Many people use George Orwell’s dystopian works as a weapon in their fight against political opponents. In fact, it occurs so frequently that it has become a cliché. When recent events are taken into consideration, however, the parallels between the political left in the United States and the dystopian world envisioned by George Orwell are too obvious to be dismissed as mere cliché.
They are very real and quite scary; don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Need proof? Here are just five examples.
1. Rewriting laws
In Orwell’s classic satire Animal Farm, the animals on Mr. Jones’ Manor Farm rebel and start their own society, immediately establishing a set of laws—Seven Commandments of Animalism—which, over the course of the novel, are changed by the pig Napoleon, who ruled the animal-led farm.
Barack Obama took a page right out of Animal Farm when, in May of 2016, his administration mandated that all public school districts in the country must allow students to use the bathroom matching their “gender identity” and stated that the Departments of Justice and Education would “treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX,” effectively rewriting existing law and redefining sex to include “gender identity,” a concept that didn’t exist when the law was written. The Trump administration reversed this, but the Biden administration once again unilaterally rewrote the 1972 law that was designed to protect girls in order to allow boys who “identify” as girls to play on girls’ sports teams and use girls’ showers and changing facilities.
2. Manipulating language
In Orwell’s novel 1984, the language of the citizens of Oceania is constantly being reduced to make thoughtcrimes impossible. Even just a few years ago, this seemed like something limited to the realm of dystopian sci-fi, but it’s become real as our language is being expanded to brainwash young people and make thoughtcrimes more likely.
One popular publisher of dictionaries, Merriam-Webster, has been leading the way in this effort. In recent years, the dictionary has updated the definition of racism to include “systemic racism” and revised its second definition of racial “color-blindness” so that you can still be racist if you treat all people the same regardless of race — essentially declaring that you’re racist even when you’re not. In 2020, it updated the definition of “sexual preference” to declare the term offensive after Amy Coney Barrett used it during her confirmation hearings.
But the manipulation of language isn’t just happening to make thoughtcrimes more likely, it’s being done to alter our perception of reality, Earlier this summer, we learned that Merriam-Webster updated its definition of “female” to include “having the gender identity that is opposite of male” and vice-versa.
3. Memory-holing
In 1984, the term “memory hole” refers to a device used by the Party to destroy documents, photos, or other records to suit the Party’s needs. Old news stories were destroyed, and new ones were written in order to deceive the public. The same thing has been happening today in America.
Earlier this year, the United States experienced two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth—the longstanding definition of a recession. But, because Joe Biden had spent the past year branding the economic growth from reopening the economy after the lockdowns as a policy-driven economic boom, the White House quickly sought to change the definition of what a recession is. They not only got help from the media, but Wikipedia, the massive open-source online dictionary, updated various articles on recessions with massive revisions on what a recession is in order to match the White House talking points, and then blocked the ability of users to update the definitions.
4. The Ministry of Truth
In 1984, the ironically named Ministry of Truth claims to be dedicated to the truth but actually is responsible for rewriting history to conform to the Party’s preferred version of events. Earlier this year, the Biden administration announced a new Department of Homeland Security division called the Disinformation Governance Board, which was created to police “disinformation” and “misinformation.” Who gets to decide what is “disinformation” and “misinformation”? Rabid leftist Nina Jankowicz was handpicked to be the Disinformation Czar, and the disinformation board was similarly stacked with partisans.
The parallels to Orwell’s Ministry of Truth were so obvious that the Disinformation Governance Board didn’t last long. But they tried. And they will try again.
5. Undermining parental rights
George Orwell understood that staunch loyalty to the state could be dangerous to the family unit. In 1984, the government undermines the family institution by turning children against their parents.
This is not so different from how the left uses their radical ideology and the government to divide families. Governor Gavin Newsom of California signed two bills into law last year permitting minors to conceal abortions and transgender treatments or procedures from their parents. Additionally, school districts nationwide have been hiding information about gender-transitioning children from parents. These are direct attacks on parental rights that split families apart and brainwash children to believe that the state, not their parents, is looking out for their best interests.
