陌上美國 Moshang USA
獨立快捷的時評和美國生活信息谘詢
正文
— 訪談MFSA創始人(雙語翻譯)
today we have a very distinguished guest
00:08
Jim Rutt
00:10
We will talk about freedom of speech
00:15
US college campuses lack thereof
00:20
We will have some good discussions I believe
00:22
So first of all without much do
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Lydia can you just talk a little bit about your platform，YouTube channel for our new viewers
00:35
Happy New Year everybody Happy New Year Jim
00:41
I'm the founder of Moshang USA
00:43
So Moshang USA was founded in 2018. First we based on Wechat(equivalent to FB in Chinese) as a public blog
00:51
We grew very fast close to 300k followers within 3-yr
00:56
Unfortunately probably we talked too much about the individual liberty and freedom
01:03
WeChat shut us down last Sept
01:19
So as a victim of censorship freedom of speech is dear to our heart
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We want to reserve and fight for freedom speech
01:51
Thank you Lydia
01:53
Jim let me try to introduce you, of course you can add
01:58
you are right now one of the founders of MIT free speech Alliance
02:06
We will talk a lot about MIT Free Speech Alliance
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you graduated from MIT in 1975, that was the year when I was born
我2002年入學MIT 在那2年時光
I went to MIT in 2002. Only stayed two years there
02:28
so currently you're the host of host of Jim Roth Show podcast serials
02:35
I think the podcast examined cutting-edge thinking in science and technology of future of our economic，political and social system
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so it's quite interesting
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You had very impressive career
02:51
I noticed on the website
02:54
you were the past chairman of the Santa Fe Institute，a think tank
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and you also were CEO of Network Solutions two decades ago
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U were the first CTO I think the Chief Technology Officer for Thompson Reuters
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I guess at that time maybe
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there were more diverse views at Reuters
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than now. But that's kind of my speculation
03:30
And you founded and led several technology companies
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throughout your career
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and you even produced the award-winning movie
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and created a popular mobile game
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Very impression
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What you can‘t do, Jim?
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I do all kinds of things
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I follow when I think interesting
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Sometime it leads to the cliff you are fall off sometime it leads to very good places
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always being that ways
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I follow my nose my nose knows to find what's interesting
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near the cutting edge
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probably relevant to this conversation
04:15
I was involved with building the online world
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from the very earliest days
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I went to work for a company called Source back 1980
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that's long before you even thought of. You were 5 years old
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Lydia you weren't even thought of yet probably.
04:34
I was born in 80s
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Yeah exactly
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at the Source in 1980
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we had much of what's on the web today but
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in text mode only 30 characters a second
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$10 an hour
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believe it or not but there was nothing like an else on Earth
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quickly we had tens of thousands
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and hundreds of thousands of customers
05:00
and we had mail we had chat
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we had bulletin boards we had the earliest things
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that you might point to as a predecessor to social media
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we had newswires stock prices online shopping
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We had the first Catholic confession done over and chat
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with the approval of the Archbishop of Washington
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I was actually involved with the online world
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at least the consumer side of it
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since the very beginning I've seen all the iterations
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What's the internet is only the most recent one
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probably not the last one
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You are an pioneer in the internet technology
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I remember I saw the Amazons first version was a text-only
05:48
Basically you saw the internet from a baby into a giant. Now the giant affects our life in a daily basis
05:58
Exactly I can think about 1980s By 1981 there were maybe a hundred thousands humans consumers not academic
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online in the world
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right a hundred thousands
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Most of them are males about 96% male
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at the time and
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mostly technical people Etc
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had to be fairly affluent because it was very very expensive
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and that you say this tiny little seed
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in some ways grown up to be this world we live in today
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it's been very interesting and curious
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but lots of twists and turns I will say
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I think the beginning of internet had connections to MIT right
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through some military research of funding
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Yeah there was a DARPA net originally
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Bob Kahn and who is the other dude(Vint Cerf)
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2 guys were basically researchers created the thing
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It was clever never intended for commercial use
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it was designed to be a survivable network in case of nuclear war
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because it had no Center that makes the internet
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different is that if any bits of it survived
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the routers can stitch themselves back together
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truth was not a good choice to build a commercial Network on
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for a number of reasons but
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for other reasons which I can talk about for hours
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it did win during that critical period around 1990
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when there were still alternatives out there
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and we can have internet at least through this era
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that's the platform on which all these other things are growing
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including Lydia's all her various platforms
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That's an example of taking advantage of all these affordances
07:56
network world offers to us
07:58
Great definitely we found the right person
08:01
since you are among the first dozens of people
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who are building and leading the internet
08:07
every unfair treatment from internet we got
08:10
we will come to you for help
08:13
Okay since we got connected through MIT Free Speech Alliance
08:18
Could you tell us more about this organization
08:21
How did you get involved with MIT free speech Alliance
08:27
yes MIT free speech Alliance
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a group now of many hundreds of
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MIT alums student-faculty researchers and
08:37
friends of MIT affiliate with the idea of
08:39
we need more free speech more viewpoint diversity
08:45
and free inquiry at MIT
08:47
but it's very recent it only
08:49
started in late October 2021
08:53
myself and two friends of mine
08:57
from MIT were involved in an email exchange just
09:00
things in general, right
09:02
suddenly the Dorian Abbott Affair happened
09:07
MIT disinvited the distinguished geophysicist from giving a talk
09:14
about exoplanet atmospheres the atmospheres of
09:17
planets around other stars than our own
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very technical talk and
09:23
but he had published an essay
09:28
he had another person(Prof. Ivan, Stanford) published an assay
09:31
in Newsweek magazine
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General circulation news magazine the United States
09:36
where he had challenged the idea of
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diversity equity and inclusion (DEI)
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and it proposed an alternative called
09:46
Merit Fairness and Equality
09:48
and as happens in our world today
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all too often in my opinion a Twitter mob fromed
09:54
wow we get having anybody talking against
09:58
diversity equity & inclusion (DEI)
10:00
even they have a perfectly reasonable alternative proposal
10:03
so we are going to demand MIT
disinvite this person even though he is not a MIT employee
10:10
had no impact got MIT policy
10:12
Was there a strict scientific model
10:15
The twitter mob raised a whole bunch of stink
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in our view very foolishly
10:21
MIT leadership succumbed to the Mob
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disinvited this distinguished scientist
10:28
from giving his talk and
10:30
so the three of us were emailing around
10:36
about issues about MIT
10:38
anyway some around DEI some around other thing
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and we said "Damn it!"
10:44
情況太不對
This is not right
So let's reach out to some of our friends and see if
10:49
we can pull some people together
10:51
quickly we had a few dozen then
10:56
we came across the Americans of the alumni free-speech Alliance
10:58
AFSA turned out that
11:02
five other universities in United States
11:06
already established free speech organizations
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Cornell Washington and Lee Princeton
11:13
University of Virginia and Davison
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were the first five and
11:18
then we said okay so
11:21
去了解了一下他們在做什麽
we kind of look what they were doing and you know
like many entrepreneurs over there were over the years
11:27
we just stole some good ideas and and added some of our own
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and did something similar and something different
11:34
quickly we sparked off MIT free speech Alliance
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and it is a standard alone legal entity
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not officially affiliated with MIT
11:45
It's now filed for 501(c)3 status
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so we can actually accept today tax-deductible contributions
11:53
and has a number of committees that
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are in operation working on various projects
12:01
increase the salience of and frankly pressure
12:07
the administration about protecting Free Speech
12:12
free inquiry and particularly Viewpoint diversity on campus
12:17
Yeah that's very important
12:19
and our website for anyone wants to check it out
12:24
12:27
Yeah so as I know
12:31
you don't have to be a MIT graduate or hold a degree from MIT
12:35
you can free to join us
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and sign as a member to join this course, right
12:40
correct and you'll get our weekly email newsletter
12:46
tell you what's going on pointing you to events
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MIT free-speech Alliance but also
12:53
other people doing work in the Free Speech area
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that's been very gratifying to find so many allies
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people like FIRE and heterodox Academy
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and other folks so we've become very rapidly part of
13:07
the wider ecosystem around free speech free inquiry and viewpoint diversity
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Yeah talking about that Jim
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I'm just wondering do you see this kind of
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fight back to protect Free Speech now
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it's a movement getting some momentum
13:29
13:33
You talk about different organizations different universities
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start to you know to make their invoice
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you know this organization starts to make their voices heard
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the Alumni Free Speech Association which we are now
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formally a member as of a couple of weeks ago
13:50
They tell us that they have over 100 University groups
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who they're working with to help
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that we provide some
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materials and say hey feel free to distribute these
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to people look at our corporate bylaws
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look at their committee structure etcetera
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there was five now
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I believe there's 15 and hopefully
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到夏天會超過100所
by the summer will be over 100
different groups that are formed up around
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this mission at different university
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so yeah it's it's certainly
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A big growth area
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I think response probably late in the day
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actually to the decay of free speech
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on America's leading University campuses
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I will say I'm and I was sort of aware of it
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for a while
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but when I've actually dug in
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and seen how bad it's gotten on campuses today
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it's shocking
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I mean it's like Wow
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We frankly should have done this 5 years ago
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But better later than no at all
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Right, better started 10 years ago
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that's very encouraging to see it
15:03
這個行動 不過我理解
this movement but I understand
from our observation it takes some courage
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for people to speak up against the
15:12
conformity type of thinking
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because people in academia care about their career
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so do people in business but what I see now
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in many many different fronts like
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academia entertainment media
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big corporations there is a
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kind of increasing
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level of conformity you know
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that they want everybody to think the same
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support the same set of ideas
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do you agree this is a right observation
15:58
also from your perspective because you
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graduated in the 70s
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I think you and the other founder Tom
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mentioned a little bit at that time
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there was a lot of different opinions on campus but
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there was more free debates can you talk about this
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那個現象和你的觀察
kind of phenomena also what did you see
what has changed? Oho completely
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1971
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When I showed up in MIT campus
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it was a riot of free speech
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you can say anything, right
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and anything at all
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Keep in mind this was the end of traditionalism in America
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You know say 1969
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Women were not allowed to
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spend the night at men's college dorms
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By 1971
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WTH smoking weed drinking beers
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protesting Vietnam War
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protesting... supporting the Vietnam War
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you can say anything
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那是左右中都有深刻價值觀的時代
it was a very deep value of the left right center particularly
Particularly at elite universities
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freedom of speech was the most important of all values
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ironically enough the Berkeley Free Speech movement of 1964
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was where this really got started
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Berkeley California Berkeley University
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now one of the most conformists
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speech suppressing environment in America
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but the idea of radical free speech on college campuses
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really started there and
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to go from this was by all parties who hated each other right
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but they all agreed that Free Speech
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must be protected at all costs
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other than the Communists
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we had a small number of Communists
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They were absolutely about suppressing Free Speech but
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17:57
17:59
and the fact that they were against Free Speech made them
18:03
non-credible with everybody else
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Left and right they all hated the communists
18:07
And now we are going to point out a staggering
18:12
confirmative
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the biggest eye-opener for me so far
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in my learning about what's really going on
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is that the MIT faculty
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had a series of meetings to discuss
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the Abbott Affair and all the things came around
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18:35
in a confidential poll of about 150 160
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MIT faculty members
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over half 50% plus
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said on an everyday basis
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They felt like their ability to express themselves
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frankly and clear uninhibitedly was being suppressed
18:59
50% at MIT
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that's staggering
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Then when they were asked in the current broader social environment
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what degree do believe yours and your colleagues ability
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speak freely is under assault
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the number was almost 80%
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and this is at MIT the place of intellectual rigors, right
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where I would have thought
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would have been the last place to fall for the stuff
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but here we are testimony under
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private confidential vote
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50% feel they're being suppressed everyday
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and 80% feel that the environment is generally
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threatening and suppressive
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are people honestly and fully expressing themselves
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That's staggering
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這讓人好吃驚
It‘s surprised to me
Because MIT is very strong at STEM field
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For STEM talents you are
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based on facts and numbers, data
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not based on stories
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If our STEM elite universities
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are been trapping in strong censorship
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even self censorship
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That could be a huge problem in future of this country
20:17
End of the world I mean
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the essence of science
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is open and rigorous inquiry
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right we go we do experiments we gather data
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we argue with each other
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you never seen arguments quite like two physicists
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having an argument they go at each other right
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they challenged each other
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but if some ideas become holy they can't be challenged
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or some authorities
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must be quoted because they
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They aligned with some political factions
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or some ethic minorities or something
20:55
That’ll be if not quite the death
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the very substantial damage to science
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and that will hold back all of humanity
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It'll certainly hurt those countries
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where they're most infected
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science is a gift of workers to the world, right
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you create scientific facts and value
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everyone in the world can soon take advantage of that
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so agree that your sub optimizing science
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you're cheating the human race out of its ability to move forward
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這是非常非常糟糕的事
this is very very bad stuff
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Yeah I agree
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Especially we feel nowadays students are less
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open to debates of all sides
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We feel they have probably already being fed up
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as so-called brainwashed
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Do you think there is any remedy to rescue those students?
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To make them back to support more free speech
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Yup absolutely you are right
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probably the ones that been beaten down the most
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are the students, right
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We don't have the data yet for
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FIRE is done some surveys on campus come up
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with staggering numbers in the 60 and 70% range
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We're trying to commission a study on MIT campus
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see what the students are
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interestingly what we can tell
22:17
the real problem for students isn't so much active censorship
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It is self-censorship
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and one of things we've now
22:27
work on this and realize how much self-censorship
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most important issue picked for students
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we're going to be coming out with a whole series of
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ideas about the idea that break out of the self-censorship closet
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you know you owe it to humanity you owe it to yourself
22:46
we actually think that the number of even undergraduates
22:51
who fully are bought into this idea of censorship
22:54
and destroying viewpoint diversity
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is still less than half of
23:00
the majority are probably still oppose
23:02
But they just intimidated and if they will speak up
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and have other people will support them
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we think there's a chance for them to be a
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groundswell of fact
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what people say "we are not free to those A-hole
23:15
on twitter say", right
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We have our views and
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we are Americans we have the right to say it
23:21
We have some allies will come to our aid
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some people try to beat up on us
23:28
that's broad streak of what we‘ve seen going forward
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we already have some interest from some students
23:37
starting an on-campus organization
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Very hopeful that we will increase our number of students
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substantially in the coming six months
23:45
there‘ll be activities on campus to allow people
23:49
who believe in free speech to come together
23:50
say what they want to say
23:52
and get away with it
23:54
we also are looking to arrange some on-campus
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debates on controversial issues
24:01
Some of them will be in the normal right left axis
24:07
24:09
We think it's very important to model the idea
24:12
that all speakers who were speaking in good faith
24:15
are using good argumentation
24:20
and speaking logically have the right to
24:22
在校園裏提出自己的觀點
24:24
If you disagree with somebody
24:26
disprove them my friends
24:28
don't say they cannot speak
24:30
so that's another one of our projects
24:33
that's in the planning stages
24:36
is to schedule and support finance
24:39
some controversial debates on campus
I was born at the end of the Culture Revolution
25:11
25:25
you know if something cannot be debated
25:29
the country can go into very bad direction
25:33
I think my theory now is
25:37
in this country many young people they haven't experienced
25:41
much hardship they haven't been really suppressed by anything
25:47
but they kind of like... To me use a harsh word
25:50
a little bit 'empty' you know they try to
25:52
hold on to something they think really noble
25:54
To they some speech is better than others
25:58
They think they want to, you know
26:01
suppress the bad speech
26:04
but I don't think they really have the wisdom
26:08
to judge what is good what is bad
26:10
what is good has to be decided by
26:13
as you said through vigorous debate
26:14
to hear all the sides
26:16
right now I feel the problem is
26:19
there is free speech for some people but not for
26:22
others if you have certain point of views
26:25
That's really a problem
26:28
Yeah I do think that some of this is that you say
26:32
We've had free speech in America since
26:34
since 1971 for sure but
26:39
at least starting to roll by 1964
26:41
We had nominal Free Speech before that
26:44
but there was a lot of informal censorship going on
26:46
in different directions, right
26:49
But for last 50 years
26:51
and more we've had true free speech
26:53
and so unfortunately a lot of folks
26:56
don't understand how rare and valuable that is
26:59
in the history of the world
27:00
there haven't been very many times in human history
27:04
were you could literally say what you thought
27:06
you didn't worry about offending a king or a church
27:11
or a landlord or a warlord
27:15
We look at human history completely covered with
27:19
various authorities of different sorts
27:22
that are trying to demand conformity
27:23
in thinking and this bubble
27:27
we've had in the West for the last fifty or sixty years
27:29
is remarkably unusual in human history
27:34
remarkably valuable
27:36
Unfortunate people don't remember the the previous period
27:40
or don't have experience with
27:43
Talk to so many people I found an amazing number particularly
27:46
people from China or Cuba or Venezuela
27:50
Poland or Russia
27:52
who actually experienced totalitarianism
27:55
They are stronger supporters of free speech
27:59
than any current American coz they know
28:02
what is like to not have free speech
28:05
Exactly I mean we are the victim of censorship
28:09
even now we still live in a virtual border town
28:13
we have to face those people who
28:16
壓製我們說話的人
28:18
It's very difficult for Chinese Americans living in the US
28:22
to fully express all what we want to say
28:26
覺得美國孩子們
I think America's kids
need to understand that the real authoritarianism
28:32
is much stronger than what they thought
28:34
Some of them just use a strawman as enemy
28:39
They do not have experiences with a real strong enemy
28:43
Any if we say something too much
28:47
It could danger our own safety and our family in China
28:51
That's very different situation
28:55
I just hope those very ideological kids can understand that
28:58
Then they will appreciate America
29:00
how freedom of speech is such a gift to the country
29:04
That's why I love reaching out to immigrants
29:08
enter the United States as part of this work
29:10
cause they can testify from real experience
29:13
that us Americans really can't
29:16
we have our theories we have our ideas
29:18
but y'all actually felt the boot on your face
29:21
你們切實感受到不同
you can speak to just how different it is
29:25
to live in a place where you can't speak
29:28
even though as you said you have family in China
29:30
They still string upon you
29:31
but not in the same way that
29:40
Yeah cherish your right before you lose it
29:43
Hope don't loss it
29:46
The other thing as I mention
29:49
there are a fewer communists back there in 1970s
29:51
there are more now
29:53
They are imbedded in the universities
29:55
Probably 3-5% Americans may
30:01
look favorably upon Marxism
30:05
In American humanity department
30:08
it may be half
30:10
In the English Dept at elite universities
30:12
maybe 50% of people call themselves Marxists
30:15
what do they call the lounge chair Marxist strike
30:20
30:23
read the journals and pronounce them Marxism
30:25
30:28
if they were actually in a Marxist country
30:30
they may be the first ones to be thrown in the camps
30:33
but there is unfortunately a significant amount of Marxist ideology
30:40
behind some of the suppression of free speech
30:44
just as in 1970 the small percentage of
30:46
馬克思主義者想壓製言論自由
who wanted suppress Free Speech were mostly Marxists
by no means all today
30:52
so I'm not trying to say that all people who
30:54
oppose to free speech in America
30:56
are Marxists
30:57
but many of the ideological support
31:01
這個範圍的事尤其是所謂的警醒領域
for things in this area particularly the so-called woke area
comes from the Frankfurt School
31:08
which is essentially a German form of Marxism
31:13
that is and in its descendants
31:16
have significant footprint
31:18
Particularly in humanities and social science departments
31:21
in the US higher education
31:24
Yeah those you know humanity departments
31:31
they are in my opinion like we say use the term "progressive"
31:36
we have to learn Marxism
31:40
當我在中國上中學時候
in China when I was in middle school
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