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#里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀
本週的外師專欄，要帶大家來看美國的總統大選！最近想當美國總統的人各個摩拳擦掌，宣布要參選囉～ Has the position of the president of the USA merely become yet another ceremonial post with no real power, authority or purpose, like the Queen of England, King of Thailand and Emperor of Japan? Certainly, the embarrassment that some Americans express about their Commander-In-Chief certainly seems to mirror that felt by other subjects of anachronistic heads of state that are now more ritualistic figureheads than anything else. According to anonymous reports from within the White House, there are staff actively in charge of preventing Donald Trump from taking any serious actions or making any meaningful decisions, mainly in order to prevent him causing a global calamity beyond what we already have to deal with. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 #remdesivir #瑞德西韋
這週的外師專欄，又要回到COVID-19的話題上了！瑞德西韋 (remdesivir) 這個藥物被視為治療武漢肺炎的關鍵藥物，也因此這個藥物現在成了搶手貨。據消息指稱，美國已經買光了未來三個月的瑞德西韋 (remdesivir)藥物產量，這下其他國家要頭痛了！我們一起來看看這篇新聞，以及外師的看法吧～ Two fatal failings of the current global system of capitalism under American dominance are evident in the news from this article. First, there is the ethical issue that is never even considered by America: if a country can look after its own interests at the expense of all other nations of the world, should it just go ahead and trample all over everyone else? The USA buying up basically all the supplies of drug remdesivir in order to ensure that only Americans have access to what is currently seen as the most effective treatment for COVID-19 is no doubt seen by many Americans as a natural implementation of Trump’s “America First” policy. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 #油畫修復
本週的外師專欄，要跨足藝術領域囉～今天就來看看藝術品修復的相關新聞吧！ In the debate over subjectivity versus objectivity, perhaps few fields are as divisive as art. Very likely though, many people are directed in what to consider as ‘masterpieces’ by art critics, museum art curators and social trends, which inevitably leads to an almost universally accepted standard of taste, similar in scope and manner to trends in fashion. This also results in some artists and artworks being put on a podium to the detriment of other possibly equally valuable or unique works that are marginalised or disregarded. But is there a universal standard of beauty that is at the heart of what we universally recognise as masterpieces? #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀
Tearing down statues and other vestiges of former unenlightened times seems to be all the rage now in Western countries in particular, where a reckoning is taking place in former colonies and former slave-trading nations that seeks some kind of atonement for past sins by expressing rage against inanimate objects. Destroying sculptures of past tyrants and people who committed horrendous acts against others may be one way to come to terms with past wrongs, but is it the only or even the best way? The author of this article makes a valid point that in fact several Lords in Britain’s House of Lords, an anachronistic hereditary branch of the UK’s legislature, are direct descendants of the slave owners and traders, and no doubt owe much of their wealth, status and power to the horrific crimes of their forebears. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 #美劇<警察>
有人看過美國一齣播出多年的電視實境秀《警察》嗎? 這個影集在1989年播出，內容是拍攝洛杉磯縣警局員警出巡的實況，但最近這齣實境秀要被停播了。導火線當然是最近引起美國全體輿論譁然的佛洛伊德被殺事件，導致這齣劇的內容更加引起關注與檢視。我們來看看外師對這篇新聞的看法吧！ In light of the protests about police brutality directed at African Americans in the USA that have dominated western media for some time now, it was inevitable that entertainment media’s role in portraying law enforcement would be subject to increased scrutiny. Sure enough, COPS, the long-running television staple that has been exalting police violence in America for decades has finally been axed after 32 seasons. To non-Americans it might seem surprising that a show that has been depicting the excessive use of force from the authorities against citizens as a virtue has lasted this long in a nation that claims to revere personal freedoms, and where libertarian values are supposedly second to none. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 #檢舉魔人
本週的外師專欄，要來探討台灣常見的現象—檢舉魔人！有多少人被檢舉過受罰呢? 外師Alex對這個現象又有什麼樣的看法呢? 大家點開文章來看看吧！ The headline says it all: is it for society’s benefit or one person’s own advantage that Taiwan pays people for dobbing in their fellow citizens? ‘Do-gooders’ may be less controversially labelled as such when they volunteer at charities or help strangers in the street. However, when they are hiding in bushes taking pictures, or driving around filming everything they see in order to catch someone in the act of some minor infraction, can they still be seen as doing something good for society? Clearly from this article, ‘Auntie Sue’ the notorious informant was seen as a menace herself, when surely the whole point of the cash-for-informing system was supposed to decrease the levels of anti-social behaviour in society. What kind of society is it that rewards citizens to inform on their neighbours, friends and families? Ask citizens of former and current Communist countries and the answer is not likely to be positive or inspiring, as it leads to distrust and endless cycles of revenge and betrayal. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 #鐵肺男子
本週的批判性思考，要帶大家來看這位住在鐵肺中的男子！ Anti-vaxxers may sometimes justifiably be labelled as “idiots”, “the worst type of conspiracy theorists” and some of “the most selfish people on earth”, but often they are just ignorant, and as a result, also scared. In what perhaps could be considered somewhat of a silver lining to the cloud of death and destruction that COVID-19 has brought to our world, the horrendous symptoms and high death tolls could be a factor convincing anti-vaxxers to wake up to the harm they cause to the collective health of society through their inconsiderate behaviour. If they need a bit more prompting, it might be worth pointing them in the direction of articles like the one linked to below. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 #口罩議題
今天的外師專欄，要來探討口罩相關的議題～來看看外師Alex閱讀完這篇新聞後的感想吧！ Let’s examine how the media often combines and distorts information in order to push their own agendas. When a writer has their own personal agenda to further, they often have no concern for facts or unbiased discussion, and will pluck any data from any source to cobble together whatever semblance of an argument they can, regardless of the total lack of journalistic integrity that it shows them to suffer from. Clearly this is what has happened in the article below, where the author seems to want to bolster their feminist credentials by combining the results of unreleased research, biased opinion polls and unconfirmed statistics, in order to create their own perfect storm of man-bashing “toxic masculinity” drivel. No doubt in their mind, the author has manufactured a well-balanced position that is supported by facts and figures. But when those “facts” and “figures” come from unpublished, non-peer-reviewed research, raw and preliminary data that has not been analysed or correlated, and from opinion polls that ask leading questions to bait the respondents into certain stereotypical answers, the result is no more valid than a social media post about 5G causing COVID-19. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀
大家知道什麼是Objective Reality 嗎? 今天就讓我們來看看這是什麼吧！ After examining the pitfalls of misinformation, disinformation and fake news, then looking at how several contentious and likely unprovable theories, such as the multiverse theory and string theory, are seriously being investigated by researchers, here we can see a confluence of the two seemingly unrelated issues. This is how when free reign is given to imagination in many fields it can lead to revolutionary achievements and innovations, but when it is permitted in fields where objectivity and evidence-based support are required, it can instead result in the undermining of the basic tenets that we see as foundations of our understanding of the world. #里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 #多重宇宙論
大家有看上週的UFO討論嗎? 延續上週的太空議題，這週外師專欄要討論另一個有趣的話題：多重宇宙論！現在，就來看看Alex的評論吧～ Intelligent alien lifeforms visiting our planet may be a an extremely remote possibility, perhaps to the point of impossibility, but how about the potential of infinite parallel universes in which the rule of physics, chemistry and biology are not valid at all, and every single possibility is realised? Surely this is the work of science fiction, and not even worth serious consideration. Nonetheless, there are theoretical physicists around the world dedicating their entire careers to trying to find evidence to prove that this theory is true. |
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