The
term
“fascism”
and
its
conjugations
have
been
thrown
out
often
on
the
road
to
Americans
voting
for
a
second
season
of
The
Apprentice:
White
House
Edition,
but
it
is
rarer
to
see
someone
take
a
moment
to
sit
with
a
(proposed)
policy
change
and
explain
how
it
fits
into
the
conservative
revolution
happening
in
front
of
us.
In
The
14
Characteristics
Of
Fascism,
Lawrence
Britt
laid
out
—
you
guessed
it
—
14
characteristics
that
he
saw
shared
by
several
fascist
regimes.
For
now
let’s
focus
on
the
11th,
disdain
for
intellectuals
and
the
arts:
Fascist
nations
tend
to
promote
and
tolerate
open
hostility
to
higher
education,
and
academia.
It
is
not
uncommon
for
professors
and
other
academics
to
be
censored
or
even
arrested.
Free
expression
in
the
arts
is
openly
attacked,
and
governments
often
refuse
to
fund
the
arts.
This
has
been
happening
in
real
time
for
years
now.
Book
bans
and
banning
the
darker
parts
of
American
history
from
being
taught
in
classrooms
have
been
going
on
for
a
while
now,
but
the
attack
on
tenure
is
a
major
step
against
academics.
Tenure
means
nothing
if
it
doesn’t
protect
professors
from
being
fired
for
expressing
their
political
opinions.
Not
the
casual
Wikipedia-anchored
racism
you’d
expect
of
a
drunk
aunt
at
the
Thanksgiving
table
a
la
Amy
Wax,
but
legitimate,
fleshed-out
thoughts
about
the
politics
of
our
time.
Maura
Finkelstein
was
fired
for
sharing
an
anti-Zionist
post
on
Instagram
in
May
of
last
year.
Law
professor
Ken
Levy
was
recently
removed
from
his
classes
over
political
comments.
These
retaliations
didn’t
portend
well
for
the
sanctity
of
tenure,
and
the
bills
being
introduced
Texas
and
North
Dakota
definitely
aren’t
helping.
Forbes
has
coverage:
[P]erhaps
emboldened
by
the
re-election
of
Donald
Trump,
who’s
often
ridiculed
colleges
as
being
instruments
of
liberal
indoctrination,
two
states
—
Texas
and
North
Dakota
—
have
introduced
bills
that
would
ban
tenure,
and
Ohio
is
reconsidering
a
bill
that
faculty
fear
could
weaken
tenure’s
protections.
Law
isn’t
some
abstract
force
without
origin,
it
arises
from
a
need
to
regulate
and
engage
with
the
world
as
we
are
confronted
with
it.
It
is
no
surprise
that
teaching
the
law
lends
itself
to
contemporary
relevant
events.
Say
you’re
in
a
Criminal
Law
class
and
getting
cold
called
on
People
v.
Goetz.
It’s
a
1986
case
where
a
guy
on
a
train
responded
to
being
asked
for
money
by
shooting
four
people
and
claiming
self-defense.
There
was
a
clear
racial
element
to
the
case
—
Goetz
was
White
and
the
four
men
he
shot
were
Black.
During
the
trial,
he
was
hailed
as
a
hero
for
what
he
did.
It
doesn’t
take
much
of
a
stretch
of
the
imagination
for
the
fact
pattern
to
make
you
think
of
the
recent
case
where
Daniel
Penny
killed
Jordan
Neely
after
complaining
that
he
was
hungry
and
thirsty.
As
a
professor,
do
you
ask
your
students
if
the
outcome
could
have
been
different
if
instead
of
four
Black
men
Goetz
shot
four
White
women
who
were
asking
him
for
change?
If
the
jury
would
buy
Penny’s
“I
was
protecting
the
people”
argument
if
Neely
were
a
plainclothes
Biglaw
associate
who
was
going
through
a
mental
episode?
Can
you
ask
them
that?
Is
it
worth
risking
the
line
of
questioning
being
framed
as
imposing
“wokeness”
on
your
captive
students
or
forcing
opinions
down
their
throats?
Could
a
Con
Law
professor
give
their
honest
assessment
of
a
president
using
an
executive
order
to
mandate
something
that
explicitly
flies
in
the
face
of,
say,
the
Fourteenth
Amendment?
Would
that
be
a
lecture
on
the
separation
of
powers
or
a
reason
to
remove
the
professor
from
the
classroom?
On
November
26th
of
last
year,
Louisiana
Governor
Jeff
Landry
openly
called
for
LSU
professor
Nick
Bryner
to
be
punished
for
commenting
on
Trump’s
policies
and
the
people
who
voted
for
him.
This
should
read
as
an
obvious
attempt
to
stifle
free
speech
and
censor
professors
for
making
political
commentary
on
the
sort
of
material
they
are
literally
there
to
teach
on.
That
said,
the
number
of
Jeff
Landry
types
could
grow
and
gain
teeth
over
the
next
few
years
if
protections
on
campus
free
speech
continue
to
wane.
States
Once
Again
Considering
Bills
To
Ban
Or
Limit
Faculty
Tenure
[Forbes]
Earlier:
Tenured
Law
Professor
Allegedly
Removed
From
Class
Over
Political
Comments
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.