Kellyanne Conway’s use of the phrase “alternative facts” on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” has apparently reminded many of the dystopian novel by George Orwell, 1984.
“Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods,” Chuck Todd tells Pres. Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway this morning. WATCH: pic.twitter.com/Ao005dQ13r
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 22, 2017
To many, “alternative facts” sounds like a euphemism for lies. It reminded many others of the dystopian novel by Orwell.
The counselor to the president used the phrase in reference to false claims by White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
Chuck Todd, confused, replied, “Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods.”
“We put through a 75,000 copy reprint this week. That is a substantial reprint and larger than our typical reprint for ‘1984,’” a Penguin spokesman told CNN.
Sales for the novel had also spiked in 2013 after the leak of NSA documents. One edition had a 10,000 percent increase in sales at this time.
The plot tells the story of Winston Smith, an average citizen living under a totalitarian government that controls every aspect of the society he lives in. The omnipresent power disseminates false information and skews or destroys evidence of the past to control the people.
One feature that the novel is well-known for is the use of cult-like phrases to describe aspects of the society such as “doublethink,” holding contradictory beliefs; “newspeak,” ambiguous political propaganda; and “Big Brother,” the omniscient, omnipotent government.
Conway putting together the phrase “alternative facts” as a phrase meant to obscure the fact that Spicer was stating incorrect information is reminiscent of the terms used in Orwell’s novel.
The Washington Post wrote that the rise in 1984’s popularity is significant because the novel is often used to describe the actions of governments.
The New Yorker published a piece by Ian Couch that said, “words…are manipulated by the three branches of government to make what might seem illegal legal — leading to something of a parallel language that rivals Orwell’s Newspeak for its soulless, obfuscated meaning.”
Perhaps the phrase “alternative facts” is indicative of this “parallel language.”
