{"id":158203,"date":"2020-06-01T08:34:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T12:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=158203"},"modified":"2020-06-23T07:59:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T11:59:12","slug":"thoughtcrime-and-225-this-is-how-its-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=158203","title":{"rendered":"Thoughtcrime and 2+2=5: This is how it’s done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Symes\u2019 monologue to Winston Smith, in George Orwell\u2019s 1984<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there\u2019s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It\u2019s merely a question of self-discipline, reality control. But in the end there won\u2019t be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve been thinking a lot about Orwell’s “2+2=5” these last couple of years – or, I always think about it – but it’s been on my mind pretty much constantly since the Presidential campaign and watching his raving delusional deplorable supporters. Deplorables WAS the right word. It’s been on my mind a lot during the COVID shutdown watching people with AR-15s storm Capitol buildings, demanding their rights not to wear masks. Funny how these are the same people cheering on the demonization of the Black Lives Matter protests, and criticizing the looting and rioting. Can you imagine what would happen if a black man walked up the steps of a Capitol building holding an automatic weapon? Of course you can imagine it. But those big white dudes holding ASSAULT WEAPONS storm the gates and nothing happens to them. People who can’t see this as a disconnect are at this point REFUSING to see it. And so the delusional among us, and their numbers are legion, are now rock-hard in their delusions: Don’t believe in objective reality, like “2+2=4.” Can anyone PROVE “2+2=4”? Person steps forward: “I can.” Delusionals: “Oh you’re just elitist SHEEP from the East Coast who’s telling me 2+2=4. That’s not a person I need to listen to. I’m not a SHEEP.” But, of course … they are. Their brains have been softened by propaganda, for years and years. Orwell showed us, he saw it: This is how it works<\/i>. Propaganda WORKS. Winston caves in the end. The final line of the book: “He loved Big Brother.”<\/p>\n

From 1984<\/i>:<\/p>\n

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable \u2013 what then?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Limit people’s ability to think by limiting the possibilities of language. <\/p>\n

Drum impossible things into their heads over and over and over, over the course of years, things like Pizzagate, things like QAnon, things like missing birth certificates, things like climate change is a hoax, things like “all lives matter,” things like 2+2=5 … and people crack. By the time the State needs to mobilize them, they’re soft and pliable and ready to believe anything. They will go to their deaths declaring that 2+2=5.<\/p>\n

The one-two punch of fascism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Symes\u2019 monologue to Winston Smith, in George Orwell\u2019s 1984: \u201cDon\u2019t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[900,231,174,141],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=158203"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158211,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158203\/revisions\/158211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=158203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=158203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=158203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}