Despite the darkness, I still see signs of hope in America

尽管身处黑暗，我依然在美国看到了希望的曙光

The last time America celebrated a big anniversary, I was all of three years old. Even so, I retain a few fuzzy memories from a sunny summer afternoon in small-town Michigan: climbing on a cannon in front of the courthouse, watching a parade, and seeing my dad, a veteran and Centreville city councilman, giving a short talk about democracy. Only later would I realize the significance of the date: July 4th, 1976, America’s bicentennial. 上一次美国庆祝重大周年纪念日时，我才三岁。即便如此，我依然保留着密歇根州小镇那个阳光明媚的夏日午后的一些模糊记忆：爬上法院门前的大炮，观看游行，看着身为退伍军人兼森特维尔市议员的父亲发表关于民主的简短演讲。直到后来，我才意识到那个日子的重要性：1976年7月4日，美国建国两百周年。

America was imperfect and inconsistent in its approaches to “freedom,” but the country had done some big, difficult things in recent decades. We had led the charge to roll back the tide of fascism and Holocaust during World War II. We had begun to confront internal demons through the nonviolent activism of the civil rights movement. And, critically for my own life trajectory, we had landed on the Moon. 美国在追求“自由”的方式上并不完美，也存在前后不一，但在过去几十年里，这个国家确实完成了一些宏大而艰巨的任务。我们在二战期间带头抵御了法西斯主义和纳粹大屠杀的浪潮。我们通过民权运动的非暴力行动开始直面内部的恶魔。而且，对我个人的人生轨迹至关重要的一点是，我们登上了月球。

The ’70s were hardly a simple or heroic time, but I was too young to experience the turbulence of the era. My dad fought in Vietnam but returned before I was born, and I have no recollection of Watergate or waiting in lines for gasoline during the 1970s energy crisis. Instead, I came of age in the 1980s, watching the Berlin Wall fall and American pop dominate the global charts. When I entered the job market during the 1990s, the economy was booming. Our investments in basic research and universities made this country the preeminent scientific and economic power in the world. By the start of the new millennium, with China only beginning its rise, there stood just a single superpower in the world. Despite our many problems and failures, America remained something one could still celebrate in an imperfect world. 70年代绝非一个简单或英雄辈出的时代，但我当时太小，没能亲历那个时代的动荡。我父亲参加过越战，但在我出生前就已回国，我对水门事件或70年代能源危机期间排队加油毫无记忆。相反，我在80年代长大成人，见证了柏林墙的倒塌和美国流行音乐统治全球榜单。当我90年代进入就业市场时，经济正处于繁荣期。我们对基础研究和大学的投入使这个国家成为世界上首屈一指的科学和经济强国。到了新千年伊始，随着中国刚刚开始崛起，世界上依然只有一个超级大国。尽管存在许多问题和失败，但在一个不完美的世界里，美国依然是一个值得庆祝的存在。

And then—what? It remains difficult to pinpoint the moment in my life when it felt like my country started to lose the plot. Oh, there were signs, like the September 11 attacks and the botched response that drew us into interminable entanglements in Afghanistan and Iraq without “fixing” either country. The financial collapse in 2008 accelerated wealth inequality. Increasingly online, Americans started populating echo chambers and imbibing conspiracies, and distrust of the media grew. No one could agree on a common set of facts anymore, let alone debate them in good faith. More kids wanted to become social media influencers than astronauts. Anger, isolation, and paranoia rose. Big things weren’t getting done, couldn’t get done. With the rise of smartphones, life shifted even further toward screens to mediate the world. The forces of ignorance and grift even managed to turn parts of Americans against vaccines, arguably the single most life-saving medical invention in human history. 然后呢？我依然很难指出我生命中哪一刻让我觉得国家开始“走偏了”。当然，有一些迹象，比如“9·11”恐怖袭击，以及随后拙劣的应对措施，将我们拖入了阿富汗和伊拉克的无休止纠葛中，却没能“修复”这两个国家。2008年的金融崩溃加剧了贫富差距。随着上网时间增加，美国人开始沉溺于回声室效应，吸收各种阴谋论，对媒体的不信任感也随之增长。再也没有人能就一套共同的事实达成一致，更不用说进行善意的辩论了。想成为社交媒体网红的孩子比想成为宇航员的更多。愤怒、孤立和偏执情绪不断上升。大事做不成，也做不了。随着智能手机的兴起，生活进一步转向通过屏幕来感知世界。无知和欺诈的力量甚至成功地让部分美国人反对疫苗——这可以说是人类历史上最能挽救生命的医学发明。

All of this played out against an increasingly poisonous political environment. When Donald Trump was first elected a decade ago, many Americans were struggling and felt unserved by the existing political class. Trump campaigned on addressing those frustrations, promising disruption instead of the status quo. Americans chose disruption, and they got it. They also got hatred, contempt, bullying, misogyny, narcissism, corruption, lies, and a palpable love for dictators—and what were these but symptoms of advanced political disease? 这一切都发生在一个日益恶毒的政治环境中。十年前唐纳德·特朗普首次当选时，许多美国人生活困顿，感到现有的政治阶层无法为他们服务。特朗普竞选时承诺解决这些挫折，承诺打破现状而非维持现状。美国人选择了打破现状，他们确实得到了。但他们也得到了仇恨、蔑视、霸凌、厌女症、自恋、腐败、谎言，以及对独裁者显而易见的崇拜——这些难道不是政治晚期疾病的症状吗？

The numbers show that Americans have been unhappy with the direction of the country—though for different reasons—for twenty years. And in 2026, Americans’ optimism about their own futures has fallen to a record low, lower even than during the pandemic, when people at least still believed tomorrow would be better. 数据显示，二十年来，美国人一直对国家的发展方向感到不满——尽管原因各异。到了2026年，美国人对自己未来的乐观情绪已降至历史最低点，甚至低于疫情期间，那时人们至少还相信明天会更好。

For someone who has watched the last quarter of a century unfold in real time, all this can feel a little hopeless. And as a father of two daughters who recently became young adults, I worry about the world we’re leaving to them. Because we have real problems. The planet is warming. Generation Z is coming into a workforce with uncertain job prospects and futures darkened by artificial intelligence. Billionaires increasingly run the show—and often not in society’s best interests. Goodness knows when younger people will be able to buy a home, once considered the bedrock of achieving the American dream. And we’ve thrown so many addictive habits at them, from corrosive social media to pervasive online gambling, how can we expect them to thrive? 对于一个实时见证了过去四分之一个世纪变迁的人来说，这一切让人感到有些绝望。作为两个刚步入成年的女儿的父亲，我担心我们留给她们的是一个怎样的世界。因为我们面临着真正的问题。地球正在变暖。Z世代进入职场时，面临着不确定的就业前景，未来也被人工智能蒙上了阴影。亿万富翁们越来越多地掌控着局面——而且往往并非出于社会的最佳利益。天知道年轻人何时才能买得起房，而这曾被视为实现“美国梦”的基石。我们还向他们灌输了如此多令人上瘾的习惯，从腐蚀性的社交媒体到无处不在的在线赌博，我们怎能指望他们茁壮成长？

Finding some hope

寻找希望

It would be easy to wallow in this mess—to doomscroll as the world washes away. But on this anniversary of the United States of America, I believe we are not without hope. It may feel like America has been careening along the highway of enshittification since the turn of the century, but the thing about driving on highways is that you can always take an off-ramp. The truly remarkable thing about this country is its ingenious ability—through elections, immigration, freedom of speech, and economic mobility—to constantly remake itself. We need to become makers once again, working against the rage, the despair, the grifting, and the misinformation wherever we find them. And we can. 沉溺于这种混乱之中——在世界崩塌时刷着令人沮丧的新闻——是很容易的。但在美国建国纪念日之际，我相信我们并非没有希望。自世纪之交以来，美国似乎一直在“垃圾化”的高速公路上狂奔，但高速公路驾驶的特点是，你随时可以驶离出口。这个国家真正非凡之处在于它拥有天才般的能力——通过选举、移民、言论自由和经济流动性——不断重塑自我。我们需要再次成为创造者，在任何地方对抗愤怒、绝望、欺诈和虚假信息。我们完全可以做到。

Based simply on what I’ve seen as a journalist over the last quarter century, reasons for hope remain. It can be useful once in while to gather these reasons about us as armor against despair. About a decade ago, when I left the Houston Chronicle newspaper to write about space full-time for Ars Technica, I also started a website focused on local weather. Our purpose was clear: In an era of sensationalized storm coverage, Space City Weather would provide no-hype information about weather impacting the lives of people in Houston. We stuck to that, and when giving public talks, I often joke, “Boring is our brand.” But in a world awash in clickbait and shouting, the quiet work we have done with Space City… 仅凭我作为一名记者在过去四分之一个世纪里的所见所闻，希望依然存在。偶尔收集这些理由作为抵御绝望的盔甲是有益的。大约十年前，当我离开《休斯顿纪事报》转而为 Ars Technica 全职撰写太空报道时，我还创办了一个专注于当地天气的网站。我们的目标很明确：在一个充斥着耸人听闻的风暴报道的时代，“太空城天气”（Space City Weather）将提供关于影响休斯顿人民生活的天气的无炒作信息。我们坚持了这一点，在进行公开演讲时，我常开玩笑说：“无聊就是我们的品牌。”但在一个充斥着点击诱饵和喧嚣的世界里，我们通过“太空城天气”所做的安静工作……