It’s an understatement to say that Trump’s presidency is off to a contentious start. Certainly presidents don’t generally provoke constitutional crises during their first full week in office. There is cause for concern.

The natural impulse of educated minds during moments like these is to turn to George Orwell. Who better than the author of 1984 and Animal Farm to give us perspective on the mechanisms (and perhaps future) of our present state of political dysfunction?

So I did the thing that we all do when we want to wring some fresh insight out of a famous mind. I hit him up on twitter:

@fromtomb101 Going to reread 1984 this weekend. I hope it will give me some perspective on the current political climate.

— William Duryea (@whduryea) January 29, 2017

The response I received was, frankly, rather blunt:

Listen, I appreciate all the renewed interest. I really do. But I had nothing to say about @realDonaldTrump. NOTHING. https://t.co/lKoSamkj1K

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

I get it. You think Trump is a totalitarian in training, and I am your go-to literary weapon against totalitarianism, but …

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

my writing is about how oppressive regimes pervert language and history, using neologisms and obfuscation to warp the human mind.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

I thought malicious governments would use abstract, evasive, jargon-filled rhetoric to make the horrific seem benign.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

I gave this a lot of thought. https://t.co/0YzPcWUmLX

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

But none of the thousands of pages of fiction and non-fiction I authored apply if a politician STRAIGHT UP TELLS YOU WHAT HE’S GOING TO DO.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

If a politician says, “I will ban Muslim immigrants,” you elect him, and he does exactly that, that’s not doublespeak. That’s speech.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

I get it. The term “alternative facts” was used. Sounds Orwellian, but, please, don’t think I could have imagined a future this stupid.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

Trump is a shockingly direct speaker and so far his actions have closely mirrored his rhetoric. If anything, this is anti-Orwellian.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

(I apologize for the implied egotism of using my own name as an adjective, but you fuckers started it.)

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

OK, I am rambling, but here is my point: I did not anticipate you would do something this moronic, and I cannot help you.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

Fetishizing my work is just a form of escapism, of self-delusion. I am sorry I thought the dystopian future would be more sophisticated …

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

and less slapstick. Maybe you should consult the ghost of Mel Brooks. (Wait, he’s still alive?)

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

Really God, you gave me tuberculosis in my 40s, but you’re going to let fucking Mel Brooks see 100? Christ.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

You know what, to hell with this. I’m glad I’m dead.

END. –30–. Fuck it.

— George Orwell (Dead) (@fromtomb101) January 29, 2017

 
So it’s safe to say that Trump’s presidency has rattled the bones of the great anti-fascist polemicist.

But not every deceased political theorist is ready to admit defeat:

@fromtomb101 Called it, motherfucker.

— Thomas Hobbes (@warofallvall) January 29, 2017