Navy vs. Yale: It’s not football, but a battle for Democracy against Fascism

Tuesday, November 5th is the most critical election in US history. Fascist barometers are present, normalized in our daily affairs. As of now, MAGA fascists are winning as we await finding if we are all to be eaten by Trumpism. Perhaps one of the biggest indicators just happened at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland when a talk for the Midshipmen by a renowned scholar of fascism was cancelled.

One of our prophets, America’s own Cassandra, is Yale historian, Dr. Ruth Ben Ghiat. Professor Ghiat has been warning us for years that Donald Trump is a fascist, and we should believe him when he displays the markers. Hearing her will have you shivering at how many fascist norms we are already living with.

Professor Ghiat, no left-wing radical, was bizarrely labeled a far-left Marxist. The consequences of this should have us all trembling with fear. Shockingly and embarrassingly, Naval-affiliated MAGA lovers of fascism protested so loudly that Academy cancelled the talk, forgetting its mission is education. Professor Ghiat is an internationally celebrated expert on fascists. Her monumental work, “Strongmen” should be at the top of your reading list.

By kneeling and submitting to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in canceling Professor Ghiat’s invited lecture, Academy Commandant, Vice Admiral Davis, exercised what another Yale historian, Timothy Snyder, terms “anticipatory obedience,” that is, obeying an order from the authoritarian before they even demand it, knowing what they would demand and acting in accordance to avoid any conflict with them. Professor Snyder lists anticipatory obedience as the early domino to fall for authoritarians, giving fascism its initial grip on society, a hold they will not relinquish on their way to their desired absolute power. Please read his work “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” It will unmoor you while showing what needs to be done if fascism wins the day.

Jason Stanley, a Yale professor of philosophy, accounts for the above behaviors in his 2018 book, “How Fascism Works.” Professor points out that fascism does not appear all at once, but develops over time step-by-step, little-by-little, as each new phase becomes invisible to us when it becomes normalized. By taking over control of social institutions and cultural practices slowly, we cannot see the control over us being exercised, as each loss comes to be experienced as the new normal. In canceling the talk that pointed out the changes and explicitly labeled them as fascistic, the Naval Academy contributed to normalizing fascism exactly as Stanley warns can happen. When retired General John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, identified Trump as a Hitler praising Fascist in a recent interview, one is safe in identifying the US Naval Academy as an institution that is embracing fascist orientations.

Perhaps the Academy will reconsider their position and apologize for disturbing educating their Midshipmen. Regardless of their positions, students were denied the opportunity to consider other views. I recommend that the entire Academy watch the former chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired General Mark Milly, speak of the need to truly educate those attending the Academies of our Armed Forces. “I do think it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read. I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So, what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend? I want to understand white rage – and I’m white.” The General concluded by saying education will help us better understand why thousands of Americans tried “to overturn the constitution of the United States of America” on January 6th, 2021 when storming and rampaging our nation’s Congress.