How many fingers, America?
One day too late for the 2020 Mitt Romney Day awards, I saw this image in my Facebook feed. It is probably the most Orwellian thing I’ve seen so far this year, and perhaps ever.
The two images were captioned with dates across the top, “April 16th 2020 vs. May 26th 2020”. On the one side, the peaceful protests in Michigan several weeks ago—protests that went without violence, but that the left persisted in calling violent and riots.
On the other, the violent riots going on right now, that the left refuses to call riots, and calls peaceful protest.
They’ve even gone so far as to deny that St. John’s Church in DC was burning as the flames rose on their television screens. Even denying violence as the flames rose behind them while they were speaking.
We’re asked, as Winston was in 1984•, to believe not our lying eyes, but the lies they tell us. We’re asked to believe that peaceful protest is violence and that violence is peaceful protest. With the images of peaceful protest vs. violence literally right in front of us.
I’ve never particularly liked the slogan, “1984• was not an instruction manual”, but it certainly looks like the press and the left is using it as an instruction manual. The caption to that collage ought to have been,
“How many fingers am I holding up, America?”
Yesterday we were at war with COVID-19/Eastasia. We were told that anyone who massed together would die—or, worse, that they were grandma killers. Today we aren’t even asked to forget it, or to change our mind; we’re just expected to believe that we were always at war with Eurasia and there never was any danger from Eastasia. The one commonality—whether it’s a shutdown or a riot, they don’t really care when other people’s lives are destroyed.
In response to 2020 in Photos: For photos, memes, and perhaps other quick notes sent from my mobile device or written on the fly during 2020.
- 1984•: George Orwell (paperback)
- “In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions.”
- Antifa Sets Historic St. John's Church in DC Ablaze; Leftwing Media Denies Church is Burning to Protect Antifa Allies: Ace at Ace of Spades HQ
- “The ‘mainstream’ media—the propaganda arm and communications division of antifa—sprayed lies all over the internet, claiming that a church which was clearly burning was not in fact burning.”
- The Media Are Lying To You About Everything, Including The Riots: John Daniel Davidson at The Federalist
- “Had she opened her eyes, Alcindor might have seen the same evidence Trump and everyone else saw: news footage and cell phone videos circulating on social media of black-clad rioters burning and looting shops, attacking shop owners and motorists, and in some cases spray-painting actual anarchist symbols on public property.“
- Media Falsely Claimed Violent Riots Were Peaceful And That Tear Gas Was Used Against Rioters: Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist
- “Every single major media outlet falsely reported that Park Police were unprovoked when they used ‘tear gas’ to clear the area. If any of that were true, it might mark the first time in history that cops without gas masks launched tear gas in an area that the president of the United States easily walked through minutes later.”
- The Media on the Arson and Looting: It's Just Mere Property. Why Are You So Upset, Racists?: Ace at Ace of Spades HQ
- “Quite a few people are pointing out that the media suddenly has no interest in Crowd Shaming people during These Trying Times of Coronavirus.”
- Mitt Romney Day 2020: Coronavirus Calvinball
- The competition for the Mitt Romney Day award in 2020 became dangerously competitive come March, as contestants worked hard to kill the most jobs, the most small businesses, the most lives. But there can be only one winner.
- Winston is Tested (1984)
- “O'Brien (Richard Burton) questions Winston (John Hurt) under the duress of a torture device.”
More media bias
- The ruling class’s unexpectedly old clothes
- I recently ran across early use of “unexpectedly” for a conservative’s strong economy, referring to the early 1981 market recovery under President Reagan.
- COVID Lessons: Journalistic Delusions and the Madness of Politicians
- COVID-19 was real. The crisis surrounding it was entirely manufactured. Everything we did took a manageable disease and turned it into a killer. And the very worst was believing a media we knew was lying.
- Has Trump forced the media into a Kobayashi Maru?
- The Kobayashi Maru is that the media wants to be able to continue lying and be believed. People don’t distrust them because of Trump. People distrust them because they keep lying. It is a self-caused problem.
- The institutional forgetfulness of the press
- We no longer have to rely on the press as our institutional memory. The Internet has made it harder for the left to pretend the past doesn’t exist, or to say one thing here and another there.
- How the left transformed vulgarity into courage and elected Donald Trump
- When you lose to Donald Trump, look inward, because it isn’t Donald Trump’s fault. The establishment left, especially the media, attacked Donald Trump just like he was Joe the Plumber. But Donald Trump has the platform to attack back. Doing so took courage, and the Plumbers of America recognized that.
- 34 more pages with the topic media bias, and other related pages
More Orwellian
- Apple’s FiVe Minute Crush
- Between 1984 and 2024, Apple’s advertising has gone from ridiculing 1984 to being 1984.
- Pluto is not a planet, and other respectable murders
- If Pluto is not a planet, and tomatoes are not vegetables, then austerity can mean higher taxes and more spending.
- Divisive double standards
- It’s a hypocritical form of divisiveness, calling for togetherness and reason whenever your side commits a crime, and engaging in unreasoning partisanship when you can find some way to pin it on others.
- Black is White
- Have we finally flipped the switch into full Orwell mode?
- George Orwell’s incinerator
- Amazon shows by doing why digital restriction management on consumer items is a bad idea.
- Two more pages with the topic Orwellian, and other related pages
More riots
- Mitt Romney Day 2021: The West Side Left
- Coronavirus Calvinball? Only some black lives matter? Riots are protests and protests are riots? Who shall win the coveted Mitt Romney Day Award for 2021?
- White privilege is not the nail
- Attributing George Floyd’s death to white privilege when it was caused by left-run city policy means that we will continue to have more George Floyds.
- A direct line to the Charlottesville riots… from 1938
- The press has been downplaying violent rioting for almost a year. Cities have been letting violent rioters get away with, literally, inciting murder. At best they are ignored by the press and at worst praised by the press and by politicians on the left. Why be surprised that we have more violent riots?
More You are the fascist…
- White privilege is not the nail
- Attributing George Floyd’s death to white privilege when it was caused by left-run city policy means that we will continue to have more George Floyds.
- A direct line to the Charlottesville riots… from 1938
- The press has been downplaying violent rioting for almost a year. Cities have been letting violent rioters get away with, literally, inciting murder. At best they are ignored by the press and at worst praised by the press and by politicians on the left. Why be surprised that we have more violent riots?
When you’re burning churches and denying the flames, you are the fascist…