本土恐怖主义助燃美国文化分歧

In the space of less than a week, America has suffered the worst anti-Semitic attack in its history — a massacre that claimed 11 lives — and uncovered a spate of pipe bombs mailed to at least 14 of President Donald Trump’s critics, including his predecessor, Barack Obama. In a third incident, two African-Americans were gunned down in a grocery store. The alleged killer spared a white customer, saying “whites don’t kill whites”. The apparent culprits in the first two — Cesar Sayoc, who allegedly posted the pipe bombs, and Robert Bowers, accused of gunning down worshippers and police officers in a Pittsburgh synagogue— were inspired, in part, by conspiracies on social media touting Mr Trump’s story of a caravan of central Americans heading towards the US border. Anti-Semites believe the caravan is funded by George Soros, the hedge fund billionaire, who was one of the pipe bomb targets.

在不到一周时间里，美国遭遇了史上最严重的反犹太袭击——一场导致11人死亡的大屠杀——并发现一波土制爆炸装置被寄给至少14名唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)总统的批评者，包括他的前任巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)。在第三起事件中，两名非洲裔美国人在食品店被枪杀。杀人疑犯放过了一名白人顾客，扬言“白人不杀白人”。前两起事件中的犯罪嫌疑人——塞萨尔?萨尤克(Cesar Sayoc)，他涉嫌寄出爆炸装置邮包；以及罗伯特·鲍尔斯(Robert Bowers)，他被控在匹兹堡的一个犹太教堂枪击会众和警察——在某种程度上是受到了社交媒体上的阴谋论蛊惑，这些阴谋论大肆炒作特朗普讲述的中美洲移民大军正在向美国边境进发的故事。反犹分子认为，这支移民大军是由对冲基金界的亿万富翁乔治·索罗斯(George Soros)资助的，他也在爆炸装置邮包的收件人之列。

As president, Mr Trump’s first duty should have been to appeal to national unity. Instead, he used it as a chance to sow more division. He endorsed the idea that the pipe bombs were “false flag” operations by Democrats fearful of losing next week’s midterm elections. “Republicans are doing so well in early voting and now this ‘Bomb’ stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows,” he tweeted. Although he condemned anti-Semitism, his response to the Pittsburgh massacre was no less inappropriate. He said the Tree of Life synagogue should have had an armed guard. These were highly incendiary responses, which gave Mr Trump cover to downplay any future violent attempts against his critics.

作为总统，特朗普的首要职责应该是呼吁国家团结。他却利用这个机会来挑起更大的分歧。他支持这样一种观点，即爆炸装置是那些担心在下周中期选举中失利的民主党人发起的一次“栽赃嫁祸行动”。“共和党人在提前投票中表现很好，现在‘炸弹’事件发生了，势头大大放缓，”他在推文中写道。尽管他谴责了反犹太主义，但他对匹兹堡大屠杀的反应同样不恰当。他说，生命之树(Tree of Life)犹太教堂应该有武装警卫。这些都是极具煽动性的回应，让特朗普有借口来淡化未来任何针对其批评者的暴力企图。

But his culpability goes deeper than that. As president and as a candidate, Mr Trump has routinely blessed acts of violence against people he dislikes. His incitements are now so routine that they are losing the capacity to shock. Whether it was applauding thugs for beating up an illegal immigrant, retweeting memes that showed Hillary Clinton in the crosshairs, or offering to pay the legal bills of anyone who attacked protesters, he has normalised appeals to violence in everyday politics. He has also created an enabling vocabulary by talking of opponents and the media as “enemies of the people”, praising a congressman who physically assaulted a journalist, and threatening to investigate his critics. The chants of “Lock her up”, referring to Mrs Clinton, are still routine at Mr Trump’s rallies.

但他的过错比此更深。作为总统和候选人，特朗普经常支持针对他不喜欢的人的暴力行为。如今，他的煽动性言论已成为家常便饭，以至于它们不再令人震惊。无论是为殴打一名非法移民的暴徒鼓掌，转发希拉里·克林顿(Hillary Clinton)处在瞄准镜准心的表情包，还是为任何攻击抗议者的人支付律师费的提议，特朗普都已正常化了在日常政治中诉诸暴力的做法。他还创造了一个推波助澜的词汇表，将反对者和媒体称为“人民的敌人”，对一名殴打记者的议员赞赏有加，并威胁要对批评他的人展开调查。“把她关起来”（指希拉里）仍是特朗普集会上常用的口号。

The danger now is that others will start to take Mr Trump’s cue. Of course, he cannot be legally held to account for violence he allegedly inspired. Nor can he be blamed for what Saudi Arabia now admits was a plan to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi this month. The US president nonetheless occupies a unique bully pulpit that sets an example — both good and bad — for others to follow at home and abroad. Mr Trump’s rhetoric offers cover to strongmen to emulate his example. It should come as no surprise that the epithet “fake news” is now regularly hurled by autocrats against independent media.

现在的危险是，其他人会开始效仿特朗普。当然，在法律上，无法追究他被指煽动暴力行为的责任。也不能把沙特阿拉伯本月蓄意杀害记贾迈勒·卡舒吉(Jamal Khashoggi)（沙特已经承认）的事件归咎于他。尽管如此，美国总统占据着独特的天字一号讲坛，为国内外的其他人树立了一个效仿的榜样——无论好坏。特朗普的言论为政治强人提供了效仿他的借口。并不令人意外的是， “假新闻”这个词现在经常被威权者用来攻击独立媒体。

Even if Mr Trump persists in his ways, others should uphold standards of civility. Democrats must not compete in a race to the bottom. As Mohandas Gandhi said: “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” Casual talk of civil war has become far too common on the US left. Nor are Mr Trump’s critics strangers to conspiracy theory. But the buck really does stop in the Oval Office. Mr Trump has shown there are few moral constraints on what he is willing to say. If he has taught us anything, it is that democratic culture is a delicate organism that must be carefully protected.

即使特朗普坚持自己的方式，其他人也应该捍卫文明的标准。民主党人绝不能参与一场逐底竞争。正如莫罕达斯·甘地(Mohandas Gandhi)所说：“以眼还眼只会让整个世界变得盲目。”在美国左翼阵营中，有关内战的清谈已经过于司空见惯。特朗普的批评者对阴谋论也不陌生。但是，椭圆形办公室要负最终的责任。特朗普的所作所为已经表明，只要他愿意说，就没有什么道德约束。如果说他教给我们什么的话，那就是民主文化是一个脆弱的有机体，必须小心加以保护。