George Orwell imagined a future where history went up in smoke, where whole peoples could be erased with the flick of a bureaucrat’s wrist. In 2025, we didn’t just catch up to him—we started workshopping sequels.
The Ministry of Truth has a new zip code: Washington, D.C. Federal agencies have been purging their websites like sinners at confession, scrubbing away anything with the faintest whiff of diversity, equity, or inclusion. NASA erased pages celebrating women in leadership. The Census Bureau disappeared datasets. The Pentagon quietly yanked tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Code Talkers, and women veterans—until reporters noticed, and only then did some of it crawl back online like a half-buried corpse.
They called it a mistake. Sure. Just like the “mistake” of burning books in Berlin. Just like the “mistake” of vanishing inconvenient facts down a memory hole big enough to swallow entire generations.
THE BANNED WORDS LIST
Orwell gave us Newspeak, a language engineered to shrink thought. Our government decided it could do him one better by simply banning words. Over 350 terms are flagged or forbidden in public documents: abortion, affirming care, disability, climate change. It’s the linguistic equivalent of painting over road signs while insisting you’re still on the highway. If you can’t say the word, you can’t think the thought.
And the chilling part? It’s working. Federal staffers admit they don’t even know what’s “safe” to write anymore, so they self-censor, paralyzed by the threat of losing funding or careers. Orwell called it thoughtcrime. We call it Tuesday.
PRIME-TIME CENSORSHIP
When Jimmy Kimmel cracked one joke too many, the FCC chair made veiled threats about licenses and fines. ABC folded faster than a shitty poker hand. Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate wasn’t supposed to double as network programming notes, but here we are: the state hinting, the networks flinching, and the jokes drying up before they ever reach the punchline.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon tells reporters: sign this loyalty pledge promising not to publish “unauthorized” material—or lose your access. Not classified secrets, mind you. Just inconvenient facts. Orwell didn’t think of gag orders disguised as press credentials, but he would have recognized the stench.
THE AMERICAN DREAM, REWRITTEN
The scariest part of 1984 wasn’t the torture. It was Winston’s final, broken confession: “He loved Big Brother.” That’s what true censorship does. It doesn’t just silence you. It convinces you to silence yourself.
In 2025, America is inching toward the same broken smile. History is rewritten, words are outlawed, jokes are punished, and journalists are gagged. And if you don’t scream about it, if you shrug and keep scrolling, then you’re already halfway to Winston’s fate. You already love Big Brother—you just haven’t admitted it yet.
Closer to the Edge isn’t here to hand you hope wrapped in clichés. We’re here to tell you the truth, however ugly, and to laugh at the bastards while we still can. Because the moment we stop laughing—the moment we stop calling this what it is—we’ll wake up to find the last shred of history, humor, and humanity smoldering at the bottom of the memory hole.
If you want more fearless journalism that won’t let Orwell’s prophecy become our obituary, join us at Closer to the Edge. We’re not just reporting. We’re fighting.
The Unilateral Labeling Authority for Purposes of Obliteration, aka McCarthyism on Steroids
I think Trump and his minions have assigned to themselves unilateral labeling authority. Some examples of this Label and Obliterate process include:
the "Antifa" label, to be applied to protesters, activists, journalists, media organizations, career officials who resist politicization, Democrats, et al; to justify them being imprisoned, censored, deprived of access, defunded, subjected to extortion, etc.;
the “Terrorist” label (broadly used to accuse various people and entities of “Terrorist” affilations); along with its lethal variation, “Narco-Terrorist,” to be applied to Venezuelans (and now, potentially Mexicans); to justify defenseless civilians being murdered with impunity;
the “Anti-Semitic” label, to be applied both to anyone who objects to the Israeli genocide/ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and to anyone who allows such objections a platform—including activists, politicians, journalists and universities; to justify them being: imprisoned; deported; illegally deprived of funds already granted; generally defunded; deprived of tax-exempt status; and/or subjected to extortion; and
the “Woke” label, casting DEI in a negative light; to be applied to people, the military, law firms, universities, museums, politicians, liberal organizations, et al; to justify: the elimination of policies that promote equal opportunity or that work to counteract racism, sexism and the like; the revision of history, etc.
1000%📚