They took Orwell’s 1984 as a guide
Boy these guys are brilliant – the top Republicans. They took Orwell’s 1984 as a guide, not the cautionary tale the rest of us all thought it was. And they’ve run with it. Perverting issue after issue by manipulating language. It’s really hard to even keep track of all the bad ideas dressed up as good by warping the language used to talk about the issues.
These guys are good at what they do. They really are. They have been fooling America and the world for decades.
One thing especially brilliant is, they convinced us that all taxation is bad. No matter what.
Uh, OK, is it really bad to want some of that money sent to overseas tax havens by the incredibly rich to avoid our laws back?
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When a group hires a consultant to determine the maximum effect of various slogans, that group has already started down the slippery slope into fraud. When “The Wealthy” gets changed to “Job Creators”, that slope has been traversed. Not all wealthy people are job creators (misers in particular would be excluded, one would think).
Language is a sticky thing. What one person believes is a correct definition may be entirely different from another person.
Please, what the GOP has done doesn’t even come close to 1984. Don’t get me wrong, what you described about them taking bad ideas and clothing them in misleading rhetoric that resonates with some peoples gut instincts is spot on. But if you want to see 1984 brought to life, head to North Korea. Seeing as there is a real life nation where the horrors of that book are made manifest, I just don’t think its proper to use the reference to describe our comparatively tame political games.
Slamfu – you’re right of course on the USA vs. N. Korea… But we’re just another frog, and just because the water’s not boiling yet, doesn’t mean it’s not getting hotter…
Ignorance is Strength. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Hate Week. Doublethink. – I don’t know what’s going on in Michelle Bachmann’s head, but I’m pretty sure that she would have fitted right in on Airstrip One…
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”, The Memory Hole. Yup. sounds like a Rove/Cheney/Addington/Murdoch operation to me…
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – I’m sure Bradley Manning or Julian Assange would agree…I know, that’s not the republicans doing the actual persecuting there… but once you’ve set the stage for it, there’s no going back.
“We’ve always been at war with Al-Quaida/The Taliban/Afghanistan/Iraq/Iran” – nuff said.
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
– absolutely necessary to believe in, for example, both the sanctity of market forces and the notion that the Keystone pipeline will lower domestic energy costs by allowing the export of Alaskan Oil, thereby decreasing domestic supply.
Not to mention the serious cognitive dissonance required of those who can be pushed into yelling “Death Panels!” one moment vs. “Let Them Die!” the next.
The two-tier Party/Inner Party structure – check.
…And further to Kay’s original point; IMO the key concept in 1984 was “newspeak” – the official language that was steadily refined over time to make politically incorrect thought impossible. Does anyone else see a parallel between this and the media’s reduction of every issue to a narrowly-framed, equivocal, bipolar slug-fest? (i.e. a deliberate impediment to the general population becoming knowledgeable as to what’s actually going on and why?)
er… (time to retire for the night, so)
That’s it.
That “we’re just another frog” comment really resonated with me. I mean, how else did the false notion that trickle down works – even though it’s been proven repeatedly to be wrong – and that it was good for everyone, get so deeply accepted as truth by so very many of the very people being hurt?
Kay,
Your “Perverting issue after issue by manipulating language,” reminds me of the “quintessential” ‘You’re either with us or against us.’
Spot on Kay. Also agree with the frog comparison. Those of us who have been watching the culture for several decades know how apt it is. The water is indeed getting hotter. Not all the frogs realize this . . . yet.
Nope – not all the frogs realize that we’re being cooked – though it’s harder and harder not to believe that we – the majority of Americans aren’t all poor frogs sitting in water that has been slowly getting hotter and hotter since the Regan administration till us poor critters are dead. I think the USA is mighty close to that boiling point. Certainly the 99% who aren’t super rich are.
I really appreciate all your comments – this is the sort of discussion the country needs. Thank you all.