Speaking from her Instagram account Tuesday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Congress is “looking into” establishing some sort of “commission” a la the “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s “1984” to combat what’s deemed misinformation in the media.
The far-left lawmaker’s announcement came after a viewer asked her if Democrats are discussing “truth and reconciliation or media literacy initiatives” to help with “healing” the country following a deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I can say there is absolutely a commission being discussed, but it seems to be more investigatory in style, rather than truth and reconciliation,” said Ocasio-Cortez, a self-identified socialist. “So I think that’s an interesting concept for us to explore, and I do think that several members of Congress — in some of my discussions — have brought up media literacy, because that is part of what happened here and we’re going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so that you can’t just spew disinformation and misinformation.”
“It’s one thing to have differentiating opinions, but it’s another thing entirely to just say things that are false,” she continued. “So that’s something that we’re looking into.”
Ocasio-Cortez did not indicate who would determine truth, though it seems fair to say the 31-year-old politician believes it is the government that should be in charge of deciding what’s accurate and what’s not.
The suggestion floated by Ocasio-Cortez is reminiscent of the “Ministry of Truth” in Orwell’s famed dystopian novel. The ironically named “Ministry of Truth” in the fictional land of Oceania, a city under the thumb of outsized government control, wields total control over the flow of information with agents tasked with rewriting newspaper stories so the published narrative always matches up with the government’s agenda.
Workers in the “Ministry of Truth” are led to believe they are correcting misquotes. In reality, of course, they are replacing fact with fiction.
Ocasio-Cortez also said during her Instagram Live video that she was scared she “was going to die” during the violent riot inside the Capitol.
“I did not think — I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of the day alive,” she said, adding it is not an exaggeration to say “many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated” last week.