NCF Research Officer Odessa Grove draws a comparison to the imagined world of George Orwell´s 1984 and today´s situation:

Everyone wants Orwell on their side. That’s exactly the problem

Conservatives point to censorship and political correctness. Progressives point to disinformation and attacks on democratic institutions. Everyone claims Orwell is on their side.

The irony is that George Orwell would probably be horrified by all of them.

We are not living in 1984. There is no Ministry of Truth, no Thought Police knocking on our doors, and no giant portrait of Big Brother hanging in every town square, but Orwell’s novel was never meant to be a prediction. It was a warning, and some of the behaviours he warned about are becoming increasingly visible in modern politics.

When Truth Becomes Political

One of Orwell’s most powerful ideas was that controlling information is a form of power.

In 1984, the Party rewrites history whenever it becomes inconvenient. Citizens are expected to accept the new version of events without question. While modern democracies are far removed from Orwell’s totalitarian state, parallels can still be found in contemporary politics.

President Donald Trump frequently dismissed unfavourable reporting as “fake news”, encouraging supporters to question established media outlets whenever coverage challenged his narrative.

This weakened trust in independent journalism and blurred the distinction between fact and opinion. Trust in news remains below 50% in many countries, highlighting growing public scepticism towards traditional sources of information.

Yet this tendency is not unique to President Trump. Governments across the world attempt to shape public narratives. Russia has been restricting independent reporting, while China tightly controls politically sensitive information online. Orwell’s warning was never about a single leader. It was about the temptation for power to place political narratives above objective reality.

Words as Weapons

Another striking parallel can be found in Orwell’s concept of Newspeak.

In the novel, language is simplified to limit independent thought. Today, nobody is rewriting dictionaries, but politics increasingly revolves around slogans rather than debate.

• “Make America Great Again.”
• “Take Back Control.”
• “Defund the Police.”
• “Stop the Boats.”

Regardless of political affiliation, these slogans reduce complex issues to simple, emotionally powerful messages. Orwell understood that language shapes how people think. The simpler the language, the easier it becomes to divide the world into heroes and villains.

Big Brother Has a Smartphone

Perhaps the most surprising comparison lies in surveillance.

Orwell imagined citizens being watched through government telescreens. Today’s reality is different, but equally striking. Governments possess unprecedented surveillance capabilities, while technology companies collect enormous amounts of personal data through smartphones, apps, and social media platforms.

The difference is that Orwell’s citizens had no choice. We often surrender our information willingly.

The Real Orwellian Threat: Tribal Politics

Yet the strongest parallel between 1984 and modern politics is neither propaganda nor surveillance. It is polarisation.

In Orwell’s world, loyalty to the Party matters more than truth. Increasingly, modern politics appears to reward similar behaviour. Political opponents are portrayed not simply as wrong, but as dangerous, dishonest, or fundamentally illegitimate. Across the political spectrum, loyalty to a tribe can sometimes outweigh loyalty to evidence.

Western democracies have experienced rising levels of political polarisation, with many voters expressing the stronger negative views of opposing political groups than at any point in recent decades.

This is where Orwell’s warning remains most relevant.

The danger was never that one politician would become Big Brother. The danger was that societies would become so divided and so attached to competing versions of reality that truth itself would become secondary.

Are We Closer to Orwell Than We’d Like to Admit?

Seventy-seven years after 1984 was published, the world looks very different from the one Orwell imagined. Yet his central question remains remarkably modern:

What happens to democracy when people stop agreeing on what is true?