本期原文選自The Economist 2016-9-10的Leaders板塊Art of the lie，釋義來自牛津高階七版基显、劍橋高階學(xué)習(xí)詞典英漢雙解第3版、朗文雙解詞典、柯林斯詞典等資源衍菱。如果您也在學(xué)習(xí)The Economist，歡迎訂閱我的文集The Economist肩豁，一起學(xué)習(xí)交流脊串。

Art of the lie

Consider how far Donald Trump is estranged from【1】 fact. He inhabits a fantastical realm where Barack Obama’s birth certificate was faked, the president founded Islamic State (IS), the Clintons are killers and the father of a rival was with Lee Harvey Oswald before he shot John F. Kennedy.

【1】estranged from 與（某事）脫離辫呻，與（某人）疏遠(yuǎn)；另外estranged還有分居的意思琼锋；名詞為estrangement

Mr Trump is the leading exponent【2】 of “post-truth” politics【3】—a reliance on assertions that “feel true” but have no basis in fact. His brazenness is not punished, but taken as evidence of his willingness to stand up to【4】 elite power. And he is not alone. Members of Poland’s government assert that a previous president, who died in a plane crash, was assassinated by Russia. Turkish politicians claim the perpetrators【5】 of the recent bungled【6】 coup were acting on orders issued by the CIA. The successful campaign for Britain to leave the European Union warned of the hordes of immigrants that would result from Turkey’s imminent accession to【7】 the union.

【2】exponent 能手放闺，鼓吹者

【3】“post-truth” politics 后真相政治，根據(jù)wikepedia的定義缕坎，是指在政治辯論中主要基于情感怖侦，脫離政治細(xì)節(jié)，重復(fù)某些論點(diǎn)谜叹，卻忽視事實(shí)反駁的政治文化匾寝；該詞來源于David Roberts在2010年Grist專欄中的文章Post-truth politics,在2016年美國總統(tǒng)選舉和2016年英國脫歐公投中流行起來

【4】stand up to Sb 抵抗、反對某人

【5】perpetrator 犯罪者荷腊，作惡者艳悔，行兇者；相應(yīng)動(dòng)詞用法perpetrate sth (against/upon/on sb)停局，相應(yīng)名詞perpetration

【6】bungle 搞砸很钓，失敗

【7】accession to 正式加入

If, like this newspaper, you believe that politics should be based on evidence, this is worrying. Strong democracies can draw on【8】 inbuilt defences against post-truth. Authoritarian countries are more vulnerable.

【8】draw on 利用，依賴

Lord of the lies

That politicians sometimes peddle lies is not news: think of Ronald Reagan’s fib【9】 that his administration had not traded weapons with Iran in order to secure the release of hostages and to fund the efforts of rebels in Nicaragua. Dictators and democrats seeking to deflect blame for their own incompetence have always manipulated the truth; sore losers have always accused the other lot of lying.

【9】fib 無關(guān)緊要的小慌

But post-truth politics is more than just an invention of whingeing【10】 elites who have been outflanked【11】. The term picks out the heart of what is new: that truth is not falsified【12】, or contested, but of secondary importance. Once, the purpose of political lying was to create a false view of the world. The lies of men like Mr Trump do not work like that. They are not intended to convince the elites, whom their target voters neither trust nor like, but to reinforce prejudices.

【10】whinge about sb/sth 抱怨某人/某事（英國方言董栽、澳大利亞俚語]= whine）

【11】outflank 占上風(fēng)（這個(gè)詞由前綴out-和flank組成码倦，out-表示超過、勝過锭碳，flank是側(cè)面的意思袁稽，所以outflank的本意是側(cè)翼包抄）

【12】falsified 篡改，偽造擒抛，名詞形式為falsification推汽；false 錯(cuò)誤的，虛假的歧沪；falsehood 虛假性歹撒，謬誤，謊言

Feelings, not facts, are what matter in this sort of campaigning. Their opponents’ disbelief validates the us-versus-them mindset that outsider candidates thrive on【13】. And if your opponents focus on trying to show your facts are wrong, they have to fight on the ground you have chosen. The more Remain campaigners【14】 attacked the Leave campaign’s【15】 exaggerated claim that EU membership cost Britain ￡350m ($468m) a week, the longer they kept the magnitude of those costs in the spotlight.

【13】thrive on sth 因某事而有成

【14】Remain campaigners留歐派诊胞；Remain campaign支持留歐的運(yùn)動(dòng)暖夭；Remain camp留歐陣營

【15】Leave campaigner 脫歐派；Leave campaign支持脫歐的運(yùn)動(dòng)撵孤；Leave camp脫歐陣營

Post-truth politics has many parents. Some are noble. The questioning of institutions and received wisdom【16】 is a democratic virtue. A sceptical lack of deference towards leaders is the first step to reform.?

【16】received wisdom 普遍看法

But corrosive forces are also at play【17】. One is anger. Many voters feel let down and left behind, while the elites who are in charge have thrived. They are scornful of the self-serving technocrats【18】 who said that the euro would improve their lives and that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction【19】. Popular trust in expert opinion and established institutions has tumbled across Western democracies.

【17】be at play 起作用迈着，產(chǎn)生影響

【18】technocrat 技術(shù)官僚，技術(shù)專家官員（這個(gè)詞由前綴techno-和后綴-crat組成邪码，techno-意思是技術(shù)的裕菠，-crat或-ocrat意思是官僚）

【19】weapons of mass destruction 大規(guī)模殺傷性武器

Post-truth has also been abetted by the evolution of the media (see Briefing). The fragmentation of news sources has created an atomised world in which lies, rumour and gossip spread with alarming speed. Lies that are widely shared online within a network, whose members trust each other more than they trust any mainstream-media source, can quickly take on the appearance of truth. Presented with evidence that contradicts a belief that is dearly held, people have a tendency to ditch the facts first. Well-intentioned journalistic practices bear blame too. The pursuit of “fairness” in reporting often creates phoney【20】 balance at the expense of truth. NASA scientist says Mars is probably uninhabited; Professor Snooks says it is teeming with aliens. It’s really a matter of opinion.

【20】phoney 虛假的；也可作名詞闭专，意為騙子

When politics is like pro-wrestling【21】, society pays the cost. Mr Trump’s insistence that Mr Obama founded IS precludes a serious debate over how to deal with violent extremists. Policy is complicated, yet post-truth politics damns complexity as the sleight of hand【22】 experts use to bamboozle【23】 everyone else. Hence Hillary Clinton’s proposals on paid parental leave【24】 go unexamined (see article) and the case for trade liberalisation is drowned out【25】 by “common sense” demands for protection.

【21】pro-wrestling 職業(yè)摔跤（詞中pro的意思是職業(yè)的）奴潘；其它類似詞語旧烧，如pro basketball 職業(yè)籃球

【22】sleight of hand 手腕，花招

【23】bamboozle 欺騙萤彩，愚弄粪滤；名詞為bamboozlement

【24】paid parental leave 帶薪產(chǎn)假

【25】drown out 淹沒

It is tempting to think that, when policies sold on dodgy prospectuses【26】 start to fail, lied-to supporters might see the error of their ways. The worst part of post-truth politics, though, is that this self-correction cannot be relied on. When lies make the political system dysfunctional, its poor results can feed the alienation and lack of trust in institutions that make the post-truth play possible in the first place.

【26】prospectus 本意是（學(xué)校的）簡介、簡章雀扶，（企業(yè)的）招股章程杖小、募股章程，這里dodgy prospectuses是指帶有欺騙性的宣傳

Pro-truthers stand and be counted

To counter this, mainstream politicians need to find a language of rebuttal (being called “pro-truth” might be a start). Humility and the acknowledgment of past hubris【27】 would help. The truth has powerful forces on its side. Any politician who makes contradictory promises to different audiences will soon be exposed on Facebook or YouTube. If an official lies about attending a particular meeting or seeking a campaign donation, a trail of e-mails may catch him out【28】.

【27】hubris 狂妄

【28】catch sb out 識破（錯(cuò)誤）

Democracies have institutions to help, too. Independent legal systems have mechanisms to establish truth (indeed, Melania Trump has turned to the law to seek redress for【29】 lies about her past). So, in their way, do the independent bodies created to inform policy—especially those that draw on science.

【29】 redress 矯正愚墓，補(bǔ)償予权；seek redress for 討回公道，要求賠償損失

If Mr Trump loses in November, post-truth will seem less menacing, though he has been too successful for it to go away. The deeper worry is for countries like Russia and Turkey, where autocrats use the techniques of post-truth to silence opponents. Cast adrift【30】 on an ocean of lies, the people there will have nothing to cling to. For them the novelty of post-truth may lead back to old-fashioned oppression.

【30】Cast adrift 漂流

【小結(jié)】

后真相政治（post-truth politics）來源于David Roberts在2010年Grist專欄中的一篇文章浪册，在2016年美國總統(tǒng)選舉和2016年英國脫歐公投中流行起來扫腺。Trump是謊言之王（lord of the lies）,后真相政治的能手（exponent）。他的言論與事實(shí)相去甚遠(yuǎn)（estranged from fact）村象。其厚顏無恥不但沒有受到懲罰笆环，反而被視為對于精英勢力的抵抗（stand up to elite power）。然而厚者，Trump并非個(gè)例躁劣。土耳其政客聲稱在最近失敗的政變（bungled coup）中，犯罪者（perpetrator）是奉CIA之命行事库菲。在英國脫歐運(yùn)動(dòng)（Brexit）中账忘，留歐派（Remain campaigners）與脫歐派（Leave campaigners）相博弈，人們輕信土耳其將加入歐盟（accession to the union）產(chǎn)生大量移民熙宇。政客謊言已經(jīng)不是新聞鳖擒。里根總統(tǒng)曾撒了小謊（fib），稱沒有與伊朗進(jìn)行武器貿(mào)易烫止，以確保釋放人質(zhì)并資助尼加拉瓜的反叛勢力蒋荚。然而，后真相政治不是一群牢騷滿腹（whingeing）的挫敼萑洹（outflanked）精英們杜撰出來的圆裕，而是映射了一個(gè)新的核心問題：真相沒有被篡改（falsified）或質(zhì)疑，而是顯得不那么重要了荆几。比如，Trump的謊言不是為了說服精英赊时，而是為了強(qiáng)化偏見吨铸。后真相政治存在積極的一面。對現(xiàn)有體制和普遍信念（received wisdom）的質(zhì)疑是民主的充分體現(xiàn)祖秒。但腐蝕的力量也會(huì)產(chǎn)生影響（at play）诞吱。當(dāng)精英階層蒸蒸日上（thrive）舟奠，選民卻倍感失落、憤怒房维，他們鄙視那些利用（draw on）科學(xué)手段為政策服務(wù)的技術(shù)官僚（technocrat）沼瘫，也不相信主流媒體。為了追求“公平”咙俩，報(bào)道中常常犧牲真相以達(dá)到虛假（phoney）的平衡耿戚。當(dāng)政治成為一場職業(yè)摔跤比賽（pro-wrestling），需要全社會(huì)來埋單阿趁。一些專家利用政治的復(fù)雜性膜蛔，耍弄花招（sleight of hand）來愚弄（bamboozle）民眾。所以脖阵，希拉里提出的帶薪產(chǎn)假（paid parental leave）最終泡湯皂股，自由貿(mào)易提案也被貿(mào)易保護(hù)需求的“常識”淹沒（drowned out）。如果基于欺騙性宣傳（dodgy prospectuses）的政策最終失敗命黔，被騙的支持者可能恍然大悟呜呐。但這種自我修正的作用并不可靠。當(dāng)謊言導(dǎo)致政治體系功能失調(diào)悍募，就會(huì)造成疏遠(yuǎn)感和不信任蘑辑。為此，主流政治家需要保持謙遜搜立，承認(rèn)自己過去的狂妄（hubris）以躯。如果某個(gè)政客對不同聽眾作出相互矛盾的承諾，很快就會(huì)在Facebook或YouTube遭到曝光啄踊。如果某位官員謊稱參加某個(gè)會(huì)議或籌備競選募捐（campaign donation）忧设，就會(huì)有人對其郵件進(jìn)行追蹤，最終識破謊言（catch him out）颠通。在獨(dú)立的法律體系中址晕，可以利用真相挖掘機(jī)制來對抗謊言，討回公道（seek redress for lies）顿锰。如果Trump在十一月份失利谨垃，后真相政治可能變得不那么猖狂。但更令人擔(dān)憂的是俄國和土耳其硼控，這兩個(gè)國家的政客利用后真相手段迫使對手默不發(fā)聲刘陶。漂流（cast drift）在謊言的海洋中，人們將無所依靠牢撼。新興的后真相政治或許將人們拉回了那個(gè)飽受壓迫的時(shí)代匙隔。

* 注：本文僅供學(xué)習(xí)交流之用，不代表作者觀點(diǎn)熏版。