It was in his classic dystopian novel "1984" that George Orwell first coined the term "doublethink" to describe the process of indoctrination used by a totalitarian state to control its citizens.
Within the context of the novel, the superstate of Oceania is ruled by an all-powerful organization known as The Party, which presents itself as both infallible and omniscient, thereby forcing citizens to engage in "doublethink" in order to reconcile the contradictions that inevitably arise whenever real world events demonstrate that The Party is not, in fact, infallible and omniscient.
As Orwell explained the concept, "doublethink" is the ability "to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them" and "to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again."
While Orwell's nightmarish regime has not yet actually come to fruition, the concept of "doublethink" is very real and its practice was on full display during a recent program hosted by Hitler-loving racist,
misogynistic, antisemitic, homophobic, Christian nationalist, fascist, white nationalist Nick Fuentes,
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