Every day we get closer to an Orwellian society. The United Kingdom may already be one.

  • Soot [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    I do agree. But calling the UK Orwellian is kind of funny, given Orwell’s 1984 is largely, if not mostly, based on the UK:

    • Like Winston, Orwell worked in the UK as a war propagandist, and lamented that he constantly had to lie and censor facts, but thought it worth it to defeat the Nazis.
    • The ‘ministries’ were entirely based on the UK’s, especially e.g. the ‘Ministry of Defense’ actually being a ministry of war.
    • Orwell complained that the UK secret police constantly opened all his letters because he was a commie.
    • Room 101 and the Ministry of Truth is basically just satire of the BBC.

    As well as cultural changes in the 80s-90s, I think people don’t quite realise how much the internet ‘escaped’ the grasp of governments for the past few decades. By constantly banging the drum of “what about the children D:”, governments are finally just catching up to where we used to be.

    • golden_zealot@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      22 hours ago

      Surpassing where we used to be in that regard as in the mean time they have been busy locking down controls over other facets of society.