In the early days of Twitter, it was like a place of radical de-shaming.
Twitter刚出不久时,像是个奇葩类的供洗耻的地方。
People would admit shameful secrets about themselves, and other people would say, "Oh my God, I'm exactly the same."
人们会直讳一些羞于启齿的秘密,其他人就会搭腔说,“天啊,我跟你一模一样。”
Voiceless people realized that they had a voice, and it was powerful and eloquent.
欲言无处诉的人意识到自己有话语权了,而且还能声势浩大、振振有词。
If a newspaper ran some racist or homophobic column, we realized we could do something about it.
遇到哪份报张发表了种族歧视或反同性恋的言论时,我们就知道可以采取行动了。
We could get them. We could hit them with a weapon that we understood but they didn't -- a social media shaming.
我们能把他们揪出来。我们可以用炮轰他们,用他们觉得陌生而我们得心应手的武器,叫社交媒体羞辱法。
Advertisers would withdraw their advertising.
广告商就会撤回广告。
When powerful people misused their privilege, we were going to get them.
遇到有权有势之士滥用特权的时候,我们就可以把他们给揪出来。
This was like the democratization of justice.
简直就像司法的民主化。
Hierarchies were being leveled out. We were going to do things better.
阶层差异被推平了。很多事情我们都可以做得更好了。
Soon after that, a disgraced pop science writer called Jonah Lehrer
那之后不久,一位名叫乔纳·雷尔的知名科学作家,做了件丢人的事,
he'd been caught plagiarizing and faking quotes, and he was drenched in shame and regret, he told me.
抄袭和捏造引据,并因之深陷羞辱和悔恨,他对我说。
And he had the opportunity to publicly apologize at a foundation lunch.
他得到一个机会可以在一次基金午餐会上公开道歉。
This was going to be the most important speech of his life.
那将会是他生命中最重要的一次讲话的了。
Maybe it would win him some salvation.
可能会为他挽回一点颜面。
He knew before he arrived that the foundation was going to be live-streaming his event,
出席之前他知道,该基金会将要流媒体直播他的讲话,
but what he didn't know until he turned up, was that they'd erected a giant screen Twitter feed right next to his head.
但他没有料到的是,到了会场之后才发现现场竖起了一个巨大的推特荧屏,就挨他的头旁边。
Another one in a monitor screen in his eye line.
另一个电脑荧屏则在他的视线之内。