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Articles on 1984

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George Santos, in the middle, lied his way to winning election to Congress, where he took the oath of office on Jan. 7, 2023. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

George Santos: A democracy can’t easily penalize lies by politicians

When candidates can get elected to Congress based on a mountain of lies they’ve told, is it time to reconsider whether such lies are protected by the First Amendment?
State police officers during a “Reopen Virginia” rally around Capitol Square in Richmond on April 22, 2020. Getty/Ryan M. Kelly / AFP

Are we living in a dystopia?

‘Dystopia’ is a term that’s gained popularity during the coronavirus pandemic. But it’s not a synonym for ‘a bad time,’ and a government’s poor handling of a crisis does not constitute dystopia.
The dominant reading of George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “1984” has been that it was a dire prediction of what could be. Denis Hamel Côté

What Orwell’s ‘1984’ tells us about today’s world, 70 years after it was published

In the year 1984, there was self-congratulatory coverage that the dystopia of the novel had not been realized. However, an expert argues that the technologies described in the novel are here and watching us.
College yearbook editors in the 1960s juxtaposed pictures of traditional campus activities, such as Greek Life, alongside images of protests and marches. The Kentuckian, 1968

Beyond blackface: How college yearbooks captured protest and change

Recent blackface scandals that involve college yearbooks have overshadowed how yearbooks also chronicled important turning points in the history of US higher education, a historian argues.
A day after Donald Trump met with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, he told lawmakers the U.S. should have more immigrants from places like Norway and not “shithole” countries like Haiti. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

‘Shithole countries’: Trump uses the rhetoric of dictators

Donald Trump’s language has disturbing similarities to the words and verbal tactics used by fascists, including his cries of “fake news” and his obsessive exaggerations about his achievements.
aradaphotography via Shutterstock

What does ‘Orwellian’ mean, anyway?

Boris Johnson and Michael Gove may not be the stuff of Orwell’s dystopian nightmare, but they clearly know how to talk in ‘doublespeak’.
Every year thousands of students read George Orwell’s 1984 and are doubtless convinced that its perspective on language and power is “definitive”. Except that it’s not; and hasn’t been since at least the 1970s. Manuel Harlan/Melbourne Festival

Goodbye to all that: Orwell’s 1984 is a boot stamping on a human face no more

Many still regard George Orwell’s 1984 and its message about the nature of language and power “definitive”. But globalisation has revolutionised how we communicate; 1984 tells us nothing about our future.
The climate change “debate” bears the stains of Orwellian interference. Truthout.org

An Orwellian climate

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts” – Senator Daniel Moynihan Science is a systematic, evidence-based, testable and self-correcting way of investigating the world. This…

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