Doublethink and Newspeak
I believe our president and his toadies are attempting to re-create the Party from Orwell's "1984" with Trump in the role of Big Brother
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Note: Everything in this post is my personal opinion. If you don’t agree, set up your own Substack. Or, leave me a comment.
Call your Congresscritters! Keep Calling!
First off, I just have to say that Donald Trump, of all people, getting all hot and bothered about possibly unfounded accusations of real estate fraud against folks like Adam Schiff, Letitia James and Lisa Cook is hilarious.
Or it would be hilarious if it weren’t the actions of an a man apparently well into age-related mental decline, who is also the most powerful man in the world.
I’d feel better if he was surrounded by reasonably competent people, as he was during his first term, but this time around he’s decided he wants loyalty over competence.
In Trump’s mind loyalty is a one way street. He wants his underlings to be unquestionably loyal to him, but has no qualms about throwing any one of them under the bus if they displease him
This pretty much guarantees he’ll be surrounded by corrupt incompetents who are probably not very bright.
Nobody with any intelligence, ethics or self-respect would put up with this kind of boss.
This is right out of the authoritarian playbook.
I recently re-read Orwell’s 1984. This administration appears to be using that book as a guide rather than as a warning.
In 1984 one of the the Ministry of Truth’s (Minitrue in Newspeak) jobs was to “edit” history so that it matched the current positions of Big Brother and The Party.
Competence was discouraged. Anyone who showed any initiative or curiosity was likely to be swept up by the Thought Police and disappeared.
Completely.
One of the jobs of Minitrue was to erase all references to people who had been disappeared.
If the enemy in the forever war The Party is waging switches from Eurasia to Eastasia in the middle of a speech, Minitrue will immediately start pulling all-nighters to find and edit all references to Eurasia as enemy to Eastasia in newspapers, newsreels, history books, etc.1
“Incorrect” history went into the Memory Hole for incineration.
It’s not possible to erase people’s memories, so Doublethink was encouraged, the ability to immediately repress any thoughts or memories that disagreed with the Party’s official propaganda.
You can see Doublethink in action almost any time Caroline Levitt speaks.
Much like Kellyanne Conway’s Alternative Facts about four years ago, Levitt and other spokespeople for the current administration often make statements that are provably untrue and easy to check.
Levitt and other spokespeople actually appear to believe what they are saying when they say it.
Doublethink.
In 1984, along with Doublethink, Newspeak was developed to make any kind of critical thinking impossible.
An example from a character compiling a Newspeak dictionary is the words “good” and “bad”. The character says the word “bad” is unnecessary because you can express the same meaning by adding “un” to “good” — “ungood”.
By the same token, words like fantastic and terrible can be replaced by “plusgood” and “plusungood” and you can add further emphasis with “doubleplusgood” and “doubleplusungood”.
The idea is to obviate nuance2 and make original, creative thought impossible.
They haven’t gotten there yet, but I see Trump’s usage of no higher than third grade vocabulary, syntax and grammar to be a step in that direction.
He’s always had a rambling delivery, he calls it “the weave”, but it appears to be getting worse.
Is senescence setting in?
Hmm. Once again this column took on a mind of its own once I started typing. I’m pretty sure I’ve compared this administration to 1984’s Party in the past, but I think I’ve now whipped that dead horse enough.
Tune in next week for something different. I hope.
To finish up, here’s some quotes from articles by folks who are better informed, smarter, and better writers than I am.
I plan to occasionally add these quotes to my articles to give you an idea of where I get my information and highlight authors I particularly admire.
It also helps me pad out my columns on weeks when I don’t have that much new to say. ;)
Joyce Vance was U.S. attorney (USA) for the Northern District of Alabama from August 7, 2009 to January 20, 2017. She knows how the Justice Department is supposed to work, and her insights on how our Convict-in-Chief is weaponizing the department are, in my opinion, spot on.
In general she is aghast at the illegal, unconstitutional and unethical behavior of our current President, his Attorney General and their staffs. I share her concerns.
You can find her column here:
Paul Krugman is a Nobel Laureate economist who, from my point of view, has a good solid understanding on how the economy actually works. At least as good an understanding as it’s possible to have of any chaotic system that includes human beings.
As Krugman says in the quote above, what he calls “The Crazy” appears to be accelerating in the last week or so.
As I’ve written above, it appears to me that our incompetent, corrupt and likely senile president and the incompetent, corrupt and possibly mentally ill toadies in his cabinet, plus the spineless, incompetent toadies in the Republican majority in Congress are attempting to turn this country into a dictatorship.3
Krugman’s column is available here:
Call your Congresscritters! Keep Calling!
Trump lie of the week:
Lies our President has told recently. Not necessarily this week. I’m only posting statements rated “Pants On Fire!” by Politifact.
Musical Coda:
A little dark comedy from Eric Idle and Monty Python. I think dark humor is appropriate these days.
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The book was written in 1947 and published in 1948, so recorded TV and the Internet hadn’t even been thought of yet.
I’ve been trying to wedge the oxymoron ‘obviate nuance’ into a sentence in my writing for years! Next, watch for ‘eschew obfuscation!”
Don’t hold back Gary, tell them what you really think.