Velshi Banned Book Club: George Orwell's '1984' with author Veronica Roth - Velshi - MSNBC

[Rhiannon12866]

The influence of George Orwell’s “1984” continues to be relevant in today’s scary world. Any discussion of authoritarianism, surveillance, and the manipulation of truth invokes the dystopian landscape in Orwell’s novel. Reading “1984” is one of the first and most formative moments when American students are asked to consider government overreach and the fragility and malleability of their own minds.

Veronica Roth, the author of another hugely influential dystopian series, “Divergent,” joins the Velshi Banned Book Club to discuss. - Aired on 09/20/2025.

[pat_k]

1. The examples of Doublethink within MAGA are truly frightening.

Here's one from tonight: "A pastor, citing the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk, has called for his neighbors to take down their “Hate Has No Home Here” signs, claiming those messages endorse political violence against people like him."
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143533822

If "Hate Has No Home" is a call to violence, then is "Hate Has A Home Here" somehow a message of Love?

It strikes me as right up there with "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," and "Ignorance is Strength"

Doublethink:
The ability to "know and not to know," "to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them". It involves the conscious ability to forget things that are no longer convenient or truthful, and then to recall them when needed, only to forget them again. This includes the act of forgetting the act of forgetting itself. Perhaps my favorite example is when the Party suddenly changes its enemy during a Hate Week rally. The crowd instantly accepts the new enemy and is ashamed for having produced signs for the old one. This shows their ability to "forget" what they just knew and accept the new narrative immediately.

Next on the agenda for the 47 regime: Ministry of Truth

Who's on board with MOFA? (Make Orwell Fiction Again!)