A recent visit to a downtown coffee shop occasioned an encounter with a poster by Choose Morgan Hill that declared, “Stand Together By Standing 6 Ft Apart.” This is a deeply disturbing example of cognitively dissonant propaganda, to say nothing of a textbook example of Orwellian “newspeak,” that ought to have no place in our town or in any other American city.
To examples of newspeak from “1984” such as “WAR IS PEACE,” “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,” and “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH,” ought to be added “STAND TOGETHER BY STANDING 6 FEET APART.” It is an affront to every American ideal and an insult to any thinking person.
Greg Thomas
Morgan Hill
