“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.” ― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, 1985 !BackTo1985@lemm.ee

"Are you smarter than a 3rd grade school student?" .... Masturbatory Egoism of social media simulacra. Reactionary comment messages on social systems that boil down to: "I am smarter than Donald Trump", "I am smarter than Elon Musk", "I am smarter than Russia"

Masturbatory Egoism

Twitter-length Bluesky-length reaction comments and meme images that boil down in meaning to :

1. "I am smarter than Donald Trump" in endless variations. It is not an accomplishment to measure against a low bar.

2. "Elon Musk so dumb and stupid, I am smarter with my one-line comment"

3. "Alcoholic Fox News Host Running the Pentagon, I'm so much smarter than a Rupert Murdoch meme influencer"

4. "MAGA so dumb, we so smart, I so smart, USA so smart, Russia so dumb" egoism chanting, upvoting, likes, ReTweeting, etc.

5. React-commenting to clickbait titles, rage-bait comments, brain-rot dumb shit, without reading the articles, fact-checking, discussing context from beyond the most recent 24 hours of meme society, etc. Anti-citation, anti-facts, anti-reality (in favor of meme-speak culture), anti-references, against quotes on information systems and against theories of human brain behavior of media ecology. Anti-evidence

Egomania / egoism that started in March 2013 on social media platforms across the world wide web. The "Putin Media Invasion" of western / NATO media systems, penetrating the hearts and minds of the audience / social media consumers / society.

...

"a central part of a new system of political control. And to understand how this is happening, you have to look to Russia, to a man called Vladislav Surkov, who is a hero of our time. Surkov is one of President Putin's advisers, and has helped him maintain his power for 15 years [as of 2014], but he has done it in a very new way. He came originally from the avant-garde art world, and those who have studied his career, say that what Surkov has done, is to import ideas from conceptual art into the very heart of politics. His aim is to undermine peoples' perceptions of the world, so they never know what is really happening. Surkov turned Russian politics into a bewildering, constantly changing piece of theater." - BBC, Adam Curtis, year 2014

"Are you smarter than a 3rd grade school student?"

The 5,000 Kremlin simulacra patterns deployed on Reddit and Twitter in March 2013 induce egomania, self-centered thinking, only seeing trees, and not the forest perspective. Mocking, name-calling, insulting the other 4,999 meme pattern followers is a common symptom of being inside the 5,000 meme simulacra patterns. It has international multipaltform appeal to audiences, and Kremlin Reality Twitter / Reality Reddit producers have franchised these comment patterns and their deployment timing. Similar to commercial television: "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? is a game show franchise that was co-created and produced by Mark Burnett, Barry Poznick and John Stevens. Adult contestants answer questions, as if they came from an elementary grade school quiz. The original American version debuted on the Fox Broadcasting network on February 27, 2007, with host Jeff Foxworthy, airing on Fox until 2009, as a syndicated TV series, between 2009 and 2011, and then revived on Fox in 2015, and again on Nickelodeon in 2019, with new host, John Cena. The Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? format, has since been replicated in several other countries, some versions under the same title, and some under modified ones."