The ride leader then went on to say how Orwells work reminded him of Trumps administration. Obviously I was astounded. I gently asked why he thought that.
His response was that everything Trumps says is a lie, just like Orwell says about newspeak and so on.
This was only a week after the BBC scandal where that once hallowed institution confessed they created the January 6th hoax knowing it was designed to block Trump from proceeding with his democratically elected presidency - virtual insurrection for real!
I gently tried to point out how the pandemic was a litany of Orwellian newspeak yet he just looked up into the air trying to find the reason in that.
My immediate thought was to check my own programming - my view is that everyone on all sides are programmed to believe in the story they like best and there are no exceptions to this. And there are two kinds of people possessed in this way 1) those who are aware of it 2) those who are not.
This does not mean that one or the other is good or bad or better than the other in any way. It just is. Some of us choose to know, others simply want to believe. And it is this which Power always uses to maintain control and position. Largely through obedience by using it as the primary factor in ones position in a socail hierarchy - it works!
But, given the recent BBC scandal had not even touched this guys understanding, it felt more likely the media has a strong hold over most people, even after BREXIT, the pandemic, Ukraine, antisemitism.
This man simply believes what the media tells him to believe and does not think any more about it. At the coffee stop he did actually go over this indirectly while talking about his career in the civil service and how much corruption there was all over the place. I didn't goad him on this because it never ends up in a better place, you only get a doubling down and a lifetime of hatred.
My current view on the world and in particular this country, the US and the West in general, is that there is a background insurrection underway with mass migration being a large part of the strategy. The intent seems to be to destroy the West and replace it with ... what exactly? As always, whoever is behind it truly believes they are doing the right thing, almost certainly unaware its just a belief, a story they like better than other story's.
Maybe they also get their information from the media still. As well as pump it with propaganda.
We all love our own story.