1984 = 2022
You know shit has really hit the fan when the desperate US government just created a Disinformation Governance Board at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The person hired to be the executive director is a former “disinformation fellow” at the Wilson Center, a think tank named after President Woodrow Wilson - one of his legacies was establishing the Committee on Public Information in 1917, to control the press during the Great War.
I kid you not.
So that is where we are at, to also control public narrative during this war time. I guess this is Biden’s legacy too?
Like I have said many times, we exist in an illusion where everything is not real and the opposite is truth where, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength.”
Welcome to the Ministry of Truth, sorry I meant Propaganda. For those who have read the classic George Orwell’s 1984, it is true that our governments are now officially using the novel as policy recommendation. At least they are reading! I take that back, their assistants are reading, they just get briefed.
From the 1984 novel, according to the books Wikipedia entry:
The Ministry of Truth is the ministry of propaganda. As with the other ministries in the novel, the name Ministry of Truth is a misnomer because in reality it serves the opposite: it is responsible for any necessary falsification of historical events. However, like the other ministries, the name is also apt because it decides what "truth" is.
As well as administering "truth", the ministry spreads a new language amongst the populace called Newspeak, in which, for example, "truth" is understood to mean statements like 2 + 2 = 5 when the situation warrants. In keeping with the concept of doublethink, the ministry is thus aptly named in that it creates/manufactures "truth" in the Newspeak sense of the word. The book describes the doctoring of historical records to show a government-approved version of events.
The Ministry of Truth is involved with news media, entertainment, the fine arts and educational books. Its purpose is to rewrite history to change the facts to fit Party doctrine for propaganda effect.
The Ministry of truth plays a role with the news media by changing history, and changing the words in articles about events current and past, so that Big Brother and his government are always seen in a good light and can never do any wrong. The content is more propaganda than actual news.
I find it very interesting that all this is in the works the same week of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
And some were celebrating thinking free speech is back on the table. Little did they know..
It would be informative to know other countries that established similar propaganda ministries in history:
Nazi Germany had the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
The Soviet Union had a Department for Agitation and Propaganda.
The Republican faction in the Spanish Civil War had Ministry of Propaganda during period from November 1936 to May 1937.
The Brazilian Estado Novo had a Department of Press and Propaganda (DIP).
The Irish Republic had a Department of Propaganda, established 1918 and renamed to Department of Publicity in 1921.
The Chinese Central Propaganda Department officially changed its English name to Central Publicity Department in 1998, while its Chinese name 宣传部 was unchanged.
Poland's ministry of information and propaganda was established in 1944.
Fascist Italy's analogue was the Ministry of Popular Culture, created in 1933.
The Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information in Venezuela is often called a propaganda ministry.
Propaganda and Agitation Department in North Korea.
The Francoist Spain had Department of Propaganda from 1936 to 1947.
Notice anything familiar with all the countries listed above?
Welcome to the year 1984 in 2022.
See you tomorrow!
- Ope