Absolutely! As you point out, it’s a perfectly crafted message of deference to the very elites complicit in the fascist regime. It would be difficult to concoct a more harmful message in this moment.

Very proud though of how quickly my kids identified this as fascist apologia & how much they hated it lol! They were literally complaining abt it before we were even out the doors.

These moments help me remember maybe the important thing abt what we do: not only is the work of research & teaching fundamentally about people, but in fact people *are* the work.

And I don't know if the answer is: everyone is too traumatized to do work and we need to reinvent society. Or if it's more like: generations are losing their cognitive abilities and willpower due to destructive technologies. Or: we all have post-viral brain damage. Or: all of the above.

They came to a uni who caved to authoritarian government so if they do come from illiberal regimes they should instruct Northwestern students on how to deal with Northwestern.

Justice & equality will be impossible so long as these colonial systems remain operable. Only in their destruction (or at minimum circumvention) can genuine democracy & community begin to come together.

This colonial dynamic should shape the way that we understand & respond to what has been called democracy in the U.S.

Am I saying that US “democracy” operates colonial systems of plunder & violence both within & beyond its borders? That “the border” constitutes an ideological weapon it deploys in both “domestic” & “foreign” spaces? Yes, yes I am.

Same logic applies to targeted communities within the US, wherein policed & plundered communities are blamed for suffering the effects of state violence.