The world of writing

Statement by MIT Free Speech Alliance

This entry was posted in News and tagged Internet MIT on by

I just received the following email from the MIT Free Speech Alliance, regarding the malicious email that I discussed in a recent post. It came just a little while after I submitted an inquiry on the subject, but unless they can write really fast, I don’t think there’s a causal connection. Here’s the message, with their email redacted since I like to be cautious about posting addresses on the Web. (The address of the perpetrator doesn’t merit any caution.)
(more…)

New article: “The political philosophy of Tolkien”

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged books fantasy on by

My latest article for Liberty Fund is now out: “The Political Philosophy of Tolkien.”

J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings presents several societies with different approaches to government. The most prominent include the idyllic Shire, the grand realm of Gondor, the hardy kingdom of Rohan, and the absolute dictatorship of Mordor. Looking at them gives strong indications of his views of government. In addition, we have his own words on the kind of governance he favored.

The most detailed description of a governmental structure is that of the Shire, the home of the Hobbits. …

MIT Free Speech Alliance email hijacked?

This entry was posted in News and tagged Internet MIT on by

UPDATED 8:10 PM EST, November 21, 2023. Sorry, I misread the mail headers. I’m out of practice.

UPDATE 2, 4:48 PM EST, November 22, 2023. Got a statement from the MIT FSA. See my new post.

Yesterday I received an odd email purporting to be from the MIT Free Speech Alliance, but attacking it. The headers in the mail seem to say it originated from the usual source, suggesting that either an insider sent an unauthorized message or the account’s security was compromised. CORRECTION: The message comes from a Yahoo account unrelated to the usual sending account. Even so, the sender was able to get hold of at least some of the addresses on the organization’s mailing list. The mail said “Ask them to remove your name from the MFSA membership list they claim to represent as they advocate to destroy the diversity that helps make MIT the great world-class institution it is today.”

I’m trying to figure out what happened, and I’ll provide more information when I have it. Meanwhile, treat any email you receive from mit_freespeech@yahoo.com with caution. Note that that is not the address from which legitimate MIT Free Speech Alliance emails come. The situation suggests that even if the mail server wasn’t compromised, a malicious party got hold of all or part of the list of subscribed addresses and could make further use of it.

Coping with Chinese disinformation 1

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged China research writing on by

When researching and writing material about China, you have to be aware of the Chinese government’s disinformation efforts. People who speak out against it are apt to be the targets of systematic insults and character assassination. If you’re operating on a small level, you probably won’t be bothered. Even though my articles on boycotting the Chengdu Worldcon did well in the search engines, I’ve received only one clear threat with a Chinese connection.

CNN has reported on “the world’s largest known online disinformation operation”:

The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence. …

The onslaught of attacks – often of a vile and deeply personal nature – is part of a well-organized, increasingly brazen Chinese government intimidation campaign targeting people in the United States, documents show.

(more…)

Continuing notes from the Chengdu Worldcon

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged China conventions fandom on by

Just a couple more items from Chengdu Worldcon reports.

Chris M. Barkley, writing on his experience on an “Ask a US Fan” panel, reported: “Also, knowing that whatever was said at this panel would probably be reviewed by either Communist Party officials or members of the security services, I had planned in advance to make a point of saying that I was not a foreign policy expert nor was I there to criticize the government or policies of the People’s Republic of China.”

On a more positive note, there was a table for Tibetan science fiction. The report says, “The entire convention was not planned like a free and easygoing party, but more like a well-regulated exhibition. After all, the fan area was located in the lobby on the first floor, in a corner space.” I’m sure any mention of China’s conquest of Tibet was carefully avoided or rewritten as “liberation,” but given the convention’s general bleakness, giving space at all to Tibetan SF is something.

Lukianenko remained officially a Guest of Honor, though he never showed up. I haven’t seen any explanation for his absence. Normally, when a GoH doesn’t show, the concom will say something, even it’s a vague “personal reasons.” This wasn’t a normal Worldcon, though. However, his writing appears in a tie-in book that also has stories by Sawyer and Liu.

To kill a student’s mind

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary and tagged books censorship education on by

A teacher who wants to limit students’ minds and close off their horizons is a vile person. To Kill a Mockingbird is a powerful, moving novel about racial injustice in the South. It presents a world that’s different from today’s America and presents the suffering and hope of the people who suffered and tried to correct its injustices. A man defends the target of a false criminal accusation at great personal cost. For this reason, four progressive teachers in the state of Washington wanted to keep their students from reading it. A Washington Post article tells the tale.

In their formal challenge to the book in the Mukilteo School District, the teachers claimed, “To Kill A Mockingbird centers on whiteness. … It presents a barrier to understanding and celebrating an authentic Black point of view in Civil Rights era literature and should be removed.” Three of the four are white, just by the way. Claiming that the novel “centers on whiteness” shows either gross ignorance of the book or gross dishonesty. In normal use, the Civil Rights Era began in the 1950s, and the novel is set during the Depression. It’s true that it doesn’t celebrate what it was like to be black in Alabama in those days.
(more…)

Book review: The Canceling of the American Mind

This entry was posted in Book discussion and tagged books censorship education liberty on by

Cancel culture is a prominent, ugly feature of public discourse today, yet many claim it doesn’t exist. They say there are only “consequences,” which amounts to saying that if you’re subjected to abuse because you said something controversial, what else did you expect?

Gangs of goons shout speakers down and claim that doing so is part of the right of “free speech.” By their logic, DDoS attacks on websites and jamming of radio communications are free speech. They shout “Shame! Shame!” as if anyone besides themselves were acting shamefully. They have only one standard: their authority to command others and demand silence from anyone who doesn’t think as they do.

It wasn’t always this way. Threats and demands for punishment of heretics have always been around, and some periods in American history have been full of open violence against opposing views, but the present levels of hostility are the worst in decades. In The Cnceling of the American Mind, Greg Lukanioff and Rikki Schlott document how frequently people on both the right and the left have come to regard anyone who disagrees as an inherently evil person, an enemy to be brought down.
(more…)

Reports from the Chengdu Worldcon

This entry was posted in News and tagged China conventions fandom on by

I’ve been watching for reports from the Chengdu Worldcon, with my main concern being what it was like to attend and participate. File 770 is my main source, and somebody called Ersatz Culture has been especially helpful. I don’t want to enable JavaScript for any Chinese site, which cuts me off from some primary sources. Here are some things I’ve seen so far. Some of them are translations from Chinese.

From File 770, October 24: A Google translation of a report by Zhang Ran, includes the following:

This should be a carnival for Chinese science fiction fans, but I couldn’t find any carnival look on the faces of many people attending the conference.

The volunteers were stiff and frightened, as if they were fulfilling some grand historical mission. The security check is dense and solemn, as if guarding some mysterious core…. The science fiction market, which should be reserved for ordinary fantasy fans, will naturally be run by companies that have little to do with science fiction.

(more…)

Beaumarchais’s banned plays

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged censorship France history liberty on by

Two articles which I wrote for Liberty Fund are up in their Banned Books Week series, which runs all through October. My articles are on Caron de Beaumarchais’s two well-known “Figaro” plays, both of which got him in trouble with the censors.

Take a look at the rest of the articles if you have time; there’s a lot of interesting material.