Sheeple!
The proles have more freedom than party members but they're too mindless to understand this. The party controls access to information and has destroyed the real past, rewriting it each time they want to change their narrative. The Proles don't see how this affects their lives, so they don't really care about it. By not rebelling, they're making the party's hold on society stronger.
Cue anti-maskers claiming that the current 'rona situation is "literally 1984."
I think looking into right-wing conspiracies is a goldmine for writing blogposts for this book.
Overall though, does their claim make a small amount of sense to the untrained eye? Conspiracy believers are typically a certain type of person, and we have seen them fall for many other things.
I was thinking about that one Fauci thing, where he said "don't wear a mask" early on but then of course said "wear a mask" and now "wear double mask", and somehow this is too much change for some people?
ReplyDeletebruh
The current situation with corona virus is far from a libertarian's wet dream, but from an utilitarian stand point masks and lockdowns make a lot of sense. I think a more compelling comparison is the post 9/11 legislation that allows the NSA to do all the spying they want to for any reason.
ReplyDeleteI feel like conspiracy theorists used to have to be more undercover, secretly building their master accusation, whereas now they can basically wear their beliefs like a badge of honor. I have no idea what that has to do with Proles, but I think the Party does a pretty good job of diverting their attention with alcohol and the lottery. Maybe this symbolizes how someone can be lured into believing some crazy stuff as long as they are distracted from factual information contradicting it.
ReplyDeleteI think that if you tell anyone that they are being oppressed in one way or another, they'll believe you because humans like to feel like we deserve something more than what we have (and this might be doubly true for truly privileged people because they haven't actually experienced oppression before), so calling any type of change "literally 1984" doesn't really surprise me as much as it does realize the privilege these people are coming from
ReplyDeleteYes. This.
DeleteThis is a great discussion. I have nothing to add. I am just here to read.
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