“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
-George Orwell, 1984
There are some people who would read this quote and think: how frightening an existence this would be.
Then there are others who would think: thanks for the tips!
I know at this point in time it has become a cliche to describe the world as “Orwellian.” But there are some cases in which there is no better comparison - and what has happened in recent weeks is one such Orwellian instance.
In case you haven’t heard, the definition of “recession” (conveniently enough) has been tampered with.
And yes, yes. I know. We’re taught in, like, the 5th grade that Wikipedia is not a credible source for things because most pages are accessible to the public for editing and updating. At least, that’s how I remember it operating when I was about 13 years old and my brother and I tried it out for ourselves, finding a small bit of success in altering the Wiki page for a word I no longer remember.
So, yeah. Maybe it’s just another brother-sister duo out there trying to wreak havoc on the word “recession” for the LOLs. I’m willing to entertain that idea.
But, I am curious: why this word, why so many edits, and why now?
Surely, the menacing teens could have ventured onto Ron DeSantis’ Wiki page and edited his bio to inform readers of his past obsession with gay orgies.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, this is what we got:
I understand that this may seem inconsequential to most people. Why does any of this matter anyways?
Because the truth matters. That’s why.
Because you wouldn’t believe it if your spouse beat you to a pulp and excused himself by saying: I’m not abusing you, this is called “making love.”
Because we can’t just have one set of rules and standards to understand the world with, operate by and hold people accountable to, only for those rules and standards to change at the whim of tyrants whom the rules and standards negatively effect.
I’m overreacting, you say?
Well, here’s the consequence of changing definitions of words:
It allows for the government to fuck with our heads. And, if you’ve read enough of my opinions, you know that this pattern of fuckery gets deep under my skin.
Strangely enough, this isn’t even the half of it. In order to provide you the fullest grasp on the truly sinister nature of all of this, you’ll have to join me on a little journey through time.
Let me begin by asking: has anyone else Googled something and found a strange message? It’ll say, “It looks like these results are changing quickly. If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources.”
Please - by all means - comment below. Tell me there was some innocuous search topic that this message showed up for. Show me screenshots and receipts. As much as I strive to be right, I would love to be proven wrong or crazy here.
Seriously.
Because the first time I’d seen this message appear, I felt the most overwhelming sense of terror. It was at the beginning of 2022 right after Joe Rogan had Dr. Robert Malone on his show. At one point, Malone discussed a concept called “mass formation psychosis” while describing what he saw as the explanation for a lot of the COVID hysteria. Out of curiosity, I typed the term into Google and here’s a screenshot of the search result I received:
Flash forward a few months and I saw that someone else had experienced this as well, this time for a very curious topic:
Finally, here’s another time this message showed up just last week and it’s relevant to the topic at hand:
Again, I’m happy to be proven wrong here. I’m happy to be told that I’m being a psycho conspiracy theorist. It would make my day.
But I’ve never come across this message from Google before - and I’ve used the internet rather religiously for the past 15 or so years. I’ve even Googled “new” things:
I once leased a 2018 car in 2017. I was able to learn about it online with no issue.
I have (regrettably) been interested in celebrity hype. I was able to learn the names of various celebrities’ newborn children with no issue.
I used to be quite passionate about films. I was able to learn all about brand new films - even ones in pre-production - with no issue.
I’ve also searched and quickly learned about *literal* brand new tour dates and prices (because all concert-goers know that you have to be on top of watching tickets if you want a chance to see a popular artist) and never had an issue.
So, I just find Google’s justification for this message - that the topic is “new” - to be a bunch of bull shit.
I know that the concept of mass formation psychosis is not “new” because some videos on my YouTube feed had the phrase in their titles months before the Malone episode aired.
And we all know that recession is not a “new” fucking concept either. Hell, most of us lived through one just over a decade ago.
I’ll be fair and admit that, yes, the specific search term “Hunter Biden’s iCloud” was completely unique before it went totally viral. But come on. We live in the goddamn golden age for technology. We know what happens when there are genuinely zero results for a topic: you’d see a “no search results” message with suggestions for crafting a better search. Even that’s a little old school. Now, there’s so much information online and more people using SEO tactics that you’d at least get something. Hits just for “Hunter Biden,” or maybe even something to do with his 2020 laptop scandal.
To me, all of this ties back into the Orwell quote: “Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
And, yes, I know this may seem confusing or like a weak position to take. After all, Google and Wikipedia aren’t political parties. So, this probably seems like a stretch to some people.
But you tell me which of these scenarios makes more sense:
Scenario #1:
There’s some rogue Wikipedia and Google employees that are each - coincidentally - on respective solo crusades to curate search results because they love the authoritarian state so much and never want anything close to a Trump presidency to happen ever again. After all, if there is anything bad in the news about Biden, then voters might want to trade him in for Trump or someone like him. And these employees simply can’t have that, so they’re scrubbing the internet of anything even remotely indicative of the Bidens’ complicity in the decline of America.
Scenario #2:
Big Tech is in bed with the government and vice versa, thus making the “Party” some sort of technology-backed dictatorship.
Scenario #1 isn’t a bad assumption, but there is one major hole in it: if we are to accept that the appearance of this sort of information tampering was the work of a crooked employee, then how do we explain the reappearance of these instances? If Wikipedia and Google disavowed this sort of behavior from its employees, then why haven’t they terminated the parties responsible? If Wikipedia and Google didn’t approve of this, then where’s their PR reps’ explanations for and condemnations of this? And, I’m sorry, but we’re talking about fucking Wikipedia and Google for Christ’s sake. There’s no claiming ignorance of any of this - though that would be the ironic moment of the goddamn century.
So, I’m left to believe Scenario #2. And you know what? I really don’t want to. Because out of all of the things I’ve discussed on Substack so far, this is the most insidious to me.
Think about it.
We’ve been conditioned in our state-run schools to “Google” things. Got an essay to write? Use Google to find sources - just make sure they’re credible. Think the New York Times, NPR, BBC, anything with .gov is your best bet, your teacher tells you. It’s all so convenient. We’ve essentially been primed for mass-scale manipulation for approximately the most impressionable 12 years of our lives.
Moreover, our beliefs, morals, and values - basically all of the things that lead us to make good choices and be good people - are formed, in part, by the information that we consume.
It’s easy for an individual to live their life feeling fearful and confused if their government agencies and information sources are corrupted and malicious. How is anyone supposed to claim they “know” anything if the information they’re told has a political slant, contradicts a former known thing, or is just outright wrong?
And I really don’t see this getting any better. A fear that I’ve had for a long time now is that this sort of tactic isn’t fooling as many people as it would take to truly manipulate an entire population as it currently stands. HOWEVER, if shit like this just creeps in a little at a time, all the people who are thankfully speaking up today will die off - and their resistance with them. These people - the “elites,” the “illuminati,” the folks who view us as their playthings, whatever name you wish to call them - are playing the long game.
The inevitable oppression and suffering that this will all eventually culminate into will be felt not by us or our children. It will be felt by our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
And the worst part? They won’t even know that they are oppressed.
After all, citizens of a dystopian society know the saying well:
“Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
-George Orwell, 1984
The Long Game: How Dystopian Nightmares are Born