The professor who previously tweeted “Trump must hang” said supporters of the president “believe they are better by virtue of their race” in a Monday interview.
California State University, Fresno prohibited history professor Lars Maischak from teaching during the fall 2017 semester after the discovery of him saying, “to save American democracy, Trump must hang” and “Justice = The execution of two Republicans for each deported immigrant,” among others. Maischak addressed his view on Trump and politics more generally in an interview with Salon.com.
“Members of the American right-wing and Trump’s movement believe they are better by virtue of their race,” said Maischak to Salon. “Trump is the first time in recent American politics where the rejection of equality as a principle guides policy-making in the government.”
The prospect of deporting as many as 11 million people, “in my view, was an example of ethnic cleansing, and of course the far right has used that term — Richard Spencer calls it ‘peaceful ethnic cleansing,'” said Maischak, explaining the tweet when he said “Justice = The execution of two Republicans for each deported immigrant.”
“To me, the equivalent to that would be if people went and executed Republicans. It would be the exact same thing,” he said.
Maischak alleged that, in its very first correspondence with him after publication of his remarks, Fresno State said it hoped violent threats made against the professor would encourage him to resign.
“The school has made it clear from the get-go that it was not interested in ascertaining what I really meant,” he said. “They wanted to be rid of me.”
The professor discredited the notion that people in his position indoctrinate students with left-wing views.
“The conservative students I’ve taught were quite capable of thinking for themselves,” said Maischak. “They had certain commitments intellectually to believing certain things and seeing things a certain way, but no, they’re not impressionable in the sense that you’re going to turn them.”
Maischak also disparaged “right-wing disinformation,” a system he suggested bore responsibility for his own predicament. (RELATED: ‘Trump Must Hang’ Prof Wishes He Had Made His Twitter Account Private)
“Joseph Goebbels would be proud of this,” chimed in Chauncey DeVega, the Salon interviewer. “It is propaganda 101: accuse your enemies of what you’re doing. Conservatives say they support free speech except when it’s inconvenient.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Maischak and Fresno State but received no comment in time for publication.
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