I reviewed the audio adaptation with a lot more detail, but this read through I read the book and annotated, and I want to talk about Newspeak. The way the Ministry of Truth destroys the past, and rewrites information is horrific, but so very applicable to now. Which makes it fucking worse. Book bans and book burnings, the FL university that threw away hundreds of books on gender studies and unused books from the school library, and instead of donating or giving them away, the books were thrown out. Students and organizations were turned away from collecting those books. The destruction of knowledge.

Newspeak/Ministry of Truth, is that very thing, pulling apart knowledge, reducing language, taking away access to knowledge. Making people stupider is how you have control. Making complex thoughts impossible, if they can't have the language to put it to words, they can't understand autonomy, autonomous thought. Knowledge is powerful, and when you take that away, you have more control over people. It's horrifying.