Recently across social media platforms a quote from George Orwell’s classic “1984” has been reposted hundreds, if not thousands, of times by users. 

The quote reads, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Not surprisingly, social media users have been using this quote to refer to the U.S. government and President Donald Trump’s political platform  being built off of lazy lies. Despite all the lies being told by them through press releases, social media posts, and interviews, the messaging is easily compatible with common sense and proper sources. 

The “1984” quote specifically has gained prevalence following the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE Agents in Minneapolis and the Trump administration’s comments on the murders. 

Within 24 hours of Good’s murder, the victim-blaming and lies began. On Jan. 7, Secretary for Public Affairs and Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin stated on the social platform X, that Good was a “violent rioter” who was using her vehicle as a weapon to murder ICE agents. 

Good was a mother of three who before her encounter with ICE had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school. 

Following the killing of Pretti by multiple ICE agents, Mclaughlin gave a news release to The Guardian before an investigation into the killing. 

In the statement Mclaughlin said, “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

She also claimed that Pretti was violently resisting arrest causing an agent to fire defensive shots at him.

Approximately an hour later, White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller took to the social platform X to accuse Pretti of being an “assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents” 

He also said the Democratic Party “sides with the terrorists.” 

Pretti was an Intensive Care Unit, or ICU, nurse who specialized in caring for veterans. In ICE’s altercation with him, video evidence shows that he never drew his weapon and only had his phone out to record the federal agents. He was shot after his weapon, which he had the right to conceal and carry in Minnesota, had been taken by an ICE agent. 

The families of Good and Pretti should be allowed to grieve and not be burdened with a government smear campaign designed to paint ICE agents as heroes in these situations. 

And to further their dehumanizing rhetoric, Trump has resorted to artificial intelligence, or AI, images. Although he is no stranger to posting AI videos and images, the White House posted a doctored picture of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong to look distraught after being detained. Disseminating images like this only blurs the line between real and fake. 

UI journalism professor Brett Johnson focuses his work on media law and ethics and has also been aware of the White House’s AI usage and recognizes that distinguishing between real life and AI grows more difficult each day.

“That’s subtle,” Johnson said, referring to the doctored image. “That makes it almost more insidious.”

Johnson also recognizes how with the introduction of AI, fact checking has become even more daunting of a task.

“So you still have the run of the mill fact checking, and then on top of that, you have to fact check these often subtly made AI videos and photos,” Johnson said. 

These statements and lies are not accidental. They are an intentional choice by the Trump administration to deflect any misdoings while spinning their own story about events. Despite evidence debunking these claims as well as past ones, it appears that the administration is going to continue to lie to trigger confirmation bias in the shrinking group that still supports him based on his 38 percent approval rating, according to The Economist. 

To be blunt, the administration’s lies are lazy. They are easily falsifiable and ridiculous, but for some people, those lies are the narratives they want to hear, and as such, they will not do any further research. People believe what is placed in front of them. 

Johnson recognizes that these lies and narratives can easily gain prominence on social media through confirmation bias.

“When [lies are] all you’re seeing, you’re going to color that through the lens of your confirmation bias,” Johnson said.

For those who follow the Trump administration on social media and tune in to their news and press releases, they are fed those lies in real time. Those lies are then regurgitated through other users like them who are in their same algorithmic social media bubble. However, people who readily believe what they’re told via non-fact-checked social media posts are naive and are the exact types of people who make social media discourse unbearable.  

In an ideal world the government wouldn’t lie to citizens, and while past administrations have lied about the Iran-Contra Affair in 1986, the Pentagon Papers, and the Bill Clinton scandal of the late 1990s), this one seems to pump out new ones every day via their multitude of social media accounts.

Nonetheless, fact-checking government lies has never been easier as all people need to do is google the topic and then read an article from a reputable news source such as “The Associated Press,” “NPR” or “Reuters.” 

If people care about truth and justice then they can’t be as lazy as the administration that negates it. We need to stop and fact check information before believing it.  And with all the lies going around we should question whether the Trump administration will be held accountable for anything.

Johnson isn’t exactly sure what accountability could look like, especially considering the lack of history regarding administrations holding past ones accountable and president’s pardoning ability. However, he does see a lot of people right now calling for accountability so he thinks this is something to be observant of over the rest of President Trump’s term.

“There are a lot of people who [want] some degree of justice and I don’t know what that looks like in 2028 or 2029,” Johnson said. 

Johnson believes that once the end of this administration comes around, there will be conversations around what justice may look like for those involved.