FACTCHECKERS et al: We rate Nineteen Eighty-Four False. By our estimate, the actual content of the book suggests it should have been 2020.
The fact checking organizations Factcheck.org, Snopes and Politifact have deemed the book Nineteen Eighty-Four as false. ‘The idea a government can take away rights falling sway to the cult of the personality or mass social engineering on a whim seemed implausible to us. So we decided to read the book’.
Among the findings they refute:
-Freedom of speech has never been healthier as social media shows.
-Big Brother as a term is problematic in today’s context. It conjures up thoughts of toxic masculinity and offends all other genders; including those yet identified.
-The totalitarianism in Nineteen Eighty-Four is not the same as medical tyranny. We will always be at war with Covid-19 but it’s for the betterment of all; the greater good.
-Doublethink is a legitimate technique to fight misinformation.
-No, Winston did embrace Big Brother and never really loved Julia. Human will and agency is an urban myth just like natural immunity.
Ultimately, upon concluding the book, it became apparent the George Orwell missed his timing, if we were to accept the tenets posited in the book, by 36 years.
We rate the book as false.
Next up: Fahrenheit 451. Were books really burned?
Oh, love it. It's no laughing matter though, as you probably know.
From trigger warning to banning not that far, besides some libraries are removing some books in, let's call it "covertly" fashion. Can't wait for your
F451 review.