Just like McCarthy, Trump spreads fear everywhere before picking off his targets Kenan Malik

[Hetty ter Haar]

Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, one of the few academic leaders willing to speak out, decries “the greatest pressure put on intellectual life since the McCarthy era”, describing “anticipatory obedience” as “a form of cowardice”. Cowardice, though, has become the defining trait, most university leaders “just happy that Columbia is the whipping boy”. Columbia may be the first university in Trump’s crosshairs, but it won’t be the last. Keeping silent won’t save them.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/30/just-like-mccarthy-trump-spreads-fear-everywhere-before-picking-off-his-targets?CMP=share_btn_url