经济学人:社会媒体会危害民主?(1)

 Leaders 领导者

Do social media threaten democracy? 社会媒体危害民主？

Facebook, Google and Twitter were supposed to improve politics. Something has gone very wrong. 脸书、谷歌和推特曾被认为会改善政治。有些事是大错特错了。

In 1962 a British political scientist, Bernard Crick, published “In Defence of Politics”. 1962年，英国政治学家伯纳德·克里克出版了《政治之辩护》一书。

He argued that the art of political horse-trading, far from being shabby, lets people of different beliefs live together in a peaceful, thriving society. 他指出，政治上的讨价还价非但不龌龊卑鄙，反而是让不同信念的人共同生活在一个和平繁荣的社会中。

In a liberal democracy, nobody gets exactly what he wants, but everyone broadly has the freedom to lead the life he chooses. 在自由民主制度下，没有人能够想要什么就得到什么，但是，人人都广泛地拥有过自己选择的生活的自由。

However, without decent information, civility and conciliation¹, societies resolve their differences by resorting to coercion². 然而，没有了正经严肃的信息，没有了谦恭与和解，社会解决分歧靠的是诉诸于高压胁迫。

How Crick would have been dismayed by the falsehood and partisanship³ on display in this week's Senate committee hearings in Washington. 克里克该为本周在华盛顿参议院听证会上展示的虚假和党派偏见感到多么伤心啊。

Not long ago social media held out the promise of a more enlightened politics,  不久前，社会媒体展示出一个更加开明的政治的前景，

as accurate information and effortless communication helped good people drive out corruption⁴, bigotry⁵ and lies. 因为精准的信息和毫不费力的交流帮助好人挖出了腐败、赶走了偏执，击败了谎言。

Yet Facebook acknowledged that before and after last year's American election, between January 2015 and August this year, 146m users may have seen Russian misinformation on its platform. 然而，脸书也已承认，在去年美国大选前后，即2015年1月到今年8月期间，1.46亿用户可能在其平台上看到了俄罗斯的不实信息。

Google's YouTube admitted to 1,108 Russian-linked videos and Twitter to 36,746 accounts. 谷歌的YouTube和推特也分别承认了1108个和36746个账户与俄罗斯有关的视频和账户。

Far from bringing enlightenment, social media have been spreading poison. 非但没有带来教化启迪，社会媒体反而一直在传播毒药。

Russia's trouble-making is only the start. 俄罗斯的拨弄是非仅仅是开始。

From South Africa to Spain, politics is getting uglier. 从南非到西班牙，政治正在变得越来越丑陋。

Part of the reason is that, by spreading untruth and outrage⁶, corroding⁷ voters' judgment⁸ and aggravating⁹ partisanship,  部分原因在于，借着传播不实之事和无名之火，借着扰乱选民的判断和加剧党派分歧，

social media erode¹⁰ the conditions for the horse-trading that Crick thought fosters liberty. 社会媒体侵蚀的是克里克认为是养育自由的讨价还价的土壤。

 

1 conciliation   

n.调解，调停

参考例句：

• By conciliation,cooperation is established.通过调解，友好合作关系得以确立。
• Their attempts at conciliation had failed and both sides were once again in dispute.他们进行调停的努力失败了，双方再次陷入争吵。

2 coercion   

n.强制，高压统治

参考例句：

• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions.既不诱供也不逼供。
• He paid the money under coercion.他被迫付钱。

3 Partisanship   

n. 党派性, 党派偏见

参考例句：

• Her violent partisanship was fighting Soames's battle. 她的激烈偏袒等于替索米斯卖气力。
• There was a link of understanding between them, more important than affection or partisanship. ' 比起人间的感情，比起相同的政见，这一点都来得格外重要。 来自英汉文学

4 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

5 bigotry   

n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等

参考例句：

• She tried to dissociate herself from the bigotry in her past.她力图使自己摆脱她以前的偏见。
• At least we can proceed in this matter without bigotry.目前这件事咱们至少可以毫无偏见地进行下去。

6 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

7 corroding   

使腐蚀，侵蚀( corrode的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• That sour nature has started corroding those metal parts. 那酸质已开始腐蚀那金属部件。
• He was driven by a corroding rage for "perfection". 他受追求“完美境界”的极端热情所驱策。

8 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

9 aggravating   

adj.恼人的，讨厌的

参考例句：

• How aggravating to be interrupted! 被打扰，多令人生气呀！
• Diesel exhaust is particularly aggravating to many susceptible individuals. 许多体质敏感的人尤其反感柴油废气。

10 erode   

v.侵蚀，腐蚀，使...减少、减弱或消失

参考例句：

• Once exposed,soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.一旦暴露在外，土壤很快就会被风雨侵蚀。
• Competition in the financial marketplace has eroded profits.金融市场的竞争降低了利润。