1984

Alternative Facts' Seem To Boost '1984' To Best-seller List

... giving — Sean Spicer our press secretary — gave alternative facts to that," Kellyanne Conway told Chuck Todd on  NBC's "Meet the Press"  on Sunday. Todd replied,  "Alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods.". It's been two days since Conway, counselor to President Trump, defended  inaccurate statements  made by the White House regarding the size of the inauguration crowd. Continue Reading. White House press secretary Sean Spicer  said in a statement  Saturday, "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period — both in person and around the globe.". But "alternative facts" are still a hot topic of discussion. Besides becoming the butt of jokes on social media and on TV, the phrase has apparently sparked an interest in George Orwell's book "1984.". Related Story. Spicer Pledges To 'Never Knowingly Say Something That's Not Factual'. As  The Guardian  pointed out Tuesday, the book has become a  bestseller on Amazon. It reached the number 3 spot by Tuesday afternoon. Orwell didn't use the phrase "alternative facts" in his book. But the phrase reminded those who have read the book of the term "newspeak.". Merriam-Webster's ...

George Orwell's '1984' Is A Best-seller Again. Here's Why It Resonates Now

... by whistle-blower Edward Snowden about the extent of U. S. surveillance operations. In “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” the state keeps constant watch on its citizens to spot potential “thought-crimes” or rebellion. Richard Keeble, chairman of The Orwell Society and editor of the book of scholarship, “Orwell Today,” said Orwell would also have critiqued other aspects of Obama’s presidency. “In terms of double-think”–a term defined in the novel as the ability to hold two pieces of contradictory information at one time–“let’s think back to a so-called Nobel peace prize winner who waged war for most years of his presidency,” Keeble said. The point, Keeble said, is that Orwell cannot fit neatly into certain boxes; he was non-conformist in his thinking, and “where the dominant line was going, he tended to critique it.”. But Keeble, Stansky and Rodden all said Trump’s presidency has sparked fears that bring a new level of relevance to the book, particularly because of the way Trump deploys language. Much has been written about Trump’s style of speech, which linguists have said is often ...

1984' Tops Amazon Bestseller List After Trump Aide's 'alternative Facts

... him for questioning the legitimacy of the election. Since the election, "Hillbilly Elegy" - a memoir that's become a guide to working-class America - has been at or near the top of the list. And now the classic dystopian novel "1984" is number one, as NPR's Lynn Neary reports. LYNN NEARY, BYLINE: The Amazon bestseller list is updated hourly, so it can swiftly track a surge in the book's popularity. A spokesman for Signet Classics, which currently publishes "1984," said sales have increased almost 10,000 percent since the inauguration and moved noticeably upwards on Sunday. That's when Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway appeared on "Meet The Press." When host Chuck Todd challenged the Trump administration's assertions about the size of the Inauguration Day crowd, Conway responded with a phrase that caught everyone's attention. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS"). KELLYANNE CONWAY: You're saying it's a falsehood. And they're giving - Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave ...

Key Concepts From George Orwell's 1984 Suggest Why It's Amazon's Best-selling Book In The Age Of Trump

... crowds, we all know that.”. In 1984, Orwell coined the term “crimestop” for this tactic of confusion. “Crimestop,” he wrote, was the deliberate erosion of the public’s skepticism, such that they learn not to ask hard questions. His more famous, complementary concept “doublethink” described the ability to believe in two conflicting facts at the same time. The first and simplest stage in the discipline, which can be taught even to young children, is called, in Newspeak, CRIMESTOP. CRIMESTOP means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. CRIMESTOP, in short, ...

Alternative Facts:' Why The Trump Team Is 'planting A Flag' In War On Media

... facts are not facts. They're falsehoods," he said to her. At one point in the interview, when Todd brought up "falsehoods," Conway said he was being "overly dramatic.". Before their discussion ended, Todd asked Conway if it's "a political tactic to come up with 'alternative facts' and try to set up the press as your enemy.". Conway replied, "no, I didn't say that at all.". But to a lot of journalists, that's exactly what it sounds like. The presentation of "alternative facts" undermines the media's reporting of reality in a way that decreases public trust in the media - and in facts. The administration's tactics in its first days, coupled with Conway's invocation of "alternative facts," has observers worried that one of the ways it will "fight back" is to simply deny that two plus two equals four. "Alternative facts" is "a George Orwell phrase," Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty said, referring to the science fiction novel "1984.". "This brings us to '1984' doublethink, where war is really peace, where famine is really plenty. That's what's happening here," political ...

It’s 1984 All Over Again

... that you have an ad blocker enabled which restricts ads served on the site. Please disable it to continue reading Pune Mirror. It’s 1984 all over again. The Independent | Jan 25, 2017, 02.30 AM IST. THE PHOTO SAYS IT ALL: People were quick to point out that Trump signed this executive order, which could impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of women, flanked only by men. Trump signs Reagan-era policy that blocks aid for NGOs providing abortion services. WASHINGTON Donald Trump signed three executive orders at the start of his first full week as president. One withdrew the US from the TTP trade deal, one was a freeze on federal hiring, and the third was a block on federal funds going to NGOs that helped provide abortion services for women overseas. The Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule, was first put in place by Ronald Reagan in 1984. Its reintroduction drew condemnation from abortion rights and ...

Why Orwell’s ‘1984’ Matters So Much Now

... regimes on an unpresidented scale. In a widely quoted letter written in 1944, he decried “the horrors of emotional nationalism and a tendency to disbelieve in the existence of objective truth.” He went on to explain with rising alarm: “Already history has in a sense ceased to exist, ie. there is no such thing as a history of our own times which could be universally accepted, and the exact sciences are endangered.” Now we’re being told that millions of illegal immigrants kept Trump from winning the popular vote and that the science behind climate change is a Chinese hoax. This is ungood. But Democrats shouldn’t feel too smug about Trump’s fluency in Newspeak. The Obama administration did its best to conceal that the National Security Agency is listening to our electronic communications, an eerie parallel to the surveillance described in “1984.” And it was President Bill Clinton who brought the country to a constitutional climax by claiming that the truth of ...

On ‘1984,’ Alternative Park Service Tweets And Half An Onion

... bestseller list. A “resistance” team from the National Park Service comes out with its own Twitter feed. And half an onion in a plastic bag has passed 500,000 Twitter followers as it continues to tweak President Trump. Yes, Trump’s first few days in office have been particularly active on social media. The radio station went after Madonna for her lack of “patriotism”; Orwell’s book features a Ministry of Truth that offers up, uh, alternative facts; and the unofficial Park Service feed came because of a crackdown on some official ones. As for Half an Onion, it tweets things like, “For the record, I’m not gonna show you my tax returns either because, well. I’m a half-used piece of produce in a bag. Not the president.”. Live ad will draw lots of Snickers. A Snickers commercial will have a twist during ...

Six Of The Best Books To Read In Trumpian Times

... This is the core text, written by an American 11 years before Trump was born. More commentator than artist, Lewis had a genius for reading people. Influenced by the spectacle of Hitler’s brainwashing of the German Volk, he could see the same thing happening in America, Interestingly, the first edition carried a banner headline: “What Will Happen When America Has A Dictator” – now it does. In the novel “Buzz” is eventually exiled to France, leaving a ravaged nation in his wake. ‘Trump is sexiest not sexist’ and other alternative alt-facts. Animal Farm by George Orwell (1935). Exile, did someone mention Napoleon? Well admittedly Donald Trump bears far more resemblance to Orwell’s crazed porcine dictator of the same name than he does with the Corsican who became emperor of France. True, Russia proved to be Napoleon’s downfall, but, at least ...

1984 Tops Bestseller Charts; Alexa Pleases Trekkies; Hp Extends Battery Recall

... Beam me up, Alexa. If you’re in the Venn diagram where Star Wars geeks and home assistant enthusiasts interface, rejoice: Amazon has just added a new “wake word” to its Echo and Echo Dot home assistants that you’ll like. Sophos Home. Learn More. The default word to alert your device that it should listen up is “Alexa”, and until the most recent update was pushed out, you could change that either to “Echo” or “Amazon” – handy if you were uncomfortable with issuing orders to a clearly female name, for example. Now you can also wake up your Echo or your Dot by saying “Computer”. However, although there are some Star Trek tricks up the Echo and Dot’s sleeves (ask it to “set phasers to stun”), the technology isn’t quite at the same level as LCARS. Yet. HP recalls another 101,000 laptop batteries. Samsung has been in the spotlight over the past few months with its ...