do not used all of the US constitutional rights we have.
How many of them believe in the 1st, or 2nd amendment? How many of them are willing to loose them just to get what they want? To get their way in speech, to stop your free speech. To take away your right to self defense(the 2nd).
They read but do not folly understand the constitution.