By John DiGirolamo, The Right Stuff
Salida School District, Buena Vista School District, and most school district libraries contain 1984, a book by George Orwell that portrays a dystopian future where the government controls everything to manipulate the population. I think it took another 37 years for his fiction to come close to reality. Let’s review a few examples:
1 – The book describes how the powerful government is updating the dictionary to change and eliminate words. We’ve seen this happen with the politically correct progressive movement. “Illegal Alien” is now too mean of a word and had to be changed to “Undocumented Worker.” Fat people are now “curvy.” Sugar coating is the progressive way. “Mom” is now a “Birthing Person,” which goes beyond making a word sound less harsh and instead attempts to skew reality. Gillette tried to tell you that “men can have periods too,” which was odd since the commercial showed a father shaving and talking to his son (who was wondering if he was going to have a period). I was not incentivized to buy their shaving cream. I am sorry to break it to liberals, but men can’t have babies and they don’t menstruate either and transgender pronouns are inaccurate. Actually, I’m not that sorry to break the news to the woke crowd. The Ministry of Truth was in place to manipulate thought without regard to reality and the changing of our language is a quiet, but insidious way to do it.
2 – The Ministry of Truth also had complete control of public information consumption, that is, censorship. Remember when liberals told you that “dissent is patriotic” while protesting the Iraq War? Not anymore as the cancel culture is powerful if you utter truthful phrases such as, “There is chaos on the border” or “There are Americans stranded in Afghanistan” or “Making kids wear masks in schools is a bad idea.” Liberals don’t want honest debate, they want one permitted point of view, and all others need to be quieted. Don’t ask questions! They would rather you stop thinking. Why? Because Ignorance is Strength. Deviate from the approved thought and you’ll be accused of spreading misinformation and your voice in the public square will be terminated by the government’s friend: Big Tech.
3 – “Big Brother is watching” is probably the most famous phrase from the book. Tech companies like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook can shut down anyone with little or no reason. They don’t have to explain their actions to anyone. They get to decide what is worthy thought. They are the new Thought Police. Big Tech also gathers more information about us every day and tracks everything. We are under constant surveillance. 1984 doesn’t sound so fictitious.
4 – Another famous phrase from the book is “Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past.” That is exactly what the 1619 project is all about, the false ideology that America was founded to promote slavery and feeds the Critical Race Theory that America is fundamentally racist and must be torn down before it can be built back up. If you indoctrinate kids into believing that America is rotten at its core, it will be easier to destroy from within. Changing and distorting history is an evil plan and unfortunately is prevalent in many liberal school districts. I thought that once all the statues of Robert E. Lee were torn down that the liberals would be happy. Not so, they want more.
5 – The main character in 1984 is tortured by The Ministry of Love into erasing his negative thoughts about the government. He agrees to be obedient, but that is not enough. He is forced to love Big Brother. In other words, they want complete compliance. It reminds me of how the LGBTQ+ militants no longer look for acceptance. They want unwavering celebration. Or what about vaccine mandates and passports. Thou shall comply or be punished. Do you remember how the Democrats wanted to “deprogram Trump voters” after the last election? They don’t what to change your mind with logic and common sense. They will use force, after all you can’t have freedom because as 1984 taught us, Freedom is Slavery.
John DiGirolamo is the author of It’s Not About the Badge and It’s Not About the Sex