Russia and COVID

#里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 
 
Can you always trust the authorities? The answer to this question is the same as the answer to the question “Can you always trust anyone?”. It may seem cynical or even a bit paranoid to question and be sceptical of everything you see and hear in the news, but the reality is that fake news and government disinformation campaigns make up a huge part of what is reported these days, and it behoves the intelligent reader to be more discerning in what they accept as fact, and also to choose their sources of information wisely. 

In last week’s article we saw how bias can be blatantly written into an article in order to create a certain negative impression of someone or something; in that case designed to skew reader’s opinions because lack of integrity on behalf of the writer or the newspaper. Those are the kinds of news and information sources that you must either avoid at all costs because they are completely compromised and basically as reliable as trashy gossip rags, or if can’t help but be attracted by their one-sided view of events, you need to be extremely wary of accepting anything they say as factual.

In this week’s articles we can see the risks of putting too much confidence in the information that governments’ carefully select to create a positive image of themselves and their countries. Russia and China are both already famous from their Soviet and Communist-era failed attempts at brainwashing their own populations and the rest of the world. Although usually pretty blatantly false, their complete lack of transparency and monopoly on information did manage to deceive millions of people around the world into believing that they were successful, thriving and prosperous nations. Unfortunately, things have not improved much in terms of access to accurate information – either for the Russian or the Chinese people, and their governments continue to slavishly praise the emperor’s new clothes.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/28/russia-admits-to-world-third-worst-covid-19-death-toll-underreported
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/30/wuhan-nearly-490000-people-could-have-had-covid-study-finds
 
===我是分隔線===
 
💡這個專欄目的是訓練同學聰明閱讀。
 
上面的貼文內容是我們的實力派外師Alex，針對每週一篇英文文章閱讀後，親自寫出的批判性思考文（不是copy & paste的東西啊）。旨在讓同學知道如何用不同的角度來讀文章。你可以選擇先讀Alex寫的批判文，也可以選擇先讀本次的英文文章連結，但最好兩處都要閱讀才能達到最好的效果。
 
這是個訓練批判性思考的好機會，希望同學不要被文字牽著鼻子走，在閱讀時可以多思考。大家可以善用這個寶貴的資源～
 
舊文連結：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/alex-column
 
Alex是我們的御用老師，每週都會幫梅姨、托托、慕華上英文課。目前星期一晚上有開一班 #里茲螞蟻外師應用英文課程 ，程度高級，充滿知識性與深度。有開放單次付費上課。若你想學習用英文來深度探討各項主題，check it out！
 
Alex老師的應用英文課：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/applied-english.html