When Universities Become Informants

A practice from the #McCarthy era makes an ugly return.

By Judith Butler September 13, 2025

"On September 4, I received an email from the #UniversityOfCalifornia at #Berkeley’s chief legal counsel, David Robinson, informing me that my name has been handed over to the #Trump administration in a file containing allegations of antisemitism. A few days later, I discovered that the university had sent a list of 160 names to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The list includes the names of students, staff, and faculty who may well suffer serious consequences, including the loss of jobs, expulsion, #deportation, or harassment. This was a shock for many of us who believed that Berkeley is a university where one can expect support for freedom of expression and guarantees of fair procedure.

"Antisemitism must be unequivocally opposed along with every other form of racism, but there are campus protocols for investigating such allegations that ensure fairness and which, in this instance, were suspended by the administration. Moreover, it is important to consider which definition of antisemitism is at work. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which the Trump administration accepts, is overbroad, often equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. It acts as a cudgel against freedom of expression and dissent."

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/RK0K2#selection-2651.0-2657.54

#ExhumingMcCarthy #McCarthyism #Censorship #Fascism #UCBerkeley #AmericanUniversities #Capitulation #SilencingDissent #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Is Trump engaged in a the #GreatChineseReplacementTheory, proposing to let in 600,000 #Chinese students a year to #AmericanUniversities pushing aside #Americans, and let them march back to #CommunistChina to upgrade their military and technological advantage against the US? youtu.be/rObNxms4Ogc?...

Trump Voters FREAK OUT and Sud...
Trump Voters FREAK OUT and Suddenly TURN AGAINST Him

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from パレスチナ人民と連帯する京大有志の会‥ (@StudentsUrgent X/Twitter)
【 Solidarity with students across American universities!
#FreePalaestine
#protestforPalestine
#KyotoUniversity
#AmericanUniversities
#universityprotests

https://x.com/studentsurgent/status/1786621134500442499?s=46

パレスチナ人民と連帯する京大有志の会(KUVASP)فلسطين العربية (@StudentsUrgent) on X

Solidarity with students across American universities! #FreePalaestine #protestforPalestine #KyotoUniversity #AmericanUniversities #universityprotests

X (formerly Twitter)
Solidarity with students across American universities! From Japan Kyoto University Students.✌️
#FreePalaestine 🇵🇸🇯🇵
#protestforPalestine
#KyotoUniversity
#AmericanUniversities
#StudentIntifada
#StudentProtests
#Occupy4Gaza
Whatever they may have been in the past, most #AmericanUniversities are showing you, front and center, that today and for some time now they are not institutions of #HigherLearning!
They are (1) an endowment trust fund, (2) a multi-$B sports franchise, (3) a side-hustle in tertiary education, for the tax benefits thereof.
The moment those pesky students do anything that might damage the profitability of those first two, the full might of the corporate #CarceralState is brought to bear against them
#FreeGaza