Yes, we even have offices set up to handle information requests from the US which includes Muslims immigrants etc. who believe they are seeing the writing on the wall. Bring mittens and money.
RE Bold: Back when it was first invented they called what's happening in the US right now "propaganda". If you read 1984 you will see the current United States represented almost perfectly. Only "Big Brother" is replaced by Trump - with the same appeal, that the country is in peril and only he can fix it.
The same theme originated in the European languages through "The Prince" by Machiavelli who's protagonist theorized that by keeping the people in, perpetual fear allows him to do anything he wants, from stealing people's wives, to murder and on.
"MAGA" is the epitome of the ism, as it assumes the country is on its way to hell, and that only a tough-talking gunslinger can get the job done. What is also mirrored is the propensity to keep the people distracted by outrageous statements and actions, what was referred to as "keeping the pot stirring". In "The Prince" the distractions are a series of petty wars, or spats between the elite of Italy
Finally, I wouldn't consider DP any kind of bell weather, the internet tends to attract the extremes, and DP is tame considering what's happening at other sites. And, from what I see many of the right wingers who were reasoned thinkers have disappeared from most sites, being replaced by more what appear to be sock puppets regurgitating the White House line.
I took 1984 a little differently, or at least, different in the sense that it was farther on down the line in progression of propaganda.
We don't quite seem to have double-think (though we have stepped on the language-manipulation treadmill). What I call "anti-information" is the sense of general freedom to just plain
ignore what one doesn't wish to hear. It may be suggested by those in government who wish to benefit (Trump, for now), but isn't compulsory. It's very much voluntary. But it's not yet to the degree that one must say it and act as one must believe it. We're at more of a crossroads, or fork in the road.
Though there are other trends that worry me. Even under Obama, the expansion of NSA domestic spying. So that's government. But what about the private sector?
Systems like Amazon's Alexa.Video-game stations that can monitor you (Xbox One). Everything that goes into tracking users on the internet, tracking adds, email services scanning emails, etc^etc. They flew 100 mini-drones within a warehouse at a recent electronics tech show. Grain-sized tracking devices for pets or....guess who. Increasingly mechanized/automated military machinery.
Acting in seeming profit-movitve, corporations are putting into place and consumers are lapping up the machinery for a true police state fashionned in 1984's image. And with things like our NSA, our government has already proven that it is willing to demand the ability to deeply intrude on our private lives
and then go way beyond the permission granted. That, even under the alleged progressive.
So what happens when all communications are traceable? When cameras are on every street corner (London)? When drones become the size of flies, then smaller? We'd need just one bad man with a military backing, and it's done. And in 5-15 years, the technology will be in place.
I hope this proves to be paranoia.
I've always been a big fan of sci-fi, and I could swear we're just a few hops from one of Philip K. Dick's dystopias.
