1984: 'Doublethink' Explained

Ever wondered what is meant by 'Doublethink' in George Orwell's '1984'?
In this short video, Dr Aidan explores the concept of 'Doublethink' in 1984, and explains how and why it is used by The Party.
Have any video requests? Post them in the comments.

[@dhararry7929]

Cognitive Dissonance + Gaslighting = Doublethink

[@way6426327]

Doublethink - cognitive dissonance = Gaslighting

[@denvan3143]

I grew up as a liberal, but life experience turned me into a conservative. You have only to listen to a liberal for five minutes to discover double think. When you repeat back to them two statements, they have made that are mutually contradictory. They become flummoxed. Cognitive dissonance. They believe two different things and are trying to figure out which one is true, which one is false.

[@ChemicalXII]

"Facts. George Orwell's 1984 is essentially leftism in a nutshell: 'What is a woman?'. Forced Lockdowns. Forced vaccines. 15 Minute Cities. Censorship/’Cancelled'. Trust The 'Experts'. Questioning Is Ridiculed. Destroy The Nuclear Family.".

[@thomasmoore5720]

Gaslighting is itself a doublethink type phrase. Society got us to say "gaslighting!" whenever someone disagrees with us but provides evidence to back up their claim. That's what the SJW's do all the time haha.

[@RooftopKoreansMusic]

no

[@denvan3143]

The novel _1984_ what is a reading assignment my freshman year of high school. The experience was depressing as that was my daily experience in my home. My father was (I now realize) a narcissist, and he attempted to exercise mind control over his three sons, I being the youngest. We all endured stoically (The gray rock response was reflexive). When I became an adult, married, began a 20 year career and a marriage. My father attempted these mind control tactics on my wife. She had a genius level IQ and was too adept. But on the occasion he tried to bully her. I took him outside and told him he would not do that again, ever. I knew every one of his tactics by hard, new each one as he attempted it, and refuted it soundly. Well, he neither apologized to me or my wife for his hostility. She never repeated it. Because of this early experience, I have a nearly reflexive response to lies. I won’t be dominated by them, I have wrist, death rather than submit to them and endured pain for refuting lies.

[@gurkeeratkaur19]

Thought provoking explanation !

[@DrAidan]

Thank you. I’m very pleased to hear that.

[@geraldtrudeau3223]

That novel, and the two movie versions of it, have haunted me my whole life. And now with each passing day I see the nightmare of ''1984'' coming true. Being forewarned does not always mean you can stop it from happening. I expect that book will be outlawed in the near future, and will be forgotten.

[@EvilDoer839]

I don't think making people forget the book is gonna be something easy to do

[@pedrokastrup9999]

In my country, they recently made a list banning or putting restriction into the selling of some books, no one who advocates for liberty got surprised when we saw 1984 among the books in the list.

[@geraldtrudeau3223]

@@EvilDoer839 It's a lot easier than you think. All you have to do is repress the knowledge of it for one generation, and each succeeding generation will forget it more and more, until it becomes lost knowledge. I've been alive for 77 years and I'm astonished at how many things young people don't know that were common knowledge when I was growing up. Especially in the realm of politics. That's not an accident. That's human programming.

[@yourdad6902]

​@geraldtrudeau3223or it changed and your stuck in the past thinking they still work the same way see ignorance goes both ways old people tend to forget that

[@geraldtrudeau3223]

@@yourdad6902 What changed? I'm not quite following you. I was not taking a slap at the younger generation. I'm sorry if it sounded that way to you. I'm not saying young people are ignorant. Saying we are all very easily manipulated. Too easily!

[@pierangelabarbanti7695]

BRILLIANT VIDEO! Thank you ever so much! 🙏

[@DrAidan]

No problem at all, very glad to hear it was useful.

[@lordjambrek4868]

1984 is a instruction manual and a warning at the same time, depends who is reading.

[@JorgeEFM]

Just like Machiavelli thoughts...

[@Horus-j3f]

1984 is the bible for me. may there be a king that rules over the dead and lifeless one day

[@JubileuPeum]

Great explanation and video. Surprising, good content about 1984 are really rare even being a famous book, and this one i enjoy a lot. Congrats!

[@DrAidan]

That's very nice of you to say! Thank you.

[@chokkan7]

Thank you for this detailed explanation (even though I did not personally need it). It does make it even more apparent than it was previously what a complete opus this book was for Orwell. The man had spent much of his life and career prior to this as a borderline socialist, but after 'Animal Farm' showed that the scales had fallen from his eyes, he threw himself into this work with a passion. It's sobering to realize that what he saw in the '40s showed him the possibility that this was the future of mankind ('...a boot grinding a human face...") when so many simply wished to put the horrors of WWII behind them.

[@SquatterLoki]

In the novel George Orwell describes doublethink as "mental cheating" which to me sounds a lot like self-hypnotising yourself to forget things and dredge it up when the need arrives. I can only theorize why the author didn't just simplify the concept of doublethink as hypnotism (or in some way put me in deeper confusion by stating it is not hypnotism). The book perhaps was years in the making before it was published in 1949. At the time, crude mental treatment such as lobotomy was still a widespread practise in the medical field before it started to fall out of favor at the 1950s with the introduction of psychotheraphy medications. And psychology study only begun in earnest at 1954. Hypnotism perhaps was regarded as a circus trick in his time. Or perhaps didn't have a proper word or detailed description for the practise.

[@SquatterLoki]

@konnichiwa 💞 I'm at the last chapter now. It's unsettling just how total the government controls the mind of an individual. The only way I think a major change can happen is when a solar flare hits and knocking out every tele-screen and electrical devices, suddenly and instantly remove INSOC's control on their populace.

[@AlexVasquezICHNFM]

very excellent

[@DrAidan]

Thank you for watching. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@balrajmomi9782]

Great explanation!

[@DrAidan]

Thank you. I’m very pleased to hear that you found it useful and thanks for letting me know.

[@martinneumeyer9282]

You should also read 'Prey World' by Alexander Merow. It is more connected to our present time

[@The8224sm]

"Can a man with a beard tell a bare-faced lie" is a classic case of Doublethink; it's neither true nor false, neither right nor wrong. A classic case of a razor-sharp conundrum. “Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.” ― George Orwell, 1984

[@nnkk7742]

Too real, I was expecting this to be theoretical.

[@jrlove1815]

Seeing a Kamala Harris ad, right before an explanation of the definition of Orwell's doublethink is incredible. #BorderCzar

[@stevenchampion8137]

Bravo, I fully enjoyed this but have never ever watched it.

[@DrAidan]

Thank you - I'm very pleased to hear that you enjoyed it.

[@stevenchampion8137]

@@DrAidan ... for me, it's one of those books (like Steppenwolf) that I need to read a few times over, and insights such as yours clarify, illuminate and inform the experience. Thank you!

[@JorgeEFM]

" ...a Força deixa a História mal contada... "

[@GrantTrade_1]

I’m beginning to think, that all of us think , we really really like this video. Gracias.

[@DrAidan]

That's wonderful to hear. Thanks for your comment.

[@AlastairjCarruthers]

We saw a good, though scary, example of doublethink in British politics a couple of years ago when Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party. Corbyn is a life-long campaigner against racism and for peace, something that's extensively on record and entirely provable. Both his words and his actions reveal him to be a passionate and consistent supporter of ethnic minorities including the Jewish community, as well as someone who has worked tirelessly to try to resolve conflicts in places like Northern Ireland and the Middle East through dialogue and mutual understanding. The British establishment and press didn't want a left-leaning politician as prime minister though, so orchestrated a smear campaign that largely focused on making him out to be, remarkably, an anti-semite and a supporter of terrorism. And it worked; despite all the evidence people bought into it and his popularity, which had been rapidly growing, began to wane. Even now, several years later, any mention of Corbyn is met with groans of "anti-semite" and "terrorist sympathiser". Anti-racism is racism. Peacemaking is driving conflict. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

[@alex-E7WHU]

I believe you, I bought into the lies about him touted by the MSM and the government. I'm really ashamed of myself for allowing that to happen.😢

[@AlastairjCarruthers]

@@alex-E7WHU Very decent and honest of you to recognise that. Something that I find surprising is how it wasn't just Tories and traditional right-wingers sucked into it, many traditional Labour voters fell for the smear too, and even to this day cling to the notion that he was some rabid racist, terrorist- lover and totally unelectable. Just goes to show how much power the press has to shape opinion.

[@MtemiBadravasha6434]

Perfect explanation

[@dimitriospapageorgiou]

Amazing explanation. I've watched the video multiple times. What's the name of the song in the background?

[@darrylpeers]

Brilliant thanks for this dude

[@DrAidan]

No problem. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@daniellemclean8052]

great video! what is the background music?

[@nicolacamposarcone5152]

Shortly, it is fake autotrolling but actually the group using the fake autotrolling is trolling the world by becoming the upper class and remaining in through the autotrolling. Wich means that Ingsoc originated from the Trollface meme and that he is Big Brother. Guys I solved it.

[@hxmdnv]

Hiii I hope you are well could you make more revision videos on merchant of Venice like theme and character analysis tyy

[@DrAidan]

Hi there. Sure - I will put those on the list to get to at some point.

[@hxmdnv]

@@DrAidan tyyy

[@helloyoutube2694]

Great analysis!

[@PowerK1]

how do you forget that you forget? if you have forgotten then you have indeed forgotten it, its only when you remember that you did indeed forgotten then what you said is true, wait no, actually if you remember that you have forgotten then that's not forgetting anymore I don't understand understand loll

[@magnfrs]

vou aperfeiçoar esta técnica até ser mestre na arte de Doublethink, esse item é meu!

[@youtubeuser5683]

Florida's Ron DeSantis is using this.

[@ifeanyikennedy1047]

Calculated ambivalence

[@t.s.b.-c.e.9799]

O’Nrien in this animation looks like Jeff Goldblum.

[@uknowbass]

Disturbing and difficult to apply in the US. Makes sense in the DPRK

[@brianwright1901]

Social media is definitely a re-education tool. Has the power to talk people out of their gender. Sky is the limit.

[@poorvachauhan]

voooah, isn't it something like quantum mechanics?

[@greatscott369]

I wish it was still fiction

[@Seekthetruth3000]

1984 describes the behavior of the Democratic Party in the US!

[@sherifnabil50]

This explains the doctrine of the trinity in Christianity. It's the ultimate double think test to filter out the double thinkers from the annoying free thinkers who would cause headaches to the church.

[@ricardoribeironeto8090]

thats faith, totally different imo

[@sherifnabil50]

@@ricardoribeironeto8090 trinity is not faith, that's double think and I'll explain the difference. Faith is a logical belief in the unseen based on patterns that you have seen before. For example, person X has always told me the truth in the past and based on that I have FAITH that what person X is telling me now is true, even though I have NOT SEEN confirmation yet. Another example: I normally see buildings being constructed by a combination of humans and machines created by humans. Therefore when I see a building I have FAITH that it was built by a combination of humans/machines without actually having witnessed the construction process. The reason faith is associated with irrationality is because Christianity smeared the reputation of the word Faith by imbuing contradictions into their doctrine. In Islam for example, which is the only major monotheistic religion in the world, Faith has to based on reason. Not all religions are created equal. Being a member of a crazy church or sect can traumatize someone from the world "religion" and "faith" even though nothing inherently wrong with religion or faith. Just like people get into a traumatic relationship and they avoid all relationships in the future. The problem is not in relationships, the problem is the basis in which people select their partners. There's nothing wrong with religion or faith. People simply adhere to the wrong faith.

[@paulaccuardi9071]

I think God can be three entities at once if he wants to. He’s God.

[@Xer405]

No man just no 😂

[@sherifnabil50]

@@paulaccuardi9071 can God be NOT god?

[@user-ul2lu3jf8l]

Marcos

[@bextv2526]

Men can become woman and woman can become Men

[@KingdomKillaz117]

Gender = Social construct Race = Social construct Men can be women, women can be men. Therefore, white people can be black people, black people can be white people.

[@mrmucro2704]

And Joanne K. Rowling committed a thought crime.

[@IamAWESOME3980]

​@@KingdomKillaz117Michael jackson proves you can infact be white as black or black as white

[@benmarris1807]

Why are you people so obsessed with trans people? It's not normal to think about 24/7, but conservatives and chuds alike cannot help themselves. You probably think more about a trans person's genitals than they do. Get therapy!

[@benmarris1807]

@@KingdomKillaz117 If gender is not a social construct, please explain the difference between a kilt and a skirt without using gender.

[@saminshen2449]

Great explanation!

[@DrAidan]

Thank you very much: that’s very kind of you.