begin partial quote from:
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/donald-trump-orwell-1984-b2702309.html
Orwell conjured up the ultimate dictatorship to illustrate how anti-democratic leaders use brazen deceit to prove and magnify their power. The seed was sown when Orwell himself was at the receiving end of Stalinist lies while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The propaganda on both sides was so contemptuous of reality, he later wrote, that he feared “the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world … This prospect frightens me much more than bombs”.
As Orwell explained, the
standard political lie at least acknowledges that the truth exists but
the totalitarian lie aims to demolish the very concept. Fact-checking
Trump or highlighting his hypocrisy therefore feels almost quixotic. His
wild fantasies are a loyalty test for his followers – they must not
just say, but truly believe, that 2+2=5 – and a means of fatiguing and
overwhelming his opponents. The bigger and more blatant the lie, the
more effective it is as psychological warfare.
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