"Plaster saint" nghĩa là gì?

Photo by Lisandro Garcia on Unsplash.

'Plaster saint' = tượng thánh bằng thạch cao, a person who makes a show of being without moral faults or human weakness, especially in a hypocritical way -> nghĩa là người tỏ ra ko có lỗi lầm/sai sót nào, nhất là theo cách đạo đức giả.

Ví dụ
Mrs. Rogers was right. Fred Rogers was no plaster saint. The shame of it is that, after watching this pleasant little film, you wouldn’t know that.

His latest documentary (phim tài liệu mới nhất) also highlights (làm nổi bật) the contradictions (sự mâu thuẫn, trái ngược) in Dorothy Day’s life, noting that she was a devout (thành kính, mộ đạo, sùng đạo) Catholic, a woman of prayer and action, who once said, “Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.” That point was echoed by Henessy, who said, “We don’t want her to be held up as a plaster saint.”

She has always aroused a quasi-aesthetic repulsion (sự kinh tởm, sự lợm giọng; sự ghê tởm) within the metropolitan class; and, indeed, it is that continued detestation (sự ghét cay ghét đắng; sự ghê tởm) of what Jonathan Miller in the 1980s sneeringly (cười chế nhạo; miệt thị; chế riễu; cười khinh bỉ) called “her odious suburban gentility” that most potently keeps her memory alive. But Margaret Thatcher is far too consequential (tự phụ, tự mản, tự đắc) to be retired as a plaster saint or to stand in for the creative destruction of global capitalism or to serve as the touchstone (đá thử (hợp kim) bằng cách rạch lên; tiêu chuẩn) by which the bien-pensants establish their bona fides (không lừa dối; không gian dối; ngay tình).

Phạm Hạnh

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