Tag Archives: 1984

Using Doublethink To Sell Trumpcare

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2017

House Republicans appear to be using Doublethink to sell their healthcare plan. If it works, there will be no stopping them.

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Fundamentalists Send Readers to Atwood

By Robin Bates | Published: February 19, 2017

Margaret Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale” is topping bestseller lists at the moment. The reason is probably because of the GOP’s prospect of success in curbing reproductive freedom.

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1984 Explains Why Trump Keeps Lying

By Robin Bates | Published: January 24, 2017

“1984” gives us new insight into Donald Trump’s incessant lying. We are not supposed to apply logic to contentions that Trump’s inauguration crowd was bigger than Obama’s. We are supposed to submit to power. The more outrageous the lie, the more Trump demonstrates his power when people go along.

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Trump’s “Truth” Is Like Big Brother’s

By Robin Bates | Published: June 20, 2016

Like Orwell’s Big Brother, Donald Trump has been allowed to define truth. We’re all paying for it.

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When Surveillance Is Incompetent

By Robin Bates | Published: June 19, 2013

When, in a post last week, I found parallels between the National Security Agency’s extensive data mining attempts and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, I neglected to mention (as this New Yorker essay does) that one has to be careful with books that have themselves become symbols. When this happens, they become like clichés, losing their […]

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Big Brother Is Data Mining You

By Robin Bates | Published: June 10, 2013

The government”s Prism data-mining program predictably brings Orwell’s “1984” to mind.

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Bad GOP Messaging? Try Doublethink

By Robin Bates | Published: February 7, 2013

Some recent GOP attempts to soften their message while retaining their policies remind one of Orwellian doublespeak.

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Can Art Change Big Brother?

By Robin Bates | Published: September 2, 2011

The Oscar-winning German film “The Lives of Others” speaks to the ability of art to change people’s lives.

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Grendel as a Norwegian Christian Fascist

By Robin Bates | Published: July 26, 2011

Apparently Anders Breivik was very well read and he mentions George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and Ayn Rand. What I find striking about them on the list is that they all articulate high levels of paranoia.

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