“自由派是新的种族主义者”——这是本周世界大赛期间播出的一则政治广告的说法，这则广告无意间显得颇为滑稽。
“Liberals are the new racists,” according to an unintentionally comical political ad that aired during the World Series this week.
广告将三位有色人种女性（纽约州民主党众议员亚历山德里娅·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯、明尼苏达州民主党众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔，以及《观点》节目联合主持人桑尼·霍斯汀）谈论种族的片段断章取义地剪辑在一起，配以恐怖电影的美学风格。接着是广告真正的信息：“如今的自由派充满仇恨。他们仇恨美国。他们执迷于肤色，”一位隐没在阴影中、未具名的女性旁白说道。“我甚至不能露脸，因为我的皮肤是白色的，他们会对我大肆宣泄仇恨，”她哀叹道。
The ad plays out of context clips of three women of color (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Rep. Ilhan Omar D-Minn.; and “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin) speaking about race, cut together with a horror movie aesthetic. Then comes the ad’s real message: “Today’s liberals are full of hate. They hate America. They’re obsessed with skin color,” says an unnamed female narrator obscured by shadow. “I can’t even show my face, because my skin is white and they’ll spew hate at me,” she laments.
中期选举将是对美国一个世纪以来最恶劣的种族主义总统的执政表现进行公投，而在选举前几天，我不禁想知道，是谁掏出了据称55万美元的费用，在今年秋季经典赛期间播出这则30秒的广告。
Days before the midterm elections that will serve as a referendum on the job performance of America’s most abjectly racist president in a century, I couldn’t help but wonder who ponied up the reported $550,000 it costs to air a 30-second spot during this year’s Fall Classic.
《纽约时报》记者肯·本辛格在X上发帖称，这则广告由“美国下一步”组织出资，该政治行动委员会由前路易斯安那州共和党州长鲍比·金达尔创立。据其网站介绍，“美国下一步”“并不专注于选举”，而是“赢得思想之战”。本辛格还援引联邦选举委员会的数据称，“美国下一步”向一家名为“突破有限责任公司”的机构支付了25万美元，专门用于对密歇根州民主党参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德进行“反对”活动。
New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger posted to X that the ad was paid for by America Next, a PAC created by former Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. According to its website, America Next is “not focused on elections” but rather “winning the war of ideas.”Bensinger also cited Federal Elections Commission data showing America Next paid $250,000 to a firm called Breakthrough LLC for the specific purpose of “opposition” to the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed.
《卫报》报道称，“突破”由金达尔的前助手蒂米·蒂佩尔创立，蒂佩尔的儿子汤米在10月早些时候的一次竞选活动上询问埃尔-赛义德是否会谴责穆斯林兄弟会后走红。（蒂佩尔父子及“美国下一步”均未回应《卫报》的置评请求。）尤其讽刺的是，身为印度移民之子的金达尔，竟出资赞助一则指责左翼“种族主义”和“痴迷肤色”的广告。
The Guardian reported that Breakthrough was founded by former Jindal aide Timmy Teepell, whose son Tommy went viral after asking El-Sayed if he’d denounce the Muslim Brotherhood at a campaign event earlier in October. (Neither of the Teepells, nor America Next responded to The Guardian’s request for comment.) It’s particularly ironic for Jindal, the son of immigrants from India, to bankroll an ad accusing the left of being “racist” and “obsessed with skin color.”
毕竟，就在一个月前，MAGA阵营还就印度裔美国人能否成为“真正的美国人”展开激烈争论，而这场争论的导火索是一名共和党候选人对一张得克萨斯大学非白人橄榄球球迷照片的愤怒反应。
It has, after all, only been a month since MAGA’s recent heated debate over whether Indian Americans can ever be “real Americans,” which was sparked by a Republican candidate’s outrage at a photo of nonwhite University of Texas football fans.
而讽刺意味更进一步的是，第二届特朗普政府的诸多标志性特征之一——其中还包括前所未有的腐败程度、非法对外入侵和未经正当程序的杀戮、屡次侵犯美国人的宪法权利以及庞大的审查产业复合体——正是那种在唐纳德·特朗普总统政治崛起之前曾被推向社会边缘的下流种族主义的彻底正常化。
And the irony is further enhanced by the fact that among the defining features of the second Trump administration — which also include unprecedented levels of corruption, illegal foreign incursions and killings without due process, repeated violations of Americans’ constitutional rights and a vast censorship industrial complex — is the complete normalization of the kind of gutter racism that, prior to President Donald Trump’s political rise, had been pushed toward the fringes of society.
周三，特朗普战争室X账号（特朗普白宫更公开带有政治色彩的账号）引用转发了白宫官方账号的一则帖子，该帖警告称：“我们（在法国）看到的混乱、抢劫和破坏，正是激进民主党人正在为美国推动的未来。”为了强调其观点，战争室账号发布了一张特朗普的照片，配文写道：“西方人何去何从？”对于不了解的人来说，《西方人何去何从？
On Wednesday, the Trump War Room X account (the Trump White House’s more overtly political account) quote-posted an official White House account post warning, “The chaos, looting, and destruction we’re watching [in France] is exactly the future radical Democrats are pushing for America.”To drive home its point, the War Room account posted a photo of Trump with the caption, “Which way Western Man?”For the uninitiated, “Which Way, Western Man?” is the title of a book published in 1978 that has become a foundational text for the neo-Nazi movement.
》是一本1978年出版的书，已成为新纳粹运动的基础文本。该书赞扬阿道夫·希特勒，鼓吹对犹太人和黑人施暴；大量引用反犹伪造文件《锡安长老会纪要》；并将节育比作“文明白人用来割自己喉咙的刀”。（尤其是这句话，让人联想到查理·柯克在遇刺前一天写的一则帖子：“伊斯兰教是左派用来割开美国喉咙的剑。”）
It praises Adolf Hitler, advocates for violence against Jews and Blacks; quotes liberally from the antisemitic forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion;” and likens birth control to “the knife by which [the] civilized White man is cutting his own throat.” (That line, in particular, is evocative of a post Charlie Kirk wrote the day before his assassination: “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”)
必须指出，这远非特朗普政府第一次在其政治宣传中采用纳粹口号。国土安全部已经在互联网上发布了许多“西方人何去何从”的帖子。今年1月，该部门甚至在其社交媒体账号上使用了白人至上主义游行歌曲《以上帝之名，我们将重获家园》。
It must be said that this is hardly the first time the Trump administration has embraced Nazi sloganeering in its political outreach. The Department of Homeland Security has already put many “Which way Western Man” posts on the internet. It even used the white supremacist marching song “By God We’ll Have Our Home Again” on its social media accounts back in January.
但是，如果按照“美国优先”的说法，“自由派是新的种族主义者”，那么谁是旧的种族主义者？也许是共和党和MAGA运动中权力和影响力最高层的人？
But if “liberals are the new racists,” according to America Next, who are the old racists? Maybe it’s the people at the highest positions of power and influence in the Grand Old Party and the MAGA movement?
周一在密歇根州举行的一场共和党催票集会上，卫生与公众服务部部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪——知名的反疫苗狂人和惯于编造谎言者——发表了一通毫无事实依据、带有种族主义色彩的言论，似乎针对的是埃尔-赛义德，他说：“世界上有五亿阿拉伯人。然而他们不产出科学……他们拿不到诺贝尔奖。他们拿不到菲尔兹奖。他们拿不到沃尔夫奖。”
At a GOP get-out-the-vote rally in Michigan on Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — noted anti-vax maniac and serial fabulist — went on a fact-bereft and racist rant seemingly directed at El-Sayed, saying, “There are five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don’t produce science … They don’t win the Nobel Prize. They don’t win the Fields Medal. They don’t win the Wolf Prize.”
两天后，“Libs of TikTok”的X账号——该账号对白宫影响力之大，以至于路透社指出其与政府之间的“共生关系”已“引发骚扰和威胁”——发布了一张四名黑人高中生的照片，配文写道：“明尼苏达州圣克劳德地区学校宣布获奖学生名单。你注意到了什么？”Libs of TikTok把孩子们拖入其文化战争执念固然卑劣，但其明显暗示是这些黑人学生不配获奖。对此有一个词可以形容。
Two days later the Libs of TikTok X account — which is so influential on the White House that Reuters noted its “symbiosis” with the administration has “has triggered harassment and threats” — posted a photo of four Black high school students with the caption: “St. Cloud Area Schools in MN announces students chosen for an award. What do you notice?”As vile as it is for Libs of TikTok to draw children into its culture war obsessions, the obvious implication is that the Black students are undeserving. There’s a word for that.
当然，特朗普近几周来在他的竞选集会上充斥着赤裸裸的种族主义。无论是反复称索马里人“低智商”，还是把埃尔-赛义德叫作“阿卜杜拉达达拉拉拉拉”，抑或是用反犹蔑称来为堪萨斯州参议员罗杰·马歇尔辩护——特朗普对自己老派偏执狂的身份十分自在。
And, of course, Trump in recent weeks has filled his campaign rallies with rank racism. Whether it’s repeatedly calling Somalis “low IQ” or referring to El-Sayed as “Abduladadalalalala” or using an antisemitic slur to defend Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall — Trump is very comfortable in his own skin as an old-school bigot.
特朗普及其MAGA盟友一边试图把除自己之外的任何人描绘成种族主义者，一边在偏见的泥沼中越陷越深，然后对此哈哈大笑。周四，白宫发布了一张刻成墨西哥宽边帽形状的南瓜图片，配文写道：“恐怖季节来了。”这显然是一条钓鱼帖，意在暗示墨西哥人很可怕，还加上了傻气的网络梗用语来缓和表达。但传递的信息是对他者的恐惧和仇恨——而将种族主义正常化才是目的所在。
While trying to frame anyone but themselves as racist, Trump and his MAGA allies dig ever deeper into the swamps of prejudice, then laugh about it. On Thursday, the White House posted an image of a pumpkin with a sombrero carved into it, and a caption reading, “Spooky szn is here.”It’s an obvious troll meant to signal that Mexicans are scary, with the added goofy internet meme lingo deployed to soften the delivery. But fear and hatred of the other is the message — and normalizing racism is the point.