Why people recommend it
George Orwell's classic dystopian novel explores a totalitarian regime marked by perpetual surveillance, historical denial, and thought control. The book was referenced across several podcasts to examine modern political and cultural dynamics. On Timcast IRL, a chat user noted that the torture scene featuring four lights in Star Trek: The Next Generation originated from the interrogation in 1984, where a thought police agent forces Winston to see five fingers instead of four. On Modern Wisdom, the guest discussed Apple's famous 1984 television commercial, which drew upon Orwell's novel. Lex Fridman noted on his podcast that the book has been available in Chinese bookstores since 1985. Tim Pool used the book on Timcast IRL to argue that everyday citizens do not resemble the heroic figures of the dystopian narrative. On Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, a host remarked that everyone has read the work, finding comparisons to contemporary politics and surveillance, specifically likening modern smart devices to the telescreens depicted in the novel. On The Tucker Carlson Show, the speaker compared psycholinguistic crime charges used by the Ukrainian secret police to the themes of Orwell's work. Finally, on The Ezra Klein Show, Chris Hayes contrasted the information-constrained future of 1984 with the entertainment-heavy dystopia of Brave New World.
Who recommended it
- Jeffrey Wasserstrom Discussed
- Lex Fridman Discussed
Jeffrey Wasserstrom — 3 mentions
“You can buy '1984' in a Chinese bookstore, you've been able to since 1985. You can buy again, it's not about China, and actually for some people within China in the mid 1980s, where they focused on the part of 1984, that's like the two minutes of hate...”
“In fact, in 1949, Orwell sent his former teacher a copy in '1984' and said, you know, 'Look, I've written this,' basically it's kind of almost a little edible like 'I've written this book that displaces yours,' he didn't say that, he just said, 'I want you to have this.'”
“And then there's 'Animal Farm in 1984' is a second book.”
Lex Fridman — 1 mention
“Yeah, you've actually spoken about and described China as more akin to the dystopian world, a brave new world, the 1984, which is really interesting to think about, I think about that a lot of recently reread, over the past couple of years we read 'Brave New World' a couple of times, and also '1984'.”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 106
“We got uh XOD says the four light scene from the Next Generation is actually from 1984 where the agent from the thought police asks how many fingers he's holding up and shocks Winston until he believes there's five fingers when there's only four.”
“So, so, so, so yeah, in a stories a deal, I tell the story of um, well, I sort of pose a question really like about like um, one of the most famous ads that was ever made was Apple's 1984 ad which which which kind of played on the George Orwells novel and showed um, and showed this um,”
“You can buy "1984" in a Chinese bookstore, you've been able to since 1985.”
“they're they're Winston they're like none of us is Winston from 1984 we're all like the Rando other people just going around our lives walking our dogs but we're not in 1984 ration”
“I think yeah we've all read 1984 I mean it's it's hard to to not see some comparisons and talk about them”
“They are charging them with psycholinguistic crimes What's that This is out of 1984 psycholinguistics This is basically alleging that what they're saying has meanings similar to what Putin says And therefore it's a crime”
“you know what reminds me of the telescreens in 1984 which were like on this on one level seen as like a luxury and as like a really cool technological Gadget where you could watch all of these whatever entertainment you so wished”
“also you know the first essay which is just about the sort of different versions of dystopian Future Between 1984 which is information constraint and Brave New World which is Overflow of entertainment and information about how we ended up in the Brave New World”
“I think people just felt like the fact cheers were too biased I don't know it's something out of like you know 1984 one of these books where it's just like really is a slippery slope”
“Oh, that's where the 'Four Lights' comes from; MHC you, everybody now associates it with Star Trek. He does the whole thing because at the end, the very end of '1984,' he's actually saying, 'I love Big Brother.'”
“What monster didn’t see that you’re going to just have people lock more people up? 1984; these fuckers—it’s George Orwell. Literally, it’s Orwell.”
“And now we're in 1984, like legit! And you don't have to even be a genius to understand this.”
“That was the whole... you know, in 1984, the reason they wanted to go ahead and go with Newspeak is because they wanted to get rid of the ability to think bad thoughts. You need to invent ideas or discover them, however you want to describe it.”
“The family of the Indian that the Washington Redskins logo was drawn after wants them to change their name back to the Redskins, like the Cleveland Indians; now they’re the Guardians. It's, I mean, it’s Orwellian; it’s 1984.”
“Yet, it can be summoned, as depicted in '1984' with the concept of the two minutes of hate; with the right rhetoric, our primal selves can be unleashed, leading to destruction.”
“Family, religion, history, truth, logic, borders— This is why 1984 is being beautiful, because that was part of 1984.”
“I posit to you guys, this is what Orwell once upon a time described as a double plus ungood situation! This is like, you can just cut this out and just put it in the book where the definition is supposed to be!”
“Read 'The Gulag Archipelago,' read '1984,' read 'Brave New World.' Go deeper; that is the regime's hate an informed population.”
“I don't know how these people break out of it; that's why I'm so excited about the RFK Jr. thing though, because that is a sledgehammer to the 1984 TV screen of Big Brother.”
“Everyone goes back to George Orwell's '1984' and says you can't be open with your thoughts, and it's been interesting to be here, experiencing that strong sentiment.”
“Right, when he wrote Animal Farm and 1984; those books are warnings based on the totalitarian systems of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. And again, they're meant to be warnings, not instruction manuals.”
“And that is, I think, our 1984 reference, is his, uh, this guy who was like the milquetoast liberal that's like secretly sinister is named Winston.”
“and that's that's how regim controls your minds through language it is George 1984 they create double speak”
“so the movie uh or the uh the novel became a movie but uh the 1984 right”
“like i feel like everybody needs to reread 1984. Actually when i got to mexico the first book that i read i write like the last time i read it was in like college or maybe even high school or something and i reread it”
“George Orwells 1984 it it's it's happening right now somewhere and not”
“i mean it's uh one could imagine you know the boots stamping on a face one of the forever lines of 1984 where you can't reform the system because the system is unreformable precisely because the vested interests won't let it be reformed”
“i'm reading 1984 again”
“or I recently read 1984 which is we were at 1984. now I mean if you think about the internet and you think you have in your pocket a device every day the phone which tracks you”
“i think it's like if you remember the 1984 i had to bring it back to apple”
“I remember reading '1984,' where, sorry for the dark turn of our conversation, but through torture you can make people say anything and essentially remember anything. I wonder to which degree there's truth to that.”
“I mean, it's a [___] great book to read; it was written in 1949, and how many—how accurate it is today?”
“Yeah, it’s all spelled out in 1984, the documentary.”
“And but this is where we really get to the Orwellian stage of what's going on right now because this is the sacrifice of news to ideology. And that is literally the storyline of 1984.”
“I think everybody should read 1984 and read about Bernie Goetz. I’m just looking at Wikipedia right now; I’ve known about it passively; I’ve never really looked into it.”
“This notion is captured in Orwell's 1984, which suggests that if hedonistic will exists against other wills, it cannot represent a common will.”
“No, I think it’s like in '1984', the two minutes of hate; there is a part of humans that wants to be tribal and wants to direct anger and get hateful.”
“Some of it is hidden, to be sure, but some of it, even outside the government, is almost reminiscent of Orwell in '1984'. It talks about the fact that Big Brother has an inner party and an outer party.”
“George Orwell has this preface, I believe it was for 1984; I'm not sure of the exact details now—it was around the time of World War II—and it was kind of considered heretical because its argument was that we think about tyranny in these melodramatic terms”
“Is it legally possible to create extra protections for certain kinds of literature, like '1984' or similar works, to remain in the curriculum? Already, all literature is protected, I guess.”
“If I may paraphrase a line from George Orwell's 1984, to wear an improper expression on your face was itself a punishable offense.”
“It would be— I think it would bring in, and has already in China, I think it'll bring in a totalitarian tyranny so 100% complete that it would make George Orwell's 1984 look like a picnic.”
“they want programmable people George Orwell talks about this uh in 1984 you need these people to be programmable the the value of a loyal servant is what lie”
“The issue, however, is there's often an unholy blend of 1984 and Brave New World underlying the specifics of their invitation.”
“j marie says 1984 teaches us that it doesn't matter what the truth is what matters is what's on the public record”
“what was that 1984. yeah yeah So like being happy with your servitude bro they're gonna equilibrium the best movie ever made”
“When I made that one video on the book 1984, I really enjoyed it. That whole process was fun. I don't think I've ever thought as hard about a book as I had to when making that video.”
“it is a suggestion that like we ourselves I mean I mean there's also like a make work aspect to this right like in in George Orwell's 1984 the main character Winston Smith his employment is in rewriting news articles to fit with the the political line of the day and he talks about like he literally talks about like”
“I support Tucker going to work for CNN and Don working for Fox might as well go full 1984 at this point corporate media is a joke”
“- To the political complexity of 'two plus two equals five' in George Orwell's '1984.' I was in the Soviet Union in 1984, and in many ways, I see that the novel was prescient.”
“I mean, like I went back and read 1984, um, recently, and I was like, oh wow, like, yeah, we have this.”
“The power to suffocate the human spirit in a totalitarian way like in George Orwell's '1984', or the pleasure-fueled mass hysteria of 'Brave New World', where, as Huxley saw it, people come to love their oppression and adore the technologies that undermine their capacities to think.”
“This seems double Plus ungood uh which is obviously a delightful uh reference to 1984.”
“and it's exactly the kinds of things you see in works of fiction like Gulliver's Travels you know or 1984 and the way that religion and politics kind of intersect and become bastardized”
“Orwell said we'd all be famous for 15 minutes, right? Now it's like we'll all be stars!”
“Animal Farm remains one of my favorite books, and I'm currently re-reading '1984.'”
“I think it was I think 1984 is also being taken”
“if you falsify your words you know I think I agree with what you're saying but 1984 you know was a fairly good example of how Society can break that down”
“that's a quote from 1984 it's one of my favorite books”
“I mean first of all when you look at what Twitter was doing with things like the trust and Safety Committee it is as though they read Orwell's 1984 not as a warning but as a how-to book like maybe we should pick up you know the trust and Safety Committee”
“and so now the more the power is the more the waves will the bigger the waves will be and so the image of the image that 1984 presented to us you know of of people going into newspapers and changing the the the headlines and taking the pictures out and doing that that now obviously can happen with just”
“wow 1984. here we are so good that is I it's it's the best you know the reason why it's the greatest is because you could have just said war is peace you know or whatever”
“or they've you know i mean you just have to read 1984 to understand how how that's working”
“they're telling you that we're fighting for freedom and then simultaneously it is 1984”
“I read uh 1984 an animal farm Those are like the only two dystopian novels i've read so far”
“you know it's not quite Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World or 1984”
“Justin can go on about how horrific the justice system of the Supreme Court is while up here he plays a game halfway between Animal Farm in 1984.”
“I have read that book and it's creepy It's incredible Read 1984 if you haven't read that”
“so you know this alaska airline thing really unsettled me because it reminded me not of 1984 which is technically fiction but of actual historical events”
“I think the main thing that I learned from 1984 reading that is the volume of your vocabulary and the accuracy of the words that you use directly influences the quality of your thoughts”
“i wonder what inspired these writers when they write these brilliant things well that's 1984 dude That's like a scene right out of 1980”
“Have you read 1984 I have not It's great It's by george orwell about dystopian reality in the year 1984”
“the shirt I'm wearing right now is also my representation of our society and it has the hunger games animal animal farm they live brave new world matrix fahrenheit 451 v for vendetta and of course 1984 representing where i think we are”
“If something has been around for a while the classics have been around for a long time so you read 1984 which has been around for 50 years it's probably going to be around for another 50 years”
“...it's like 1984 two plus two equals five is just keep being repeated you know that's a real thing though”
“He makes me think have you ever read 1984 it's a it's a the orwell book there's a point yeah the ministry of truth is like this realities are in the book they have this hour of hate where every day they have everybody sits in front of the tv for an hour and just thinks about hate and that's”
“go to by the way go via belarus um take a copy of a 1984 animal farm leave it in a bar”
“If you guys haven't read 1984 in animals well he's a fascinating person his real name was eric blair”
“eric douglas says people should read that hideous strength by c.s lewis a book even more prophetic than 1984 that deals with the subject of scientific authorism”
“and there's some creepy stuff happening you know we had this teenage girl snitched on her parents and this is like totally 1984 level stuff that we're starting to see so kind of depressing”
“Everyone talks about the situation as being 1984. Consider sometime the idea and influence of animal farm on the establishment”
“and then when they censor the comments on 1984 would be glorious”
“so it's so it's 1984 brave new world ray bradbury 451”
“i mean 1984 is good of course as well like if you're talking about you know dystopian novels of the future yeah it's a slightly different view of the future right but i kind of like identify with the world but more”
“so this is very 1984 if you've read that book every house has a speaker inside it that you can't turn off and it plays quote unquote the news”
“1983 is a polio take orwell's 1984 on netflix Okay uh”
“and in 1984 84 is published a couple of years after I think after an there's reason to believe he read he read Anthem”
“or orwell talked about this in 1984”
“it's like all of these books that we used to read 1984 brave new world and ran it's all happening right now all at once like crashing into each other”
“Have we gotten so far into 1984 that people can't see what's right in front of them”
“Have they read any Orwell recently? I'm not talking about in childhood. Like read 1984 now.”
“19 fahrenheit 451 or 1984.”
“It's literally out of 1984. Yeah the woke people on twitter are literally arguing but of course two plus two can equal five you simply need to redefine”
“yeah I think we just defined George rell's 1984 like or cancel culture”
“it was a response to imagine Nawaz who tweeted the quote from 1984 that the streets had been renamed”
“And this I keep bringing this up I'm gonna do again if you have not read 1984 you have to go and read it especially if you like the idea of what George is talking about here I learned more from 1984 about the way that I operate Then I have done from a lot of personal development self development”
“I was the example about 1984 that it taught me more about appreciating the power of my thoughts than pretty much any other self-development book could have done”
“and then suddenly we're living in like 1984 which you know sounds extreme but that book was very prescient and I'm not worried about you know these systems”
“stupid monkey says the kovid 19 virus lockdown never being cured equals the 1984 novel Wars Wow”
“read 1984 write read 1984 and that tells you all that you need to know about how language is related to the thoughts that we have in our brains”
“I was educated books like Animal Farm in 1984 before I was in the cult”
“So 1984 George Orwell like really good easy read a lot of implications that you can if you're a bit of a self development sort of buff that you can take and apply to your own life at the Alchemist Paulo Coelho great novel was the second part”
“So when you start seeing that you start thinking about ink sock in Orwell in 1984 and socialism and communism and fascism and the degradation of society and a lot of control coming down”
“now it if you read 1984 years ago you couldn't fathom things getting like that”
“and what that is is that George Orwell that's 1984”
“the other day I actually pulled up a a quote from George Orwell who uh granted this is from Wikipedia which the other day I looked up something that I knew something about and was completely inaccurate but this is according to Wikipedia George Orwell said serious sport has nothing to do with Fair Play It's a bound up it's”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (3: passing, ad reads, own books)
“Not like fake 1984 efficient like Doge, right?”
“and it just feels another like a very 1984 kind of thing.”
“And I hope for future where both Hong Kong and Beijing have bookstores that carry '1984,' 'Brave New World,' and all of your books.”