Once upon a time, the favorite word was “brainstorming,” which meant coming together in a positive way to create a storm of great ideas or solve a problem. Now the word is “blamestorming,” a negative word, which means everyone is blaming everyone else for something that goes wrong. In China, blamestorming takes place on the Internet when netizens post a series of accusations¹ following an accident before all the evidence is in.

“Brainstorming”（头脑风暴）以前很受宠爱，意思是说大家坐在一起，积极想办法解决问题，一群人可以想出一箩筐的主意。如今，这个词演变成了“blamestorming”（批评风暴），有贬义色彩，意思是说每个人都怪别人把事情搞砸了。在中国，有时事故发生后，证据还没全部浮出水面，网民们就开始在网上攻讦他人，这就是blamestorming。