On Doublethink as an Authoritarian Technique

June 17/18, 2025

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of doublethink he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt.”

George Orwell “1984”

An example:

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength"

Also George Orwell, “1984”

For the past few days we have been subjected to doublethink as practiced by experts. And by one perhaps not so expert. Today Marjorie Taylor Greene otherwise known as MarjorieQ today called out Fox “News” and the New York Post as neocon propaganda outlets trying to get the American People to accept the United States becoming actively involved militarily in the Israel/Iran war. In the meantime, a real expert in doublethink, Donald John, having said he never want to involve the United States militarily in the Middle East has called upon the Iranian People to evacuate Tehran and the Iranian leadership to surrender unconditionally but didn’t say to whom. At the same time he has launched at least one and possibly two carrier groups at high speed (one of them passing up a planned port of call in Vietnam) towards the eastern Mediterranean. After he had contradicted his DNI, Tulsi Gabard, who said Iran was not close to acquiring a nuclear weapon. All after he told his fellow G7 heads of government he was leaving their meeting in Western Canada in order to work on peace in the Middle East. But only after telling them the decision to exclude Russia in 2014 after Russia had annexed Crimea and other parts of Ukraine. He also said he’d be open to China joining, signed a trade agreement with the United Kingdom, and complained that the EU was too complex and took too long. In the meantime Israel and Iran are continuing to have at it with Israel claiming control of the skies over Iran and — for the most part — Israel hitting military hospitals and Iran targeting civilians. All while the U.S. contemplates using its 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs against Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility.

All while an even more doublethink expert than Trump, Vladimir Putin, continues his nightly missile and drone barrages against Ukrainian civilians, civilian infrastructure, and hospitals in Ukraine. And while doing so, he continues the doublethink lie that his goal is to drive fascism out of Ukraine never mentioning he heads a Fascist government.

And last night, on his way back to Washington on Air Force One, said it would be a waste of his time to call Governor Waltz and offer the nation’s condolences to the people of Minnesota in their aftermath of the murders that happened there. What this writer found ironic was Donald John calling Tim Waltz stupid and incompetent.

But perhaps the most harm to the most people was being done by the continually changing policies and rules around immigration. First ICE is going after long-standing agricultural and hospitality (hotels and restaurants) workers until weak-minded Donald talked to his billionaire buddies. Then it wasn’t. For a few hours. The Donald spoke again to anti-immigrant, white supremacist Stephen Miller and the policy was changed again. Which doesn’t address the nefarious ICE practice of following people to their court dates and when they’re released, rearresting them before they can leave the courthouse.

What’s the point? Simple. Power for the sake of power. Intimidation for the sake of intimidation. But the ICE agents are only doing their jobs say some. So were the German soldiers loading human beings into railroad freight cars during WWII. The point of doublethink is to wear the people down so an authoritarian system can be put in place so those in power can further enrich themselves.

“They wish to be free of their freedom: released from their liberty
The long labor of liberty ended!

Archibald MacLeish, “The Fall of the City”