The news, at its best, is often an indulgence, a relief, an escape from one’s own troubles, a flight from the mundane. News is not a civic chore. In fact, to treat reading the news as a duty is to treat ice cream like mustard greens–to believe readers must be tricked into eating it, and thus guarantee that they rarely will.

最好的情况下，新闻通常是一种放纵、放松，让人从麻烦中解脱、逃离平凡。阅读新闻不是一项公民义务。事实上，像对待义务一样对待新闻，就好像对待芥菜一样对待冰淇淋，认为读者一定是被骗才吃芥菜，从而确信他们几乎不会主动去阅读新闻。

I’m going to propose that we should read news sites as ice cream–not as an obligation, but for stimulation, escapism, and even righteousness. At the same time we must admit to ourselves that–far from being a duty–news in heated times (and in the age of Twitter) can often represent a full-tilt compulsion, and thus a habit to be judiciously managed.

我建议把浏览新闻网站看成是吃冰淇淋，不是履行义务，而是寻求鼓舞、逃离，乃至正义。同时，我们必须承认，身处激烈变革的时代（尤其是在推特时代），阅读新闻和履行义务相距甚远，读者往往是全面被迫接受，因而，阅读新闻作为一种习惯需要谨慎管理。

This new avidity and readerly sense of purpose began about a year ago, during the psychic upheaval of the presidential primaries, with the repeated shocks to our society’s manners, morals, and politics. The work of “being informed”–so long preached in social studies classes–now felt like the opposite of work. You didn’t have to force yourself to read the news. You had to force yourself to take a break.

大约一年前，在美国总统初选的激荡中，这种全新的阅读迫切感以及读者目的意识便生根发芽了，社会的习俗、道德和政治一次又一次遭到冲击。“正被告知”盛行社会研究课堂那么多年，现在感觉正好相反。你无需强迫自己阅读新闻，反而需要强迫自己停下来。

There is everything to be gained by cultivating a personal stake in the lives of others, in the future of our nation, and in the world. But reading the front section as if it were the sports pages, with every line a credit or debit, a win, or a loss, has hazards. You begin to twist what you read. It’s what happens when the public’s consumption of news becomes too much about sides, about winning and losing, and less about empathy for our fellow men.

通过将个人利益同他人生活、国家前途和这个世界联系起来，会有很多好处。但是，像读体育版面一样读头版头条，读每一行都在计较输赢，这种做法很危险。你会开始曲解自己读过的内容。大众在消费新闻时，若是太过注重对立和输赢，而很少同情同胞的遭遇，就会产生误会和曲解。

So how do we combat this? By increasing our literacy. To become a better reader, we must borrow practices from higher-order reading, including the reading of fiction. Remember that the best characters and novels–and every single flesh-and-blood human and real-life event–mix good and evil. Suspend judgement. Let yourself be surprised by evidence that doesn’t fit your hypothesis. Take breaks.

那我们该如何应对呢？答案是提高文化水平。要成为更好的读者，我们必须从包括小说在内的更高阶的阅读中汲取营养。记住，最好的人物和小说，包括每一个活生生的人和现实生活中的事件在内，都夹杂着善恶。所以不要急于下结论，要为与你假设不符的证据感到惊奇，偶尔强迫自己停下来。

But also, keep reading. It’s quite a story. And you’re part of it.

此外，你要继续阅读新闻。因为这是个很好的故事，而你是故事的一部分。

（翻译：Frank）