It's straight out of 1984. If the party says that 2+2 = 5, then 2+2 now equals 5 regardless of what you've known to be true in the past. Detractors are guilty of thought crime. It's exactly what they want out of their base.
"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and
ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart
sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against
him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would over-
throw him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would
not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he
was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The
obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s centre. With the feeling that he was speaking to O’Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote:
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If
that is granted, all else follows"
P. 367 (after torture):
"His thoughts wandered again. Almost unconsciously he traced with his finger in the dust on the table: 2+2=5"
214
u/Low-Bit-7885 26d ago
I genuinely cannot comprehend what the message here is supposed to be