Parallels to 1984: Donald Trump's COVID Claims and North Korean censorship

When reading through these chapters, I especially saw parallels with historical Stalinist dictatorships of the real world. The most notable of these, is obviously the dictatorship run by Stalin himself, and the main basis for Orwell's fictional dictatorship depicted in 1984. 

Stalin's successors, the most faithful being North Korea, paint a picture of a country undergoing tremendous growth and progress, marching ahead of the western democracies and creating an environment where all citizens live in harmony. The reality, however, is quite different, with most cities consisting of drab and dilapidated apartment blocks hastily constructed by oppressed laborers. While there were some periods of great economic growth and progress in the past, it came at the expense of thousands of lives. This is similar to how the government of Oceania claims to have built a utopian urban society, but the cities are squalid and suffer from blight, decay, and immense poverty. 

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Farmers in North Korean propaganda

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North Korean farmers in reality

The party also censors all writings written before the revolution and rewrites history so that the proletariat of Oceania have no idea why they are being oppressed, or are simply satisfied with their situation because they don't know what a free society looks like. The Thought Police also crack down on any inkling of dissent that might show up in the present day. This is similar to how Stalin destroyed all books and writings before the 1917 Revolution to cement the legitimacy of his regime over his subjects. 

There are similar examples of censorship in less-oppressive governments in the modern world. One incident of censorship by the Chinese Communist Party became a worldwide meme when people compared China's leader Xi Jinping to the cartoon character Winnie the Pooh, causing the government to completely censor all media related to the character in order to preserve the leader's image. 

A similar thing can be said about Donald Trump's presidency, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump repeatedly made false statements to preserve his already shaky reputation, claiming that the United States was doing incredibly well in the pandemic and keeping the number of cases very low, despite the actual situation being a crisis that was spiraling out of control. 


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If Trump won the 2020 Presidential Election, would censorship have become even worse with regards to giving America a false image of stability? Write your thoughts in the comments below.

Comments

  1. Alice GaoFebruary 11, 2021 at 7:22 AM

    This was a really good post--the images were very impactful and you drew some very good connections. I think Trump can only fool so much of the population, but that percentage might be very important if they have the guts and numbers to attempt, say, a raid of the US Capitol. Basically, the Party in 1984 only had support of around 20% of the population, but they managed to take control. I would hope that the internet existing would counteract the lies Trump tells, but you never know.

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