讀《FT·金融時報》學(xué)英語：post-truth 后真相

Oxford Dictionaries has made “post-truth” its word of the year for 2016, citing a surge in the frequency of its use in the context of Britain's EU referendum and the US presidential election.
“post-truth”當(dāng)選牛津詞典“2016年度詞匯”。在英國脫歐公投和美國總統(tǒng)大選的背景之下，這個詞匯使用量激增，最終獲此稱號。

這個形容詞很好地代表了當(dāng)下世界感性沖擊理性的社會現(xiàn)象，牛津?qū)υ撛~的解釋是：

post-truth
“post-truth (adjective) Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.
adj.形容相比于情感及個人信念，客觀事實(shí)對形成民意只有較小的影響。


Oxford Dictionaries said the word appears to have been first used in 1992 by Steve Tesich, the late Serbian-American playwright, in an essay related to the Iran-Contra affair and the first Gulf war.However, he used it to mean “after the truth was known” rather than the modern definition of a situation where the truth is irrelevant.
牛津詞典解釋說，已故的塞爾維亞裔美國劇作家Steve Tesich于1992年在一篇有關(guān)伊朗門事件和第一次海灣戰(zhàn)爭的文章中，第一次使用了這個詞。那時候他用這個詞來表示“在真相大白之后”，而現(xiàn)在這個詞的意義與“真相”無關(guān)。

Despite being in use for more than 20 years, Oxford Dictionaries said post-truth rose to prominence in 2016, particularly when coupled to form the phrase “post-truth politics”.Usage, it said, had increased by 2,000 per cent compared to 2015.
盡管這個詞有20年的使用歷史，但據(jù)牛津詞典介紹，post-truth在2016年才出現(xiàn)使用量大幅增加的情況，尤其是作為詞組“post-truth politics ”（后真相政治）出現(xiàn)。與2015年比較，post-truth的使用量增長了2000%。

后真相政治（Post-truth politics）是一種政治文化，亦是當(dāng)今國際出現(xiàn)的一種新趨勢。“后真相政治”是“事實(shí)勝于雄辯”的相反，即是“雄辯勝于事實(shí)”，意見重于事實(shí)，立場決定是非，人們把情感和感覺放在首位，證據(jù)、事實(shí)和真相淪為次要，政治人物說謊不再是為了瞞騙，而是鞏固目標(biāo)群眾的偏見，換取共鳴與支持。
——來源：Wikipedia

“Post-truth has gone from being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary, now often being used by major publications without the need for clarification or definition in their headlines,” Oxford Dictionaries said.
牛津詞典稱：post-truth已經(jīng)從一個生僻詞匯變成了政治評論語言中的常用詞。如今在許多主流出版物的頭條中都可以看見它的出現(xiàn)，而且并不需要對其加以解說或注釋了。

The phrase became a feature of Brexit and the US elections, in which campaigns were accused of using false information to help sway voters.
這個詞成為了英國脫歐和美國大選的一大特色，競選者經(jīng)常被控訴用虛假的信息來動搖選民意愿。

Google and Facebook have come under fire after the US election result for failing to police the rise of fake news, which spread widely on social networks in the run-up to the vote.
Google和Facebook在美國大選結(jié)果公布后遭到了批評，因為它們沒有有效監(jiān)管假新聞，讓它們在投票前在社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)上廣泛傳播。

Both companies said on Tuesday they would take steps to restrict advertising to sites that hosted fake news.
兩家公司都在周二表示將采取措施，以限制發(fā)布虛假新聞的網(wǎng)站的廣告宣傳。

Last year Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year was, for the first time, not a word but an emoji—a round yellow face laughing and crying known as “Face with Tears of Joy”, made popular by online communication services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
去年牛津詞典的年度詞匯并非一個詞語，而是首度頒給了那個黃色的又笑又哭的emoji表情符號——。它風(fēng)靡了WhatsApp和Facebook Messenger等在線交流軟件。



Previous new entries include selfie (2013), omnishambles (2012) and Big Society (2010).
之前的年度詞匯還有，2013年的selfie（自拍），2012年的omnishambles（一團(tuán)糟）和2010年的Big Society（大社會，英國前首相卡梅倫提出的政治口號）。

今年的年度詞匯候選名單里還有：

glass cliff,

n.used with reference to a situation in which a woman or member of a minority group ascends to a leadership position in challenging circumstances where the risk of failure is high.
玻璃懸崖：n.指女性或者少數(shù)群體人士在晉升路上遇到的高失敗風(fēng)險的處境。

Brexiteer,

n.British informal a person who is in favour of the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Union.
脫歐支持者：對于支持英國退出歐盟的支持者的非正式稱呼。

alt-right,

n.(in the US) an ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterized by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content.
另類右翼：美國的有關(guān)極端保守或者反對改革的思想意識流派，他們的特征是：拒絕主流政治、用在線媒體傳播爭議性內(nèi)容。