“Hard-working families” and why we should be worried by Newspeak

Sometimes it is a disservice to describe George Orwell’s seminal novel Nineteen Eighty-Four as dystopian.

Some of the novel’s best commentary is on spectres that existed in 1940s society, and continue to exist now. First among these is Newspeak, which was really born in Orwell’s polemical exploration of how the English language is subtly used for political ends years before.

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