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George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon
- Natsu 10y agoJust hope it doesn't get deleted from your Kindles again. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18ama...
- SlipperySlope 10y agoNewspeak: 1. Fake News == mainstream media against Trump 2. Women's Rights == legal abortion of the unborn 3. Liberal == intolerant 4. Religion of Peace == Terrorism 5. Alt-Right == Nazi
- banku_brougham 10y agoThis is amazing. The womens marches over the weekend and these seem to be an indicator of a very sudden awakening.
- juskrey 10y ago50 years ago: "We, women, are not sexual devices!" 2017: Putting on pink clit caps. I bet 1984 customers is way another set of people.
- Trill-I-Am 10y agoHow is referencing the natural female anatomy inherently sexual?
- mattnewton 10y agoWhat's wrong with a hat you can knit at home? It's an effective symbol.
- gukov 10y agohttp://blog.dilbert.com/post/156315793671/battle-of-the-hats http://blog.dilbert.com/post/156315793671/battle-of-the-hats
- sergiotapia 10y agoIt's a terribly ineffective symbol: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/156315793671/battle-of-the-hats http://blog.dilbert.com/post/156315793671/battle-of-the-hats
- nkozyra 10y agoThe argument posited here is not that it's "terribly ineffective" but that Scott Adams - someone naturally inclined against such causes and demonstrations - doesn't "get it." (His words)
- dllthomas 10y ago> Women are “owning” pink to rob it of its power to brand them as the so-called weaker sex. https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/dec/12/pinkstinks-the-power-of-pink https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2009/dec/12/pinkstin... > The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy
- mverwijs 10y ago"So pink is not a fighting/protesting color if you want to keep the base energized." I like Scott Adams, but this is silly. The 'N' word is not something to get energized over either, and neither is the 'Q' word. But those examples he ignores even though he mentions them himself earlier. Another example: When the Dutch started their war of independence from Spain, the freedomfighters (terrorists?) called themselves 'Geus', derived from the french word 'gueux'. It means 'beggar', the lowest of social statuses. We turned 'Geus' into being a hero. Same could happen to the color pink. So stop knit-picking (pun!) and join the fight.
- juskrey 10y agoOkay, if anyone here has an access to data, I'll place a bet.
- skylan_q 10y agoI don't get why everyone assumes that you can only be a female if you have a vagina
- knz 10y agoDid you mean femanist? Edit: I'm not sure why I'm getting downvotes... It seems like a reasonable typo OP may have made given the context? > I don't get why everyone assumes that you can only be a female if you have a vagina
- mattnewton 10y agoyou are getting downvotes most likely for confusing gender and sex. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_gender_distinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_gender_distinction It's unfortunate because I think you were acting in good faith and an explanation would be more productive
- knz 10y agoI'm aware of the difference but assumed it was related to questions about why men may have participated in the march. My mistake apparently!
- hueving 10y agoMost people associate female/male with sexual organs. You can see this any many metaphors (e.g. google "female electrical outlet" and "male electrical outlet").
- refurb 10y agoOh you did it now! 2017 headline "Electrical standards commission will no longer refer to "male" and "female" outlets but rather "hole" and "prong".
- EleventhSun 10y agoIn 2017, people have to rely on anchoring their sexual meanings based on male/female electrical adapters. Yep, 1984 is here.
- fullshark 10y agoI thought those were supposed to be cat ears?
- toor2 10y agoThey are bennies with cat ears called pussy hats, not "clit hats". They were made in response to the "grab me by the pussy" remark The Donald made. Also AFAB people have a right to destigmatize their reproductive organs. (Think about how many times a day middle school boys draw penises on things) Now that being said, I think the pussy hats are problematic because they are trans exclusionary, which is totally unrelated to your imagined feminist hypocrisy.
- korrach 10y agoAnd a falling asleep as soon as a better clown takes control. Trump is marginally worse in content but infinitely worse in presentation. I mean ffs Obama care was a heritage foundation proposal and that's his shining achievement, it would be like Lincoln abolishing slavery by buying all the slaves and then making them work to pay off their freedom.
- ctchocula 10y agoAccording to [1], it's similar to a Republican bill from the 1990s, but was not a Heritage Foundation proposal. > More hard-line senators such as Phil Gramm, R-Texas, House Republicans and the Heritage Foundation saw the Chafee bill as an unacceptable compromise. [1] http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2013/nov/15/ellen-qualls/aca-gop-health-care-plan-1993/ http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2013/nov/15/...
- jdavis703 10y agoI think you're seeing two pieces of outrage over Trump. The first is the predictable liberal outrage: he's proposing policy that conflicts with what liberals want. Then there's the anger and fear from what appears to be fascist, authorities tendencies in Trump. That's one reason why a President Pence doesn't scare me (and apparently others who are calling for Trump's impeachment). Sure Pence won't work for liberal interests, but at the same time I don't believe he'll be actively working to gut non-partisan areas such as a free press, due process, a free and fair voting process, etc.
- VickBear 10y agoWhere is Trump actively working to gut free press, due process, and a free and fair voting process? Can you share sources with those claims?
- tempestn 10y agoOne example of Trump acting against free press was his refusal to answer a CNN reporter's question because he didn't like their coverage of the golden showers thing. That said, parent didn't say Trump is already doing all these things; they said that people fear he will, based on his actions and statements so far.
- flukus 10y agoWill this awakening by introspective at all? Because punishing wrongthink seems to be endemic with third wave feminists and modern "progressive" groups.
- Lramseyer 10y agoI thought the exact same thing myself when I saw this news. It made me think of this: https://medium.com/@aristoNYC/social-justice-bullies-the-authoritarianism-of-millennial-social-justice-6bdb5ad3c9d3#.qazg2w7ki https://medium.com/@aristoNYC/social-justice-bullies-the-aut...
- flukus 10y agoMy favorite is http://reddit.com/stormfrontorsjw http://reddit.com/stormfrontorsjw
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eli_gottlieb 10y agoHow much right-wing authoritarianism by a sitting government will or would it take to convince you that authoritarian governments are more of a problem than ideologically incoherent university students?
- flukus 10y ago> ideologically incoherent university students? If it were kept in universities I wouldn't care, but it's infected left wing politics and HR departments everywhere. I'm much more worried about left wing authoritarianism in the near future than a rather bland right wing authoritarianism today.
- EleventhSun 10y agoThird wave feminism has absolutely nothing do to with equality, it's all about getting people to attack the people to the side rather than look above.
- vixen99 10y agoWhy would a march be more significant than the votes of 62 million people? I agree that an awakening is overdue given that for instance, America’s child poverty levels are worse than in any developed country anywhere, including Greece and only Slovakia, Chile, Mexico and Turkey have worse infant mortality rates. Median adult wealth is 27th out of 27 high-income countries; internet speed and access is 16th out of 34 countries and for people living below the poverty line - US is 36th out of 162 countries, behind Morocco and Albania. However the US does score a first in its prison population. It comes #1 out of 224 countries. Only China comes close.
- refurb 10y agopeople living below the poverty line - US is 36th out of 162 countries, behind Morocco and Albania You do realize how ridiculous that stat looks right? Are you arguing the poor are worse off in the US than in Morocco? And let me guess, the poverty stat is excluding income transfers? I swear to god politics has gotten even nuttier in the US than it has been. And it was nutty before! Facts don't matter, crushing your opponent matters. Truth be damned! *Speaking as an American.
- jeffgreco 10y agoPeople living below the poverty line seems to be discussing # of people, not their quality of life. Whatever study this is presumably controls for poverty line country-by-country. So: sure, ridiculous if you came to the stat looking for "worse off," I guess?
- refurb 10y agoand for people living below the poverty line - US is 36th out of 162 countries, behind Morocco and Albania. What else could that comment be claiming? It wouldn't really make much sense if the claim was "more people live under the poverty line in the US than Morocco, but they are among the most wealthy people in the world."
- 10y ago
- hyperdunc 10y agoDid you not hear the hyperbole coming from the celebrity cheerleaders at those marches? Ashley Judd sounded like a loon, going on about Hitler and ECT. Not to mention the whole idea of the march is based on identity politics.
- nym 10y agoBuy one and give it to someone else.
- Animats 10y agoThe 1954 movie version is on YouTube.[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajWC_J-jgLc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajWC_J-jgLc
- nickff 10y agoIt also had a (possibly smaller) resurgence after the Snowden revelations.[1] I only wish that Orwell's masterpiece was better understood and appreciated. In addition, I should point out that the book's title is "Nineteen Eighty-Four", not "1984". [1] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/1984-rockets-amazon-bestseller-list-article-1.1371606 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/1984-rockets-amazon...
- aaron695 10y ago> In addition, I should point out that the book's title is "Nineteen Eighty-Four", not "1984". So it is.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Requested_move_Nineteen_Eighty-Four_.E2.86.92_1984 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Requ...
- robbiep 10y ago1984 is out of copyright in Australia and many other countries so you can grab it from project gutenberg for free
- chrisper 10y agohttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=1984 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=1984 Don't seem to be able to find anything?
- sien 10y agohttp://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Imagenuity 10y agoThe Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) PDF is available on archive.org: https://ia800201.us.archive.org/8/items/NINETEENEIGHTY-FOUR1984ByGeorgeOrwellPDFAudioBook/1984.pdf https://ia800201.us.archive.org/8/items/NINETEENEIGHTY-FOUR1... The original 1948 audiobook is also available: https://archive.org/details/NINETEENEIGHTY-FOUR1984ByGeorgeOrwellPDFAudioBook https://archive.org/details/NINETEENEIGHTY-FOUR1984ByGeorgeO...
- donretag 10y agoAmazon Best Sellers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/
- andrewclunn 10y agoWait, so the "#1 bestselling" of something can just mean for that day? They might as well call it a trending list at that point.
- beloch 10y agoI must admit, I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S.. Clinton was impeached for perjury and abuse of power because he took advantage of his position (and a political intern) and then lied about it. Now we have a president who is not giving up his business interests while in office and who has already told some absolute whoppers, including the release of official press releases that were nothing but "alternative facts". Why tell such obvious falsehoods? We're all laughing (nervously) now because the lies seem to be harmless, self-serving vain ones. However, is Trump just a little insane, or is he actually finding out who is willing to say "We've always been at war with Eurasia" and who isn't? This is probably a good time for people to be reading 1984.
- curuinor 10y agoHe's 70 years old and his dad had Alzheimer's.
- beloch 10y agoReagan was 70 when he took office and did later develop Alzheimer's. Did he develop it while in office? If he did, his staff covered for him quite effectively. If you're saying Trump has Alzheimer's now, and that explains his behaviour... Well, Trump's been acting like this for decades!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- pinewurst 10y agoMore people need to read Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here" (1935) which I didn't take so seriously when I first read it in high school.
- jmcgough 10y agoThat book is #1 for classic american literature on Amazon right now.
- apeconmyth 10y agoFrom NYT Book Review: Reading the Classic Novel That Predicted Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/books/review/classic-novel-that-predicted-trump-sinclar-lewis-it-cant-happen-here.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/books/review/classic-nove...
- inopinatus 10y agoThe recursive irony is strong, could only be increased if the "Customers Also Bought" included The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, E. Goldstein, Brotherhood Press 1949.
- kylelibra 10y agoAlso highly relevant is Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
- imglorp 10y agoCame here to say this. I think what we're seeing is a mixture of the two social and political situations: some from column a and some from column b. Turns out they were both right in large measure. In fact, Huxley and Orwell were contemporary and corresponded on the matter -> http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/1984-v-brave-new-world.html http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/1984-v-brave-new-world....
- Fricken 10y agoHighly relevant is Marshall McLuhan. 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 didn't anticipate what the internet would do to us at all in any way.
- ibmthrowaway218 10y agoBoth were influenced by _We_ by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
- liamzebedee 10y agoAn incredible book if I may add. Zamyatin was one of few dystopian writers to actually be involved in the going-ons in the Russian revolution at the time.
- megalomanu 10y agoThanks. Huxley is much more relevant than Orwell, today. 1984 is a masterpiece but describes a stalinian totalitarism, which probably belongs to the past. Today, the threat is more diffuse and hides in mass entertainment, consumerism, etc. The danger we face is the lose of our ability to think (not because of thinking would become forbidden, but because it would become unnecessary)
- earlyriser 10y ago
- dpweb 10y agoIts right to question which direction the country is headed, but i have to wonder what damage is being done to the nation's psyche with all the apocolyptic imagery. What's it like to feel in constant crisis. It makes people scared all the time and drives divisiveness. Its as dangerous as anything the prez may have planned.
- davesque 10y agoIt's a tricky question. On the one hand, you can try to calm yourself and avoid living in constant paranoia which could be a net gain. On the other hand, you can risk the water slowly coming to a boil all around you without your noticing. I've tried to remain as calm as possible throughout all of this, but I can't get the image of the frog on the hotplate out of my mind. I seem to recall that people who lived through the rise of Nazi Germany described things in that way. No one really realized how insane things were getting until it was too late.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- pje 10y agoLiterally millions of people will die during our lifetime because of climate change. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/
- reddytowns 10y agoAnd Trump did not cause that.
- roastbeef 10y agoRacist!
- kibwen 10y ago> What's it like to feel in constant crisis. Look no further than the forty-year period of constant crisis that was the Cold War.
- noobermin 10y agoWhile I love 1984, I think Fahrenheit 451 has become more true than Orwell's novel. People have willingly given into an information bonanza that is the internet, with headphones always in (seashells). We don't need the TV walls, as our cellphone has taken that role, altogether with the hyperactive delivery of such content. A collectivist state has not become the dominating power, but wealthy individuals and corporations have, although with similar results--while that part wasn't really part of Montag's universe, the part that is is that we have given up to the "firemen" on our own freewill, because it fits our narrative or it's our safe space. Nonetheless, I am very optimistic. I think for all the faults that the internet and mobiles and social networks and globalization has wrought us, the world today still is a better world it was say 20 or 30 years ago. When ontop of oscillations, they are never obvious from the vantage point of a single wiggle. I still feel that despite many of the shortcomings of the previous few decades and years and months, we can still arrive on net at a better place than we were yesterday.
- knieveltech 10y agoI feel that if you honestly believe the world is unambiguously better now than it was 20-30 years ago this reflects either your youth or privilege more so than any objective truth. I'll just leave this here: http://thebulletin.org/timeline http://thebulletin.org/timeline
- akiselev 10y agoIf you honestly don't believe the world is unambiguously better now than it was 20-30 years ago, you've been living under a continental plate the entire time. The world has gotten better in almost every way including the rapid fall in poverty rates, more reliable sources of food and medicine, and better access to technology for even the poorest folk. All the problems that seem so overwhelming now like the threat of nuclear war, growing confrontationalism between and within countries, or extreme nationalism were way worse before the 90s (unless, of course, you honestly believe that the United States is the only nation on the planet and you have a nostalgic predilection for the "good ol' days"). Not to mention that the majority of the world has finally recognized and united around solving the single greatest threat to our civilization, a threat that pretty much irreversibly changed our climate by the time we identified it and became completely unavoidable by the 1990s. If all you're going to do is provide a link to an arbitrary countdown with scary words like "nuclear" and "catastrophe" as your evidence, might as well skip the sciency sounding fluff and just link one of Nostradamus's books. Until then, I'll fondly remember just how priveleged I was growing up in the Soviet Union and reconstruction-era Russia. /s
- anon363764 10y agoCan't wait for Trump to further monetize the POTUSity with historical ignorance by plagiarizing a translation of a recently re-released book in German, to be "cleverly" titled "My Struggle (to Not Grope Ivanka)."
- rattray 10y agoThis isn't Reddit.
- anon363764 10y agoThat's too bad that you lack a sense of humor. Try looking in lost-and-found.
- knieveltech 10y agoI'm kinda with you but it just isn't reddit. HN typically detests humor or satire, with notable exceptions. Then again I think it may be a sign of the end times that HN is entertaining a political thread.
- Mikeb85 10y agoNah I think HN just expects humour to at least be a little clever.
- vedranm 10y agoNo, what you are saying is simply unfunny.
- stevenmays 10y agoCustomers also bought: Anthem by Ayn Rand. Irony.
- _Codemonkeyism 10y agoTrumps protectionism is right out of the Ayn Rand villains handbook.
- vedranm 10y agoThis is simply untrue. Ayn Rand doesn't speak about international free trade in Atlas Shrugged, as the rest of the developed world in her story turns into People's States. She did support international free trade, but not "free trade" of TPP and TTIP. What remains to be seen is whether the domestic trade policies of Trump will be in alignment with what Ron Paul and other Ayn Rand devotees propose. He promised deregulation, so it might happen [1]. tl;dr: Trump might be moving the world towards a Galt's Gulch analogue without being an Ayn Rand devotee. [1] http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/23/trump-tells-business-leaders-he-wants-to-cut-regulations-by-75-percent-or-maybe-more.html http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/23/trump-tells-business-leaders-...
- _Codemonkeyism 10y agoAyn Rand in the novels has 'villains' who bring politicians into power who then decide upon legislation that then protects those 'villains' from cheaper and better competition. The 'heros' in Ayn Rands novels embrace competition because they invent new things and know/think they are the best and the best should win. So yes, protectionism as a concept to protect factories from cheaper and better competition is right out of the 'villains' playbook. This is also something that Thiel doesn't understand about Trump. Also Trump supports coal against competition of cheaper energy. Not Trump, but the recent legislation efforts in Wyoming do exactly the same (protecting coal) and I'm sure Trump is at least happy with it. "Trump might be moving the world towards a Galt's Gulch analogue" No Trump is moving the world straight in the other direction. Protectionism is just the first step to protect his cronies (e.g. textile), next moves will be protecting coal against solar, oil/gas against electric cars etc. How did Trump make his money? Not by inventing (e.g. Musk would be a 'hero' in Atlas Shrugged) but by shady deals on casinos, buildings and using the system (tax breaks etc.) for him, like the 'villains' in Ayn Rand novels. So for sure Trump is on the 'villain' side in Atlas Shrugged - if you don't agree, read it again ;-)
- anon363764 10y agoMake Apple Great Again
- sctb 10y agoPlease stop posting like this. We have to ban accounts that won't post civilly and substantively. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- gits1225 10y agoFun fact: Mark Zuckerberg is born in 1984 : )
- myf01d 10y agoMaybe the Americans are just over-dramatic
- SloughFeg 10y agoDoublethink is pervasive in a lot of modern thought. Hopefully this trend will make people evaluate it a bit more.
- gigatexal 10y agoIt's a good book. Especially the book-in-a-book part with the manifesto.
- Grue3 10y agoWho gives a shit? Literally anyone can make a #1 Amazon bestselling book. http://evergreenprofits.com/becoming-an-amazon-1-best-seller/ http://evergreenprofits.com/becoming-an-amazon-1-best-seller... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8358538/What-Every-Man-Thinks-About-Apart-From-Sex-book-of-blank-pages-become-surprise-bestseller.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8358538/Wh... http://okdork.com/2014/02/17/hit-1-amazons-bestseller-list/ http://okdork.com/2014/02/17/hit-1-amazons-bestseller-list/ And so on.
- Shivetya 10y agoThe one thing people either don't understand or even know about is that rankings can be games and in this day an age political action groups can sway such rankings with a simple mailing to subscribers to do something. It is all about appearances and the current hard sell is they want to portray Trump as Hitler. they will keep hammering this point about fascism, dictator, and more, for as long as it takes to make it stick. I am surprised SNL hasn't started (they may have)
- happycube 10y ago... ironically(?), at this moment, a post on the USA previously having 4 billion chestnut trees is #4 while this is #1.
- yCloser 10y agoI agree with Isaac Asimov (review: http://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm http://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm)
- popee 10y agoVery interesting
- sochix 10y agoHere you can Download it for FREE and search through the full-version of the book http://ambardemo.rdseventeen.com/?query=1984&doSearch=true http://ambardemo.rdseventeen.com/?query=1984&doSearch=true
- xname2 10y agoIf you guys really understand 1984 you would know your popular hates toward DJT already proved he has nothing to do with 1984. Ironically, it is your guys' crazy love towards HRC proves the point of 1984. Even there is strong evidence shows HRC is a shameful corrupted politician, you HRC supporters just love her with full heart. She even got warmly welcome when she appeared at Broadway show, after there was direct evidence revealed her team cheated in Democrat nomination process. It is what 1984 is. What is worse is your guys love toward Obama, who is apparently a failure. Racial division increased during his presidency, but you guys blame on DJT. It is what 1984 is.
- StreamBright 10y agoI guess it is more like Huxley's Brave New World where the relevant information is hidden in the mass of irrelevant garbage provided by corporate media.
- james_niro 10y agoThis book is available for free download through archive.org https://archive.org/details/Orwell1984preywo https://archive.org/details/Orwell1984preywo
- siculars 10y ago1984 and Brave New World are my all time double plus good books. We've been gradually sliding towards those worlds over the last number of decades, regardless of Trump. If nothing comes of this election but stronger protections around all sorts of freedoms then I'll be happy for it even if just by way of grassroots demand from the general public through awareness and engagement. I really do hope this election increases citizen participation in the public sphere.
- Simaramis 10y agoInstead I can recommend Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, or to understand presently overwhelmed United States: Cervantes' Don Quixote. Both much less stale and dry in their prose, but incredibly more insightful.
- Mikeb85 10y agoKind of ironic given Bush and Obama were the ones to expand the surveillance state, Hillary demonised the shit out of Russia to try create an enemy/scapegoat, and here Trump is, only a few days in power, not having done anything particularly bad. Also, I should add - for Democrats out there who keep trying to compare Trump to Hitler, say he's fascist, etc... That weak rhetoric is what gave you guys your worst election result in what, 80 years? The more you cry foul over nothing, the less people will actually believe it. Just an outsider's opinion after an entertaining and somewhat perplexing election.
- soft_dev_person 10y agoYes, it's very interesting to see them apply even more of the same logic that failed miserably last year. Also in other countries with the same tendencies, they still don't seem to get that crying about how terribly racist and fascist these people are doesn't actually reach the intended audience. Maybe we can blame echo chambers for this...
- Melk 10y agoIf you think Trump did nothing bad then you missed the last 24 hour news cycle. Hillary is a little old lady who ran for president a long time ago so I'm not sure why you brought her up. And also an outsider here, but I've seen Republicans call Obama a lot worse things then Hitler. So apparently weak rhetoric works well on the right.
- tnmrnis 10y agoDid calling Obama "Hussein" have a positive result on their popularity? I don't think so. Maybe there's a pattern.
- jankiel 10y agoCan you give an example? Being compared to Hitler is pretty high on my list so I'm interested. And how did that thetoric worked for right if Obama won?
- 10y ago
- ElectronCharge 10y agoThe most amazing thing to me is that the 0bama administration was very good at Orwellian manipulation, yet it was rarely remarked upon. I mean, the guy got a Nobel Peace Prize, then proceeded with eight years of undeclared war on many different countries. "Droning" became a verb...
- anjc 10y ago....can't we just drone this guy?
- roastbeef 10y agofake news!
- reddytowns 10y agozero-bama?
- MagnumOpus 10y agoIt's a dog-whistle term. Politically neutral persons think it is a typo, but it is recognised by the anonymous poster's fellow associates, and marks the poster as someone they should upvote, endorse and agree with.
- ElectronCharge 10y agoIt is very simply a spelling that reflects my opinion of 0bama. I normally spell it as "0" but I wasn't sure if it would be clear in context. The net effect of his presidency will surely be near zero. While I don't agree with everything on the Trump agenda, much of it is long overdue. Of most relevance to HN, I expect the economy to boom!
- davexunit 10y agoYou are a fascist.
- libeclipse 10y agoThat's strange, I just bought the book off Amazon yesterday. Coincidences, coincidences.
- roastbeef 10y agothis whole story is a liberal circle jerk
- EasyTiger_ 10y agoDo we really need Trump news on HN. I've left Reddit because of the political insanity there, I'm hoping it doesn't come here too.
- lb1lf 10y agoOrwell was an optimist.
- likealcohol 10y agoI don't see a blog post about a best selling book, I just see a load of Amazon affiliate links everywhere.
- lngnmn 10y agoIs it because of Putin or Trump? If Trump then it should be the Atlas Shrugged instead.
- thinkMOAR 10y agoAnd if you like this book, you will probably like Netflix series, Black Mirror
- faceyspacey 10y agoI can't help but perceive this as being a result of people thinking Trump is somehow kickstarting our Orwellian future/present, when he's probably the highest profile person to point out how government before him has been working on this plan of ultimate control for a very long time. The biggest examples being: 1) that he pointed out there were no weapons of mass destruction and--false flag or not--our government used that to manipulate our perceptions to perpetrate an atrocity. 2) the supposed Russian cyber attack; he's one of the few that spoke out against the lack of evidence and that the US Intelligence report was propaganda. That document was so obviously propaganda--I read the whole thing and there wasn't even one word such as "system log" regarding what was redacted. For my purposes, it doesn't matter that he spoke out against it solely because it served him to do so. So not that Trump won't continue more of the same control tactics or do more, but as we all know as programmers when we break things, only to rebuild them better: things almost always gotta get worse before they get better. I'm under no delusion that Trump in it/himself will be good for us, but if it finally unveils the lies and false flag politics/acts that have been far more harmful to society, I'm all for it. The problem has been we have politicians that knowingly manipulate us and have another "face" behind the scenes. There is clearly some Machiavellian things going on behind the scenes. In addition, I don't blame headlining politicians. Clearly US Intelligence has a stronghold over them--either directly or indirectly through manipulating their perception just as ours. Our country has clearly been on a decide path of the following 2-fold strategy: 1) project strength no matter what 2) convince us it's for higher ideals to maintain the perception of being the "good guy" That's all it boils down to. It's looking like the US Government has killed about 1 million people in the middle east since 9/11. The numbers I've heard for Vietnam were 3.5 million. We're talking people that are basically defending their land here. And against the biggest military force the world has ever seen. In other words, in comparison, these victims were all civilians. The "Dominos" never fell, and ISIS is a small fraction of muslim people in the middle east. It's also very clear that ISIS is a result of our actions. What they are up to is retribution, not an attack on american ideals. We are talking highly religious people who see everything through a religious lens, so of course the way they are going to communicate their mission is that of a religion one--but at the core of it is anger and hatred that we invaded them, destroyed their land, dominated them and tried to control them. How would we feel if an invading force from across the world made our home a warzone--we wouldn't be like "well, it's for higher ideals, we'll just let this slide." Yea right. America seems incapable of putting ourselves in the shoes of others. As if human lives and suffering isn't enough (well, it obviously isn't if it is far away), we are now paying the debt from both Bush administrations for years to come. Numbers I read stated that 72% of our national debt is from the 2 Bush presidents. We are currently paying $250 billion per year for those wars. By 2020 the numbers suggest it will be $500 billion per year. The numbers also stated that's 6% in 2015 and 12% in 2020 of where the taxpayer money will be going to. Over however many years to pay that back, that's enough money to have revamped our education system, invested in R&D and lived up to the potential we once had. Techcrunch just last week said the government is only investing $86 billion in tech investments. Imagine if that was $500 billion year after year. Now all that said, I agree that the perception republicans and Trump portray of america being in shambles is far from accurate. What I think is accurate is that we aren't living up to our potential and we don't have the economic acceleration we had before. People can feel that. That's a problem. What's also a problem is that the numbers for unemployment which are good and other positive figures seem to primarily reflect improvements for the lower class. It is a major problem if the middle class isn't benefiting similarly. These are the people most invested into the system, paying the most taxes into it, and things have gotten harder for them. So in conclusion, conspiracies aside (of which many are likely true), we have sacrificed much to project strength. I don't believe in believing what I can't see for myself, but I clearly see that projecting strength is the core of our philosophy. I believe it's an incomplete (as well as aging) viewpoint. For one, it's where all civilizations go to die as they overextend themselves through military and far-reaching interests (history teaches us that--do we have to be the next Roman empire?). But secondly, perhaps its just enough to be able to defend yourself when push comes to shove. We have the buttons to press, which few others have--do we really need to be a military presence everywhere, especially now in this digitally connected world which devalues actual physical presence? So it's my conclusion that we have created more harm than good; we have created enemies. We can hide behind ideals, and frame others as the bad guys--but, for example, how much militarism has Russia really shown since WW2? And compare that to how much we have shown. I deal with Russian developers all the time--they seem to be participating in a form of capitalism not too different than ours. It's almost as if we need a bad guy to make us look like the good guy. Is Russia a staple of our perception control? I think so. From what I've researched, Gorbachev wanted to do a major dis-armament deal and the Reagan administration turned them down. Why? For one, we don't want to disarm, but 2, Reagan had too much riding on his Star Wars plan, and 3, that would make Russia look like the good guy. Did you hear Obama's last address about a month ago--he said "Come on, Putin was the head of the KGB...", implying he was such an evil foe. So what, are they not entitled to have an intelligence group too? George HW Bush was the head of the CIA. How is being the head of the KGB somehow meant to imply he's evil. Consistency is why. Consistency of message. Clearly, the US Government needs to keep justifying their lie/thread that Russia is so evil. It's the same as in every day life: if you acknowledge a mistake, you actually acknowledge the chain of mistakes that lead up to it. America simply isn't ready to acknowledge our past mistakes. Other countries have called for us to apologize for Vietnam. Is apologizing for something so big easy to do, not to mention costly? So going down this path of righting our wrongs would bring up a bunch of dirty laundry. So we have to continue our lies. The powers that be--besides seeing the world completely differently--would never backtrack and exhibit what they perceive as weakness. I however think it could be a moment of strength for humanity.
- KON_Air 10y agoIsn't it a bit too late to read 1984? I'd say it is too late get into cyberpunk too, because most if not all of those "warnings" came and passed largely unnoticed. It is quite pitiful "waking up to the corporate state" just because "not-our-candidate" won, while living in one for past 2-3 decades.
- ThomPete 10y agoI think what the careful reader of 1984 will realize is that the book is perfectly good at explaining not just Trump but most other politicians.
- tu7001 10y agoIt's not an instruction manual...
- majortennis 10y agoI bought it for a friend this year on Amazon, she still hasn't read it
- ericmarshal 10y agoThat was really amazing...!
- nottorp 10y agoYou're doing it wrong. You should get Brave New World instead.
- ReganKoopmans 10y ago"The worst kind dystopia story is one that's easy to believe"
- beezischillin 10y agoI think 1984 painted a scary, but important fictional picture of what life behind the iron curtain was like, several similar books attempted to deal with the issues of 20th century life in similar fashion, but I think it should be recognized that much of this is no longer as applicable to the discussion we should be having -- the post modern situation has become way more subtle in its presence, despite the loud and brash way it's presented. An interesting book I read recently about a relatable topic is home the book Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev, about early 2000s Russia and the oil boom years, the role of the media, young money, memetic content created by the media and the way all of that affects population, it's scary and some of it kind of can be seen reflecting back on today's western society as well. I just wish (and was secretly hoping for) that media and oppositional politics recognized the role they played in this fiasco and tried to change their behaviour up to try and change it. I seem to be wrong, sadly. We're jumping from one nice sounding headline to the next one (like this one!) and we're ignoring much of the actual discussion we should be having, because this is more convenient. It kind of hurts to a large majority being aware of the issues and then just pressing on, choosing to ignore it, because it's more convenient to share a dumb meme about numbers, complain about alternative facts or to watch SNL. I wouldn't say that this is the end of the leading role of western civilisation in the world (I am not smart enough to make such statements), but it really seems to me that we are opening up our weaknesses to foreign powers that will try hard to exploit them and it's a pretty damaging process. /rant
- satyajeet23 10y agoBecoming more relevant by the day. "In a time of deciet, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
- buro9 10y agoThe strangest tangent from reading this article. > George only has the new administration to thank But George has been under the Earth for the longest time hasn't he? He couldn't be thankful for anything any more. Off to Wikipedia I go, yup since 1950 from tuberculosis. But a section on the article mentions the his homophobia, and so I read that because I find it surprising that it's mentioned when it was the norm at the time and seems like some kind of revisionism. That then leads to a segue on phrasing Orwell used in 1984 to describe the "nancy left" or "pansies", and the presence in the Chestnut Tree (at the end of the book) gay men. Then another segue to David Bowie and his last album which contains "Girl Loves Me" as it references the Chestnut Tree and contains polari... and this morning on BBC 6 Music I had heard a long forgotten Morrissey track that was on an album called Bona Drag, and when I put the album on over breakfast I listened to the opening track "Piccadilly Palare" and some of the same strange phrases were present as in the Bowie track, and now I also recognise them from having read 1984 (except Orwell was using the slang phrases pejoratively). A further segue as I remembered that Lucky Lisp from the same album has references also to polari, and on the Orwell wikipedia page there was a mention of the Chestnut Tree scene again, and how Orwell included a lisp for the "Nancy" characteristics which he identifies in detail and with "some disgust". And this leads to the most fascinating Wiki discovery of the day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_lisp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_lisp . The tested hypothesis being that sexual orientation of men can be determined from how gay men phonate their s's distinctively to the degree that measurements of guesses were accurate beyond a rate that could be chance. The rabbit hole goes deep when one strays onto Wikipedia.
- lolive 10y agoYou should also read "Propaganda" by Edward Berneys.
- EJTH 10y agoNice! Maybe people will stop comparing the current state of things to 1984, when they actually read it...
- rbanffy 10y agoWho would imagine Donald Trump would cause a surge in reading...
- bencollier49 10y agoSomeone was clearly using the arithmetic from 1984 in the inauguration attendance figures. 2+2=5, indeed.
- mk89 10y agoMore than Orwell's 1984, I think that people should start reading about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacyclosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacyclosis - a very old concept which unfortunately keeps repeating itself.
- 3chelon 10y agoThis is double-plus-plus-plus ungood, as either Trump or Big Brother might say. Seriously, I have pointed out before that Trump seems to have actually learnt the rules of Newspeak with terrifying effectiveness.
- bbctol 10y agoOrwell's work beside 1984 is better (in the sense of more complex/relevant to our time, not as entertaining.) In particular, his writing on the Spanish Civil War has seemed relevant today: "I know it is the fashion to say that most of recorded history is lies anyway. I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written. In the past people deliberately lied, or they unconsciously coloured what they wrote, or they struggled after the truth, well knowing that they must make many mistakes; but in each case they believed that ‘facts’ existed and were more or less discoverable. And in practice there was always a considerable body of fact which would have been agreed to by almost everyone. If you look up the history of the last war in, for instance, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, you will find that a respectable amount of the material is drawn from German sources. A British and a German historian would disagree deeply on many things, even on fundamentals, but there would still be that body of, as it were, neutral fact on which neither would seriously challenge the other. It is just this common basis of agreement, with its implication that human beings are all one species of animal, that totalitarianism destroys." 1984 is largely about the surveillance state and oppression, with a bit at the end about Orwell's views on truth; for those who say 1984 was a worse predictor of the future than Fahrenheit 451, I say the idea of the destruction of truth was more important than the methods anyway. http://orwell.ru/library/essays/Spanish_War/english/esw_1 http://orwell.ru/library/essays/Spanish_War/english/esw_1
- nathan_long 10y ago> I say the idea of the destruction of truth was more important than the methods anyway I agree. I'm appalled that Trump feels free to lie about something as falsifiable as the weather (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/us/politics/president-trump-inauguration-crowd-white-house.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/us/politics/president-tru...). And it does make me worry about totalitarianism. But in American culture, the use of "alternative facts" is hardly an invention of the government. Postmodernism made deep inroads into the thinking of average people. "What's true for you" or "true for me" became a common idea in religious conversations. And it extends into our debates about things like gender. When everyone is allowed to have their own facts, we can quarrel, but we can't debate, because we have no common assumptions. And if we can settle anything by debate, coercion is the only option. It's an intellectual environment ripe for authoritarianism. But not created by it.
- AdamN 10y agoPeople should also read Down and Out in Paris and London - a fantastic book about being a poor vagabond in England and France.
- null4bl3 10y agoIt's ironic that the CIA rakes in on that, since they have the publishing right for several of Orson Welles books
- dragonwriter 10y agoOrson Welles and George Orwell are different people, despite the latter's last name also being a common subsequence of the two names.
- lugg 10y agoPretty amazing a public domain book is still selling so well.
- kazinator 10y agoIt's properly called Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- EleventhSun 10y agoI would actually argue that what we have today is worse than 1984. If you read the book, the protagonists have economic security/stability, even if in a totalitarian government. We have both nightmare spying AND economic insecurity.