Posted on 06/09/2019 7:39:57 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
We are living with a new kind of regime that didn’t exist in Orwell’s time. It combines hard nationalism—the diversion of frustration and cynicism into xenophobia and hatred—with soft distraction and confusion: a blend of Orwell and Huxley, cruelty and entertainment. The state of mind that the Party enforces through terror in 1984, where truth becomes so unstable that it ceases to exist, we now induce in ourselves. Totalitarian propaganda unifies control over all information, until reality is what the Party says it is—the goal of Newspeak is to impoverish language so that politically incorrect thoughts are no longer possible. Today the problem is too much information from too many sources, with a resulting plague of fragmentation and division—not excessive authority but its disappearance, which leaves ordinary people to work out the facts for themselves, at the mercy of their own prejudices and delusions.
During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, propagandists at a Russian troll farm used social media to disseminate a meme: “ ‘The People Will Believe What the Media Tells Them They Believe.’ — George Orwell.” But Orwell never said this. The moral authority of his name was stolen and turned into a lie toward that most Orwellian end: the destruction of belief in truth. The Russians needed partners in this effort and found them by the millions, especially among America’s non-elites. In 1984, working-class people are called “proles,” and Winston believes they’re the only hope for the future. As Lynskey points out, Orwell didn’t foresee “that the common man and woman would embrace doublethink as enthusiastically as the intellectuals and, without the need for terror or torture, would choose to believe that two plus two was whatever they wanted it to be.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
It is fascinating that the author of this article can't see that it is the Left, its media, and its colleges and universities that have shut down debate, have nurtured and spread groupthink, doublespeak, and hive mentality.
He (the author) can't see that it is the Left itself that is fascistic in its refusal to allow those who disagree to have a voice and pushes repressive regimentation in society.
He can't see that Political Correctness is Newspeak.
What is important here is that this weird piece is published in The Atlantic. One has to wonder if any readers--even just a few--might see the irony.
The 2 minutes of hate scene in 1984 is now the REEEEing that liberals engage in at MeToo (i.e., REEEEToo protests) protests, at BLM marches, Antfifa get togethers in the streets, and so on.
All sick and yet all entirely predictable.
You just can’t fix stupid reading this makes me wonder if its only a matter of time before the fighting starts. We’ve got two different worlds going on.
Packer is the quintessential leftist. I first encountered him when I read his Peace Corps memoir, The Village of Waiting, which blames his failures on everyone/thing except the guilty party. Here’s one Amazon review of that book: “Poor George Packer did just about everything possible to assure that his Peace Corps experience would be a real ‘train wreck’. I give him credit for even writing a book like this. I would recommend this book to anyone considering joining the Peace Corps as a guide for what not to do.”
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I can’t even read this one. I anticipate it being too depressing. Maybe later.
For now I just want to say that your summary
(Pure Liberal Projection)
most certainly says it all.
I just bought several copies of 1984 for some young relatives...going to assign it for “summer reading” since it is what THEY are LIVING in right now! Doubt they will read it, but, can’t say we didn’t warn them.
It was painful reading. So many lies.
This article is pure gaslighting.
It’s not projection.
Anyone that disagrees with the left is now Goldstein. We are stopping freedom from being able to decree all that disagree are racist. We are saying it is wrong with men with penises to declare themselves women to enter dressing rooms, locker rooms and compete against women and therefore are transphobes. We are wrong in our failing to embrace men’s rights to love another man’s anus as natural and symbolic of what God wanted therefore we are homophobes.
It’s the media, universities and intelligentsia that have become all seeing, all knowing, all powerful heads of knowledge and morality. They are the party, they know what’s correct and you.... you are all Goldstein.
Prepare for your two minutes of hate.
A common modern example of the denial of truth: “Islam is a religion of peace.”
“Today the problem is too much information from too many sources, with a resulting plague of fragmentation and division—not excessive authority but its disappearance, which leaves ordinary people to work out the facts for themselves, at the mercy of their own prejudices and delusions. “
A simplistic, inaccurate, prejudiced and deluded take on today’s msm.
Comically, this author seems to be unwittingly calling, nay pining, for a 1984-like authoritarian system.
The author longs for the day when all Trump supporters will be sent to room 100.
Who is the target? Who is being gaslit?
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