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George Orwell's '1984' Tops Amazon's Bestseller List (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Sales of George Orwell's dystopian drama 1984 have soared after Kellyanne Conway, adviser to the reality-TV-star-turned-president, Donald Trump, used the phrase "alternative facts" in an interview. As of Tuesday, the book was the sixth best-selling book on Amazon. Comparisons were made with the term "newspeak" used in the 1949 novel, which was used to signal a fictional language that aims at eliminating personal thought and also "doublethink." In the book Orwell writes that it "means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." The connection was initially made on CNN's Reliable Sources. "Alternative facts is a George Orwell phrase," said Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty. Conway's use of the term was in reference to White House press secretary Sean Spicer's comments about last week's inauguration attracting "the largest audience ever". Her interview was widely criticized and she was sub-tweeted by Merriam-Webster dictionary with a definition of the word fact. In 1984, a superstate wields extreme control over the people and persecutes any form of independent thought. UPDATE 1/24/17 6:56PM PST: Orwell's dystopian novel is now the #1 Best Seller in Books on Amazon.
Thankyou Trump and lol SJWs, turns out demonizing the average person isn't a winning strategy.
FP
... JEWS wield extreme control over the people and persecute any form of independent thought.
Or hadn't you noticed?
The Guardian is fucking bullshit.
First we should make sure it's not the Trump administration buying these. They might be mistaken for operating manuals.
Seeing Sean Spicer claiming the biggest audience ever reminded me of the Iraqi Minister of Information.
Someone told the new administration to RTFM.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The right has now usurped what was once the sole domain of the left -- Relativism.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Amazon's hidden microphones aren't hidden.
Ironic really, since the USA is more like Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty Four
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Particularly for the part where people actually start calling dictionaries "political", and the definition of objectivity and facts "liberal"... I think we'll soon see a decree from the Orange one renaming the Mississippi "De-Nial".. No wait, that would make sense. :/
The current discourse is insanity, but it amply proves what happens when you make entertainment of history, no effort is ever made to teach people to think and the common man is treated by nothing but contempt. The great irony is that everyone wakes up now, because we've got an non-establishment monkey in the White House. But if we're honest, it's factually no different from what we've been treated to for years and years by other, established politicians and multinational corporations, the only difference is how obvious the lies are, and how fervently they are defended by the useful idiots. It's sad to see it would take something like this to get the media and people in general to finally take a stand against the shameless lies we're fed every day, but I suppose late shall the sinner awaken.
I can only hope Trump and his lickspittles serves as a general alarm clock for our society, so we all start to demand the truth from those who claim to "represent" us, or "lead" us, and stop accept being told the most outrageous and shameless lies, no matter who it might be who tell them. I'm not optimistic though, but as everyone knows, I've been wrong before. Let us pray I'm wrong this time too.
Signed
AC
Why do I get a bad feeling that masses of people will read that book and come to a wrong conclussion just to justify their own point of view? I guess I am glad that many people will read it though.
I really hope SJWs will realize their fight to purge the language of "bad words" is in fact persecution of thoughtcrime.
If you ban "Uncle Tom's Cabin" from schools "because it uses the 'n' word and that's offensive", you're doing precisely what 1984 warns about.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
We are way way past 1984 now that gang-stalkers have infiltrated the government spy fabric.
As the CNN megapixel graphic showed, the Trump crowd was larger than reported. This seems a silly thing to fight over, since Trump's supporters are less likely to attend an inauguration than a rally anyway.
The big point here however is that 1984 was a fraud written in response to a book written a dozen years earlier, Brave New World. In that saner view of humanity, it was our desire for Utopia that led us to a state like that in the movie Idiocracy: neutered, pointless people living in ugly cities, driven only by desires for pleasure, and so vapid that they would die out without medically-supervised, mandatory reproduction.
Alternative Right.
But that's what you get when the bulk of the media is little more than a mouthpiece for the Democrat party.
I saw a picture of the crowd from Trump's podium. From there the empty patches were not easily evident. From his angle it looked like there were people covering every patch of concrete if you didn't look carefully enough. And since it looks that way from where he way (literally) standing, the media must be lying - simple logic I guess.
"Everybody's naked underneath" -- The Doctor
Would 1984 be lawful to read in the 1984 world?
Watch that interview very carefully. There is no way she was talking about "other" facts that weren't being reported. She meant to say exactly what she said. The administration has "alternative facts" that better fit their agenda.
Look, I realize that there is this bitter rivalry in US society between liberals and conservatives. But try to put politics aside, and try to think as a sane human being.
Donald Trump is the guy who insisted Barack Obama is a Muslim and was not born in the US. He is the guy who once claimed he owned the Empire State Building, which is false and was false at the time. He is the guy who said he has been on the Time magazine "more than anybody" which is false. He is the guy who so often claimed that he never said something he just said a few days earlier. His Trump University has been trialed for fraud. One of his advisers is a guy who owns a right-wing conspiracy theory website that is specialized on the spreading of fake news.
Try to think about this rationally.
Donald Trump is either a serial liar or simply delusional. You can look all of his insanity up. If you believe him and his administration more than established, international media networks such as CNN, you have to face the fact that you have decided to stop being a rational thinking person.
Nice to see public awareness of this book in the mainstream! Very nice! An informed public is a public inoculated against tyranny.
...RTFM?
Boy, has this place changed.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Best buy a paper copy...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07...
Donald Trump is the guy who insisted Barack Obama is a Muslim and was not born in the US. He is the guy who once claimed he owned the Empire State Building, which is false and was false at the time. He is the guy who said he has been on the Time magazine "more than anybody" which is false. He is the guy who so often claimed that he never said something he just said a few days earlier. His Trump University has been trialed for fraud.
he kind of reminds me of Lafayette Ron Hubbard. and Assange. people who spin self-aggrandizing bullshit and almost dare you to call them on it.
captcha: immodest
It's much simpler than that.
They are lying cause their boss, who has handpicked them, is a liar and a sociopath.
A liar and a sociopath who has handpicked people who don't mind being told lies nor do they mind telling lies to reach their goal.
They are lying cause they are liars and sociopaths. Also... idiots who don't mind being lied to.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Conway was talking about facts that weren't being reported (i.e., other things Spicer said), not promoting some form of doublethink.
You're either a) brainwashed, b) a giant apologist, or c) just plain stupid. One thing you are certainly not is rational.
For one... "Brave New World" supports birth control.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Yes, Trump exaggerates, but he isn't alone in doing so. The bulk of the press was in the bag for Hillary, despise Trump, and the reporting shows it. What they report as fact is just as often opinion and deceitful framing as Trump is braggadocious.
And let's not forget that rational, intelligent people can disagree on matters of import, the significance of facts, and so forth without ceasing to be rational.
I saw that picture too, one of Trumps supporters tweeted a picture. But you could see the empty patches just the same, only with perspective making them smaller. He tweet/screamed "Stop lying", but it was clear he was really trying to fool himself rather than fool others. Both pictures matched, even the way the cloud slanted across the empty field.
It was kinda sad. A lot of Trump supporters have bought into this liar, and they have to tell themselves lies to keep their choice to be the right choice in their head.
I see now Trump has started his "I really won the popular vote, there was verifiable voter fraud" claim again. He knows he's a squatter in the Whitehouse, you can see how he's trying to gain control of a government more loyal to the winner of the vote than the winner of the electoral college.
Silly question perhaps, but how can it show as #1 Bestseller in "Books", but #2 on the Sci-Fi sub-category ?
Downmodding as a way of rejecting reality. Fortunately, I have plenty of copy/paste left. Ergo...
It's much simpler than that.
They are lying cause their boss, who has handpicked them, is a liar and a sociopath.
A liar and a sociopath who has handpicked people who don't mind being told lies nor do they mind telling lies to reach their goal.
They are lying cause they are liars and sociopaths. Also... idiots who don't mind being lied to.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Your comment does a lot to convince me... that sabbedde is right. Merely calling names and proclaiming the other person is wrong suggests that you have no defensible point -- that you've resorted to pounding the table, because neither facts nor law are on your side.
I'm assuming those buying copies of 1984 are under the age of 30, maybe 35, since I can't imagine anyone older than that hasn't already read this at least once, seen the movie, is familiar with the overall theme from the book being discussed at least here in America almost constantly as far back as I can remember (the early 80s). I also expect the majority of these new potential readers also tend to lean left. I hope what they come away with is an understanding of what an Orwellian society would actually look like and realize how ridiculous they sound to the rest of us when they compare that to now. Maybe while they are at it they can pick up a copy of Anne Frank's diary and gain some perspective on what Nazism was about as well since their comparison of American politics to Nazism is not only ignorant but insulting and rather disgusting.
The system has been using violent collectivist means to justify its ends for such a long time ( think everything from the Sherman Act, SS, Medicare and all of the related taxes, payroll, income and wealth taxes, public work projects, money printing, wars, all forms of welfare, all forms of redistribution, business laws, regulations) that at this point a guy who is on some war path against at least some of those ends using other unfortunate means, like lying, seems inevitable and probably necessary. The mob that provides the collectivist government the violent power to steal needs to be controlled somehow, seems that lying is an efficient and effective way to do that.
You can't handle the truth.
Only Trump supports mass surveillance and warrantless wiretapping. In fact, he's the first candidate to ever push for this.
That's why it's so perfect to read 1984 now, because trump is totally Big Brother, am I right folks?
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
They're finally doing it.
Glad you're seeing the lies - now. Too bad you weren't seeing them when Obama was president.
Numerous times Obama lied, on television, in print, and the fawning press never called him on it.
Suddenly they realized they have a purpose. A little too late though - decades after handing over power to the president.
Watch and learn as it's your turn to get fucked.
Chuck Todd wasn't particularly hostile, but Kellyanne Conway went off the rails and became very defensive when she didn't need to. It's the job of the press to ask the tough questions of elected officials, which is what happened. The point that crowd size doesn't matter was reasonable, but so was questioning why the press secretary lied.
I did watch the interview, by the way. https://youtu.be/IcBblq-QOo4
Then you're retarded too, because you apparently think you have to have a "defensible point" when you deal with serial liars. You don't. You just shut them down, on the grounds that they are liars. You can argue with them no more than you could argue with old Adolf. There simply is no discourse, no debate, because they don't want any.
They tell their toxic lies, and meanwhile you spend time and effort tangling out the deliberate mess they made, and explain why what they just said is a blatant lie, they've told twenty new lies. It's a losing battle - not because you don't have "a defensible position" or the facts or the law on your side, but because it's quick and easy to tell lies, while it's slow and complicated to put things right again. That's why known liars are instantly disqualified in any kind of discussion. Donald Trump and his lickspittles are well known liars. Trying to relativise or zooming in on microscopic details in order to change the picture doesn't change anything, it just makes you too a rampantly dishonest asshole.
I am certain that Obama has said things that were not true, 100% certain. As has any serving president, sometimes knowingly, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was unknowingly most of the time.
Yet this is nowhere near the incredible and outlandish, and frankly, sometimes outrageous claims that Donald Trump makes on a regular basis. If you are willing to put in the effort to provide me a list of Obamas "lies" while he was campaigning for president, I am willing to put in the effort to provide you with five Trump lies while he was campaigning for president - with references - for every Obama lie. It's a non-contest.
And let's not forget that rational, intelligent people can disagree on matters of import, the significance of facts, and so forth without ceasing to be rational.
Are you sure you're not talking about opinions? Isn't the definition of a "fact" that it is a non-debatable, unambiguous truth? Such as the fact that Obama is christian and was born in the United States? If you are trying to soften up facts and put them up to debate, you are already by your knees in that Orwellian universe the White House would like to have us.
Could have not put it better.
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken, On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe
Cynical as he was, Mencken still had too much faith in the American people to believe the moron they eventually elected would also be a sociopathic, foreign-owned racist with a taste for sexual assault.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Amazing that people are willing to buy this from Amazon, even the SlashDot crowd seem to have forgotten this incident:
https://yro.slashdot.org/story...
....*does* read rather like a Obama/Hillary training manual. I suspect the folks buying it now are using it to read up on what kinds of fake news are likely to be tossed their way.
Ferret
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
Idiocracy.
What is Orwellian is the political correctness and all that shit. Trump is the exact oposite
A fact is not unambiguous truth. I can give you many, many facts and be lying through my teeth. It's called lies of omission. You give facts that support your claim, while burying facts that oppose it. You've said nothing "false", but what you've stated isn't the truth. You should be familiar with this. The people who try to deny the holocaust use this method frequently. Granted the media also uses it frequently. The one that annoys me the most is the lefts debate on gun control. They paint it in such a way that "obviously gun control works and is just common sense" but if you actually dig in to it you see a sea of cherry picked information supporting their case while doing everything they can to come up with reasons dissenting information is invalid.
BTW... Who said anything about administration?
For one... There is no such thing as "Trump administration" yet. And clearly, there won't be one for quite some time.
Which is what happens when you hire a lazy, lying, incompetent bum prone to litigation to work for you.
And no one said it was "the administration" that's being a "liar and a sociopath" - it's Trump and the people he is picking who are liars, sociopaths and idiots.
Here, again, for those with reading issues.
They are lying cause their boss, who has handpicked them, is a liar and a sociopath.
A liar and a sociopath who has handpicked people who don't mind being told lies nor do they mind telling lies to reach their goal.
They are lying cause they are liars and sociopaths. Also... idiots who don't mind being lied to.
Also, tu quoque is a fallacy - not an argument.
Particularly when you reply to a "He's a lying sociopath and so are the people he's picking" carpet bombing with a fizzling firecracker like "Well... like the previous administration NEVER lied".
Not only are you neck deep in the fallacy septic tank, you're diving deeper by emphasizing your own attempt at false equivalence.
Which is pathetic, I know, but what CAN you do?
You can't just pick ANY random statement by ANY previous president and say "See? That's a lie." - at least 50% of those won't be lies.
Unlike with Trump, with whom telling truth happens to be more of a statistical error than accident.
Just get over it already. Trump won. Enjoy!
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Yes, I agree with what you say and cherry picking facts is a very serious concern. This is also frequently used by climate change deniers. What do you mean it's getting warmer? I have all the data right here from that one weather station in Alaska proving that temperatures have actually dropped in the last 60 years!
But yes, this is something that all sides of a political spectrum are always guilty of. That's why, in my opinion, it's very important to get your sources not just from one, or a select few news outlets. Especially not if they share the political alignment. Watch and read conservative news, and liberal ones. Diversify. Then think about it and form your own educated opinions. Research if you must. The truth is almost always somewhere in between.
But I truly think that regarding Trump, we are well beyond cherry picking facts. This man seems to make up reality as he goes.
Get we get an impeachment now, please?
And let's not forget that rational, intelligent people can disagree on matters of import, the significance of facts, and so forth without ceasing to be rational.
Are you sure you're not talking about opinions? Isn't the definition of a "fact" that it is a non-debatable, unambiguous truth? Such as the fact that Obama is christian and was born in the United States? If you are trying to soften up facts and put them up to debate, you are already by your knees in that Orwellian universe the White House would like to have us.
I think I see the problem here. You are taking as fact something you simply have faith in. Do you personally witness Obama's private religious activities? Were you there to watch his birth? I cannot claim direct observation of any of these things. They may or may not be facts. I am left with nothing but second hand reports and rationality to decide for myself.
The easy way is to simply agree with the first "fact" you are presented with and oppose all others. Human brains are pretty good at that by default.
It's hard to break subconscious thought patterns, similar to bad habits such as smoking.
Anyway, after a quick initial preponderance of the evidence regarding Obama's birth and religion, my scientific conclusion is "I don't give a shit, will never give a shit, and will ignore it either way". When you look into politics, beyond the propaganda and conditioning, it's pretty much all like that. As "the little people" we have no say and no control. Get on with life. If it really bothers you enough go get your pitchfork already. Until then, stop whining and complaining and trying to convince me which side of Red vs Blue is better. They are both objectively poor choices.
Awesome to hear more people are reading English classic literature. They should read Animal Farm next.
Libya was a wealth socially advanced North African nation that offered full protected rights to WOMEN and RELIGIOUS MINORITIES. Hillary Clinton, in partnership with the zionists of Israel and the wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, utterly destroyed Libya- turning the ruins into an extremist islamic hellhole. Trump hating neo-liberals and neo-cons say "this is a GOOD thing", and so do all the SJW dribblers who love the mass murdering Clinton.
Indeed the neo-liberals (=100% of the mainstream media and Soros controlled FAKE 'indy' media) have supported every war on SECULAR Muslim autocracies, advancing the Israeli/Saudi agenda of extremist islam and wahhabi rule. Of course, the USA NEVER EVER attacks the extremist muslim nations in Saudi Arabia's sphere of control (and remember the sheeple are told that almost all the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens).
1984 states that those who WRITE 'history' CONTROL history. During the HOLOCAUST of Libya, the BBC constantly published FAKE reports claiming the people of Libya wanted their country destroyed- culminating in a supposed video of Libyians celebrating the NATO bombing of their nation- a video that turned out to be Indians celebrating some unconnected festival in India that the BBC hoped their viewers would be too stupid to recognise. ITV published footage from a video game (passed off as 'real) claiming it was prove the Libyan leader attacked British troops.
The filth that runs Slashdot targets the 50% of total dribblers that voted for Clinton- knowing that said dribblers ignore every proof that their world view is completely WRONG, and want any fact that demonstrates the utter evil of the neo-liberals censored out of existence. And I post as a SOCIALIST who would naturally be on the opposite side to Trump, but cares to see the USA as it actual is- and thus understands the danger to Humanity posed by the neo-con and neo-liberal 'alliance'.
Did the Washington Post actually just invent an Orwell quote?
"Facts" appears about 10 times. "Alternative" - never. Not even once. So, in what sense is "alternative facts" an Orwell phrase? Where did Orwell write it?
Will the liberals actually listen to what the book is saying and start thinking for themselves for a change or will they continue blindly trusting the lies told to them by CNN, NYTimes, et al?
It's been sad watching the lies spread throughout the Democratic party, nothing but sheep being led around by a femi-nazi leadership.
The pall of National Socialism dropping over the US.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Just as it's a fact that an American Ambassador was murdered under Hillary Clinton's watch.
People only seem to be catching up... 5 years too late.
I cannot yet figure out if the current administration is using "1984" or "The Handmaids Tale" for it's guidebook.
It seems to be both; Trump/Bannon use "1984" (and a healthy dose of "Mein Kampf") for their guidebook and Mike Pence uses "The Handmaids Tale".
Neither are conducive to the continued existence of the Democratic Republic called "America".
After all, we have always been at war with "EastAsia"........
You don't seem to know the difference between "FACTS" and "OPINION" (nor do you care as your only goal is to "win the argument".)
That is what suckers do for their masters.
Just as it's a fact that an American Ambassador was murdered under Hillary Clinton's watch.
And 2000 Americans where murdered in the WTC under George W. Bush's watch. What's your point?
Are you working for Trump? You seem to have picked up all the standard tactics used by his supporters:
- Claim that we misunderstood the statement
- Ad hominem the interviewer
- Blame the Democrats
- Allege conspiracy
- Claim everyone else is just as bad as Trump anyway
- Conflate opinion and fact
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Ironically we can now also track each of these purchases of the book "1984" to their purchasers and their addresses. And if the Amazon ebook version, then can also know exactly which page they are on at any moment and which pages they spend the most time lingering on.
You're s'posed to read the book first, then vote...
Watch that interview very carefully. There is no way she was talking about "other" facts that weren't being reported. She meant to say exactly what she said. The administration has "alternative facts" that better fit their agenda.
Look, I realize that there is this bitter rivalry in US society between liberals and conservatives. But try to put politics aside, and try to think as a sane human being.
Donald Trump is the guy who insisted Barack Obama is a Muslim and was not born in the US. He is the guy who once claimed he owned the Empire State Building, which is false and was false at the time. He is the guy who said he has been on the Time magazine "more than anybody" which is false. He is the guy who so often claimed that he never said something he just said a few days earlier. His Trump University has been trialed for fraud. One of his advisers is a guy who owns a right-wing conspiracy theory website that is specialized on the spreading of fake news.
Try to think about this rationally.
Donald Trump is either a serial liar or simply delusional. You can look all of his insanity up. If you believe him and his administration more than established, international media networks such as CNN, you have to face the fact that you have decided to stop being a rational thinking person.
Why be rational? Maybe it's time for revenge? Let's have some fun and be totally irrational! Trump was and is a birther, he denied that Obama was born in the US and thinks Obama is a crypto-muslim. Well let's start our own 'birther' movement, something in the spirit of JJ Angleton, like claiming that Trump is an FSB asset, a Russian mole. We can call it the 'moler movement'. It shouldn't be that hard, just point to how Trump seems to have a massive man-crush on Putin, how Trump appoints Putin friendly people in key positions, how Trump seems intent on dismantling NATO which is Putin's wet dream, how Trump married two women who are secretly members of the GRU, ... , the list goes on, let your imagination run riot, get in touch with your inner alt-right drone. Of course all of this stuff will be freely invented nonsense but that does not matter, we are post truth here! We believe all this is true and that makes it fact! Rex Tillerson is a Russian born sleeper agent sent to the US by the KGB during the cold war and he is Trump's FSB handler. Anybody who contradicts any of this is LYING!!! If somebody questions your theory on Tillerson ask for Tillerson's birth certificate, if they produce Tillerson's birth certificate, ask for the long form birth certificate, if they produce that claim it is forged. Always remember, in the post truth world you don't need proof, just have to believe. If they say Trump isn't an FSB asset, just ask them where the proof is, if they ask you for proof of your claims, ask they if they can disprove anything you said, wait until they have said two words and interrupt them rapidly with something like "...well then that proves me right!". Set up a web page, call the page "Schnurrbart" link to it everywhere so it tops the list of results for Trump searches on Google. Let's have four to eight years of endless fun watching alt-right crackpots getting hoisted by their own petard ... Dang! Cooking up conspiracy theories is FUN!! And we haven't even gottens started on trolling the alt-right over #GoldenShowerGate...
Yes, but he lies an awful lot as well; if you can't acknowledge that given the sheet volume of easily verifiable examples then although in principle one can disagree and still be rational it clearly isn't the case for you.
Doomed.
Orwell was an Optimist
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Why are Slashdot editors so fascist-minded? "Alternative facts" was a bad turn of phrase, but it wasn't doublethink. It was a statement that the aggregate number which was being reported was comprised of different components depending on whether you listened to CNN or to Trump's administration. The the word "both" in the key statement "both in-person and on TV" meant together or individually. Also, whether "on TV" included streaming viewership of the inaugural address. It was a phrase uttered to the news media which is only willing to report 1-sentence utterances, which is all too willing to dismiss any nuanced explanations and which is unwilling to take responsibility for creating the idiocracy culture it has created. It was rightfully criticized. Just consider the facts vs facts. TV viewership of the inauguration was 31 million. Youtube viewership was 15 million. Together, these are higher than the highest watched TV inaugural (41 million). But putting them together *is* a fact which is alternative to the fact that 31 million watched it on TV. However, it's too nuanced. And reporting only the 31 million number is dishonest. In fact, it's more dishonest than using the "alternative fact" that 46 million watched the inaugural from their homes. It dismisses non-TV audiences as if they were just a minor component while, in fact, they were 1/3 of the entire audience. So the major news sources under-reported the inaugural and over-reported the fascist pussy-hat (their name -- not mine) riots. And these are anti-democracy pro-fascism riots. And slashdot goes along with this reporting just as it goes along with the 1-line reporting of "97% of the scientists" crap (even though majority of the scientists are horrified at the regressive left's politicization of science).
The scariest words ever spoken in the Americas.
However the coverage of the "hate crime" was front and center
It's still a problem: "A burst of hate incidents and crimes reported in the days following Donald Trump's election in November has eased, but hate activity remains above pre-election levels", the Southern Poverty Law Center says.Jan 5, 2017
Aneddotica Magazine presenta
QUATTRO CHIACCHIERE CON CASSANDRA
"Alternative Facts"
Marco Calamari commenta l'articolo su Slashdot
George Orwell's '1984' Tops Amazon's Bestseller List
https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/01/25/0256236/george-orwells-1984-tops-amazons-bestseller-list
Marco Calamari, esperto di privacy e crittografia in Rete, collabora a progetti come Freenet, Mixmaster, Mixminion, Tor & GlobaLeaks. È il fondatore del Progetto Winston Smith e tra i fondatori del Centro Hermes per la Trasparenza e i Diritti Umani Digitali.
Dal 2002 organizza il convegno E-Privacy ed è editorialista di Punto Informatico dove pubblica la rubrica settimanale Cassandra Crossing.
È membro del capitolo italiano di IISFA, di AIP e di OPSI e opera come consulente tecnico forense.
Home Page: http://www.marcoc.it/
HERMES Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights http://logioshermes.org/
Born 1955, nuclear engineer, sometimes know as Cassandra, at age 18 needed to decide if buy an used car or a pc; his choice was the pc and since then has not yet fully recovered.
He works as a legacy code archeologist in a big multinational company, but is passionate about privacy & cryptography on Internet, and volunteers on some FOSS software projects like Freenet, Mixmaster, Mixminion, Tor & GlobaLaks.
Founder of PWS – Progetto Winston Smith and amongst founders of Hermes association, currently write about Matrix issues both in ICT and Generalist newspaper and magazines.
He is columnist at “Punto Informatico” where manage the “Cassandra Crossing” weekly column.
Twitter: @calamarim
ANEDDOTICA MAGAZINE http://www.aneddoticamagazine.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVHffPOPIg
VIDEOCAST MARCO CALAMARI
Doublethink - "the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination." The very idea that there could be facts on the one hand, but officially endorsed alternative facts on the other, is an example of doublethink. Chuck Todd was refreshingly frank when presented with the notion: "Four of the five 'facts' he uttered were just not true. Look, alternative facts are not facts. They’re falsehoods."
Is an "alternative fact" like "Hillary Clinton has 100% chance of winning"?
That was the "consensus opinion" even going late into the election night.
https://archive.org/details/NI...
I would have thought there would be a rush on Walter Lippmann's "Public Opinion"
http://wwnorton.com/college/hi...
Thanks Archive .org and W.W. Norton.
Captain Picard ain't havin' none of it:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The GOP has been using it as a script, with them as Big Brother, at least since Reagan. It's just now clear to everyone (except the suckers of the alt-wrong), since Trump & co say exactly what the GOP's been saying since Nixon started his Southern Strategy, except they're too narcissistic and stupid to use the Approved Euphemisms.
"You want a view of the future? Picture a boot stomping on a human face, forever." - O'Brian to Winston. And for you on the right, so, how's you're bank account looking?
Nineteen-Eighty-Four: Today's year.
That's a great list! Can you make up "Bingo" cards with those on them? Then we can all play at home whenever Trump or one of his aides is on TV. Heck, give them to interviewers, and they can just shout out "BINGO!" once they've accumulated enough rhetorical and logical fallacies. If we're going to participate in a large-scale political farce, we might as well make the most out of it.
Is that a blue and black dress or a white and gold dress? Both are facts, but truth is generally ambiguous.
This is the best news that I have heard in a long time. I really think that an understanding of Orwell's finer points is one of the most useful intellectual tools you can have in an information-driven society, never mind how current events are unfolding. However, allow me to relate a story.
Over christmas I was in Coles bookstore buying something. I overheard two women, first arguing about who wrote 1984. Then one of them pulled out there phone and asked how to spell Orwell. They debated that for a bit and eventually figured it out. Then she asked:
"How many books are there in the series?"
"Um, I think it's just the one."
"What genre is it? Is it like, horror or thriller, or fantasy?"
"I'm not sure, I just know that she wants it."
At this point the cashier and I shared a look and knowing laugh.
There's misinformation, lies, and bold-faced lies.
I don't trust either, but when somebody is willing to lie in spite of obvious and outstanding facts/evidence, it makes me worry not just that they're a liar but that they have some sort of mental condition which puts them out of touch with reality.
Trump doesn't exaggerate. He lies. Repeatedly and pathetically. He doesn't even try to tell the truth.
Trump is mentally ill.
US media does read like an alternate reality. That is the inevitable result of its consolidation in the hands of a few very wealthy people. While there is certainly some freedom to publish a less pro-corporate/militaristic viewpoint, the rule of big money has resulted in a quite shameful death of credibility for most large US media companies. The blundering of the Washington Post from one fake news story to another being the most obvious recent example. As a European viviting America, I'm always amazed at how the media there covers things using what can only be described as propaganda.
because neither facts nor law are on your side.
Hate to break it to you sweetheart, but facts ARE on my side. (I don't know what you think law might have to do with it, though. If the rest of your post wasn't so magnificently idiotic, that would stand out as pathetically stupid) Conway lied, Spicer lied, and Trump lied. This is so fucking obvious only a fucking retard (everyone's looking at YOU) would think otherwise.
> Are you sure you're not talking about opinions?
No, it's not an opinion that the press leaked the debate questions. It's not an opinion that the DKIM headers show the emails weren't modified. It's not an opinion that Cuomo, a licensed attorney who works for CNN, told us that the media has special rights and that it's illegal for normal people to read Wikileaks, despite this not being an accurate statement of law. It's not an opinion that the Washington Post let the DNC add people to their WaPo party invite list after the lawyers said they could not list it on the DNC donor price sheet.
The media has lost the trust of many people. If they want any trust back, they need to come clean and act more honest. All that's happened so far is that they've dispensed with the pretense of being unbiased. I suppose that is marginally more honest, but it doesn't really help them.
Well, the copy that is currently the best seller is shown as the "Mass Market Paperback"
The issue was with Amazon recalling an eBook. This is a physical copy, so unless Amazon is going to break into houses to "recall" it most purchases are probably safe in that regard.
This seems to assert that the only verifiable and useful knowledge is that which you directly observe. In fact, human observation is in many cases rather faulty. Our cognitive machinery used to store and recall memories can be manipulated, either intentionally or unintionally, so I'm afraid observation alone is insufficient. How science works is by demanding that experiments can be repeated to produce a similar outcome, to overcome biases, cognitive problems and memory issues.
The fact is that Obama has a Hawaii birth certificate that is like other birth certificates from the state at that time. The preponderance of evidence is that Obama was born on American soil, and thus was constitutionally permitted to become President of the United States. Trying to claim that you can't tell is nothing more than a sort of "Birther lite" position.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
That's my view as well, and it's why I think while the Republicans will enjoy a brief period in which they can get their agenda pushed through, in the long term he's going to be an anchor around them. Congress is probably secure in 2018, largely because it's mainly Democratic incumbents, but if he continues in this vein, he's going to end up alienating a lot of the voters the GOP needs.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Are you sure you're not talking about opinions? Isn't the definition of a "fact" that it is a non-debatable,
No. Saying "The sky is blue" is not an opinion.
But it can be refuted by saying "The sky is black when it's night time, and clouds are part of the sky, and those are white or grey."
Facts can be lies. One fun example: The average human has one testicle. It's mathematically and statistically true, but it's essentially a lie. Very few humans have one testicle.
If a news reporter, hell-bent on slandering you, asked you if you had more testicles than the average human, "which studies show, the average human has only has one", what would you say? Would you deny the scientific study like some sort of HITLER REBORN!?
Do you work for Hillary? You seem to have picked up all the standard tactics used by her supporters:
-Mischaracterize any statement possible
-Ad hominem the person
-Blame Trump
-Allege conspiracy
-Claim Trump is Hitler, because Trump's bodyguards are S(ecret)S(ervice) and Hitler also had an SS. Trump drinks water and Hitler drank water! Trump won an election and Hitler also won an election! WHO THE FUCK CARES IF EVERYONE ELSE DOES!?!?!??!?!?! TRUMP ====== HITLER!!!!!
-Conflate dishonesty with fact
Eat shit, you lying, partisan fuck.
Fortunately, this won't go on all that long.
I see sales of Animal Farm are trending as well. (#1 in satire fiction).
It would be doubleplusgood if people would apply the analogy to the current situation.
Isn't the definition of a "fact" that it is a non-debatable, unambiguous truth?
But what good are true facts with false context?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
After 8 years of how Bush was Hitler 1000x and he was definitely going to cause the Apocalypse at least during the Obama years this place got a little more bearable. Still left of center but somewhat rational. Now it looks like its back to 24/7 Buzzfeedesque hysteria, OMG the President is Satan incarnate, and jumping on every meaningless misconstrued nonstory as the end of the world. Goodbye sane Slashdot, we hardly knew you.
Despite the quote, "alternative facts" was not coined by Orwell, and apparently he never used it. He would, I'm sure, appreciate the delicious irony of ideological pearl-clutchers writing him into a fictional history of this phrase.
The quote from above: "The connection was initially made on CNN's Reliable Sources. 'Alternative facts is a George Orwell phrase,' said Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty."
Someone should publish a reprint titled 1980 +- 40
Let's start here.
http://www.politifact.com/trut...
Just another day in Paradise
Ironic really, since the USA is more like Brave New World than Nineteen Eighty Four
True. Whereas Britain, where the story essentially takes place, actually is becoming exactly like 1984 every day.
I bought that book and Catch 22 recently to better understand Trump's opposition.
All political sides use the same "playbook" to varying degrees.
What is more disturbing to me though is that when I look at what is supposed to be the enlightened, reasoning, rational and liberal side what I see is pretty bad.
We all know about Christian evangelicals, neo-Nazis the far right, ultra-nationalists and so on. There's a hot bed of extremism however on the other side that is really only coming to the fore.
There are people who believe in superior, master morality, it doesn't actually have to come from a supernatural being. There are people who think not being far-right means being far-left. There are people who take positive notions such as the movement against racism and turn them into irrational negative notions. There are people that think not being racist means hating your own race yet loving all overs. There are people who think that not being ultra-nationalistic means hating your nation and it's people. There are people in camps that are traditionally liberal and very for freedom of speech lobbying for not only speech crime but thought crime.
This kind of madness has been going on for a long time but has started to reach new heights. There are plenty of liberals that likely simply didn't vote because of it or even voted for Trump as a part of a backlash.
It's a kind of weird transition period in the west where we have been moving away from one set of extremes but are now crossing the threshold moving into the same opposite extreme. The methods these people use are pretty subversive. To take one simple example, Islamophobia when it was originally created gives a list of what is clearly wrongthink and rightthink. In schools propaganda is being taught with the aim of reinforcing the notion of blasphemy by teaching that simple words, opinions and beliefs are basically as bad as genocide, by that I don't even mean things like if someone believes in genocide, merely if people don't like certain things.
To eliminate gender identification of plugs and call them 'Innie' and 'Outie' plugs, at least until the Bellybutton Equal Rights movement demands we make them belly button neutral?
Trying to claim that you can't tell is nothing more than a sort of "Birther lite" position.
Ah.. but not caring at all is not the same as being unable to tell a forgery from the real thing. By not caring at all, it really doesn't matter either way.
Especially since it's been proven that CNN deliberately showed a photo of Trump's inauguration in the early morning, well before the place filled.
Many images, but even a half-witted rabbit could figure out that CNN were looking to stir sh** as usual
Please stay out of politics Slashdot.
We're all sick to death of it as it is!
Part of the problem is through the years, Obama himself did not always tell the truth about his beliefs or where he came from. The church he purported to be a faithful member of for 19 years was quickly pushed away when the pastor of said church came out as a blatant anti-white militant. Trump saw Clinton's "birther" comments and research and ran with it. Clinton only let it go after Obama was elected and she needed him for power.
Well yes, if one chooses to be a nihilist, then nothing really matters. But I wonder if you're prepared to follow that particular world view all the way, or whether you just use it to justify apathy or a sort default contrarianism.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I think you're confusing broken promises with outright lies.
Sometimes politicians have to make promises that they can't keep, or predictions that don't come true. Sometimes they have to make statements based on incomplete or inaccurate information, or have to hide information or its sources for national security. Those aren't lies.
For example, Obama claiming that you will be able to keep your doctor after the ACA passes isn't a lie just because you couldn't keep your doctor. Obama wasn't trying to say that he'll force your doctor to keep you as a patient against his will!
Similarly, Obama claiming that Benghazi had one cause when it turned out to be another isn't a lie. Obama isn't omniscient, and can't tell if the information he has will change based on new evidence becoming available.
Compare that to Trump claiming that his inauguration had the biggest crowd ever, or that he would have won the popular vote if not for the millions of illegals who voted, of that Obama wasn't really a US citizen. Those are all complete fabrications that Trump made up from whole cloth. He says them knowing there is no evidence to back them up, making them lies.
dom
gigapixel shot from the dais:
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/01/politics/trump-inauguration-gigapixel/
I can see why they couldn't believe the overhead shots since it looks very different. Too bad they had to use the phrase "alternative facts", instead of just explaining their view or perspective was probably different.
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Obama being christian is not a fact at all, I would guess he is an ateist (like me --- and I would guess Trump as well), but certainly it is debatable and not a fact.
How nice of you to bring that site up. Lets compare Obamas record
http://www.politifact.com/pers...
With that of Trump so far:
http://www.politifact.com/pers...
Obama: 48% True or Mostly True vs 16% for Trump
Obama: 26% Mostly False or worse, vs 70% for Trump
7 pages of broken promises vs. not yet rated...http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/browse/. I'll take actions over words, and give Trump a chance, even though I didn't vote for him.
Just another day in Paradise
I was referring to a legal aphorism, and you, "sweetheart", are still pounding the table. If you had an ounce of self-awareness, you might realize how neatly you fit the stereotype of a whiny leftist throwing a fit because the leftist doesn't understand the world.
B. You're in no position to make that determination.
Take a few deep breaths and calm down. Forget how much hate you have for Trump (hate blinds) and read a transcript of the interview. Pretend you're trying to wade through spaghetti code, it'll help keep activity in the rational regions of your brain and tone down emotional responses.
I have heard many definitions of "fact" and/or "truth". That is not one of them.
I'm saying the statement was presented to you with the context entirely replaced by people with an interest in harming the speaker. As for your list, you could have gotten that from James Carville. That was his playbook when he was working for Bill Clinton. He was so effective that it became the dominant strategy for dealing with opposition to Democrats.
You're defending a proven lie and distorting facts, and you dare suggest I'm out of touch?!?!? You clearly have no clue how stupid you make yourself look. Because you're too stupid to realize it.
C'mon, I dare you to try bring some FACTS to show how Trump, Spicer and Conway ALL didn't lie. Prove that their claims that the inauguration was the biggest ever is true. C'mon, lets deal with FACTS.
CT: You did not answer the question of why the President asked the White House Press Secretary to come out in front of the podium for the first time and utter a falsehood [emphasis mine]. Why did he do that? It [emphasis mine] undermines the credibility of the entire White House Press Office.
KAC: No it [emphasis mine] doesn't. Don't be so overly dramatic about it [emphasis mine] Chuck. You're saying it's [emphasis mine] a falsehood. And they're giving ... Sean Spicer, our Press Secretary gave alternative facts.
Now, what you're saying is:
Conway was talking about facts [emphasis mine] that weren't being reported (i.e., other things Spicer said),
So, you're talking about multiple facts, several things. CT and KAC are clearly talking about a singular thing, the "uttered a falsehood" CT was asking about. This is plain. This is obvious. And the singular thing that they are both talking about is the LIE that more people attended the inauguration than ever before. The same question she over and over and over again tried to evade.
There is NO QUESTION that's what she was referring to. NONE. Unless ... You're either a) brainwashed, b) a giant apologist, or c) just plain stupid. One thing you are certainly not is rational.
Say what?
I'm not sure what country you are from but that is not the case in the US.
"Liberals" are something that began to stop being "liberals by definition" and became "The enemy" under Nixon and fully blossomed into "enemy of 'Merika!" under Reagan who went on to erase the existence of moderates and fully empower "Liberal" as a profane word..
All liberal is now, is a label that Republican moral conservatives put on anyone who doesn't mindlessly toe the Republican line.
Obama was way more conservative that Saint Reagan but is still a dirty communist liberal, for example.
hey, we here in Africa is just glad Trump is there. Middle finger to all the Americans who always thought our leaders are mad
read carefully. gp said people disagree on the weight of established facts with respect to their relevence in a larger formula. its a fact that someone can pull the plug on my frame and everything goes down, but is this something I should be coding for? (hint: code doesn't execute w/o electricity)
Just as it's a fact that an American Ambassador was murdered under Hillary Clinton's watch.
And two were murdered when Ford was President. One each under LBJ, Nixon, Carter. What's your point?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Except that the dress was in fact blue and black. #factcheck
"Mr. Trump, you have no experience in office. In what way are you qualified to be president?"
"I have a lot of experience in lying, screwing the little guy, borrowing large sums of money, and have rich and powerful friends."
"Sign here!"