https://np.reddit.com/r/news/comments/5phjg9/kellyanne_conway_spicer_gave_alternative_facts_on/dcrdfgn/?st=iy99x3xr&sh=83b411f1
"Orwellian"
For the first time in 30 years of Internet, this is finally the appropriate time to use that word.
Does everybody now see why I've been bitching about its abuse for the last 30 years? Starbucks issuing a holiday cup that doesn't mention Christmas is not "Orwellian." Reddit shutting down a couple of racey subs is not "Orwellian." When you scream "fascist" and "Orwell" at every trivial bullshit thing, you have no words left to draw attention to the urgency of the current situation.
Prerequisite reading: The actual BOOK, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It?s not enough just to know the title. It?s not enough to know the TV reality show which is Big Brother?s namesake. The Cliff?s notes you used to skim by it on the exam aren?t enough. Book, whole book.
In the book, Winston Smith is a character working for the ?Ministry of Truth,? the ironically named branch of government responsible for fixing the media to be always in Big Brother?s favor. If Big Brother says something which turns out to be wrong, the MoT edits it. If the offending news item was so incorrect as to be ludicrous, sometimes Smith replaces that day?s statement with complete fabrication, such as awarding a metal to a non-existent war hero. Records of items the MoT wants to purge go down the ?memory hole,? implied to be an incinerator.
In this government, slogans are enforced, including "War is peace", "Freedom is slavery", and "Ignorance is strength." At one point the government switches its alliance from the countries of Eurasia to Eastasia and a speaker in mid-rant against one is handed a note and corrects himself to immediately continue ranting against the other as if the entire speech had been about that. A motif frequently cited in the book is ?Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.?
This shows a fundamental method of the dystopia: The absolute control of media and attempt to control the thinking of every individual through brute force. At no point does the government worry that its subjects will jump up and go ?Wait a minute, you just told us we were at war with Eurasia! I remember it, it just happened!? Whenever anybody does, off they go to the ?Ministry of Love? where they get tortured until they see it Big Brother?s way. But most people don?t. Most people show an eerie, cow-like ability to be led, against everything a logical mind would expect.
Trump has demonstrated an uncanny, almost unbelievable ability to just bend the past however he wants. And you can protest all you want; nobody is really stopping him. We all get shocked in the moment - How could he have the unmitigated gall to say this shocking thing? But he delivers these shocks so regularly that nobody has time to fully process them. If a scandal blows up for more than two days, Trump will just do something else outrageous and the former story will be dropped to cover the new one. Trump is exploiting the media?s goldfish attention span. He?s overloading the news, giving them so much scandal that they don?t even have time to cover it all.
And his gall has extended to stunts like telling the intelligence community, to their faces, that all the bad things he said about them only weeks ago simply did not happen. How about the border wall with Mexico and deporting the Muslims, what about those campaign promises? If he accomplishes them, he?s crow about it, but if he doesn?t, he?ll deny he ever made them. It doesn?t matter how many printed copies of the truth you have. It doesn?tmatter how many videos you have incriminating him. Trump doesn?t even need a memory hole. His method counts on the American people to be really THAT stupid - and apparently, he?s right. How can a man brag about sexual assault, make cruel fun of handicapped people, and refuse to release his tax returns over and over, yet still make it this far? Isn?t it amazing? Well, he?ll keep doing it while everyone else is too stunned to know how to react.
Trump can?t lose, guys! Get used to it. He can just sculpt whatever reality he wants, and the truth will die off while the lies get screamed over and over until everybody believes them - just like his smear job against his opponent. He?s not quite the same as any politician you?ve heard of before. He?s evolved past a Nixon or a Bush. A prototype had to evolve out of the ooze sooner or later, and it?s shocking that it even took this long.
But yes, politicians have lied before, politicians have had scandals before. But Trump is simply dispensing with all the foreplay and sugar-coating. Other politicians have to spin the media and put on a good face to try to appease their way out of their scandals. Trump literally bragged he could ?shoot somebody and not lose voters.? He?s right, he could. And he?s not covering it up, he is pissing directly in your face and telling you it?s raining, and you?re going to believe it tomorrow or next week if you don?t believe it now. Other politicians bother to concoct some slippery lie when a reporter confronts them. Trump can just yell, ?I?m not going to give you a question, you are fake news!? AND. IT. WORKED! If Trump had told that reporter ?You?re a frog,? there is no doubt in my mind that that reporter would have poofed into a frog and hopped away croaking.
That?s what Orwell?s point with media was. Being able to out-debate the truth or hide the truth or P.R. your way out of the truth isn?t enough. You just erase the truth, magically in the public?s minds. Wasting your brain trying to fight it with logic is just how this strategy works against you.
That?s the key, people. Keep doing what you?re doing, and nobody will stop him. He doesn?t play by any rules written before.