We’re all familiar with the book burnings of Nazi Germany, with the images of bright fires engulfing literary works clear in our minds. In the generations since, this depiction of extreme fascism is often used to discuss the idea of censorship — the silencing of ideas that the fascist government found to be dangerous. While this discussion is true and continues to be relevant in our modern day, these burnings are more specifically emblematic of an attack on education. Now more than ever, we need to remember that a fascist government can only become successful through the spread of misinformation.
We have seen similar attacks on the truth and access to information under the most recent administration of President Donald Trump. He has significantly limited research funding for the National Institutes of Health, planned to dismantle the Department of Education and wiped public research databases. At first glance, trying to decrease the overall education of your country seems counterintuitive. People with higher levels of education are needed to help run the government, come up with new medical cures and treatments, innovate safer and more efficient energy sources and otherwise drive the economy forward. Therefore, these harsh, unprecedented cuts against research do not seem to make sense if you are trying to better the state of the country.
This piece is not out to compare Trump to Adolf Hitler — his vice president already did that. I am instead trying to point out recent fascist trends our government has been moving towards. Not only have there been extreme budgeting changes, but the heightened Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests that Trump promised in his campaign have been targeting higher education. ICE has detained or terminated the visas of multiple Columbia University students, including graduate student Mahmoud Khalil who had a valid green card, and junior Yunseo Chung who was a legal permanent resident. Rümeysa Öztürk, a graduate student right here at Tufts, was also abducted by ICE and sent to a detention center in Louisiana despite a judge’s orders. Prestigious universities, including members of the Ivy League, are being investigated for antisemitism, with millions of dollars being held over the heads of university presidents in exchange for giving in to the administration’s demands.
It’s no coincidence that the administration is targeting this population. Studies have shown time and time again that with further education, people are more likely to vote Democratic and thus oppose both the Trump administration and its far-right policies. This phenomenon also means that a less educated population is easier to control.
A fascist government doesn’t just limit access to information to control a population — it also employs fear. The students detained by ICE were not randomly selected: Khalil was allegedly a pro-Palestinian protest organizer, Chung had attended numerous protests and Öztürk wrote an op-ed asking the university to adopt Tufts Community Union Senate resolutions to formally recognize genocide in Gaza and divest from Israeli corporations. All of these actions are examples of the kind of defiance that education breeds and that fascism is structured to prevent. Trump appears to be using them to make an example of anyone thinking of doing the same thing.
The helpful part of recognizing the fascist undertones of the current administration’s policy decisions is that we are able to fight back. There are valid reasons to be afraid right now, but there are also valid reasons to be hopeful. Elon Musk, general secretary of the Department of Government Efficiency, allegedly performed the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration and spent $21 million on the Republican-backed candidate for an open Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. However, those millions of dollars were wasted as the Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford persevered, winning in spite of Musk’s donation. Additionally, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have been drawing record crowds with their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
Millions of protesters gathered nationwide in the “Hands Off!” protest that took place on Saturday, decrying Trump’s policies. One hundred thousand people gathered in Boston alone, filling up the Red Line with signs like “Hands off our democracy.” In Somerville, Tufts students participated in a protest against the detainment of Öztürk, with over 2,000 people in attendance. The American people have not given in to the grasp of fascism; if anything, we have been fighting back harder than we have in a long time.
