One of the key principles of Ingsoc, or English Socialism, in 1984 is the idea that “War is Peace” (Orwell). The three societies in the world, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia, are constantly at war in order to consume surplus resources so that each society only ever has the exact amount of goods that it needs to get by. “The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact” (Orwell). Because of this, life for citizens of Oceania would not be any different if there was never any war at all, and so in this sense, war is, in fact equal to peace. In the article “We Are (Still) Living in an Orwellian World” by Thomas Ricks, the author states that this aspect of Oceania is especially menacing because the US has been regularly involved with war for many years (Ricks). However, this is due to America’s desire to gain resources, as opposed to Oceania’s desire to consume resources, which makes this comparison inaccurate. The article draws upon a single quote from 1984 in which Winston Smith …show more content…
A few days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, his former press secretary, Sean Spicer, claimed that the crowd at his inauguration was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period”, which was quickly debunked (Reilly). Days later, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s spokeswoman, called the misinformation “alternative facts” (Macintyre). The inauguration misinformation is not the only instance of Donald Trump’s manipulation of language. According to PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking website, 59 percent of Donald Trump’s formal statements have been mostly false, false, or “pants on fire” blatant lies (“Donald”). This fact, whether or not people are consciously aware of it, is perhaps why the Trump administration has been so frequently compared to