美国是如何失去理智的：对理性的攻击削弱了我们的民主

美国人正在失去与现实的联系。在几乎所有问题上，从气候变化到移民，数千万美国人的观点和信仰都与事实大相径庭，使他们无法理智地思考政治。托马斯·E·帕特森（Thomas E.Patterson）在《美国是如何失去理智》一书中解释了“另类事实”世界的崛起，以及我们周围正在上演的慢动作文化和政治灾难。
我们不必寻找那些误导我们、使我们四分五裂的力量：对他们来说，分裂是一种战略的政客；令业界愤怒的脱口秀主持人；将冲突作为营销工具的新闻媒体；以及党派组织和外国特工，他们散布虚假信息来推动一项事业、赚钱或只是自娱自乐。后果是严重的。美国如何失去它的思维导图一个充满不信任、僵局、边缘政策、小争执和欺骗性信息的政治图景。
尽管这张照片很可怕，而且不太可能立即缓解，但帕特森看到了前进的道路，并强调了它的紧迫性。他的书呼吁我们采取行动，鼓励我们从理论家和颠覆者手中夺取制度权力，并将其委托给明智的公民和领导人，恢复我们对相互容忍和克制的承诺，清除互联网上的假新闻和虚假信息，并要求我们的新闻来源提供可靠和相关的稳定信息。
正如哲学家汉娜·阿伦特（Hannah Arendt）几十年前所写的那样，煽动家的崛起是由“事实与虚构、真实与虚假之间的区别不再存在的人”推动的托马斯·E·帕特森（Thomas E.Patterson）在《美国是如何失去理智》（How America Lost It Mind）一书中提出了一个充满激情的理由，在我们当前的事实与虚假、团结与分裂、文明与不文明之间的军备竞赛中，充分而激烈地站在真理和相互尊重的一边。
How America Lost Its Mind: The Assault on Reason That’s Crippling Our Democracy
Americans are losing touch with reality. On virtually every issue, from climate change to immigration, tens of millions of Americans have opinions and beliefs wildly at odds with fact, rendering them unable to think sensibly about politics. In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson explains the rise of a world of “alternative facts” and the slow-motion cultural and political calamity unfolding around us.
We don’t have to search far for the forces that are misleading us and tearing us apart: politicians for whom division is a strategy; talk show hosts who have made an industry of outrage; news outlets that wield conflict as a marketing tool; and partisan organizations and foreign agents who spew disinformation to advance a cause, make a buck, or simply amuse themselves. The consequences are severe. How America Lost Its Mind maps a political landscape convulsed with distrust, gridlock, brinksmanship, petty feuding, and deceptive messaging.
As dire as this picture is, and as unlikely as immediate relief might be, Patterson sees a way forward and underscores its urgency. A call to action, his book encourages us to wrest institutional power from ideologues and disruptors and entrust it to sensible citizens and leaders, to restore our commitment to mutual tolerance and restraint, to cleanse the Internet of fake news and disinformation, and to demand a steady supply of trustworthy and relevant information from our news sources.
As philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote decades ago, the rise of demagogues is abetted by “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson makes a passionate case for fully and fiercely engaging on the side of truth and mutual respect in our present arms race between fact and fake, unity and division, civility and incivility.

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