Apparently* George Orwell once said:

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

I tweeted this quote on Saturday after reading this horrendous story:

A female disability activist had her home raided yesterday by South Wales Police who attempted to intimidate her into stopping posting comments on Facebook critical of government cuts and specifically the Department of Work and Pensions and their attacks on the rights of disability claimants.

In her own words:

I’ve just had the police forcing their way into my flat near midnight and harrassing me about my “criminal” posts on Facebook about the DWP, accusing me of being “obstructive”. I didn’t know what in f**k’s name they were on about.

As Tom Pride, the author of the piece quoted above, noted, this is the kind of policing one might expect in a dictatorial state, as opposed to a supposed democracy. And as @stillicides added, cliché or not:

…I feel like we’re living in 1984 right now – thought crime anyone? Terrifying, depressing, enraging.

Quite.

It really doesn’t even feel like a metaphor any more, not in relation to the rhetoric constantly spouted about the alleged follies of the lower classes, and in the way we’re all being monitored for any dissenting ideas we might dare express.

We have the Miniplenty controlling assisting every fiscal quarter (save for all those thoroughly deserving tax evaders/avoiders, of course), perpetrating, in tandem with the Minitrue, fallacious ideas the truth of how the Party Coalition have excelled as regards the social welfare of the Proles. All us Proles sit here and drink in Prolefeed, anyway, rather than try to better ourselves to join the Party. Silly Proles. Who cares about the Proles? Proles are baaaaad. But the Party is a merciful Party. The Party will still help the arbitrarily decided upon ‘most in need’ Proles. The rest of them can descend into the poverty, homelessness or death that is for the best for them anyway.

All hail Inner Party Members Cameron, Osborne and May!

Oh, and as the above story of the disability activist dissenting Prole demonstrates, clearly we have a British Miniluv these days too. Perhaps the thinkpol are a pawn in the execution of rightful prosecutions against thoughtcrime; it is, in this case anyhow, the DWP (an agency of the Miniplenty, perhaps?) that is probably the primary antagonist hero acting for the Party Coalition.

And what of facecrime? That’s alive and well, in both obvious and more figurative senses. Look at these people who dared to protest at the #Oct20 march against austerity:

Dear me. Look at those hideously aggressive looks on their faces, and those vicious slogans they have the audacity to be holding up. They are obviously a dangerous threat, innit? This needs eradicated. Filthy Proles.

As The Fail (from which the second photo above comes – sorry. Don’t worry, the link is clean.) states, “…a large police presence assured there was no violence or chance for extremists to take over”:

Yeah, you geddem’, thoughtpol! You saved the day! Those filthy facecriming Proles were obviously going to kick off, and even if not, at least they know now that they’re guilty of thoughtcrime. Yeah! You are crimestop legends!

Of course, freedom of expression thoughtcrime is rife over the internet too. That’s why the Miniluv is now sending the thoughtpol into the homes of disgusting Proles who repellently express a lack of gratitude on Facebook for all that the Miniplenty has been doing for them. How appropriate that that particular Prole chose Facebook as her medium of choice; she’s metaphorically facecriming, after all! Do ya see what I did there?!

Seriously. What. The. Fuck. What the fuck is all this? How dare these bastards tell us what we can and can’t think, what we can and can’t say? Oh, I’d understand if we were somehow defaming them – “David Cameron is a murderer” might be something worthy of legal action…civil legal action, I’d add, not by means of World War I stormtrooping – but expressing disgust at the prospects faced by thousands, maybe even millions, of us if this so-called government proceeds with their terrifying plans? You can’t worry about that? You can’t worry about fucking Atos? You can’t tell people that you’re scared?!

Fuck you. Seriously, fuck you. FUCK. YOU. How dare you scare us not only to the point where we’re hiding inside our own homes, but where those own homes can now by precedent be invaded because we dare to express our fear?! FUCK YOU AGAIN.

There was a recent post on The World of Mentalists wherein Pandora – who is also from Northern Ireland, and thus understands the specific benefit mechanisms here (no Atos or DWP, but the same tests, descriptors and disdain) – expressed her genuine fear of what’s happening in this country, and what will happen in it. By coincidence, one of those trillions of posts in my drafts folder was conceived that same day (for the same reasons) and was entitled “Now I Get It.”

This was essentially about my sudden understanding of radicalism. I’ve generally been pretty moderate in terms of how I’ve viewed direct action – but I don’t feel that way now. I get why people chain themselves to Parliament. I get the terror, the dread, the abject fury of protesters and demonstrators. Those in apparent Orwellian charge won’t listen to dialogue, or even to other elected representatives. They won’t listen to protest either, of course, but there seems to me to be truly nothing else that we can do to fundamentally register our concerns.

I would never advocate or engage in violence; growing up here during the Troubles, I’ve seen more than enough of it (and knobends who are not big and clever do not impress by trying to take us back there. RIP, Mr Black :-() But this government has made me understand the need a country has for the right to peaceful, if still militant, demonstration; it has laid bare the legitimate reasons for widespread politics-based anger; and it has made me understand fear like I never have before (barring perhaps one PTSD-related incident in childhood.)

We are free and equal in only the most literal of senses. I’m free of headlice (I hope) and I’m equal in height to other people who are about 5’4″. I’m not politically free, and I’m not equal to those whose politics, business or whatever happen to suit the powers that be. And neither are you.

Don’t like this piece of face- or thoughtcrime, Miniluv? Thoughtpol? No? Let’s see your best, then.

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UPDATE: Tom Pride has further details on what happened to the disability activist discussed above in this recent post. You’ll be pleased to read that she’s lodged a formal complaint.

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* This is disputed here, but whatever; the quote, whoever its creator, is prophetic and apt.

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Picture credits: see outgoing links. The Daily Mail link goes to a Freezepage rather than to the Fail‘s website. You’re welcome.