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John Hurt in the film adaptation of Orwell's 1984. (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Since this weekend, Sales of George Orwell‘s dystopian tale 1984 skyrocketed on Amazon.  To understand why this happened, we must look at the controversy regarding the amount of people present at Donald Trump‘s inauguration. A mix of lies, “alternative facts” and Orwellian “newspeak”.

John Hurt in the film adaptation of Orwell's 1984. (Photo: 20th Century Fox)
John Hurt in the film adaptation of Orwell’s 1984. (Photo: 20th Century Fox)
How many people were there?
An aerial shot of the rather calm National Mall this January 20 marks Trump’s weakness, especially when put side-by-side a photo of Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.

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 Suivre
 Binyamin Appelbaum ✔ @BCAppelbaum
Compare the crowds: 2009 inauguration at left, 2017 inauguration at right.#Inauguration
19:20 - 20 Janv 2017
  51 337 51 337 Retweets   60 103 60 103 j'aime

A symbolic defeat that angered Donald Trump so much that it led him to state 1.5 million people were present –even though we estimate only 160,000. He sent his spokesperson Sean Spicer to back up these numbers which he later confirmed in a press conference. According to Spicer: “never was there this many people for an inauguration.” Which of course is a lie, as shown in Obama’s inauguration photos.

And that’s only the beginning of it.

“Alternative Facts”
The real controversy is Kellyanne Conway‘s statement to an NBC journalist working for Meet the press. The journalist was trying to trick the spokesperson into admitting to Trump’s lies. When asked about Spicer’s press conference, she simply answers he provided “alternative facts”. As if there was different ways to live the same moment, and get different facts about it.

A systematic manipulation of reality that has been condemned by many politicians and the media crowd. The Oxford dictionary even chose “post-truth” as their word of the year:

“An adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”
And that’s where George Orwell comes in. In 1984, Big Brother’s totalitarian government uses  “newspeak” to confuse citizens with words that have different meanings, ultimately making the people “doublethink”. The method allows the citizens to “simultaneously accept two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct”.

With this tool, it’s impossible to know what’s truth from lie, even when saying it out loud. The same process allows Donald Trump and his consultants to lie with ease. For them, the lies they tell are another sort of truth, they’re “alternative facts”.

Sixty-eight years later, Orwell has never been more relevant as today.

http://www.konbini.com/us/entertainment/orwells-1984-is-a-bestseller-again-after-trump-aides-alternative-facts/

Writer George Orwell’s ‘1984’ Is A Bestseller Again After Trump Aide’s ‘Alternative Facts’

John Hurt in the film adaptation of Orwell's 1984. (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Since this weekend, Sales of George Orwell‘s dystopian tale 1984 skyrocketed on Amazon.  To understand why this happened, we must look at the controversy regarding the amount of people present at Donald Trump‘s inauguration. A mix of lies, “alternative facts” and Orwellian “newspeak”.

John Hurt in the film adaptation of Orwell's 1984. (Photo: 20th Century Fox)
John Hurt in the film adaptation of Orwell’s 1984. (Photo: 20th Century Fox)
How many people were there?
An aerial shot of the rather calm National Mall this January 20 marks Trump’s weakness, especially when put side-by-side a photo of Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.

Voir l'image sur TwitterVoir l'image sur Twitter
 Suivre
 Binyamin Appelbaum ✔ @BCAppelbaum
Compare the crowds: 2009 inauguration at left, 2017 inauguration at right.#Inauguration
19:20 - 20 Janv 2017
  51 337 51 337 Retweets   60 103 60 103 j'aime

A symbolic defeat that angered Donald Trump so much that it led him to state 1.5 million people were present –even though we estimate only 160,000. He sent his spokesperson Sean Spicer to back up these numbers which he later confirmed in a press conference. According to Spicer: “never was there this many people for an inauguration.” Which of course is a lie, as shown in Obama’s inauguration photos.

And that’s only the beginning of it.

“Alternative Facts”
The real controversy is Kellyanne Conway‘s statement to an NBC journalist working for Meet the press. The journalist was trying to trick the spokesperson into admitting to Trump’s lies. When asked about Spicer’s press conference, she simply answers he provided “alternative facts”. As if there was different ways to live the same moment, and get different facts about it.

A systematic manipulation of reality that has been condemned by many politicians and the media crowd. The Oxford dictionary even chose “post-truth” as their word of the year:

“An adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”
And that’s where George Orwell comes in. In 1984, Big Brother’s totalitarian government uses  “newspeak” to confuse citizens with words that have different meanings, ultimately making the people “doublethink”. The method allows the citizens to “simultaneously accept two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct”.

With this tool, it’s impossible to know what’s truth from lie, even when saying it out loud. The same process allows Donald Trump and his consultants to lie with ease. For them, the lies they tell are another sort of truth, they’re “alternative facts”.

Sixty-eight years later, Orwell has never been more relevant as today.

http://www.konbini.com/us/entertainment/orwells-1984-is-a-bestseller-again-after-trump-aides-alternative-facts/

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