On 1/27/2026 at 4:03 PM, Stiddle Mump said:

They didn't have to have many in the know. It was so departmentalised (if that's the word).

More than their lives were worth to expose one of the biggest hoaxes of modern times. Armstrong looked as though his life and that of his family were at risk.

Indeed. It isn't that difficult to envision at all. There is documented proof, in France for example, of some people involved in politics being influenced to say or do (or refrain from saying or doing) things in exchange for their house mortgages being paid back in full. To think these things don't exist is naive to say the least: almost anybody can be bought and the buyers have unlimited funds.

On 2/2/2026 at 10:46 PM, rattlesnake said:

To think these things don't exist is naive to say the least: almost anybody can be bought and the buyers have unlimited funds.

Orwell's 1984 isn't only about surveillance.

It's also about lack of ability for critical thinking and believing authority on everything, even when authority conflicts with your own eyes.

7 hours ago, save the frogs said:

Orwell's 1984 isn't only about surveillance.

It's also about lack of ability for critical thinking and believing authority on everything, even when authority conflicts with your own eyes.

It's a good book, although in this category, I have a slight preference for Huxley's Brave New World. Published in the 1930s, it contains uncannily prescient elements, such as the establishment of a supranational New World Order, subversion of the masses through entertainment, prescription drugs, pornography and societal validation, and the segregation of dissidents who refuse the tech dystopia.