Coda to My ‘Sane Asylum’ Hot Type Column in Byline by Dr. Michael MacKay
After I filed my Saturday column in Byline Supplement, I received quotes from geopolitical analyst Dr. Michael MacKay. I’m running them as a sidebar here
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Among the great things about working in a functional newsroom is you can have conversations about the nuances of words. As US democracy gasped for air while corporate and billionaire-owned media buried fascism in euphemisms, Byline Times staff never pulled punches. The reader-funded newspaper and its magazine, Byline Supplement, where I am a columnist, is among the last of the truly independent print havens.
In an information war, words are weaponized. They also set us free. How we use them often requires surgical precision.
Below is an excerpt of this weekend’s Hot Type column on the universities in Europe and Canada that are offering safe harbor for US scientists and academics to continue their vital work:
Just after I filed my column, I received quotes from geopolitical analyst Dr. Michael MacKay, who joined us on Easter Sunday at Bette’s Speakeasy. If you missed our event, here is a print report transcript:
Here is a sidebar from Dr. MacKay responding to my ‘Sane Asylum’ column.
Coda to My ‘Sane Asylum’ Hot Type Column in Byline
by Dr. Michael MacKay
The top research universities in the world belong to a truly international club. The best researchers and scholars will go where they find academic freedom, self-governing administrations, top-notch grant support, and a good quality of life for their families. It is less important that Harvard University is in the United States or the University of Toronto is in Canada or Sorbonne University is in France.
What the Trump regime has done in a mere 100 days is substantially degrade the conditions for a top research university in the United States. It is imposing an anti-intellectual agenda, interfering with curricula and threatening funding of universities. Trump's tariffs are bringing about an economic depression which will diminish the quality of life for all Americans.
Relatively, the world's top research universities outside the United States are now much more attractive. They didn't suddenly get better than they were before, but they look that way compared to universities that are under the pall of the Trump regime.
In Canada, I predict a boom in universities comparable to the era of the American draft dodgers in the 1960s and 70s. Sixty years ago there were two big trends in Canada: a construction boom of new universities and an influx of Americans who were conscientious objectors to the U.S.-driven Vietnam War. Most of these professors and lecturers remained in Canada even after President Carter issued an amnesty because they had made a good life for themselves and their families.
If the trend to fascism by the Trump regime is not reversed soon I believe a similar phenomenon will occur. Researchers, scholars, lecturers, writers, artists and performers will come to Canada where their talents will be nurtured and can grow. Although most people would prefer to remain in their home and native land, they will of necessity leave the United States when they can no longer live a good and fulfilling life.—Dr. Michael MacKay
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Dr. Michael MacKay has a doctorate in political philosophy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has been engaged with Ukraine’s civil society since the renewal of independence — working as a university lecturer, the director of an Internet access project and an election observer. Since the Revolution of Dignity and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, MacKay has unfailingly documented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine daily for a decade.
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