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href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/08/stanford-professor-mccarthyism-antifa?CMP=share_btn_fb">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/08/stanford-professor-mccarthyism-antifa?CMP=share_btn_fb</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">I'm a Stanford professor accused of being
part of a 'terrorist group'. McCarthyism is back .<br>
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<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">David Palumbo-Liu -
February 8, 2018<br>
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<p>I am used to receiving abusive messages and
being publicly maligned. Now, however, attacks
on me have reached troubling new heights</p>
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<p><span class="drop-cap"><span class="drop-cap__inner">T</span></span>oday
anyone can be accused of anything, without basis in
fact or evidence, and that accusation can be instantly
trumpeted over the airwaves unchecked by any
journalistic standard. That is the painful lesson I
have had to learn this year.</p>
<p>As a scholar-activist working on issues such as
sexual assault, Palestine, and anti-fascism, I am used
to receiving abusive messages and being publicly
maligned. Now, however, attacks on me have reached
troubling new heights.</p>
<p>Last month, the Stanford Review, a rightwing
publication co-founded by Peter Thiel and based on my
university campus, <a
href="https://stanfordreview.org/antifa-thugs-find-a-champion-and-leader-in-stanford-professor-3/"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">wrote</a>
that I have helped set up an “organization [that is]
undeniably a chapter of a terrorist group” and
demanded my resignation. Their article was picked up
by groups like JihadWatch, Campus Fix, Campus Reform,
Fox & Friends, and other rightwing media outlets.
</p>
<p>The organization I belong to is called the <a
href="http://campusantifascistnetwork.com/"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
Campus Antifascist Network</a>. We advocate for
organized resistance to fascist violence on campus,
and for educating our communities and others as to the
nature of fascism today. We claim solidarity with a
proud tradition of anti-fascism dating back to the
early 20th century. <br>
</p>
<p>The group was founded shortly after the election of
Donald Trump, and responded to the steady rise of a
well-funded rightwing campaign on college campuses. We
do not – and never would – advocate – for initiating
violence.</p>
<p>The attack on me is part of a broader phenomenon
noted by the American Association of University
Professors, which <a
href="https://onefacultyoneresistance.org/faculty-attack-fighting-targeted-harassment/"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
claims</a> that college campuses are the new
battleground for <a
href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/02/02/with-patience-and-lot-money-kochs-sow-conservatism-campuses/P6lrj1eIMNr4jPUZm8mbLO/story.html?event=event25"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
conservative groups</a>, far-right organizations and
<a
href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/White-Supremacists-Are/242403"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
white supremacists</a>. These groups are all trying
to intimidate faculty and students, to recruit
members, and to attract publicity. Not just careers
and reputations are on the line – often personal
safety is as well.</p>
<p>Today, we are seeing the resurgence of a wretched
phenomenon we thought we had put behind us –
McCarthyism, which involves “the use of tactics
involving personal attacks on individuals by means of
widely publicized indiscriminate allegations
especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges”.</p>
<p>Professors are more than hesitant about fighting back
against accusations that emanate from organizations
supported by the likes of <a
href="https://stanfordpolitics.org/2017/11/27/peter-thiel-cover-story/"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
Peter Thiel</a> or <a
href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43419-young-fascists-on-campus-turning-point-usa-and-its-far-right-connections"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
Charlie Kirk</a>, who founded Turning Point USA. </p>
<p>In recent years, there have been well-publicized
cases of academics who have had their syllabuses or
social media cherry-picked for allegedly inflammatory
statements, and then found themselves on the receiving
end of orchestrated harassment campaigns. </p>
<p>CNN ran a story on the increasing numbers of
professors like myself who have faced <a
href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/21/us/university-professors-free-speech-online-hate-threats/index.html"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
death threats for their political statements and
activism.</a> But it’s not just political
progressives and radicals who are being hit.
Scientists are under attack, too. Michael Mann, a
professor of atmospheric science and director of the
Earth System Science Center at Penn State University,
has received death threats for <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-what-the-coming-attack-on-climate-science-could-look-like/2016/12/16/e015cc24-bd8c-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?utm_term=.0b8a59401937"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">
his work on climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this new and alarming phenomenon on campus,
university administrators seem loth to aggressively
protect their faculty. My own university has left it
to me to press charges, and has chosen not to make any
public comment on the Stanford Review’s defamation of
my character, despite an <a draggable="true"
href="https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stand-against-intimidation-of-faculty.html"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">open
letter</a> supporting me signed by nearly 700
members of the Stanford community.</p>
<p>Besides those who signed letters of support, six
constitutional law scholars from the Stanford School
of Law <a
href="https://www.stanforddaily.com/2018/02/02/letter-to-the-editor-in-response-to-david-palumbo-liu-and-the-stanford-review/"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">wrote
a letter to the editor </a>of the Stanford Daily
declaring that there was no evidence that I had
advocated violence, nor that I am a member of a
terrorist group. These then were my sources of
support, not the university. Yet this has not stopped
the attacks on me.</p>
<p>I don’t have the resources to bring a libel suit – I
cannot out-lawyer a newspaper that has an ally in its
founder and major contributor to the university, Peter
Thiel. <br>
</p>
<p>The troubling question is: who does?<br>
</p>
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