The threats come both from left and right
未翻译原文阅读：As societies polarise, free speech is under threat. It needs defenders
Who is the greater threat to free speech: President Donald Trump or campus radicals? Left and right disagree furiously about this. But it is the wrong question, akin to asking which of the two muggers currently assaulting you is leaving more bruises. What matters is that big chunks of both left and right are assaulting the most fundamental of liberties—the ability to say what you think. This is bad both for America and the world.
furiously adv. 激烈地
akin adj.与…类似的
muggers n.抢劫犯
bruise n.（皮肤）瘀斑
到底是特朗普还是学生激进分子对言论自由的威胁更大呢？对此左右两派各执一词。但这个问题本身就是错的。提出这个问题就像是在问，正在对你施暴的两个抢劫犯谁会给你带来更大的伤害。现在的关键问题应该是，左派和右派正在摧毁公民最根本的自由权利——自由表达的权利。这个麻烦不仅仅影响了美国，还影响整个世界。
disagree furiously 这里强调的是“disagree”即不同意，所以确切地说不是争论，而是争议or分歧，左右两派对此争议很大/分歧很大
The outrages come so fast that it is easy to grow inured to them. The president of the United States calls truthful journalism “fake news” and reporters “enemies of the people”. In June, when a reporter from Time pressed him about the Mueller inquiry, he snapped, “You can go to prison,” justifying his threat by speculating that Time might publish a picture of a letter from Kim Jong Un he had just displayed. Mr Trump cannot actually lock up reporters, because America’s robust constitution prevents him. But his constantly reiterated contempt for media freedom reassures autocrats in other countries that he will not stop them from locking up their own critics. On the contrary, when Saudi Arabia blatantly murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, in its consulate in Istanbul last year, Mr Trump was quick to reassure the Saudi crown prince that this would not affect any oil or arms deals.
inure v.使…习惯于（become inured to sth 习惯于某事物）
snap v.厉声呵斥（or 情绪失控，发怒）
reiterate v.重申
autocrats n.独裁者
blatantly adv.公然地
对言论自由权的破坏来势汹汹，以至于公众快速地接受了这一切。总统大人将真实得报道称为“假新闻”，将记者冠以“人民公敌”的头衔。在六月的时候，特朗普以泄露金正恩的回信为由，威胁一位即将报道穆勒调查的时代周刊记者，扬言要将之送进监狱。当然，美国健全的体制是不会允许特朗普真干出这种荒唐事来的。但特朗普对新闻自由一以贯之的蔑视使其他国家的独裁者们确信，即使他们迫害批评者，美国也不会插手制止他们。不仅如此，沙特在其伊斯坦布尔领馆公然杀害华盛顿邮报撰稿人贾迈勒·卡舒吉后，特朗普第一时间联系沙特王储时关心的竟然是这一事件是否会影响美国与沙特之间的石油或军火贸易。
Campus radicals are less powerful than the president. But he will be gone by 2021 or 2025. By contrast, the 37% of American college students who told Gallup（盖洛普，是一间以调查为基础的全球绩效管理咨询公司） that it was fine to shout down speakers of whom they disapprove will be entering the adult world in their millions. So will the 10% who think it acceptable to use violence to silence speech they deem offensive. Such views are troubling, to put it mildly. It does not take many threats of violence to warn people off sensitive topics. And although the left usually insist that the only speech they wish to suppress is the hateful sort, they define this rather broadly. “Hateful” views may include opposing affirmative action, supporting a Republican or suggesting that America is a land of opportunity. Mansfield University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚州曼斯菲尔大学） bans students from sending any message that might be “annoying”. In some Republican states, meanwhile, public universities face pressure to keep climate change off the curriculum. Small wonder most American students think their classmates are afraid to say what they think.
shout down 压制…的声音
to put it mildly 婉转地说
climate n.氛围
small wonder 不足为奇
和特朗普相比，校园激进分子的权力自然要小得多，但问题是，到2021或者至多2025年，特朗普早晚要把他的权力拱手让人，而学生却会渐渐踏入社会。据盖罗普民调结果，37%的美国大学生支持压制异见者，更有10%的学生主张用暴力手段对付让人不爽的言论——这样的校园激进分子大有人在。毫不夸张地说，这些观点会带来非常恶劣的影响。暴力威胁轻易就能使公众屈服，让他们对敏感话题敬而远之。而且，尽管左派经常宣称他们只是希望封锁具有冒犯性的言语，但他们对“冒犯”一词的定义实在过于宽泛。他们会认为很多行为都是冒犯的，比如反对平权法案、支持共和党人，或者是提出美国这片土地上遍地是机遇。宾夕法尼亚州曼斯菲尔大学严令禁止学生向他人发送令人不适的信息。同时，在一些红州，公立大学被迫将政治局势相关内容从课程中剔除。毫不意外，大部分的美国大学生认为他们的同学并不敢实话实说。
As societies have grown more politically polarised, many people have come to believe that the other side is not merely misguided but evil. Their real goal is to oppress minorities (if they are on the right) or betray the United States (if they are on the left). To this （摩尼教的） view, campus radicals have added a second assertion: that words are in themselves often a form of violence, and that hearing unwelcome ideas is so traumatic, especially for disadvantaged groups, that the first job of a university is to protect its faculty and students from any such encounter. Some add that any campus official who disputes this dogma, or who inadvertently violates the ever-expanding catalogue of taboos, should be hounded out of their job.
dogma n.教义
inadvertently adv.不经意地
taboo n.禁忌
hound sb out/ hound out sb 赶走某人
随着社会舆论两极化进一步加深，越来越多的人认为，对立阵营的人不是蠢而是坏。左派认定右派故意打击少数群体，右派坚称左派叛国。在这种非黑即白的世界之外，校园激进份子还有一种新的看法：言语本身就是一种暴力，特别是对弱势群体，污言秽语、恶意中伤让他们遍体鳞伤。在这种情况下，大学的首要任务就是避免师生遭受类似言论的伤害。此外，还有一些人补充到，任何一位对以上要求产生质疑或公然逾越违反的学校领导，都应该立刻被辞退。
Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness.
——Manichean view，两极化的观点
These ideas are as harmful as they are wrongheaded. Free speech is the cornerstone not only of democracy but also of progress. Human beings are not free unless they can express themselves. Minds remain narrow unless exposed to different viewpoints. Ideas are more likely to be refined and improved if vigorously questioned and tested. Protecting students from unwelcome ideas is like refusing to vaccinate them against measles（麻疹）. When they go out into the world, they will be unprepared for its glorious but sometimes challenging diversity.
cornerstone n.基础
这些执迷不悟的激进份子和他们提出的这些观点都可能会给社会带来灾难。自由表达的权力是民主和进步的基石。人类因实话实说而自由。没有经历碰撞的思想始终是狭隘的。观点在经历质疑和检验之后才会进步。不让学生经历令人讨厌的观点的冲击，就意味着他们不能锻炼出抵御恶意的能力。终有一天，他们走入了社会，却不具备在这个丰富多彩又充满各种挑战的社会生存的能力。
The notion that people have a right not to be offended is also pernicious. Offence is subjective. When states try to police it, they encourage people to take offence, aggravating social divisions. One of the reasons the debate about transgender rights in the West has become so poisonous is that some people are genuinely transphobic. Another is that some transgender activists accuse people who simply disagree with them of hate speech and call the cops on them. Laws criminalising “hate speech” are inevitably vague and open to abuse. This is why authoritarian regimes are adopting them so eagerly. A new Venezuelan（委内瑞拉的） law, for example, threatens those who promote hatred with 20 years in prison—and prosecutors use it against those who accuse ruling-party officials of corruption.
pernicious adj. 有害的
authoritarian adj.专制的
hatred n.仇恨
同时，“人人都有权利不被冒犯”这种观点也会带来消极的影响。冒犯是一种主观感受。当政府想要维稳的时候，政府就会煽动民意，加剧社会分裂。在西方国家，对于变性者权利的讨论越来越不招人待见，其中一大原因在于确实有一部分人打心底里不接受变性人，而另一大原因则要归结于某些变性者权利活动家，他们控诉异见者发表仇恨言论，并且报警要求逮捕异见者。对仇恨言论定罪的法律条文非常模糊且很容易被滥用。这也是专制政权迫不及待要实施这些法律的原因。根据委内瑞拉新出台的一项法律，宣扬仇恨言论者将被判处二十年有期徒刑，公诉人利用此法律来对付那些控告执政党官员腐败的民众。
Governments should regulate speech minimally. Incitement to violence, narrowly defined, should be illegal. So should persistent harassment. Most other speech should be free. And it is up to individuals to try harder both to avoid causing needless offence, and to avoid taking it.
incitement n.煽动
harassment n.骚扰
政府不应该过多干预言论自由。只有当对暴力的煽动和没完没了的骚扰符合狭义定义时才算是真正违法。在此之外，大部分的表达都应该是合法的。而努力避免主动冒犯和被冒犯，则应该是每个人自己的事。
翻译：这么飘来漂去
校对：大珠子
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