Professors Timothy Snyder, Marci Shore, and Jason Stanley are leaving Yale for the University of Toronto. Some of their reasons might be personal and professional, but these well-known academics—two historians and a philosopher—aren’t just changing jobs. They’re fleeing America as they see it falling under an authoritarian regime. They’re watching the rule of law wither and due process disappear while a chill of fear settles over the country’s most powerful law firms, universities, and media owners. They’re getting out while they can.

So are thousands of other Americans who are looking for work abroad, researching foreign schools for their kids, trying to convert a grandparent’s birth country into a second passport, or saving up several hundred thousand dollars to buy citizenship in Dominica or Vanuatu. Many more Americans are discussing leaving with their families and friends. Perhaps you’re one of them.

When I heard the news of the Yale exodus, I wondered if my failure to explore an exit makes me stupid and complacent. I don’t want to think I’m one of the sanguine fools who can’t see the laser pointed at his own head—who doesn’t want to lose his savings and waits to flee until it’s too late. Perhaps I was supposed to applaud the professors’ wisdom and courage in realizing that the time had come to leave. But instead, I felt betrayed.