Orwelling Orwell

re: "How ‘Orwellian’ Became an All-Purpose Insult" (The New York Times, January 13, 2021)

 
It is a superb irony, positively Orwellian, that those whose catch cry was "Stop the steal" should be using "Orwellian" to demonize all three branches of the US government, the legislative, the executive and even the judicial, all of whom agreed that a majority of Americans in a well-run election voted their free choice for president on November 3, 2020. I'd always thought that as governments go, that of the US, especially its judicial branch, was about as unOrwellian, on my understanding from close readings of Orwell over several decades, as any ever has been. But I can't dispute that Orwellianism is thriving in the US of A these days.

Other terms recently seen thrown about with with similar intent are "leftist" and "communist." This despite the fact that it's hard to think of any group more decidedly capitalist than the likes of Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Amazon. I would have thought them eager devotees of unfettered capitalism, busily making money from free markets.

But when the great faker himself castigates, absent any substantiation or even explanation, as "fake news" the entire set of news media that worry about accuracy and balance in reporting the news, the standard is set. If thinking that such beloved standards need to be smashed makes me a radical leftist, I guess I'm guilty, despite having always thought myself a conservative who respects long fought for standards of truth and honesty.

Do such conservative values also make me Orwellian?
 

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/books/orwellian-1984.html#commentsContainer&permid=111093123:111093123