Read @markwarner.bsky.social “There is no legitimate basis for such an emergency. That is not the point. The point is that the Trump administration could manufacture an impression of an emergency, creating a pretext for intervention.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/o...

“One does not have to be a criminologist to predict that people who commit a violent act and are absolved of any punishment might become repeat offenders.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/o...

“Azhar describes his efforts to safeguard “the space where ideas arrive before they’re shaped.” But how many of us will put in such careful, reflective effort to protect our most generative spaces of thought? How many..even know which spaces should be protected?” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/o...

Read AO Scott “Literary allusions are dangerous things in Washington,” Hallie Flanagan remarked after her run-in with the witch-hunting congressional committee. Those were the days.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/b...

Bringing this back: “Jew hatred is real, but today’s anti-antisemitism isn’t a legitimate effort to fight it. It’s a cover for a wide range of agendas that have nothing to do with the welfare of Jewish people.” @harvard.edu @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @aacu.org www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...

"authoritarian regimes are never satisfied...if they do not encounter resistance, they tighten the screws further. The amount of public dissent that may still be possible today could be impossible tomorrow…Opportunism is contagious, but so is courage" #highereducation www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/o...

“we will look back at the present moment with the same kind of shame that we feel when we reflect back on, say, Japanese internment in World War II. We are detaining people by the tens of thousands in brutal conditions in the absence of any criminal conviction.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/o...

Students defend democracy by participating in it. "Higher education has thrived in the ecosystem of freedoms provided by our democracy. Today that ecosystem is under enormous strain, & as teachers & students we must now rise to its defense." @mollyjongfast.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/o...

On #DemocracySummer "Now is the time for everyone— Republicans, Democrats and independents —to come together & defend our foundational democratic right. And higher education has a unique role to play." @aacu.org @civicnation.bsky.social @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/o...

Teaching CASABLANCA @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social this morning. Will talk about immigration, war, the choice of public action over personal desire. I wrote this almost 10 years ago www.chronicle.com/article/here...

“Silence is not neutrality; it is permission. The record that university chancellors, presidents and trustees create in this moment — who spoke, who acted and who stayed silent — will be studied long after today’s political actors are gone.”

Read @mashagessen.bsky.social & hear the screams “This war, like the great war before it, has extracted and normalized extraordinary sacrifice. It demands that everyone serve and everyone be a hero.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/o...

Ian Buruma “People kept hoping that the next act of war &assault on decency would be the final one… yet life continues as usual. What was unthinkable only yesterday we now take in stride, and we wait for that moment when things really have gone too” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/22/o...

Danielle Allen on Stochastic Intimidation: "a speaker denigrates a target; the denigration goes viral; &someone delivers threats to the target. Who delivers the threat may be random, but that a threat will follow from social media.. discourse is nearly guaranteed." open.substack.com/pub/therenov...

Read @arneduncan.bsky.social @ambpressman.bsky.social "When institutional self-preservation replaces moral leadership, universities abandon their core mission. This is a striking abdication of responsibility..from leaders entrusted with educating the next generation of citizens." wapo.st/4qomlXe

Read @aoscott.bsky.social "His larger point, though, is that to flout the guarantee of habeas corpus — as he insists the current deportation policy has done — is to threaten the integrity of the American constitutional order itself." And yes, "Jesus wept." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Read @mollyjongfast.bsky.social on so many “His transactional amorality actually seemed to add to his appeal to people who were convinced that the rules didn’t apply to them.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/o...

Read @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social “Trump’s aides flatter him and lie to us. They indulge his constant distraction and so they too are constantly distracted. They are dominated by him and so they seek to dominate us.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/o...

"Professors are fighting an asymmetric battle against the tide of anti-intellectualism, illiberalism and bad-faith complaints, and will be for the foreseeable future." www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/o...

Georges gave me life changing advice & support. May his memory be a blessing www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/o...

“Those who instead choose violence destroy the possibility of learning and meaning. Those of us who choose learning must call out violence, especially when it is sanctioned by our own government.” @aacu.org @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @velshimsnow.bsky.social www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...

"You shouldn’t be able to pepper spray [protestors] or execute them on the street because you don’t like what they stand for…this is an aberration." Wesleyan University President @msroth.bsky.social speaks with @velshi.com on the latest rebuke of Trump's attack on college protestors #HigherEd

"although many uni presidents are accommodating the president by cloaking themselves in neutrality, other higher education leaders, including those at @georgemasonu.bsky.social, @princeton.edu, Bard, @harvard.edu & @mountholyoke.bsky.social, are resisting federal pressure" www.ms.now/opinion/will...

.@[email protected] “These were pictures of the state deploying violence confidently and with open disinterest for the niceties of process or protocol — the expression of power as an end to itself. To some, it was horrifying; to others, it was exhilarating” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/m...

Authoritarians “want to make educational institutions into places where you don’t have free thinking, critical thinking, & curiosity, as you would in democracies. Instead, the education institution itself becomes a place that breeds the values of authoritarianism” www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...

"Recent ICE attacks...make this a sober holiday, indeed…The march toward authoritarianism is only successful if we get out of its way. Dr. King didn’t get out of the way, and he has inspired millions to struggle for a more just and democratic world." #MLK www.wesleyan.edu/about/news/2...

Had so much fun talking with this wonderful @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social alum. We need more Maggie Nelson & more Wesleyan!

A federal judge denounced the Trump admin’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian college activists as an “unconstitutional suppression of free speech." Wesleyan President @msroth.bsky.social says, "you shouldn't be able to punish protesters because you don't like the fact that they're protesting."

My take @velshimsnow.bsky.social "That is authoritarianism: we have to name it, call it out…and then we have to stop it. The fact that the president wants something does not mean that something has to happen.…We’ve always known this in this country" youtu.be/tbc4sq0InNE?si… via @aacu.org @aaup.org

Read @polgreen.bsky.social “Operation Metro Surge” …is an occupation designed to punish and terrorize anyone who dares defy this incursion and, by extension, Donald Trump’s power to wield limitless force against any enemy he wishes.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...

“as the outrages pile up, as the silence persists..small acts of destruction &wretchedness begin to..threaten..the principles &freedoms upon which the whole system rests. Eventually, silence becomes not a choice but a requirement, &by then it is too late to speak.” www.chronicle.com/article/wher...

“Trump’s penchant for theatrics &bombast, his obsession with status &his use of power to enrich himself and his family — all these are characteristic elements of this darker ideology. Machtpolitik is realism gone wrong...” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/m...

Read @johnathanchai There is no objective standard of conduct that could possibly explain why beating police officers is peaceful but attempting to flee from them is terrorism. This is not an oversight, but the essence of Trumpism www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Read @jamellebouie.net "There are many ways to diagnose the state of the nation, but if there is a sickness eating away at American democracy, it is our culture of elite impunity. Trump is at once a symptom of this disease and its apotheosis" @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

On this sad anniversary “Pride in idiocy has been the hallmark of this administration, from the stoked resentment against anyone with an education to the arrogant rejection of basic public health precautions” www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/0...

“many higher ed leaders display a striking obsequiousness in the face of power &money…falling over themselves to show they can follow the priorities of the president. While preaching civility on campus, these schools are practicing servility in the face of growing authoritarianism.” @aacu.org

“While preaching civility on campus, these schools are practicing servility in the face of growing authoritarianism." @aacu.org @aaup.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @acls1919.bsky.social @aclu.org @cato.org @aceducation.bsky.social @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com

We can reject sycophancy in #HigherEducation “we should look for examples of people who just say “no,” refusing to cave to social pressures or power moves intended to force us to live at odds with our values.” wapo.st/4jgWdf5 @aacu.org @aceducation.bsky.social @wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social

“the six American winners of science Nobels this year, three were born outside the United States. In this century, the émigré fraction of U.S. Nobels in physics, chemistry and medicine now stands at 40 percent.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/s...

My take in @latimes.com "Obsequiousness and collaboration spread like viruses to weaken our republic, but the choice to support one another and defend our institutions strengthens it" www.latimes.com/opinion/stor... @aacu.org @aaup.org @thefireorg.bsky.social @mollyjongfast.bsky.social @velshi.com

Read @michellegoldberg.bsky.social “Much has been made about the rebirth of gutter antisemitism and racism within the conservative movement. There’s been less public alarm about the resurgence of unapologetic misogyny.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/o...

Read @philklay.bsky.social on the corruption of our souls “I suspect the question the administration cares about is not “is this legal,” “is this a war crime,” “is this murder” or even “is this good for America,” but rather, “isn’t this violence delightful?” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/o...

Thanks very much

Read @lioneltrolling.bsky.social "All these phrases: “post-liberalism,” “national conservatism,” etc., etc., are just ways to paper over what’s happening in the here and now: rampant lawlessness, cruelty, & corruption. They allow people to avoid using their judgment about what’s in front of them."

Read @anandwrites.bsky.social “the emails depict a group whose highest commitment is to their own permanence in the class that decides things. When principles conflict with staying in the network, the network wins.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

Read @jenszalai.bsky.social quote @wdavidmarx.bsky.social “This long-term project to rebrand conservatism as cool and transgressive succeeded precisely because we removed cultural invention as a potential countervailing force.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/b...

At Wesleyan University’s “Dialogue for Change: From Conflict to Action” seminar Anna Deavere Smith and @msroth.bsky.social explored how remembering the past and embracing critique sustain democracy and education. “We can’t go forward unless we remember, unless we confront these ghosts.” #HigherEd

The White House has "given viewpoint diversity a bad odor..not because the federal government was looking for ideological diversity, but because they’re looking for loyalty...How do you negotiate with a partner who’s willing to actually destroy what we do well?" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/o...