"Department of Defense" is always a good one, implying that our nations are never the military aggressors (as that would require a "Department of Offense").
+roidroid I remember thinking that even as a child- "The Ministry of Defense is pushing for more bombing in Iraq"- doesn't sound very defensive. What is funny is that when you get older, you stop noticing this stuff. Another great one is "nuclear deterrant". If you'd never heard of the issue, you'd think they were talking about some giant barrier, not a fuck off set of bombs, capable of killing billions.
Ye if someone would agree to defend politician’s job I’d answer bro he is a trader of speech, don’t hang to every word he says, maybe it’ll lose its value in some days,
Yes if we reflect also the last 3 years and the so called pandemic incl. the language of the Goverments around the world 🌍 and the media we definitely see the patterns for that..
Language is just currency generally, not just for politics. Our current economic systems, whether that'd be capitalistic or socialistic in nature, are dependent on human feelings. What is that predicated by? Language. How do we navigate in our world properly? Through language.
Yes. Some of my favourites are: Lovecraftian Meaning frighteningly monstrous and otherworldly Kafkaesque Meaning characteristic of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka’s fiction And my all time favourite Trumped Meaning I've just farted
+Neuro If you can't explain it, you have no idea what you are talking about. Just admit you took the lazy way out and allowed Asimov's thought to be yours.
Not always necessarily deaths per say. The word "causalities" can be used to describe a person (or people) that may have been injured during war or some-sort of incident as well as those who have died.
Not true. Because casualties means someone killed there is now a massive negative connotation to it. We here casualty and think death when casualty also means someone injured
A Spanish teacher named Alfonso López Quintás also says that there are some words that are manipulated nowadays. He calls them "talisman words". For example, the word "change" is viewed usually positive in politics, although politicians don't specificate if it is a bad or a good change. Also "freedom", "equality" and other words... 1984 is more than a distopy. It is an unintentional mirror of our actual culture.
I would say it is a mirror of the human culture, period. In the Ancient Rome there was also Orwellian methods of manipulation, for example. There is a lot of perks and traits you can extract from just studying the past that conforms the human society in any culture.
sebastion: Actually, he was describing the situation in the time he wrote 1948, and slightly before that. He just hit upon such an accurate description of the ways governments and societies often function that the book remained relevant ever since.
One of the most important parts of the illusion is when we talk about this Orwellian dystopia, it must be with the mindset of “this could happen”, so we won’t realize it already has.
I thought so myself, if yoy mean thw US. But if I understand correctly, it does not apply to the US, yet .... Ethnic cleansing is not a thing in the US, but wr sure came close after 9/11 and ofcause during the Trump administration, with ths Mislim ban, putting migrants in cages and ythe propaganda they spread and are still spreading. Bifsn kay have won, but 70+ million people still voted for him again, a lot more than in 2016!!🌊 🌹 🇺🇸 ☮️ 🙏🏼
That was mostly because of the communist ideal that everyone deserves to be able to read and write and Mao thought the chinese language was holding back the peasant from fully realisng communism. It also had the nice bonus of: if you can read, you can read propaganda. So thats kinda why they did it. Japan did a similar thing, but they didnt have these motivations, so it was a much smaller thing, mostly just standardisng
The fact that there are Trump and Hillary supporters bashing each candidate in the comments reveals to us that they failed to understand this video and are continuing the progress of a totalitarian society....
Add 'liberals' and 'conservatives' in there too. Incredible how so many people can not only misunderstand clearly explained information but also immediately weaponise it to reinforce their preexisting beliefs. Probably started typing before the video was over.
...and assuming everyone is the same _certainly_ isn't itself an example of doublethink. Taking all politicians and assuming the same about them isn't _itself_ an example of a comfortable language bending one's worldview to something less nuanced, easily accepted, and rarely self-examined.
+Lettuce Prime Yeah, nothing more annoying than the apolitical fence-sitters chiming in with the (ironically) safest and easiest political statement you can make - "Ugh, both sides are like totally equally bad, amirite guys?"
personally I find it more annoying when people assume that criticism of both main candidates is apolitical fence-sitting, when the reality is that those engaging in it are probably more invested in politics, having realised the economic policies of both candidates are basically variations of the same neoliberal drivel that's been ruining the lives of the working class since reagan - one disguising this fact with "woke"ness, identity politics and celebrity endorsement, the other with atavistic nationalism and right-wing populism.
joshuahijs The president doesn't unilaterally decide economic policies, congress has to vote on them. If you wanted less neoliberal policies, maybe you should have paid more attention at the midterms.
This presentation had some really brilliant imagery, but that one was especially potent. The dictionary being disassembled and reassembled is also impressive.
Justin G Well, unless you give specific evidence that they use words specifically to confuse or mislead us...your criticism could be construed as Orwellian. :)
B4browsing; big in Burma, to, I've heard. Ironic, since he was once part of the oppressive British police force there. But they consider "Burmese days," "Animal Farm" and 1984" to be a trilogy about Burma before, during, and after it's revolution. And they call him "the prophet."
"And the way that we use ready-made phrases and responses, gleaned from media reports or copied from the Internet, makes it easy to get away with not thinking too deeply or questioning your assumptions." 4:04
A contemporary example of the power of language can be seen in the word 'advertising', which was actually coined in the 1950s by Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew), the father of consumer capitalism, to replace the word 'propaganda', thus eliminating the obviously negative association attached to 'propaganda'. It's rather ironic, therefore, that we tend to view 'advertising' as something good or neutral, and yet condemn any use of 'propaganda'. They are the exact same thing.
Except they arent the exact same thing,advertising is just showing something while propaganda is the distortion of facts or showing only one side of an issue.
@@hephaestus9901 Propaganda has the same root as propagate. It originally meant spreading information. Advertising was coined to rid it of the negative connotations, which were put on the word propaganda. Now, propaganda just means misleading advertising.
I'm impressed by the content and all the visual references. I watch Ted-Eds regularly, but this one is shockingly sophisticated. Congrats to everyone involved.
@@surfexcel9178 Even better just dont torture at all, not even guilty people because it rarely yields any results and the guy who gets tortured often just says whatever is needed to stop it or he will just lie.
@@surfexcel9178 just to be clear I'm not attacking you on a personal level but your comment doesn't read "torture is bad" and instead more like "torture is bad because there is the possibility of an someone innocent being mistakenly tortured."
@@silacakmak8631 Orwell was a libertarian socialist, bordering on anarchism. He fought in the International Brigade for the anarcho-syndicalist CNT-FAI who ran large areas of Spain including Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and Navarra, according to radically democratic, anti-hierarchal self-governance through unions and collective action. His book "Homage to Catalonia" is an interesting read, though it romanticises the anarchists a bit too greatly, in my opinion.
This is why 1984 is my favourite novel ever. It's far from having deep characters (many are taken from Zamyatin) and it has a very didascalic style, but he made me Reflect like no books had ever made, Orwell can applied on everything
That’s cuz u are a sheep…you couldn’t see the truth because you censor yourself…I wasn’t raised in a home of censorship so I didn’t have a real reflection of 1984
Very good, "the deceptive and manipulative use of language" IS on the right track, to which I'll try and finish: to achieve a state of doublethink in individuals, the acceptance of two contradictory notions in their heads at the same time, after which logic fails and can only be replaced by loyalty through obedience.
Thank you for focusing on the importance of language in regards to a free society. Whenever I hear ads or the classic cable news, I always get a feeling of disgust at the way language is used and how it calls back to Orwell's ideas.
This is a bit off topic but some of you might be able to relate. I read 1984 a little over a year ago and while I liked it well enough at the time, in retrospect I liked it far more. Being reminded of it by videos like this always makes me miss the time when I was in the process of reading it. I think the atmosphere of the book and the sense of immersion it creates is really what causes this. This is something I've never really had with another book, not even A Song of Ice & Fire which I love.
Department of Homeland Security or Dept. of Homeland Subjugation? Defense budget or conquest budget? Secretary of Defense or Emissary of War? Department of Education or Miseducation?
This is the greatest issue we have in politics today! Politicians use fancy words to excuse themselves from horrible acts that if I were to say the exact meaning but with different words would be berated. Or how in the world filled with manipulation, there are news outlets that rather on focusing on telling the truth, they rather tell everyone that they're wrong or manipulate the viewer itself for more views.
Post-Truth as an idea is fine, but as a word is not a great example, because it implies that there is such thing as truth which the Post-Truth is not. More orwellian would be Super-Truth, implying that it's somehow better, or even Übertruth for the same effect but obscuring it behind a foreign prefix.
Good work on performing an excellent analysis and very clear and easy-to-understand differentiation of the terms. Explicit examples of the misuse of "Orwellian" in modern context would further improve the efficacy of this public service message.
"Books like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 are not meant to PREDICT the future but rather helps recognize the danger of a future like the ones seen above." a good point , and yet they seem to have done exactly that . the rise of an orwellian government can be seen in almost everything today , slowly but surely his writings have begun to look like prophecies ! and we are watching those prophecies come to life !
while i agree that orwell and bradbury's texts have prophetic tendencies, i don't believe in saying things like "orwellian government can be seen in almost everything today" as this generalization excuses inaction. It's like throwing up your hands and saying "see? we're all opressed & screwed over nowadays anyway" instead of doing research and formulating which aspects of the novel have come to life in which parts of our lives, and therefore opening a window for protest. Hope you get what I'm saying... Also, this is coming from an avid reader of dystopian literature so I'm in no way undermining the genre, I just think we need to be more precise in the way we analyze it.
@@embula2880think about how censorship is present in modern days either directly by the government or socially (by people who are conditioned by that government)
Not only did this video give me a new and more profound look on Orwell as a writer but it also gave me a way to bridge a connection between Orwell and Montesquieu in a philosophy project I'm making, which I am very grateful for.
This makes me think of how people react to political correctness, that it is trying to stop free speak and control how people think, but they are still thinking in that way regardless.
The pen is mightier than the sword. Words can affect the actions of people by altering the way they perceive an idea, or subject. Those with power have the greatest responsibility for how they use their words, and should be held responsible for actions taken by the misuse, or abuse of their position.
And people are even missing the point in the comments. Its bad enough that most people in real life miss the point. Orwell thought that nuanced. deliberate language is power, not just power for the state but power for the citizen. He believed quite literally that the pen is mightier than the sword, that it can be empowering for the weak and disempowered. He wanted people to know every meaning, nuance and implication of every single word they spoke and he wanted people to understand the meaning, nuance and implication of every single word somebody else spoke. When the meaning of words are undermined and muddled to the point that a conversation cannot occur you cannot develop a nuanced opinion. For the record, the phrase "politcal correctness" is doublespeak. Be frank, you have a belief that somebody else thinks is offensive and abhorrent. The phrase "political correctness" victimizes your speech, and therefore, your belief while demonizing their speech, and therefore, their belief. Its disingenuous and paints a story where the people interacting aren't equal. Don't sugarcoat the fact that you have a belief that is (currently) irreconcilable with somebody else's. Every single mentally competent adult alive has a lifestyle and belief that another will find obscene, gross, offensive, egregious, abhorrent, hateful, bigoted, vile, disgusting, etc. Own that rather than contributing to doublespeak while at the same time decrying it. That is the easy way out and in this instance its the wrong way. Additionally, surveillance was unnecessary in Oceania, or at least it no longer became necessary at the point in which the events take place. Orwell even made a point of that in the first third of the book. They didn't need evidence. You knew you were guilty of thoughtcrime, and you were guilty in a manner that was so unavoidable that it wouldn't be unreasonable to presume that anybody the state persecuted was guilty of it. It makes everybody too worried about the consequences of themselves getting involved to get help others. Furthermore, speaking out against the persecution of another citizen would mean questioning authority, and since questioning authority is thoughtcrime anybody who speaks out is logically a bonafide thoughtcriminal, which means persecution would be swift and inevitible. This has been so ingrained and conditioned into the people in just one generation, Winston Smith's generation, that surveillance is completely and utterly unecessary. The cameras are unneeded, expensive and impractical. They round you up for whatever reason, it matters not, because it doesn't matter to the population what truth or justice is, it matters that it isn't happening to them.
Hello! I'm quite late to this, but I haven't fully understood how to use the term. Can you put it in a sentence for me, with what Ted Ed said in the very last part? (It's around 4:22 where he starts saying if you're using in x context) Thanks!
Meandering. Political correctness implies a falsehood in its premise. That it is correct when it is the opposite. When in fact it is a form of tyranny. Therfore an example of doublespeak.
Some Orwellian terms "Qaum ke wasi tar mafad me" (in the nation's best interests > in my interest) "Save the economy" > save the rich "War on terrorism" > war on third world "Free market" > free for the rich market
I live in Iran and this is the most accurate picture of it. 😓 P.S: Waiting for one of their mercenaries to reply to this comment, call me a liar, and bombard me with insults. 🙃
@Akshay Nuthanapati I would really like some examples of right wing authoritarian agenda being pushed. I could give you examples of the lefts agenda. Creating genders that don't exist and creating over 50 pronouns. Disregarding biological science. Censoring speech under the guise of calling it hate speech. Tearing down statues and getting rid of history. Attempting to rewrite history in historical movies to push their agenda. I can give you more, but I'll stop.
@Akshay Nuthanapati I did give you examples of what the left is doing. Here's another, the mainstream liberal media is also super manipulative. They lie, exaggerate, omit information, just to push their agenda. How's what I'm saying regressive?? Protecting free speech is regressive, acknowledgement of science, an honest and unbiased media report. You never gave me an example of how the right is restricting freedoms and control people.
@Akshay Nuthanapati His examples were strawmen. Ex. "tearing down statues and getting rid of history", as if history is tied to a block of stone or bronze. These people are not capable of honest-argument so there kind of is no point. Maybe somebody will read this (the comment string) as an example of logical fallacies and learn something and give it some meaning.
More and more evidence suggests that our vocabulary truly does influence our thoughts. There are small cultures where people may not have a descriptive word for certain phrases, which causes them not to be able to understand certain types of concepts. For example, I think there was a tribe that didn't have words for numbers past four, so it was very difficult for them to understand how to count groups of sticks more than 5 or so.
Why do u think they took history out of school? In order to keep the next generation blind to the coming of the next Hilter, Stalin, Mussolini or Lenin.
@@ponkan95 Most people today have no idea what the term fascism even means beyond what they were told in the government schools or read in the approved text books.
That usage of the term "Orwellian" is utterly ironic! If "Orwellian" means "misleading words used to promote or discredit a cause", then some people seem to make Orwellian an example of itself! Exactly as the TED-ED video warns!
@@ponkan95 True! Orwell did write about how "fascist" has become rather meaningless, or as his readers would later call it, Orwellian. Orwell said in a 1944 essay: "It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else... the people who recklessly fling the word ‘Fascist’ in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come." - George Orwell, _What_ _is_ _Fascism?,_ 1944 And that is him talking in 1944, when World War II was still ongoing and fascism was still a problem! 75 years later, not only is Orwell's essay very true, but it is even _more_ true, for fascism is now irrelevant in modern-day politics, in which fascist parties are now very small and not very influential... when they are even legal! Yet, despite fascism losing it's influence long ago, politicians still fling the word at one another, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, from the European Union to the People's Republic of China. We can conclude that as a word, "fascism" only usually means "Italian/German nationalist dictatorship" in a historical context, and except for "relatively small" fascist parties, is merely Orwellian in a modern political usage. Orwellian in 1944!: www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc
Et tu, Brute? khm, even you, Canadians? We in authoritarian world are hoping that at least you have built a democracy! What have you done? Have you pissed your freedom? (or it's just a bad joke)
Why is this the aspect of his book that gets focused on? I was really intesrested in the brainwashing and mind control and getting him to turn against her.
This is the main form of brainwashing and mind control in the book. The government resorted to the torture and the one-on-one brainwashing sessions after the first method didn't work on Winston. If you just look from Winston's perspective, it seems like most of the people in the society don't really believe the things the government says. It might only be true for the older ones like him that remember a time before fascism. But the government is raising a generation of people that literally cannot argue against it. The story is about two methods of controlling speech: making them too afraid to speak, and taking away people's ability to understand or express different opinions.
That was just at the very end. What was more pressing was how most of the public was controlled through fear and the district ion of language that made it near impossible to have their own thoughts and opinions. Winston was too smart for that and knew too much. That's why in the end they had to use other methods...as in the torture with the rats. For the small amount of people in 1984 that actually run to government to stay in power they have the control the masses...and they can't individually torture everyone for multiple reasons. So they control them through language instead.
If you've ever had a thought but couldn't find the words to say it, and given up, that's what it's like. I moved to a foreign country once and didn't know the language. Being forced to stick to the limited vocabulary I had at my disposal felt very lonely. It really limited the expression of my thoughts and opinions.
Happening in the Philippines right now. Facts are disregarded, words are changing its meaning. The word UNITY, the word MACHIAVELLIAN. The amount of historical revisionism and lack of critical thought by the citizens. Parents are turning against their children for leaning on the opposition. This is a very dangerous situation I want to migrate to another country.
I think that everyone who writes in comment threads should watch this. While I am not a fan of "grammar Nazis", I have often tried to explain to people with obviously atrocious language skills that that trait not only tends to lower their credibility to others, but also can inhibit their own ability to think clearly. There is a book by Robert A. Heinlein in which the premise is that a small group of people who were significantly more intelligent than average had separated themselves genetically from the rest of humanity in order to ensure that the genes for this high intelligence were not diluted because they feared that normal human intelligence was not up to the task of running a world with the dangers of modern technology. However, they recruited people who did not know they had this mutation and simply thought of themselves as smarter than average people. But the first thing they did with a new recruit was to teach them a new, more efficient, more logical language as the key to unlocking the potential of their minds. I suspect this may have been inspired by Orwell. Critical thinking is done with symbols, which may be why theoretical physicists can comprehend things that I can barely begin to grasp, because they use the "language" of math, which is much better for describing reality than English. But I wish more people understood that poor language is not just a sign of poor thinking, but often a causal factor.
It is happening in Hong Kong over the controversy of "Extradition Law"... thanks for the video which gives me a starting point to think deeper about the dispute and other life and society aspects.
Both language and authoritarian surveillance were important aspects of Orwell's book. You can't pick and choose what kind of message you wanted him to have.
Not really. The control of language and thought is a CRITICAL theme in 1984. The authoritarianism and surveillance state are presented more as stopgap solutions to the issue of rebellion until the true solution, the eradication of language, can be achieved. Destroying the power of language to create power is the primary goal of the party in the book. While the party can be described as authoritarian, what makes it unique to 1984 is its focus on language. Therefore, saying something authoritarian is Orwellian is not quite precise. Orwellian specifically implies a control of language.
I really appreciate the talent of TedEd's animators and Addison Anderson's voice is just so easy on the ears. Big Ups to them. Easily my favorite channel
"Orwell urged us to protect our language, because ultimately our ability to think and communicate clearly is what stands between us and a world where war is peace and freedom is slavery." Well said.
Turkey was and is an Orwellian country. In 1928 the government changed the official alphabet that all of the Turkish people use and Ottoman citizens used in the past. This happened because the regime didn't want its people to know about their history. All of the people who knew reading and writing at the time were illiterated in one night. Because the alphabet was complately different. Public education and all other official writings should be in new alphabet. And to keep people learning more about their history and tides with their ancestors they established an institution called TDK which is short for Turkish Language Institution. This institute made new word for old words to complately erase historical bonds on language. You can look for all the words in Turkish that changed by this institution by force, here: www.turkalemiyiz.com/asil/sozluk.asp?id=1 Some of the old words are forgotten in the time but some of them remained because the new alternatives were really stupid. For exapmle: adıl is the made up word for zamir which mean pronoun in English. And also kamal ataturk is like the big brother in 1984 because in all state institutes must have his portrait hanged in every room, and also in some private institutions. He is always watching everyone like big brother. Turkeyin the primary school education and high school education students spout The Turkish Nationalist Anthem every week and also they spout the oath march in everyday. At the same time every class has an Ataturk portrait and Turkish flag. According to Billing (1995), flags are not the only symbols of modern statehood. Coins and bank notes typically bear national emblems which remain unnoticed in daily financial transactions. So in the routine business of flagging is not a conscious activity (Billing, 1995, p. 41). These routine activities are done in order to strengthen the people’s idea and sense of nationalism. So the routine activities like marches, pictures on money or the flags are not conscious activity, people cannot realize them. People learn the history in just one perspective; it is Ataturk’s point of view. Turkish history books also have portrait of Ataturk on the frontispiece. For example, existing Kurdish ethnic is rejected by this perspective and this doctrine is taught in the schools. When the students start the primary school, they learn there is no Kurt in the book, in the history and it causes big shock and trauma in terms of Kurdish students. This situation causes the big discrimination between the race and it causes also starting an ideological battlefield between Kurdish and Turkish nationalisms. Their brains are washed. So if they see a different idea in their family from Big Brother’s doctrine they split on them. In Turkish schools, children write poems to Ataturk and they recite poems in national holidays like republic day. They learn that when The Turkish National Anthem is recited, it is prohibited to move slightly. Concerning about Turkish history, there are lots of myths; the most popular one is Ergenekon and the other one is that Turks are the grand child of Gokturks. Another example is Ataturk’s Sun Language Theory. The Theory claims that all languages were derived and descended from Turkish language, that is, the primal language is Turkish. Summers and also American Mayas used Turkish language. Ataturk’s theory’s aims that in order to provide strong citizenships’ ties and relations and increase Turkish pride, creates rooted history You can also read this related article: www.danielpipes.org/comments/176499
dostum sana çoğu konuda katıllıyorum fakat alfabenin değiştirilmesiyle savunulunan söylem sence de çok komik değil mi? o dönem okuma yazma oranı çok düşüktü zaten ve okuma yazma bilenlerin çoğu da aynı zamanda fransızca falan bildikleri için latin alphabetin farkındaydı
Oh the irony that I logged in to comment and was met with a UA-cam landing page essentially shaking me down for personal info to help "secure" my privacy.
One misnomer people have is the idea of "doublespeak". They are actually referring to the practice of doublethink, holding two simultaneously opposed ideas together as "truth" without irony. The other term that people often confuse is Newspeak, a condensation of words and language intended to limit meaning.
Remember, fellas: Newspeak isn't changing definitions. Definitions are always changed, that's how language works. Newspeak is erasing definitions, and making people say words without thinking about their meanings. Regular language says "here are some new words, and their definitions." Newspeak says "here are the only words, you don't need to know their definitions."
The one criticism Id like to make is that "authoritarianism" does not require a dictator or a totalitarian government as I feel this video is trying to convey. It simply requires a pretty strong government. For example, America, despite being a democracy, could be considered "authoritarian". Various groups of its government are either self perpetuating nightmares or have vast control/sway over their own actions (think CIA and MKUltra, the Snowden stuff, and so on). "But if they were authoritarian they wouldnt let you talk about it" is potentially a potential counterpoint to what I am saying (even if kinda strawmanned on my end). If theres one thing wrong about the common perception of authoritarianism is that anyone saying "things that arent normal" would have the government bust down their doors. Why would say, the US feds care about what I say online or even do in person? Nothing I ever say or do will ever meaningfully impact things, why waste resources on anything other than say direct threats or major figures? Besides they could already see what I say and think, just gotta look in youtube lol. The only thing Id say the US govt (or say, the USSR or other such places) really fear is things getting out of control.
1:48 ‘Ministry of truth’ This reminds me of how in the West we no longer have ‘Ministries of War’ or ‘War sectaries’, but rather ‘Ministry of defence’ and ‘Defence sectaries’. No country spends money on war anymore, rather defence.
I've discovered that almost every term/phase in politics gets twisted and/or misused constantly, and that the terms themselves tend to have different meanings depending on the speaker, the time it's said in and how they feel about something rendering the words almost meaningless. As a result I find when I see a phase I must read up on the whole thing to check what it's really talking about instead of what the terms used may imply.
Who said that Orwellian should only mean manipulation of language? Wikidictionary defines Orwellian as political methods like misleading terminology, propaganda, censorship, totalitarianism, surveillance and repression.
@@donkeykong6669 why are you answering in french to a comment in english under a video in english? To make things worse you are also saying not getting a plattform for spreading misinformation is in any way similar to getting murdered for thinking true things
@@donkeykong6669 use a translator. I don't define misinformation ideological people got banned for saying the election was rigged and inciting people to storm the capitol it's a fact that the election wasn't rigged
Thank you for this video, i always thought surveillance was one of the least important subjects in 1984, everything else is what matters, yet people always bring that thing up like Eric Cartman. And by the way, it was weird reading the comments, where everyone was like ''PC is orwellian''. I hate it when people whines about the ''whitewashing'' in Ghost in the Shell and things like that, but i think they are far from being orwellian. Actually, it's kinda ironic now that i think about it, but calling them orwellian isn't something orwelian on itself? You can get called ''racist'' or ''SJW'' for the silliest things, and those words, or separating people in groups like that and calling them things like ''fascist'' or ''orwellian'' doesn't solve any problem, it distractes us from the important things and ultimately, it's only useful to place every person into one side or another in a discussion, and i think that's the biggest problem nowadays: everything is black and white. I might be wrong, but i think a lot of people in the comments where missing the point.
You have mistaken "orwellian" for "ignorant and polarized". Orwellian applies to when someone intentionally creates such a situation. If someone kept forcing an equivalence or a false dichotomy in the hopes that it would affect the way others thought about the subject, that's orwellian. In the case of PC culture, it's just a bunch of privileged kids who truly think they are not part of a privileged group, and that they are against an imagined oligarchy defined by gender and race(and of course there's problems with social justice in the US in particular, but in quite a different way). It's ignorance, it's hypocrisy, it's group think, but orwellian it's not.
"Orwellian" would apply more to phrases like "job creators" or others that are created specifically to steer sentiment, rather than provide an effective label. The list in our country right now is enormous, and spans the entire political spectrum, as well as being completely pervasive throughout commercial advertising. (I took a few classes in college where we talked about the deliberate choices of words, background colors, screen layout, and other manipulation tricks. Case in point: old clocks are set to 10:10 on purpose, so that both hands aim upward, making it look like the clock is smiling. Yes, really.)
Gastón Psotka Schendel I think calling something Orwellian is an example of a _demarcative_ statement, but not Orwellian in its entirety. Being so, I don't think the *peons* are Orwellian *per se*, but rather are an *_example_* of Orwelliniasm since they are just little unrefined subunits of a greater unit(say something like the subunits of a Dyson Swarm) WHICH itself too is stupidly(though not surprisingly, since it's just an aggregation of the collective) subject to Orwellian Deception. _DENG DENG DENG_! Having said such! I don't think it's too inaccurate to call them *_Decepticons Of Orwellian Origins_* since they serve the greater *Deceptor Of Orwellian Origins*, the handpicked of the *Tsar Of Orwell*, speck of power of _The Supreme Being_. Something like an _Aeon_(the *TOO* is I mean, not _TSB_)
Red Triangle. Here is where you are wrong. There are active political bodies and groups who are actively promoting this kind of behaviour. If it was just a hipster thing it wouldnt have been a problem. But it's actively being financed and promoted by billionaires like George Soros and the bilderberg group and being enforced in the European Union.
I've often said that Social Media is one of the most harmful weapons society will have ever created. It removes people from their neighborhoods and allows them to be thrust into a bubble of their own creation. Where they don't have to be challenged. Where they don't have to live a life of complexity or compromise. They live a life of instant gratification and approval in their social media bubble. They must be right. Of course they are. They have tons of people who agree with them. They are speaking the truth that everyone must truly think in their hearts. Again, they have to. I mean, we found thousands of people who believe the same thing as me. People throw out labels of their (or their social media bubble) own creation to sum up and to evoke responses and ideas in those they have a kinship with, and those they mean to demean. I don't need to think about who you are. You've triggered my negative/positive definition of you. That's all I need to know of you. I can write you off/embrace you as my new society sees fit. To say "This video is taking about ____ group in a nutshell" is tantamount to saying up and saying "I fully agree with the division of humankind and I will do everything I see fit to make sure it happens". Not that many people get that. These people aren't even fixing the problem that they claim blank group is creating. In fact, they are drawing more lines in the sand. ... But they'll always look across at blank group and hate them for causing all these problems, never once thinking they are a part of any problem. They can't be. They are apart of the enlightened, the solution! That's what their facebook groups told them, anyway.
"Department of Defense" is always a good one, implying that our nations are never the military aggressors (as that would require a "Department of Offense").
+roidroid Yeah, that one really is worthy of Ingsoc.
*+roidroid* Exactly and all the terminology then relating to that, like _"Matters of defense"_, _"Defense spending"_, etc.
At least it used to be the Department of War.
+roidroid I remember thinking that even as a child- "The Ministry of Defense is pushing for more bombing in Iraq"- doesn't sound very defensive. What is funny is that when you get older, you stop noticing this stuff.
Another great one is "nuclear deterrant". If you'd never heard of the issue, you'd think they were talking about some giant barrier, not a fuck off set of bombs, capable of killing billions.
+roidroid You make a good point...
"Language is the currency of politics." That was so well said, Noah!
Agreed!
Ye if someone would agree to defend politician’s job I’d answer bro he is a trader of speech, don’t hang to every word he says, maybe it’ll lose its value in some days,
Yes if we reflect also
the last 3 years and the so called pandemic incl. the language of the Goverments around the world 🌍
and the media we definitely see the patterns for that..
Language is just currency generally, not just for politics. Our current economic systems, whether that'd be capitalistic or socialistic in nature, are dependent on human feelings. What is that predicated by? Language. How do we navigate in our world properly? Through language.
this is a genuine question would you say hate speech crimes are Orwellian?
These animations are off the fucking rails.
FractalZero lmao yes that's what I was thinking too! Plus the octopused man was awesome as fuk
too bad its is in 30 fps
"rails" what nationality is this slang?
it's at 25 fps, the standard for animation, what's bad about it?
"off the rails" is a positive remark, it means "outstanding"
Imagine being such a great author that they make up an adjective out of your name.
Yes. Some of my favourites are:
Lovecraftian
Meaning frighteningly monstrous and otherworldly
Kafkaesque
Meaning characteristic of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka’s fiction
And my all time favourite
Trumped
Meaning I've just farted
Machiavellian is also a good one
@@Laffy-ix5xy and cliché from François Cliché a French writer whose stories used the same "Knight saves Princes" stuff.
Jk. I just made that up.
@@ulfricstormcloack4066 wow, i am scared of how gullible i am. I really believed you until that last sentence
@@ulfricstormcloack4066 I believed you too 😁
All animals are equal but some are more equal. Classic orwellianism!
He's a great author. I wish I could have Napoleon the pig for dinner, that's how much I hate him, after Snowball became leader of course.
+Robinanna neibauer oh, how special you are. Here, take my snowflake
Good on ya, pilgrum.
Napoleon was a boar, if memory serves correct. RIP Boxer.
John Wayne
These TED-Ed videos should be shown in schools more often.
They currently are being shown to us right now. i think they're pretty good.
@@wormzx0 not all
I share them with my students whenever possible, so, yeah. 😁
the video was double plus good
+geekgroupie42 I love 1984! It's my favourite classic! It is doubleplusgood!!
+Neuro yes, the 1984 as prose is meh at best, but the ideas behind it, the though that went into creating its world were really good.
+geekgroupie42 yes, only members of Brotherhood would downvote it
+Neuro thanks for that... i like Asimov and am really interested in his opinon on this. I have printed it out to read later, thanks again!
+Neuro If you can't explain it, you have no idea what you are talking about. Just admit you took the lazy way out and allowed Asimov's thought to be yours.
Deaths during war are called casualties. This makes them sound “casual” like something that just happens, man isn’t that just the worst?
Not always necessarily deaths per say. The word "causalities" can be used to describe a person (or people) that may have been injured during war or some-sort of incident as well as those who have died.
And labeling them as "innocent bystanders" is degrading them further.
War between two factions in the same country is civil war, makes it sound friendly!
How about targets. "The targets have been destroyed"
Not true. Because casualties means someone killed there is now a massive negative connotation to it. We here casualty and think death when casualty also means someone injured
A Spanish teacher named Alfonso López Quintás also says that there are some words that are manipulated nowadays. He calls them "talisman words". For example, the word "change" is viewed usually positive in politics, although politicians don't specificate if it is a bad or a good change. Also "freedom", "equality" and other words... 1984 is more than a distopy. It is an unintentional mirror of our actual culture.
Unintentional?
That disrespects Orwell as an author. It was entirely intentional.
Yes, but I meant about our *actual* culture. He predicted it for 1984 and it is passing on 2016.
Good authors of fiction are often correct about the content of the future, if not when it happens or in what order.
I would say it is a mirror of the human culture, period. In the Ancient Rome there was also Orwellian methods of manipulation, for example. There is a lot of perks and traits you can extract from just studying the past that conforms the human society in any culture.
sebastion: Actually, he was describing the situation in the time he wrote 1948, and slightly before that. He just hit upon such an accurate description of the ways governments and societies often function that the book remained relevant ever since.
One of the most important parts of the illusion is when we talk about this Orwellian dystopia, it must be with the mindset of “this could happen”, so we won’t realize it already has.
Damn true.
ITS HERE
I thought so myself, if yoy mean thw US. But if I understand correctly, it does not apply to the US, yet .... Ethnic cleansing is not a thing in the US, but wr sure came close after 9/11 and ofcause during the Trump administration, with ths Mislim ban, putting migrants in cages and ythe propaganda they spread and are still spreading. Bifsn kay have won, but 70+ million people still voted for him again, a lot more than in 2016!!🌊 🌹 🇺🇸 ☮️ 🙏🏼
We are right in it.
See my own post for examples in Germany.
Proofread your typing, man...
Just watched this one and the Kafka one. Now you need a "Lovecraftian" video
ua-cam.com/video/3M3L4VIZv-U/v-deo.html
Your welcome :)
actually right now😅
Kind of askews the societal themes
The patriot act (robbing public freedoms), bringing freedom for middle east (robbing resources) ...
@@yasaschandrasekara9536 Thanks!!! 👍
"Control Language and you control thought; Control Thought and you control action; Control action and you control the World."
Genius.
Wait a minute..... is that why china renewed their chinese language into simplified chinese, Some time ago?
That was mostly because of the communist ideal that everyone deserves to be able to read and write and Mao thought the chinese language was holding back the peasant from fully realisng communism. It also had the nice bonus of: if you can read, you can read propaganda. So thats kinda why they did it. Japan did a similar thing, but they didnt have these motivations, so it was a much smaller thing, mostly just standardisng
@@chrisorr8601 ahh thanks for information!
This is why I am against terms like xhe/xher and the they pronoun.
@@pareraphael6035 we have literally always used they/them pronouns for people. its nothing new.
Is it not bribery, its contribution.
Alice Nguyen lol
Alice Nguyen it's not bribery it's lobbying
Alice Nguyen it's not bribery, it's a donation
Muhammad Ramli najibun
Fox News viewers are Orwellian by choice.
The fact that there are Trump and Hillary supporters bashing each candidate in the comments reveals to us that they failed to understand this video and are continuing the progress of a totalitarian society....
Add 'liberals' and 'conservatives' in there too. Incredible how so many people can not only misunderstand clearly explained information but also immediately weaponise it to reinforce their preexisting beliefs. Probably started typing before the video was over.
...and assuming everyone is the same _certainly_ isn't itself an example of doublethink. Taking all politicians and assuming the same about them isn't _itself_ an example of a comfortable language bending one's worldview to something less nuanced, easily accepted, and rarely self-examined.
+Lettuce Prime
Yeah, nothing more annoying than the apolitical fence-sitters chiming in with the (ironically) safest and easiest political statement you can make - "Ugh, both sides are like totally equally bad, amirite guys?"
personally I find it more annoying when people assume that criticism of both main candidates is apolitical fence-sitting, when the reality is that those engaging in it are probably more invested in politics, having realised the economic policies of both candidates are basically variations of the same neoliberal drivel that's been ruining the lives of the working class since reagan - one disguising this fact with "woke"ness, identity politics and celebrity endorsement, the other with atavistic nationalism and right-wing populism.
joshuahijs
The president doesn't unilaterally decide economic policies, congress has to vote on them.
If you wanted less neoliberal policies, maybe you should have paid more attention at the midterms.
That hamster wheel imagery was extremely poignant.
This presentation had some really brilliant imagery, but that one was especially potent.
The dictionary being disassembled and reassembled is also impressive.
katy perry used it in her new "chained to the rhythm" song... pretty fucking scary if you ask me
Fox News viewers are Orwellian by choice.
@@mdashfaqulislam6998 Mr Islam guy, you picked Fox over CNN or MSNBC? They're all 3 Orwellian to a point but Fox has nothing on CNN.
Justin G Well, unless you give specific evidence that they use words specifically to confuse or mislead us...your criticism could be construed as Orwellian. :)
I claimed to loved dystopian novels but how ironic it is that I haven't yet read Orwell's 1984. This should be in my TBR this year.
You can’t be a dystopian love within reading it
Did you read it yet?
Be ready for an eye opening shocker. The next question entering your mind will be, how did we get here ?
Top of the list!
Then do you really love dystopian novels?
My favorite one yet!
Excellent narration (as always), awesome content, and outstanding animation.
Keep up the great work :)
+4browsing Oh, สวัสดีครับ ;)
B4browsing; big in Burma, to, I've heard. Ironic, since he was once part of the oppressive British police force there. But they consider "Burmese days," "Animal Farm" and 1984" to be a trilogy about Burma before, during, and after it's revolution. And they call him "the prophet."
Mine too, definitely agree!
"And the way that we use ready-made phrases and responses, gleaned from media reports or copied from the Internet, makes it easy to get away with not thinking too deeply or questioning your assumptions." 4:04
Right from Politics and the English Language, highly recommended!
So Orwell isn't warning us of a wolf, but warning us not to become sheep?
Yes
I think it is warning us about many people will think they are wolves when actually everyone became sheep
@@melchid8448 The sad state of affairs these days. Maybe if we all left google we'd be a bit less screwed.
@@Hybridtheory32 Actually you are right maybe it is enough youtube for me.
@@melchid8448 As well as for me
“How many fingers, Winston?”
David Hill ✌️✌️ look carefully its 5
Arctic Gaming 32
5
"Four, what else can I say?"
"Four! Five! Six! Five! I don't know!"
A contemporary example of the power of language can be seen in the word 'advertising', which was actually coined in the 1950s by Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew), the father of consumer capitalism, to replace the word 'propaganda', thus eliminating the obviously negative association attached to 'propaganda'. It's rather ironic, therefore, that we tend to view 'advertising' as something good or neutral, and yet condemn any use of 'propaganda'. They are the exact same thing.
Except they arent the exact same thing,advertising is just showing something while propaganda is the distortion of facts or showing only one side of an issue.
@@hephaestus9901 Propaganda has the same root as propagate. It originally meant spreading information. Advertising was coined to rid it of the negative connotations, which were put on the word propaganda. Now, propaganda just means misleading advertising.
I'm impressed by the content and all the visual references. I watch Ted-Eds regularly, but this one is shockingly sophisticated. Congrats to everyone involved.
"Enhance Interrogation Techniques" = Torture
Bisayawa
i didn't understand that one immediatly , thanks
@@coromo4978
More like *"corporeal interrogation techniques".*
@@navilluscire2567 i don't get it
@@surfexcel9178 Even better just dont torture at all, not even guilty people because it rarely yields any results and the guy who gets tortured often just says whatever is needed to stop it or he will just lie.
@@surfexcel9178 just to be clear I'm not attacking you on a personal level but your comment doesn't read "torture is bad" and instead more like "torture is bad because there is the possibility of an someone innocent being mistakenly tortured."
The older I get, the more I realize that Orwell was an optimist.
Not an optimist, a realist
@@silacakmak8631 Sweden and The Netherlands is a Social Democratic country, if you haven't known that yet
@@silacakmak8631 Orwell was a libertarian socialist, bordering on anarchism. He fought in the International Brigade for the anarcho-syndicalist CNT-FAI who ran large areas of Spain including Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and Navarra, according to radically democratic, anti-hierarchal self-governance through unions and collective action. His book "Homage to Catalonia" is an interesting read, though it romanticises the anarchists a bit too greatly, in my opinion.
@@silacakmak8631 No problem, thank you for your kind response! :)
@@cacamilis8477 orwell was a trotskyist actually
"Alternative facts"
Primavera 4:08. In action.
IE - LIES OR 'FAKE NEWS' AS SPREAD BY THE LIBERAL LEFT MSM..
Shaun Clark Or maybe it was alien demons who want to take our guns.
Also, why are you everywhere?
!!!!!
Primavera no such thing
This is why 1984 is my favourite novel ever. It's far from having deep characters (many are taken from Zamyatin) and it has a very didascalic style, but he made me Reflect like no books had ever made, Orwell can applied on everything
That’s cuz u are a sheep…you couldn’t see the truth because you censor yourself…I wasn’t raised in a home of censorship so I didn’t have a real reflection of 1984
@@noirekuroraigami2270 yea ok sheep
Very good, "the deceptive and manipulative use of language" IS on the right track, to which I'll try and finish:
to achieve a state of doublethink in individuals, the acceptance of two contradictory notions in their heads at the same time, after which logic fails and can only be replaced by loyalty through obedience.
Thank you for focusing on the importance of language in regards to a free society. Whenever I hear ads or the classic cable news, I always get a feeling of disgust at the way language is used and how it calls back to Orwell's ideas.
This is a bit off topic but some of you might be able to relate. I read 1984 a little over a year ago and while I liked it well enough at the time, in retrospect I liked it far more. Being reminded of it by videos like this always makes me miss the time when I was in the process of reading it. I think the atmosphere of the book and the sense of immersion it creates is really what causes this. This is something I've never really had with another book, not even A Song of Ice & Fire which I love.
Department of Homeland Security or Dept. of Homeland Subjugation?
Defense budget or conquest budget?
Secretary of Defense or Emissary of War?
Department of Education or Miseducation?
This is the greatest issue we have in politics today! Politicians use fancy words to excuse themselves from horrible acts that if I were to say the exact meaning but with different words would be berated. Or how in the world filled with manipulation, there are news outlets that rather on focusing on telling the truth, they rather tell everyone that they're wrong or manipulate the viewer itself for more views.
In the words of Picard: "There are four lights." Never let someone convince you otherwise.
The “Patriot Act”.... That is all
For the Fatherland
@@ruet_mecha5879 FOR THE FATHERLAND!!!!!
The affordable healthcare act
@@georgeorwell2399 sister act
@@georgeorwell2399 yep!
Oxford dictionary's word of the year: Post-truth
I would say thats pretty fucking Orwellian.
The concept it self, the fact it is applicable to the current political climate also that the now president elect is what inspired the term.
Post-Truth as an idea is fine, but as a word is not a great example, because it implies that there is such thing as truth which the Post-Truth is not. More orwellian would be Super-Truth, implying that it's somehow better, or even Übertruth for the same effect but obscuring it behind a foreign prefix.
Super and Uber? Nay mate you should go ++Truth and ++^2Truth
or "Truth 4.0" :D
But I actually like Super-Truth and Übertruth :)
PulseCode Music Also "alternative fact" even though that's mostly a joke
Good work on performing an excellent analysis and very clear and easy-to-understand differentiation of the terms. Explicit examples of the misuse of "Orwellian" in modern context would further improve the efficacy of this public service message.
*Maybe*
"Books like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 are not meant to PREDICT the future but rather helps recognize the danger of a future like the ones seen above." a good point , and yet they seem to have done exactly that . the rise of an orwellian government can be seen in almost everything today , slowly but surely his writings have begun to look like prophecies ! and we are watching those prophecies come to life !
while i agree that orwell and bradbury's texts have prophetic tendencies, i don't believe in saying things like "orwellian government can be seen in almost everything today" as this generalization excuses inaction. It's like throwing up your hands and saying "see? we're all opressed & screwed over nowadays anyway" instead of doing research and formulating which aspects of the novel have come to life in which parts of our lives, and therefore opening a window for protest. Hope you get what I'm saying... Also, this is coming from an avid reader of dystopian literature so I'm in no way undermining the genre, I just think we need to be more precise in the way we analyze it.
@@embula2880 we have more freedom than north Koreans
The similarities between fiction and reality become more evident everyday.@@embula2880
@@embula2880think about how censorship is present in modern days either directly by the government or socially (by people who are conditioned by that government)
Not only did this video give me a new and more profound look on Orwell as a writer but it also gave me a way to bridge a connection between Orwell and Montesquieu in a philosophy project I'm making, which I am very grateful for.
"it's possible their statements are more Orwellian than whatever it is they're criticizing." lmao
This makes me think of how people react to political correctness, that it is trying to stop free speak and control how people think, but they are still thinking in that way regardless.
the visuals were very well thought out and conducive wow
The pen is mightier than the sword. Words can affect the actions of people by altering the way they perceive an idea, or subject. Those with power have the greatest responsibility for how they use their words, and should be held responsible for actions taken by the misuse, or abuse of their position.
the animation is really Deep, it's on another level, Respect to the Animators of this video
This will remain RELEVANT throughout mankind's history.
It is mankind's history.
And people are even missing the point in the comments. Its bad enough that most people in real life miss the point.
Orwell thought that nuanced. deliberate language is power, not just power for the state but power for the citizen. He believed quite literally that the pen is mightier than the sword, that it can be empowering for the weak and disempowered. He wanted people to know every meaning, nuance and implication of every single word they spoke and he wanted people to understand the meaning, nuance and implication of every single word somebody else spoke. When the meaning of words are undermined and muddled to the point that a conversation cannot occur you cannot develop a nuanced opinion. For the record, the phrase "politcal correctness" is doublespeak. Be frank, you have a belief that somebody else thinks is offensive and abhorrent. The phrase "political correctness" victimizes your speech, and therefore, your belief while demonizing their speech, and therefore, their belief. Its disingenuous and paints a story where the people interacting aren't equal. Don't sugarcoat the fact that you have a belief that is (currently) irreconcilable with somebody else's. Every single mentally competent adult alive has a lifestyle and belief that another will find obscene, gross, offensive, egregious, abhorrent, hateful, bigoted, vile, disgusting, etc. Own that rather than contributing to doublespeak while at the same time decrying it. That is the easy way out and in this instance its the wrong way.
Additionally, surveillance was unnecessary in Oceania, or at least it no longer became necessary at the point in which the events take place. Orwell even made a point of that in the first third of the book. They didn't need evidence. You knew you were guilty of thoughtcrime, and you were guilty in a manner that was so unavoidable that it wouldn't be unreasonable to presume that anybody the state persecuted was guilty of it. It makes everybody too worried about the consequences of themselves getting involved to get help others. Furthermore, speaking out against the persecution of another citizen would mean questioning authority, and since questioning authority is thoughtcrime anybody who speaks out is logically a bonafide thoughtcriminal, which means persecution would be swift and inevitible. This has been so ingrained and conditioned into the people in just one generation, Winston Smith's generation, that surveillance is completely and utterly unecessary. The cameras are unneeded, expensive and impractical. They round you up for whatever reason, it matters not, because it doesn't matter to the population what truth or justice is, it matters that it isn't happening to them.
Your paragraphs are well written and use the correct colloquial language. very high iq
Hello! I'm quite late to this, but I haven't fully understood how to use the term. Can you put it in a sentence for me, with what Ted Ed said in the very last part? (It's around 4:22 where he starts saying if you're using in x context) Thanks!
👍🏻
Meandering. Political correctness implies a falsehood in its premise. That it is correct when it is the opposite. When in fact it is a form of tyranny. Therfore an example of doublespeak.
Like Alexia and Siri delivering subliminal messages.
Some Orwellian terms
"Qaum ke wasi tar mafad me" (in the nation's best interests > in my interest)
"Save the economy" > save the rich
"War on terrorism" > war on third world
"Free market" > free for the rich market
“Our democracy” > their oligarchy
""Free market" > free for the rich market"" And you think that government intervention will make the market freer for everyone?
Yes, you think if the govt bans slavery, the market becomes less free? Depends on what intervention it is.
“The purest form of democracy is totarianlism”
In conclusion eat the rich comrade
Neologism is real, yes.
Thank you Noah for a absolutely composed video!
Genius.
I live in Iran and this is the most accurate picture of it. 😓
P.S: Waiting for one of their mercenaries to reply to this comment, call me a liar, and bombard me with insults. 🙃
I'm sorry my friend.
Courage, friend.
they will bombard you then declare publicly that you are a lier. I know it because I come from China.
Respect to you friend for speaking out.
@@blackbird.2920 Sure? Your name doesn't look Chinese
One of the best channel, content, videos and uploads in the entire youtube.
This is actually TERRIFYING especially since it’s already happening
Yep, look at some of the stuff the left wing is pulling out these days.
@Akshay Nuthanapati I would really like some examples of right wing authoritarian agenda being pushed. I could give you examples of the lefts agenda. Creating genders that don't exist and creating over 50 pronouns. Disregarding biological science. Censoring speech under the guise of calling it hate speech. Tearing down statues and getting rid of history. Attempting to rewrite history in historical movies to push their agenda. I can give you more, but I'll stop.
@Akshay Nuthanapati I did give you examples of what the left is doing. Here's another, the mainstream liberal media is also super manipulative. They lie, exaggerate, omit information, just to push their agenda. How's what I'm saying regressive?? Protecting free speech is regressive, acknowledgement of science, an honest and unbiased media report. You never gave me an example of how the right is restricting freedoms and control people.
@Akshay Nuthanapati His examples were strawmen. Ex. "tearing down statues and getting rid of history", as if history is tied to a block of stone or bronze. These people are not capable of honest-argument so there kind of is no point. Maybe somebody will read this (the comment string) as an example of logical fallacies and learn something and give it some meaning.
@Akshay Nuthanapati the only thing that is regressive are the people who call themselves Progressive it's really ironic and sad at the same time
More and more evidence suggests that our vocabulary truly does influence our thoughts. There are small cultures where people may not have a descriptive word for certain phrases, which causes them not to be able to understand certain types of concepts. For example, I think there was a tribe that didn't have words for numbers past four, so it was very difficult for them to understand how to count groups of sticks more than 5 or so.
1984 by Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley should be required reading by everyone.
+J0NES250 that would be more for history
It is mostly in many high schools.
Why do u think they took history out of school? In order to keep the next generation blind to the coming of the next Hilter, Stalin, Mussolini or Lenin.
@@mrnarason where are you fron
If these books were required to be read in school teachers would lie to you about their true meanings 100%
best animation on teded
english before orwellian :
"angst, anger, dissapointment, depression, feeling of unjust"
english after orwellian :
"sigma male grindset"
"first they take the words then they take the meaning" - George Orwell, 1984
So many people use Owellian as you use the word fascism. About everything they dislike.
Referencing Orwell is the new Fedora.
Its funny that Orwell has an essay about the word fascism and how it lost its meaning published in the 40s
@@ponkan95 Most people today have no idea what the term fascism even means beyond what they were told in the government schools or read in the approved text books.
That usage of the term "Orwellian" is utterly ironic! If "Orwellian" means "misleading words used to promote or discredit a cause", then some people seem to make Orwellian an example of itself! Exactly as the TED-ED video warns!
@@ponkan95 True! Orwell did write about how "fascist" has become rather meaningless, or as his readers would later call it, Orwellian. Orwell said in a 1944 essay:
"It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else... the people who recklessly fling the word ‘Fascist’ in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By ‘Fascism’ they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathizers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come." - George Orwell, _What_ _is_ _Fascism?,_ 1944
And that is him talking in 1944, when World War II was still ongoing and fascism was still a problem! 75 years later, not only is Orwell's essay very true, but it is even _more_ true, for fascism is now irrelevant in modern-day politics, in which fascist parties are now very small and not very influential... when they are even legal! Yet, despite fascism losing it's influence long ago, politicians still fling the word at one another, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, from the European Union to the People's Republic of China. We can conclude that as a word, "fascism" only usually means "Italian/German nationalist dictatorship" in a historical context, and except for "relatively small" fascist parties, is merely Orwellian in a modern political usage.
Orwellian in 1944!: www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/efasc
one of the top videos in Ted is this one.
It’s when TED tells you what to groupthink & what newspeak to regurgitate.
Watching this just gives me that creeping feeling that we already live in an Orwellian society, and have been for awhile. Hm.
crazycat690 that’s because we are.
@@liaakouros7159 damn
Orwellianism is escalating during this event 201 plandemic in live exercise...
Canada is definitely turning into an Orwellian nightmare.
Et tu, Brute?
khm, even you, Canadians?
We in authoritarian world are hoping that at least you have built a democracy! What have you done? Have you pissed your freedom?
(or it's just a bad joke)
Why is this the aspect of his book that gets focused on? I was really intesrested in the brainwashing and mind control and getting him to turn against her.
This is the main form of brainwashing and mind control in the book. The government resorted to the torture and the one-on-one brainwashing sessions after the first method didn't work on Winston.
If you just look from Winston's perspective, it seems like most of the people in the society don't really believe the things the government says. It might only be true for the older ones like him that remember a time before fascism. But the government is raising a generation of people that literally cannot argue against it.
The story is about two methods of controlling speech: making them too afraid to speak, and taking away people's ability to understand or express different opinions.
fireincarnation2 As i remember it was just the threat of getting his face eaten by rats that made him give in
That was just at the very end. What was more pressing was how most of the public was controlled through fear and the district ion of language that made it near impossible to have their own thoughts and opinions. Winston was too smart for that and knew too much. That's why in the end they had to use other methods...as in the torture with the rats. For the small amount of people in 1984 that actually run to government to stay in power they have the control the masses...and they can't individually torture everyone for multiple reasons. So they control them through language instead.
*destruction of language
If you've ever had a thought but couldn't find the words to say it, and given up, that's what it's like.
I moved to a foreign country once and didn't know the language. Being forced to stick to the limited vocabulary I had at my disposal felt very lonely. It really limited the expression of my thoughts and opinions.
I love 1984 and my favourite part is the appendix of the book which focuses entirely on newspeak
yeah that part is so interesting and somehow frightening
Happening in the Philippines right now. Facts are disregarded, words are changing its meaning. The word UNITY, the word MACHIAVELLIAN. The amount of historical revisionism and lack of critical thought by the citizens. Parents are turning against their children for leaning on the opposition. This is a very dangerous situation I want to migrate to another country.
Happened here to in Indonesia
@@NewLightning1 you know every country is going through the same situation, the entire world itself is a trap, we can't escape until we are alive
I think that everyone who writes in comment threads should watch this. While I am not a fan of "grammar Nazis", I have often tried to explain to people with obviously atrocious language skills that that trait not only tends to lower their credibility to others, but also can inhibit their own ability to think clearly.
There is a book by Robert A. Heinlein in which the premise is that a small group of people who were significantly more intelligent than average had separated themselves genetically from the rest of humanity in order to ensure that the genes for this high intelligence were not diluted because they feared that normal human intelligence was not up to the task of running a world with the dangers of modern technology.
However, they recruited people who did not know they had this mutation and simply thought of themselves as smarter than average people. But the first thing they did with a new recruit was to teach them a new, more efficient, more logical language as the key to unlocking the potential of their minds. I suspect this may have been inspired by Orwell.
Critical thinking is done with symbols, which may be why theoretical physicists can comprehend things that I can barely begin to grasp, because they use the "language" of math, which is much better for describing reality than English.
But I wish more people understood that poor language is not just a sign of poor thinking, but often a causal factor.
+Pat Doyle Heinlein was a prev. His books had everyone sleeping with everyone, regardless of relation. Disgusting.
*****
Some did, some didn't. He wasn't a Puritan with a stick up his ass.
It is happening in Hong Kong over the controversy of "Extradition Law"... thanks for the video which gives me a starting point to think deeper about the dispute and other life and society aspects.
The script is so well written
The media's way if dealing with the Palestinians got me thinking of George Orwell and 1984. RIP
It would have been nice to see a longer video comparing Orwell's thinking to Huxley's regarding social control, but nice job regardless. :)
Such an amazing video! The narration, the animation, the clarity with which the idea was presented...
Goverments,corporations,religions and ideologies.They all use this methods.
As well as the opposite end of the spectrum, often. For the third one, that is
the poor and disenfranchised control us all - yes of course
OTL Cellartapes Don't underestimate the power of rallying people, though.
You know who is at the center of every one of those things? People.
Logan Cox blown = mind
Absolutely blown away by the depth of Orwell's thoughts. Will watch this again.
Excellent video. I always knew Orwellian had to mean more than simple authoritarianism, but I never knew what. Thank you!
lovecraftian animations to describe orwellian notions. Perfect!
Both language and authoritarian surveillance were important aspects of Orwell's book. You can't pick and choose what kind of message you wanted him to have.
Not really. The control of language and thought is a CRITICAL theme in 1984. The authoritarianism and surveillance state are presented more as stopgap solutions to the issue of rebellion until the true solution, the eradication of language, can be achieved. Destroying the power of language to create power is the primary goal of the party in the book. While the party can be described as authoritarian, what makes it unique to 1984 is its focus on language. Therefore, saying something authoritarian is Orwellian is not quite precise. Orwellian specifically implies a control of language.
I really appreciate the talent of TedEd's animators and Addison Anderson's voice is just so easy on the ears.
Big Ups to them. Easily my favorite channel
They're literally banning books right now in the US...
We know who is behind that, the state of Florida has been trying to for decades (the banned Farenheight 451 in the 70/80s ironically/intentionally)
I think watching a Ted ed every morning while I'm on the can, is the most productive thing I do all day.
🤣 What the.. Lol
Amazing book! Highly recommended
The individuals who created the artwork to accompany this video deserve an award.
"Orwell urged us to protect our language, because ultimately our ability to think and communicate clearly is what stands between us and a world where war is peace and freedom is slavery." Well said.
The most effective way of protecting "small" languages from being displaced by "big" ones is by spreading Esperanto
Turkey was and is an Orwellian country. In 1928 the government changed the official alphabet that all of the Turkish people use and Ottoman citizens used in the past. This happened because the regime didn't want its people to know about their history. All of the people who knew reading and writing at the time were illiterated in one night. Because the alphabet was complately different. Public education and all other official writings should be in new alphabet. And to keep people learning more about their history and tides with their ancestors they established an institution called TDK which is short for Turkish Language Institution. This institute made new word for old words to complately erase historical bonds on language. You can look for all the words in Turkish that changed by this institution by force, here:
www.turkalemiyiz.com/asil/sozluk.asp?id=1
Some of the old words are forgotten in the time but some of them remained because the new alternatives were really stupid. For exapmle: adıl is the made up word for zamir which mean pronoun in English.
And also kamal ataturk is like the big brother in 1984 because in all state institutes must have his portrait hanged in every room, and also in some private institutions. He is always watching everyone like big brother.
Turkeyin the primary school education and high school education students spout The Turkish Nationalist Anthem every week and also they spout the oath march in everyday. At the same time every class has an Ataturk portrait and Turkish flag. According to Billing (1995), flags are not the only symbols of modern statehood. Coins and bank notes typically bear national emblems which remain unnoticed in daily financial transactions. So in the routine business of flagging is not a conscious activity (Billing, 1995, p. 41). These routine activities are done in order to strengthen the people’s idea and sense of nationalism. So the routine activities like marches, pictures on money or the flags are not conscious activity, people cannot realize them.
People learn the history in just one perspective; it is Ataturk’s point of view. Turkish history books also have portrait of Ataturk on the frontispiece. For example, existing Kurdish ethnic is rejected by this perspective and this doctrine is taught in the schools. When the students start the primary school, they learn there is no Kurt in the book, in the history and it causes big shock and trauma in terms of Kurdish students. This situation causes the big discrimination between the race and it causes also starting an ideological battlefield between Kurdish and Turkish nationalisms.
Their brains are washed. So if they see a different idea in their family from Big Brother’s doctrine they split on them. In Turkish schools, children write poems to Ataturk and they recite poems in national holidays like republic day. They learn that when The Turkish National Anthem is recited, it is prohibited to move slightly.
Concerning about Turkish history, there are lots of myths; the most popular one is Ergenekon and the other one is that Turks are the grand child of Gokturks. Another example is Ataturk’s Sun Language Theory. The Theory claims that all languages were derived and descended from Turkish language, that is, the primal language is Turkish. Summers and also American Mayas used Turkish language. Ataturk’s theory’s aims that in order to provide strong citizenships’ ties and relations and increase Turkish pride, creates rooted history
You can also read this related article:
www.danielpipes.org/comments/176499
dostum sana çoğu konuda katıllıyorum fakat alfabenin değiştirilmesiyle savunulunan söylem sence de çok komik değil mi? o dönem okuma yazma oranı çok düşüktü zaten ve okuma yazma bilenlerin çoğu da aynı zamanda fransızca falan bildikleri için latin alphabetin farkındaydı
WOW this not just deserves but NEEDS BILLIONS of VIEWS!!! Amazing piece @Noah Tavlin 😱👍
Good thing we have this updated definition of the term... I love you Big Brother...
'Alternative facts' is so Orwellian, I could imagine having read it _in_ 1984.
@@Epic-so3ek yes, just like all the stuff unaware somewhat progressive twitter people say
@@mihailmilev9909 go away bootlicker
@@Epic-so3ek yes! Well said.
Best example out there
@@politicalpolitics7139 your the living version of the animation in this video of the guy wearing red and blue glasses looking at a color wheel lmao.
Incorrect, Orwellian is when the IKEA Employee says I can’t use the display toilets.
Oh the irony that I logged in to comment and was met with a UA-cam landing page essentially shaking me down for personal info to help "secure" my privacy.
Cliff Trainor Oh the irony that you must not have even watched this video because you still don’t understand what “Orwellian” means.
@@bobwilson679 - Oh the irony that your tiny brain doesn't understand what "irony" means.
Cliff Trainor Oh the irony that you had to resort to ad hominem to come up with a comeback to me.
One misnomer people have is the idea of "doublespeak". They are actually referring to the practice of doublethink, holding two simultaneously opposed ideas together as "truth" without irony. The other term that people often confuse is Newspeak, a condensation of words and language intended to limit meaning.
Oh, man. I really need to read this book now!
Such an incredible good video. Long time not seen such quality! Love the animation
Seriously the animation alone is wonderful.
Remember, fellas: Newspeak isn't changing definitions. Definitions are always changed, that's how language works. Newspeak is erasing definitions, and making people say words without thinking about their meanings. Regular language says "here are some new words, and their definitions." Newspeak says "here are the only words, you don't need to know their definitions."
Aha another libtard here
The one criticism Id like to make is that "authoritarianism" does not require a dictator or a totalitarian government as I feel this video is trying to convey. It simply requires a pretty strong government. For example, America, despite being a democracy, could be considered "authoritarian". Various groups of its government are either self perpetuating nightmares or have vast control/sway over their own actions (think CIA and MKUltra, the Snowden stuff, and so on).
"But if they were authoritarian they wouldnt let you talk about it" is potentially a potential counterpoint to what I am saying (even if kinda strawmanned on my end). If theres one thing wrong about the common perception of authoritarianism is that anyone saying "things that arent normal" would have the government bust down their doors. Why would say, the US feds care about what I say online or even do in person? Nothing I ever say or do will ever meaningfully impact things, why waste resources on anything other than say direct threats or major figures? Besides they could already see what I say and think, just gotta look in youtube lol.
The only thing Id say the US govt (or say, the USSR or other such places) really fear is things getting out of control.
Fantastic animation.
1:48 ‘Ministry of truth’
This reminds me of how in the West we no longer have ‘Ministries of War’ or ‘War sectaries’, but rather ‘Ministry of defence’ and ‘Defence sectaries’.
No country spends money on war anymore, rather defence.
Invasion is now called intervention or peace keeping
Well, in Finland we _had_ to change it as per the conditions of our surrender to the USSR.
I've discovered that almost every term/phase in politics gets twisted and/or misused constantly, and that the terms themselves tend to have different meanings depending on the speaker, the time it's said in and how they feel about something rendering the words almost meaningless.
As a result I find when I see a phase I must read up on the whole thing to check what it's really talking about instead of what the terms used may imply.
i want to know, do you have some examples? right now not much crosses my mind :0
"Language is the currency of politics, forming the basis of society from the most common everyday interactions to the highest ideals."
THERE. ARE. FOUR. LIGHTS.
*_Y O U A R E S I X Y E A R S O L D_*
Basically, George Orwell warned us about cancel culture.
Who said that Orwellian should only mean manipulation of language? Wikidictionary defines Orwellian as political methods like misleading terminology, propaganda, censorship, totalitarianism, surveillance and repression.
TEDの動画はいろいろ見て来たけど、ここまで徹底的に公正な内容の人は初めてだな
noooo, orwellian is when I get banned from twitter
Lmao this should be top comment
@@donkeykong6669 why are you answering in french to a comment in english under a video in english? To make things worse you are also saying not getting a plattform for spreading misinformation is in any way similar to getting murdered for thinking true things
@@donkeykong6669 use a translator. I don't define misinformation ideological people got banned for saying the election was rigged and inciting people to storm the capitol it's a fact that the election wasn't rigged
@@donkeykong6669 if you spread misinformation and incite a coup attempt on a private platform the platform has the right to ban you.
@@donkeykong6669 you could say that. It would be wrong tho. If it was correct and there was a BLM Twitter account Twitter should ban trump and BLM
Thank you for this video, i always thought surveillance was one of the least important subjects in 1984, everything else is what matters, yet people always bring that thing up like Eric Cartman. And by the way, it was weird reading the comments, where everyone was like ''PC is orwellian''. I hate it when people whines about the ''whitewashing'' in Ghost in the Shell and things like that, but i think they are far from being orwellian.
Actually, it's kinda ironic now that i think about it, but calling them orwellian isn't something orwelian on itself? You can get called ''racist'' or ''SJW'' for the silliest things, and those words, or separating people in groups like that and calling them things like ''fascist'' or ''orwellian'' doesn't solve any problem, it distractes us from the important things and ultimately, it's only useful to place every person into one side or another in a discussion, and i think that's the biggest problem nowadays: everything is black and white.
I might be wrong, but i think a lot of people in the comments where missing the point.
You have mistaken "orwellian" for "ignorant and polarized". Orwellian applies to when someone intentionally creates such a situation. If someone kept forcing an equivalence or a false dichotomy in the hopes that it would affect the way others thought about the subject, that's orwellian. In the case of PC culture, it's just a bunch of privileged kids who truly think they are not part of a privileged group, and that they are against an imagined oligarchy defined by gender and race(and of course there's problems with social justice in the US in particular, but in quite a different way). It's ignorance, it's hypocrisy, it's group think, but orwellian it's not.
"Orwellian" would apply more to phrases like "job creators" or others that are created specifically to steer sentiment, rather than provide an effective label. The list in our country right now is enormous, and spans the entire political spectrum, as well as being completely pervasive throughout commercial advertising.
(I took a few classes in college where we talked about the deliberate choices of words, background colors, screen layout, and other manipulation tricks. Case in point: old clocks are set to 10:10 on purpose, so that both hands aim upward, making it look like the clock is smiling. Yes, really.)
Gastón Psotka Schendel I think calling something Orwellian is an example of a _demarcative_ statement, but not Orwellian in its entirety. Being so, I don't think the *peons* are Orwellian *per se*, but rather are an *_example_* of Orwelliniasm since they are just little unrefined subunits of a greater unit(say something like the subunits of a Dyson Swarm) WHICH itself too is stupidly(though not surprisingly, since it's just an aggregation of the collective) subject to Orwellian Deception. _DENG DENG DENG_!
Having said such! I don't think it's too inaccurate to call them *_Decepticons Of Orwellian Origins_* since they serve the greater *Deceptor Of Orwellian Origins*, the handpicked of the *Tsar Of Orwell*, speck of power of _The Supreme Being_. Something like an _Aeon_(the *TOO* is I mean, not _TSB_)
Red Triangle. Here is where you are wrong. There are active political bodies and groups who are actively promoting this kind of behaviour. If it was just a hipster thing it wouldnt have been a problem. But it's actively being financed and promoted by billionaires like George Soros and the bilderberg group and being enforced in the European Union.
I've often said that Social Media is one of the most harmful weapons society will have ever created. It removes people from their neighborhoods and allows them to be thrust into a bubble of their own creation. Where they don't have to be challenged. Where they don't have to live a life of complexity or compromise. They live a life of instant gratification and approval in their social media bubble.
They must be right. Of course they are. They have tons of people who agree with them. They are speaking the truth that everyone must truly think in their hearts. Again, they have to. I mean, we found thousands of people who believe the same thing as me.
People throw out labels of their (or their social media bubble) own creation to sum up and to evoke responses and ideas in those they have a kinship with, and those they mean to demean. I don't need to think about who you are. You've triggered my negative/positive definition of you. That's all I need to know of you. I can write you off/embrace you as my new society sees fit.
To say "This video is taking about ____ group in a nutshell" is tantamount to saying up and saying "I fully agree with the division of humankind and I will do everything I see fit to make sure it happens". Not that many people get that. These people aren't even fixing the problem that they claim blank group is creating. In fact, they are drawing more lines in the sand.
... But they'll always look across at blank group and hate them for causing all these problems, never once thinking they are a part of any problem. They can't be. They are apart of the enlightened, the solution!
That's what their facebook groups told them, anyway.
Wow! This made sense. I've read the book and made my inferences, but this actually fine-tuned what I had in my mind.
Thank you Ted-ed, from the bottom of my heart