Alternative facts
"Alternative facts" is part of the "word games" or Double Speak used by the Establishment and the Mainstream Media, in their efforts via Fake News lists" and other Thought Police-style tactics to combat the growth of Alternative News sites.[1]The phrase went viral after Kellyanne Conway, special adviser to President Donald Trump, and Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” discussed the size of the crowds at Trump’s inauguration on 20 January. So-called crowd scientists said the crowds were far smaller than Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, but the White House disagreed. "Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts", Conway said.
The social media frenzy, with the hashtag #AlternativeFacts compared the remark to Double Speak and had the added distinction of moving sales of George Orwell's dystopian novel ''1984'' to the top 3 of Amazon's bestsellers list.
Double Speak
In 1949, George Orwell wrote the novel 1984, which portrays a totalitarian state that limited freedom of thought by creating "Double Speak". The political purpose of of "Double Speak" was to reduce the English language to simple concepts that reinforced the totalitarian dominance of the State. Moreover, words with negative meanings were removed, such that "bad" became "ungood".
Interestingly, the Main Stream Media under the previous administration seemed all too willing to play word games and viewed people who crossed the border willingly as Undocumented Immigrants instead of Illegal Aliens. There have also been claims that the the powers that be under US President Obama changed the name from Global Warming to Climate Change in the light of new evidence.
Ministry of Truth
Mark Zuckerberg, and people in positions of power at social media companies like Twitter’s Ministry of Truth-type Trust & Safety Council[2], are sympathetic to the Main Stream Media that they are promoting Liberal views.
According to an EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy spokeswoman, the European Union's East Stratcom Task Force set up in September 2015 will be getting additional employees in 2017 in order to counter Fake News and Russian interference in new elections in France and Germany. Critics have theirs doubts about how effective the task force might be - not least because many people are likely to see it as a Orwellian Ministry of Truth for the EU.
