I read George Orwell’s 1984, picked up at the local library in 1965, when I was in middle school. I read it again in 1968 for a high school English class. In the late 60’s we had several young, very progressive teachers.  In one class we were simply told to choose the books we wanted to read and to write a paper or book report on each one. Another teacher even told us to look beyond books and led us on an exploration of Marshall McLuhan’s “the media is the message.”

This leads me to today, as we begin our descent into the world being created by Trump, Fox News, DOGE and MAGA, and realizing that our 2025 is Orwell’s 1984. Language, and the media that delivers these messages, is Orwell’s 1984.

New Speak: Using short words that are easy to pronounce, so that speech is physically automatic and intellectually unconscious, so the mental habits of the user of Newspeak lack critical thinking.

Doublethink: A process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy.

New Speak and Doublethink are now the methodology of our national government.  Trump is not smart enough to have created this methodology of manipulating us, but those who have obscene amounts of money and power have found in him the tool to accomplish their goals of enriching themselves, while destroying democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

We hear the words “rooting out corruption and waste” as a blanket reason to do anything.  Planned Parenthood must be denied all funding because of corruption and waste, and because all the money going to it is to fund abortions. In fact, only five percent of Planned Parenthood spending is for abortions; the rest funds screening for health issues, birth control and wellness care. Just stamp the words corruption and waste on anything and it becomes a reason to destroy an organization that cares for and helps women from all walks of life.

We hear it is corruption and waste to fund vaccine programs that save lives.  It is waste and corruption to pay social security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits that keep people out of debt and from becoming homeless.

From the Redwood Empire Food bank, the USDA has confirmed the permanent cancellation of $500 million in food purchases for The Emergency Food Assistance Program funded by the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). 

Republicans have been masters at dispensing repeated misinformation for years. They tap into grievances, provide misinformation as to why it happens, and who is to blame.  Many voters consume information via social media, podcasts and Fox News. 

But, let me be a bit of a provocateur. Maybe it is because our education system is focused on reading, writing and arithmetic at the expense of nurturing compassion, critical thinking and social responsibility.  Students are capable of doing it all.  They can excel at math, science and language and still understand history and be advanced critical thinkers.  

A Sonoma Valley Unified School District trustee, who was appointed and not elected, states we must follow executive orders. But we must not give in.  We must not follow an Orwellian 1984 edict in New Speak, we must continue to fight for our democracy and assure that the next generation is one of critical thinkers.