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Why Donald Trump can’t kill the truth
为什么说唐纳德·特朗普扼杀不了真相？
By Errol Morris
文/埃罗尔·莫里斯
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I BEEN ASKED IF TRUTH IS DEAD?
是否真相已死？或至少，真相这一概念是否已经被破坏得无可救药？
Or at least if truth as a concept has been hopelessly compromised?
要说我被问到这一问题的次数，
Many, many times. (Including by this very publication.)
答案是，很多很多次。(本刊就曾问过我这一问题。)
But truth is still with us—no matter how many people might insist otherwise.
但真相依然与我们同在——不管有多少人坚持相反的观点。
There is one truth. Untruth, on the other hand . . .
话说回来，有一种真相，它就是“非真相”……
The Washington Post recorded 3,001 false or misleading claims made by President Trump in his first 466 days in office.
《华盛顿邮报》的记录显示，特朗普总统上任466天内共发表了3001条虚假或误导性言论。
Is this just political in nature? Is it fake news? A gross misrepresentation?
其本质就是政治话语而已吗？是假新闻吗？还是普遍的误解？
Consider Trump’s April 28 campaign-style rally in Washington, Mich.
就拿特朗普4月28日在密歇根州华盛顿镇举行的竞选式集会来说。
As the Post summarized, throughout the course of his 80-minute speech,
正如《华盛顿邮报》总结的那样，在80分钟的演讲中，
the President made a variety of false claims that ranged from stating that Henry Ford invented the assembly line
总统给出了各式各样的错误说法，声称亨利·福特发明了流水线，
to asserting that Franklin D. Roosevelt served as President for 16 years
硬说富兰克林·D·罗斯福担任了16年的总统，
to boasting that a 2016 rally saw an audience about four times as large as it actually did
夸口2016年总统大选时观众的规模是实际规模的四倍，
to saying he has “essentially” gotten rid of Obamacare
称自己“基本”已经废除奥巴马医改，
to complaining that the U.S. loses “about $500 billion” because of its trade deficit with China,
抱怨美国因对华贸易逆差损失高达“5000亿美元左右”，
even though the figure is about $300 billion and a trade deficit is not a win-lose statistic.
尽管实际数据为3000亿美元左右，而且，贸易逆差并非决定赢输的统计指标等等，不一而足。
It was a dizzying array of mistakes, lies and misrepresentations.
这一连串的错误、谎言和误解简直令人眼花缭乱。
We might distinguish these categories diferently or think some worse than others.
或许，我们会对这些类别进行不同的区分，或者认为有些类别比其他类别问题更为严重。
But this should not be considered a partisan issue.
但这些错误不应被视为党派问题。
The truth is not a liberal plot.
这一问题的真相也并非自由派的阴谋。
The fact that anyone would think differently is in and of itself a cause for alarm.
任何人都会有不同的想法，而这一事实本身就已经值得警惕。
How much do we want to give up on?
在真相面前，我们究竟要放弃多少？
The shape of the earth? The heliocentric universe? The Pythagorean theorem? The structure of DNA?
放弃对地球形状的认识？对以太阳为中心的宇宙的认识？还是对勾股定理的认识？对DNA结构的认识？
QUESTIONS ABOUT alternative facts and relative truths have been nettling me for decades.
几十年来，另类真相和相对真相的问题一直困扰着我。
When I was a graduate student at Princeton University in 1972,
1972年我还在普林斯顿大学读研究生时，
it had been 10 years since the publication of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
托马斯·库恩的《科学革命的结构》就已经出版10年了。
The book made him famous.
这本书也是他的成名作。
Not because people had read it carefully—I just don’t believe that—
而他之所以成名，并非人们仔细读了他的这本书——我完全不相信——
but because he came up with a number of notions that had a kind of general appeal.
而是因为他提出了一系列具有普遍吸引力的概念。
Principal among them was the “paradigm shift.”
其中，最主要的就是“范式转移”这一概念。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
