FAKE NEWS

The Trump administration’s blatant disregard for the truth is dystopian in and of itself. Trump lies, he tweets the lie, his advisors and pundits repeat the lie, and his followers accept the lie at face-value, even when the lie is in direct opposition to objective reality. The administration uses lies to suit their political agendas, and anyone that attempts to fact-check them or critique the president in any way is accused of creating “fake news.”

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Trump’s refusal to admit when he or his staff are wrong is so Orwellian that it’s almost as if he’s following a 1984 manual. From exaggerating the number of people in attendance at the inauguration to citing a fictionalized massacre to support the anti-Muslim immigration and travel ban, the Trump team will say whatever they have to in order to push their own narrative and further their own interests.

 

It’s not a coincidence that 1984 sat at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list for weeks following the presidential election. It’s very indicative of peoples’ fear that Trump’s anti-media, “fake news,” “alternative facts” style could very well lead to a society like that of 1984. The Party’s goal is to have total control over their citizens’ minds so that the government has their complete trust and support. The government is never wrong because they re-write history to make it agree with the present. They falsify stories of the past, present, and future because, according to the Party, “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell 44). In this society, freedom is the freedom to tell the truth, to say that 2 + 2 = 4, rather than blindly accepting what the government says is true.

 

If the many think pieces comparing Trump and Big Brother are to be believed, we’re already living in a modern version of 1984. Many of his supporters already seem to be fluent in doublespeak, having the ability to forget facts when it is ideologically convenient. The key to not falling into a modern-day Oceania is to continue to question what the government says and does; and to not normalize the Trump administration’s abuses of power.

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