（二）民主实践乱象丛生
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
2. Messy and chaotic practices of democracy文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
美国民主的异化不仅表现在制度设计等结构性层面，更体现在其实践中。美国不是民主的优等生，更遑论“民主典范”。国会山的枪声与闹剧彻底揭开美式民主的华丽外衣。黑人弗洛伊德之死揭露了美国社会长期存在的系统性种族歧视，激起全美乃至全世界此起彼伏的抗议浪潮。新冠疫情持续失控，是否戴口罩、打疫苗成为社会分裂和对立的新导火索。经济发展红利分配不均，普通民众收入长期停滞。美式民主难以有效维护公序良俗，无法充分提供公共福祉。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
That democracy in the US has gone wrong is reflected not only in its system design and general structure, but also in the way it is put into practice. The US is not a straight A student when it comes to democracy, still less a role model for democracy. The gunshots and farce on Capitol Hill have completely revealed what is underneath the gorgeous appearance of the American-style democracy. The death of Black American George Floyd has laid bare the systemic racism that exists in American society for too long, and spurred a deluge of protests rippling throughout the country and even the whole world.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
While the COVID-19 pandemic remains out of control in the US, the issue of mask-wearing and vaccination has triggered further social division and confrontation. Dividends of economic growth are distributed unfairly, and income growth has stalled for most ordinary people for a long period of time. The American-style democracy can hardly uphold public order and ethics, nor advance public well-being to the fullest.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
1．国会暴乱震惊全球文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/12672.html
(1) The Capitol riot that shocks the world
2021年1月6日下午，数千名美国民众聚集在华盛顿国会山并强行闯入国会大厦，以阻止美国国会联席会议确认美国新当选总统。事件导致美总统权力过渡进程中断并造成5人死亡，140多人受伤。此次事件是自1814年白宫遭英军纵火焚烧以来华盛顿最严重的暴力事件，200余年来国会大厦首次被占领。美国国会参议院共和党领袖将这一事件称为“失败的叛乱”。美国对外关系委员会学者惊呼，美国不像许多美国人想的那样与众不同，国会暴乱事件应给“美国例外论”和“山巅之城”的说法画上句号。
On the afternoon of 6 January 2021, thousands of Americans gathered on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. and stormed the Capitol building in a bid to stop the joint session of the Congress from certifying the newly-elected president. The incident interrupted the transfer of US presidential power, leaving five dead and over 140 injured. It is the worst act of violence in Washington, D.C. since 1814 when the British troops set fire to the White House, and it is the first time in more than 200 years that the Capitol was invaded. Senate Republican leader described it as a “failed insurrection”. A scholar from the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) exclaims that the US is not nearly as unique as many Americans believe, and that the Capitol riot should put an end to the notion of American exceptionalism, of an eternal shining city on a hill.
冲闯国会事件动摇了美式民主制度三大基石。一是所谓“民主”并不民主。美国一些政客拒绝承认选举结果，其支持者暴力冲闯国会大厦，重挫美国民主“公信力”。二是所谓“自由”并不自由。推特、脸书等社交媒体冻结美国一些政客的个人账号，宣布其“社交性死亡”，戳破美“言论自由”的假象。三是所谓“法治”并不法治。美执法部门对待“黑人的命也是命”示威抗议和冲闯国会事件态度一严一宽，不同执法尺度再次暴露美“法治”的双标本性。
The assault on the Capitol has undermined the three major bedrocks of the American-style democracy.
First, “democracy” in the US is not democratic as it claims. The refusal of some US politicians to recognize the election results and their supporters’ subsequent violent storming of the Capitol building have severely undercut the credibility of democracy in the US.
Second, “freedom” in the US is not free as it claims. Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms suspended the personal accounts of some US politicians, a de facto announcement of their “death on social media”. This has bust the myths of “freedom of speech” in the US.
Third, the “rule of law” in the US is not bound by the law as it claims. The totally different attitudes taken by US law enforcement agencies toward the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) protests and the Capitol riot are yet another reminder of the double standards in the US “rule of law”.
冲闯国会事件震惊了国际社会，“哀其不幸，怒其不争”。英国首相约翰逊发推特表示，美国国会发生的事件非常可耻。法国总统马克龙讲话称，在世界最古老民主国家之一的美国，“一人一票”的普世价值正遭受重创。南非总统拉马福萨表示，这动摇了美国民主的基础。印尼前总统苏西洛发推特表示，美国政治闹剧值得深思，没有完美的民主制度，民主实践更不完美。
The assault on the Capitol sent shock waves throughout the international community. While deploring the violence, many people also expressed disappointment at the US.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that what happened in the US Capitol were “disgraceful scenes”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that “in one of the world’s oldest democracies ... a universal idea – that of ‘one person, one vote’ – is undermined.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa commented that it “shook the foundations” of democracy in the US.
Former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tweeted that the political farce in the US offers much food for thought, and that there is no perfect democracy, especially when it comes to its practices.
2．种族歧视根深蒂固
(2) Entrenched racism
种族主义问题是美国民主无法磨灭的耻辱烙印。美国的开国元勋一边说着“人人生而平等”，一边却在1789年施行的宪法中保留了蓄奴制度。时至今日，美国虽然表面上废除了种族隔离制度，但白人至上主义甚嚣尘上，对黑人等少数族裔的歧视依然系统性存在。
Racism is an indelible blot on democracy in the US. While advocating “all men are created equal”, the founding fathers of the US left the institution of slavery untouched in the Constitution of 1789. Today, although racial segregation has been ostensibly abolished in the US, white supremacy is still rife and rampant across the country. Discrimination against Black Americans and other racial minorities remains a systemic phenomenon.
美国的种族问题每隔一段时间就会“复发”。2020年5月25日，明尼苏达州警察暴力执法导致黑人弗洛伊德不治身亡。弗洛伊德死前“我无法呼吸”的绝望哀求点燃了汹涌民愤，全美50个州上百个城市随后爆发游行示威，为弗洛伊德伸张正义，抗议种族歧视问题。直到事件发生百余天后，有关游行仍在持续。
American society has experienced relapses of its malaise of racial discrimination from time to time. On 25 May 2020, George Floyd, a Black American, lost his life in Minnesota because of law enforcement violence by the police. “I can’t breathe” – Floyd’s desperate plea for life before his death – sparked public outrage. Afterwards, protests and demonstrations erupted in about 100 cities across the 50 states of America, demanding justice for Floyd and protesting against racial discrimination. The demonstrations continued more than 100 days after the incident.
弗洛伊德的遭遇只是美国黑人百年来悲惨境遇的缩影。正如美国心理学会主席舒尔曼所说，美国始终处于一场种族主义的大流行病中，民权运动领袖马丁·路德·金的梦想至今并未实现。印度主流媒体《印度快报》发表社论称，美国的种族主义颠覆了美民主制度。
What happened to George Floyd is merely an epitome of the tragic plight of Black Americans over the past centuries. Sandra Shullman, Past President of the American Psychological Association, says that America is in “a racism pandemic”. The dream of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. remains unrealized. According to an editorial of The Indian Express, a mainstream newspaper of India, American racism has endured, subverting the country’s deepest democratic institutions in the process.
2021年2月，斯坦福大学新闻网发表文章检视美各领域系统性种族歧视：在教育领域，有色人种儿童在学校受到更为密切的监视；在司法领域，有色人种尤其是黑人更容易成为被针对的目标；在经济和就业领域，从应聘职位到获取贷款，黑人等其他少数族裔群体在职场和整体经济环境中受到歧视。美国华盛顿大学研究报告显示，1980年至2018年间，美国约有30800人因警察暴力死亡，这一数字比官方公布的人数多出约17100人，其中非洲裔因警察暴力死亡的可能性是白人的3.5倍。
In February 2021, Stanford News, a website of Stanford University, carried an article examining systemic racism in the US. The article suggests that in education, youth of color are more likely to be closely watched; in the criminal justice system, people of color, particularly Black men, are disproportionately targeted; and in the economy and employment, from who moves forward in the hiring process to who receives funding from venture capitalists, Black Americans and other minority groups are discriminated against in the workplace and economy-at-large. A study by the University of Washington finds that around 30,800 people died from police violence between 1980 and 2018 in the US, which is about 17,100 higher than the official figure. It also indicates that African Americans are 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police violence than white Americans.
美各地爆发的愤怒不只来自黑人，已跨越种族界限。以色列《耶路撒冷邮报》网站刊文指出，美国犹太人对白人至上主义团体驱动的右翼反犹主义和暴力行为感到担忧。美国犹太人委员会年度民调显示，2020年43%的在美犹太人认为其安全感比上一年更低，2017年有41%的人认为反犹主义在美国是一个严重问题，该比率远高于2016年的21%、2015年的21%和2013年的14%。
The anger erupting across America is not just Black anger, but across racial lines. An article published on the website of The Jerusalem Post of Israel notes that American Jews are concerned about right-wing antisemitism and violence driven by white supremacist groups. According to annual surveys conducted by the American Jewish Committee, in 2020, 43% US Jews feel less secure than a year ago, and in 2017, 41% say antisemitism is a serious problem in the US, up from 21% in 2016, 21% in 2015, and 14% in 2013.
美国国内对亚裔群体的欺凌也在不断加剧。新冠疫情暴发以来，亚裔美国人在公共场合遭受羞辱甚至攻击的事件此起彼伏。美国联邦调查局公布的数据显示，2020年全美针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪案件数量上升76%。从2020年3月到2021年6月，“停止仇恨亚裔美国人”组织接到了9000多起投诉报告。美国全国广播公司网站一项针对美国亚裔年轻人的调查显示，在过去1年中，四分之一的美国亚裔年轻人成为种族欺凌目标，近一半受访者对自身所处境遇表示悲观，四分之一的受访者对自己及家人所处的境遇表示恐惧。
The bullying of Americans of Asian descent is increasing in the US. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there have been growing cases of Asian Americans humiliated or attacked in public places. Statistics from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation indicate that hate crimes against people of Asian descent rose by 76% in the US in 2020. From March 2020 to June 2021, the organization Stop Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Hate received over 9,000 incident reports. A survey of young Asian Americans on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) website shows that in the past year, a quarter of young Asian Americans became targets of racial bullying, nearly half of the respondents expressed pessimism about their situation, and a quarter of the respondents expressed fear about the situation of themselves and their families.
3．疫情失控酿成惨剧
(3) Tragic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic
美国号称具有世界上最丰富的医疗资源，应对新冠肺炎疫情却一片混乱，成为世界上确诊人数和死亡人数最多的国家。
With the best health and medical resources in the world as it claims, the US has been a total mess when it comes to COVID response. It has the world’s highest numbers of infections and deaths.
截至2021年11月底，根据约翰斯·霍普金斯大学统计数据，美国累计报告新冠肺炎确诊病例超过4800万例，累计死亡逾77万例，两项数据均名列世界第一。今年1月8日，美国单日新增新冠肺炎确诊病例300777例，达到疫情在美暴发以来最高；1月13日，4170名美国人因感染新冠肺炎去世，远超“9·11”恐怖袭击事件丧生人数。11月末，美国日均新增确诊病例数量超过7万例，新增死亡病例逾700例，美国平均每500人就有1人死于新冠肺炎。截至目前，美国新冠病亡人数已超越1919年大流感病亡人数，也超过美在一战、二战、朝鲜战争、越南战争、伊拉克战争、阿富汗战争死亡人数之和。如果美国能够科学应对，很多人不必付出生命代价。美国流行病学家、疾病控制与预防中心原负责人威廉·福格认为“这是一场屠杀”。
According to figures released by Johns Hopkins University, as of the end of November 2021, confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US had exceeded 48 million, and the number of deaths had surpassed 770,000, both the highest in the world.
On 8 January this year, 300,777 new confirmed cases were reported, a record single-day increase since the COVID-19 outbreak in the US. On 13 January alone, 4,170 Americans died of COVID-19, far exceeding the death toll of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
At the end of November, the average daily increase of confirmed cases in the US had climbed to over 70,000, and daily death toll to over 700.
One in every 500 Americans have died of COVID-19. Up to now, COVID-19 deaths in the US have surpassed its total death toll from the 1919 Influenza Pandemic, and its combined deaths in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan.
If the US had taken a science-based response, a lot more lives could have been saved. The pandemic, as epidemiologist and former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention William Foege put it, is a “slaughter”.
疫情重创美国经济。美国企业倒闭和失业潮发生速度及规模超乎想象，大量民众长期失业，社会不稳定因素增加等加剧了美国人的焦虑感和无力感。美国预算与政策优先事项中心2021年7月29日的《新冠困境报告》显示，尽管情况比2020年12月有所改善，但2021年上半年美国人生活困难情况依旧十分普遍，仍有2000万成年人所在家庭没有足够食物，1140万成年租房者无法按时交纳房租，面临被赶出租屋的风险。美国人口普查局数据显示，截至2021年7月5日，有未成年人的家庭中至少有一人失去收入来源的比例仍高达22%。美民众消费信心大幅下滑，就业市场复苏放缓。高盛、摩根士丹利、牛津经济研究院等机构纷纷显著下调美经济增长预期。同时，疫情、三轮大规模经济刺激计划等因素叠加导致美港口拥堵和供应短缺，进而推升美通货膨胀率。今年10月，美消费者价格指数（CPI）同比上涨6.2%，连续6个月同比上涨幅度达到或超过5%，创2008年来最大涨幅。
The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the US economy. The rate and scale of business shutdown and unemployment in the country are beyond imagination, leaving a large number of Americans jobless. People’s anxiety and sense of powerlessness has been exacerbated by growing factors of social instability.
The COVID Hardship Watch released by the US Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on 29 July 2021 suggests that while there have been improvements over the situation in December 2020, hardship is widespread for Americans in the first half of 2021. Some 20 million adults live in households that have not got enough to eat, 11.40 million adult renters are behind on rent, facing the risk of being evicted.
As indicated in the statistics released by the US Census Bureau, by 5 July 2021, at least one member in 22% of all households with underage dependents had lost their source of income.
US consumer confidence has dropped substantially, and progress in job market recovery has stalled. Institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Oxford Economics have significantly revised down growth forecasts for the US economy. At the same time, the pandemic, coupled with three rounds of massive economic stimulus plans, among other factors, has caused port congestion and supply shortages, pushing inflation higher. In October of this year, US CPI surged by 6.2% from a year earlier, marking a year-on-year rise of no less than 5% for six consecutive months, and a record high since 2008.
疫情在美延宕，症结并非在于美国没有科学，而是不信科学、不用科学。美国一些政客为了选举，将党派利益置于国家利益之上，将抗疫问题政治化，一门心思对外“甩锅”推责。美联邦与各州一盘散沙，不仅形不成合力，反而彼此争斗。在这个大背景下，抗疫举措已被严重政治化，疫苗打与不打、口罩戴与不戴都成为了政党、民众争执的焦点，反智主义甚嚣尘上。
The root cause of the continued spread of the coronavirus in the US is not a dearth of science, but the refusal to trust and rely on science. For the sake of elections, some politicians have prioritized partisan interests over national interests, politicized pandemic response, and focused on shifting blames on others. The federal and state governments have failed to galvanize a concerted response to the pandemic, and are mired in infighting instead. As a result, pandemic response measures have been severely politicized. The choices with regard to vaccination and mask-wearing have become a bone of contention between the parties and among the people. There appears a growing trend of anti-intellectualism.
法国《世界报》报道指出，新冠疫情危机揭示了美国民主制度的脆弱性。美国把昂贵的医疗卫生体系留给富人，放任贫穷者被剥夺社会保障，使美国这一世界上最发达国家因社会不公而变得落伍，这是民主偏差导致无法有效管控疫情的经典案例。斯坦福大学新闻网指出，在医疗卫生领域，新冠疫情对有色人种造成了更严重的影响，凸显了白人和有色人种之间健康水平差距。
A report by the French newspaper Le Monde observes that the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the fragility of democracy in the US. The extremely expensive health system, reserved for the rich and leaving the poorest without social security, has made this country, yet one of the most developed in the world, fall behind due to social injustice. This is a typical case of a democratic drift that makes it impossible to effectively manage a crisis.
Stanford News notes that, in the area of public health, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted communities of color and has highlighted the health disparities between Black Americans, whites and other demographic groups.
4．贫富分化不断加剧
(4) Widening wealth gap
美国是贫富分化最严重的西方国家。2021年美国基尼系数升至0.48，几乎是半个世纪以来的新高。美国智库政策研究院报告称，1990年至2021年，美国亿万富翁的总体财富增长了19倍，而同期美国中位数财富只增加了5.37%。这揭示了美国“富者愈富、穷者愈穷”的残酷现实。
The US is more polarized than any other Western country in terms of wealth distribution. Its Gini coefficient has increased to 0.48 in 2021, almost the highest in 50 years. As revealed by reports of the Institute for Policy Studies, a US think tank, the combined wealth of US billionaires soared 19-fold between 1990 and 2021, while over this same period, US median wealth only increased 5.37%. The harsh reality in the US is the rich is becoming richer, and the poor poorer.
美联储2021年10月统计数据显示，截至今年6月，美国收入在中间60%的“中产阶级”拥有的财富在国家总财富中占比已经跌至26.6%，创过去30年来新低，而收入前1%的富人却拥有27%的国家财富，超过了“中产阶级”。
According to Fed’s October 2021 statistics, the middle 60% of US households by income, defined as the “middle class”, saw their combined assets drop to 26.6% of national wealth as of June this year, the lowest in three decades, while the first 1% had a 27% share, surpassing the “middle class”.
加州大学伯克利分校经济学家伊曼努尔·萨兹发表的统计数据显示，美国前10%富人人均年收入是后90%人口的9倍多，前1%富人人均年收入是后90%人口的40倍，而前0.1%富人人均年收入是后90%人口的196倍之多。
A report by UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez shows that in terms of average annual income, America’s top 10% rich earn over nine times as much as the bottom 90%; the wealthiest 1% are about 40 times more than the bottom 90%; and the ultra-wealthy top 0.1% are 196 times of the bottom 90%.
新冠疫情暴发以来，美国实施“大水漫灌”政策，在推高股市的同时也进一步拉大了贫富差距。美国亿万富翁拥有的总资产增加了1.763万亿美元，涨幅高达59.8%。排名前10%的美国富人持有89%的美国股票，创下历史新高。
The stimulus policy that the US has introduced in response to COVID-19 has, while pushing up stock markets, further widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The wealth of US billionaires has grown US$1.763 trillion, or 59.8%, over the 16 months since the COVID outbreak in the US. The wealthiest 10% now own 89% of all US stocks, registering a new historic high.
美国的贫富分化是由美国政治制度及其政府所代表的资本利益所决定的。从“占领华尔街”运动，到近期的“大猩猩”对视华尔街铜牛事件，美国民众对贫富分化的声讨从未停止，但现状毫无改变。美国治理者放任贫富差距扩大，疫情之下，资本优先、富人先行的社会规则更加横行。
The wealth polarization in the US is inherent to its own political system and the interests of the capital that its government represents. From the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, to the recent “Harambe stares down Wall Street’s Charging Bull”, the American people have never stopped condemning the widening wealth gap. Yet, nothing has changed. Those governing the US choose to do nothing about the growing wealth inequality. And the pandemic has further exposed a rule in American society – capital first and the rich first.
5．“言论自由”名不副实
(5) “Freedom of speech” in name only
在美国，媒体被称为与行政、立法、司法三权并立的“第四权力”，记者更是被誉为“无冕之王”。美国媒体虽然标榜独立于政治、为自由和真相服务，但早已服务于金钱和党派政治。
In the US, the media is juxtaposed with the executive, the legislative and the judiciary as the “fourth branch of government” and journalists are considered “uncrowned kings”. Though US media organizations claim to be independent from politics and serve freedom and truth, they are actually serving financial interests and party politics.
少数传媒集团垄断美国新闻业，成为一手遮天的政治力量。1996年美国颁布了《电信法》，要求联邦政府放松媒体所有权监管，由此掀起史无前例的兼并狂潮，对美国媒体的多样性和独立性造成毁灭性打击。随着美国媒体数量锐减，少数几家公司不断做大，形成垄断巨头。今天的美国，少数几家企业控制90%以上的媒体，年收益甚至超过某些发展中国家的经济总量。这些媒体“巨无霸”一边大肆扩张商业版图，一边将触手伸向美国政坛，通过游说公关和竞选献金左右政治进程。
A few media conglomerates maintain control of the US news media and have morphed into a political force with outsize influence.
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the federal government is required to relax regulation over the ownership of media outlets. This has led to an unprecedented wave of mergers and a crippling erosion of the diversity and independence of the US media. The drastic reduction in the number of media outlets has enabled a few companies to expand into monopolies.
In the US, a few media conglomerates are now in control of over 90% of media outlets, netting them an annual profit even higher than the gross domestic product (GDP) of some developing countries.
These media behemoths, while eager to make more business footprints, have extended their reach into American politics, attempting to sway political processes through lobbying, public relations campaign or political donations.
被垄断的美国媒体成为公民政治权利的“隐形杀手”。美国传播政治经济学派代表人物、伊利诺伊大学香槟分校教授罗伯特·麦克切斯尼在《富媒体穷民主》一书中指出，出于追逐利润的本性，媒体公司将民众封锁在娱乐节目的世界中，使民众失去获取多元化信息的渠道、关心公共问题的兴趣以及明辨是非的能力，在社会政策制定过程中逐渐失声。民主政治文化在媒体高度发达的美国社会变得极度萎缩，“政治疏离”导致民主成为一种“没有公民”的政治游戏。迈阿密《新先驱报》报道称，在精英和财团控制的媒体诱导下，民众已无法辨别哪些是事实真相，哪些是政治宣传。
The US media monopolies have become “invisible killers” of civil and political rights.
Robert McChesney, a leading US scholar in the studies of political economy of communications and professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, notes in his book Rich Media, Poor Democracy that media companies, profit-driven by nature, confine people to the world of entertainment programs, depriving their access to diversified information, distracting their interest in public affairs, diminishing their ability to distinguish between right and wrong, and muting their voice in the decision-making of social policies. In an American society dominated by media narratives, traditional notions of civic and political involvement have shriveled. Depoliticization has turned democracy into a political game without citizens.
A report in Miami’s New Herald argues that as the media is controlled by the elite and conglomerates, people are not able to distinguish between facts and political propaganda.
美国媒体不再是民主的“守门员”。媒体行业的“左右之争”无形中加深了美国两党之间、精英与平民之间的隔阂与分歧，造成“左的更左”、“右的更右”，并导致极端思想和民粹主义在美国登堂入室。
The US media is no longer a “gatekeeper” of democracy. The political wrangling between the Left and Right in the US media has further entrenched the estrangement and division between the two parties and between the elite and the mass public. It has aggravated political polarization in the US, pushing the political Left further left and the Right further right. And it has fueled the spread of extremist ideologies and populism in the US.
韩国智库世宗研究所刊文指出，超过80%的美国保守派选民将《纽约时报》等主流媒体报道视为虚假消息，对媒体的信任呈偏向性。选民只听信特定媒体，无视国家层面沟通，大喊大叫、消极党争代替了冷静讨论和共识。牛津大学－路透社新闻研究所发布《2021全球数字新闻洞察报告》指出，在对46个国家的92000名新闻消费者调查后发现，美国民众对媒体的信任度排名垫底，受调查人群中仅有29%的民众信任媒体。
According to a study by Sejong Institute, a think tank in the Republic of Korea, over 80% of conservative voters in the US see news reports by mainstream media outlets, such as New York Times, as false information and have a biased trust in media. Voters believe in only a few media outlets and would ignore communications at the national level. Levelheaded discussions and consensus-building have been replaced by megaphone politics and negative partisan strife.
The Digital News Report 2021 issued by the University of Oxford and Reuters Institute indicates that among 92,000 online news consumers surveyed in 46 markets, those in the US have the lowest level of trust in news, a mere 29%.
在传统媒体衰落的信息时代，社交媒体一跃成为公众“新宠”，但也免不了复制传统媒体被大资本和利益集团控制的老路。社交媒体公司为了赚取流量，利用算法为用户编织起“信息茧房”，对提供的极端内容不加管控，从而导致使用者日益自我固化，身份政治和民意撕裂更加严重。
In the information age when traditional media is on the decline, social media has become a new favorite for the general public. Yet, like traditional media, social media is also under the control of big capital and interest groups. To increase their website traffic, social media sites use algorithms to create “information cocoons”, leaving extreme content unchecked and uncontrolled. This drives users toward self-reinforcing their existing views, exacerbates identity politics, and further divides public opinion.
2021年10月，前脸书公司员工豪根公布了数万份关于脸书公司内部运作的爆炸性文件。豪根向美国哥伦比亚广播公司透露，脸书公司为了保持用户粘度，不惜牺牲公众利益而攫取利润。脸书平台是社会极端分子的主要阵地，充斥着仇恨言论、虚假信息和错误信息，而只有3%至5%的仇恨以及约0.6%的暴力和煽动性言论得到管控。
In October 2021, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked tens of thousands of pages of explosive internal documents of Facebook. She disclosed to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) that Facebook would not hesitate to sacrifice public interests to keep users on its platform and make profits. Facebook has become a main platform for social extremists and is fraught with hate speech, disinformation and misinformation. Action is only taken on 3-5% of hate and about 0.6% of violence and incitement on the platform.
