By Joseph Batory

George Orwell’s best-selling novel, 1984, created a terrifying picture of a dystopian era with incessant propaganda dominating a nation’s citizenry dictating that truth is fiction, that observed reality is fantasy, that documented news reports are fake, and scientific evidence is to be ignored. Sounds familiar here today!!!

The Environment: One prime Orwellian assertion these days emphasizes that climate change is a hoax.   Orwellian “wisdom” has dictated that we should ignore the USA Global Change Research Program, a team of 13 federal agencies, which recently released the 4^th National Climate Change Assessment with the help 300 world-class scientists.  Orwellian “truth” tells us to reject that report’s key finding— that the “long term” global average temperature is much higher and rising more rapidly than anything modern civilization has experienced and will lead to serious consequences.

Orwellian “propaganda” also emphasizes that we must cast aside additional worldwide scientific evidence that the continued fossil fuel emissions are leading to climate-related disasters that include high-intensity hurricanes, floods, droughts, extreme precipitation, wildfires, and heat waves.

Values Being Undone: In finest Orwellian tradition, truth can be rewritten and discounted. Censor and ban books!!!  Afterall, the more uneducated the population, the easier to control them. America’s new Orwellian dictates are that: Slavery in the USA was really not that bad, helping these nameless possessions of white folks to learn skills. Additionally, the genocide of the Native Americans in our nation never happened! And there has never been and is not now any racism or sexism in the USA.

Losing the most recent presidential election by $7 million+ votes never happened according to the unsuccessful candidate.  Better to create an Orwellian fantasy of an election “fix” and encourage post-election vote tampering and sedition.

New waves of immigrants  seeking a better life in the USA are now defined in Orwellian rhetoric as criminals and vagrants endangering our country. Forget about America’s  “brotherhood of man” or our Statue of Liberty message: “bring us your tired and your weary.”

Gun Control:  The mass murders of groups of innocent victims have become an all too regular occurrence in our nation. The Orwellian response is always the same, distorting the US Constitution to justify  that no new gun control measures are needed in a nation where gun deaths far outdistance those of other countries.  In Orwellian philosophy,  “thoughts and prayers” for the victims of this repetitious epidemic of killing are the repetitious solution.

Justice Defiled: Some recent decisions of the US Supreme Court and from numerous local judiciaries  across America have reflected little interest in producing fairness and justice. Too many of these anointed judges, in finest Orwellian tradition, are now simply rendering  legal decisions based on the desires of their political controllers.

In summary,  Orwellian attempts to control the USA’s people via social media and right wing news media are successfully utilizing  consistent policies of hypocrisy, distortion and disinformation, deception, manipulation by power, and denial of truth (doublethink).

 America’s free society is in jeopardy.

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Joseph Batory is the author of three books and 300+ published articles on history, education and politics.