The target then was the nonexistent threat of Communist teachers; today, it’s the supposed radicalism of the academy and its alleged failure to fight antisemitism.
Even before the Trump/Musk administration unleashed its current blitzkrieg against the university, Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), was describing MAGA’s campaign against higher education as the “new McCarthyism.” Wolfson was wrong. What’s happening now is far worse. The current wave of threats and attacks could…