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News articles that use the term "Orwellian"

#161: Aug. - Oct. 2018 (Fiction)
KindaSkolarly

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News articles that use the term "Orwellian"

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We've seen lots of them through the years, but there are more lately. The writers are usually referring to Orwell’s 1984, but sometimes to Animal Farm. Both books are dystopian.

Anyway, since we’re discussing 1984, I thought this thread might make a good addendum. A couple of articles I ran across today. I'm sure I'll add more. Please add your own:

We Are Living Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is no longer fiction. We are living it right now.

Google techies planned to massage Internet searches to emphasize correct thinking. A member of the so-called deep state, in an anonymous op-ed, brags that its “resistance” is undermining an elected president. The FBI, CIA, DOJ, and NSC were all weaponized in 2016 to ensure that the proper president would be elected — the choice adjudicated by properly progressive ideology. Wearing a wire is now redefined as simply flipping on an iPhone and recording your boss, boy- or girlfriend, or co-workers.

But never has the reality that we are living in a surreal age been clearer than during the strange cycles of Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

In Orwell’s world of 1984 Oceania, there is no longer a sense of due process, free inquiry, rules of evidence and cross examination, much less a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Instead, regimented ideology — the supremacy of state power to control all aspects of one’s life to enforce a fossilized idea of mandated quality — warps everything from the use of language to private life....


nationalreview.com/2018/09/kavanaugh-no ... ells-1984/


‘Orwellian’ move: Facebook teams up with US government to police ‘fake news’ in foreign elections

Facebook has teamed up with two US government-funded think tanks as part of a new initiative to bolster the social media giant’s “election integrity efforts” around the globe.

The new partnership with the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) was revealed by Facebook in a call with reporters last week and reported by Reuters — but the company’s choice of partners has since raised a few eyebrows. Both think-tanks are funded by the US government, through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)....


rt.com/usa/439249-facebook-us-funding-f ... fake-news/
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DWill

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Re: News articles that use the term "Orwellian"

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When you searched for articles claiming actions or language to be "Orwellian," didn't you come up with a range of examples from both the right and the left? I did. I think that fact tells us something about the problems of using this adjective to clarify political reality today. The term has picked up a strong voltage and each side is eager to use it against the other. I have some doubts about using "Orwellian" at all. The word often refers to a state exercising absolute power to control life, right down to what people think. Except for certain dictatorships such as North Korea and, arguably, China, absolute state power is rare. OK, I guess you could say that what people are alleging is a tendency or desire to be an absolute power, but that just goes to my point about each side wanting to accuse the other of this. We still have viable factions.

"Orwellian" also refers to a specific invention of language, usually to obscure or distort the real nature of an intent or action, to pass something off as benign, pure, noble, or objective when it is not. We might get further with your idea if we cited specific examples of this kind of language. One that comes immediately to my mind is "homeland security." Another is "alternative facts" (that one I think was made too much of when Conway said it, but now it has become embedded in our discourse). I nominate "deep state," too. When older, common words are used to attack "bad" thinking, what we have is more similar to propaganda, which is as old as our race is. "Racism" is sometimes used in this way to shame or quiet people who may speak against some aspect of immigration. Of course, "the left" and "the right" are are so natural with us that we don't even register that often we're thinking "the good guys" and the "bad guys" (or v.v.).

A lot of what is Orwellian or propagandistic is in the eye of the beholder. I wonder, by the way, if Orwell would be distressed at seeing his name applied to the very thing he was so much against. Might he even see this use of his name as an abuse of language, an example of what he was going on about?
Last edited by DWill on Mon Oct 01, 2018 9:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: News articles that use the term "Orwellian"

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There really is no right and left when it comes to "Orwellian" extremes. Both extremes seek to dominate absolutely.

I expect Orwell (Blair) would have been glad to see that his books had been taken to heart by so many people. He would probably argue that the term "Orwellian" was being misapplied here and there, but overall he would probably have approved. After all, the book is cautionary, and people got the message.

An article I ran across:

The Meaning Of ‘Orwellian’ Is More Complicated Than You Think — And It's Extremely Relevant To Modern Politics

...controlling people's language is where the real power lies. I mean, you can only only hold so many people down with force. If you want to truly crush any hope of revolution, you must control people's thoughts and words and narratives. You must convince your citizens to "reject the evidence of your eyes and ears" in favor of party propaganda....

...In 1984, labor camps become Joy Camps...


bustle.com/p/the-meaning-of-orwellian-i ... cs-9118383

Here's Hillary Clinton proposing Fun Camps in 2015

bustle.com/p/the-meaning-of-orwellian-i ... cs-9118383
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Re: News articles that use the term "Orwellian"

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An article from a few years ago. Still relevant:

9/11 and the Orwellian Redefinition of “Conspiracy Theory”

A “conspiracy theory” no longer means an event explained by a conspiracy. Instead, it now means any explanation, or even a fact, that is out of step with the government’s explanation and that of its media pimps....

...The purest example of how Americans are shielded from truth is the media’s (including many Internet sites’) response to the large number of professionals who find the official explanation of September 11, 2001, inconsistent with everything they, as experts, know about physics, chemistry, structural engineering, architecture, fires, structural damage, the piloting of airplanes, the security procedures of the United States, NORAD’s capabilities, air traffic control, airport security, and other matters. These experts, numbering in the thousands, have been shouted down by know-nothings in the media who brand the experts as “conspiracy theorists.”...


globalresearch.ca/9-11-and-the-orwellia ... eory/25339
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