Hillary Clinton compares Trump's 'attempts to define reality' to George Orwell's 1984
“If he stood up tomorrow and declared that the Earth is flat, his counsellor Kellyanne Conway might just go on Fox News and defend it as an alternative fact"
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump's "war on truth" has clear similarities to George Orwell's dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four, Hillary Clinton has written in her new memoir.
“If he stood up tomorrow and declared that the Earth is flat, his counsellor Kellyanne Conway might just go on Fox News and defend it as an ‘alternative fact’ and too many people would believe it," she wrote.
“Attempting to define reality is a core feature of authoritarianism. This is what the Soviets did when they erased political dissidents from historical photos. This is what happens in George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, when a torturer holds up four fingers and delivers electric shocks until his prisoner sees five fingers as ordered.”
Nineteen Eighty-Four, originally published in 1949, is set in an oppressive futuristic superstate, with constant surveillance and a cult of personality focused around a leader called Big Brother. All inhabitants must believe the version of the truth they are told by the government, even though it is being constantly rewritten in contradictory ways.
Ms Clinton's memoir, titled What Happened, was released this week. Across 469 pages, it details Ms Clinton's recollections of her presidential campaign, her thoughts on the Trump administration, and her opinions on why she lost.
“I was running a traditional presidential campaign with carefully thought-out policies and painstakingly built coalitions, while Trump was running a reality TV show that expertly and relentlessly stoked Americans’ anger and resentment," she wrote. "I was giving speeches laying out how to solve the country’s problems. He was ranting on Twitter.”
Ms Clinton also said that in Mr Trump's case, he's striving for "simple dominance": “For Trump, if everyone’s down in the mud with him, then he’s no dirtier than anyone else.”
In another part of the memoir Ms Clinton said her "skin crawled" when Mr Trump came too close to her during one of the presidential debates.
“This is not OK, I thought. It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck.”
Commenting on the current president's productivity, she said, “I sometimes wonder: If you add together his time spent on golf, Twitter and cable news, what’s left?”
Now that he's president, the former Apprentice star and real estate mogul represents “a clear and present danger to the country and the world,” Ms Clinton said.
"No one is happier than than Vladimir Putin,” Ms Clinton continued, saying the Russian president had a "personal vendetta" against her.
“Putin doesn’t respect women and despises anyone who stands up to him, so I’m a double problem.”
In the book, Ms Clinton also admitted giving speeches on Wall Street was a mistake, calling it "bad optics."
“Just because many former government officials have been paid large fees to give speeches, I shouldn’t have assumed it was okay for me to do it. Especially after the financial crisis of 2008-09, I should have realised it would be bad ‘optics’ and stayed away from anything having to do with Wall Street. I didn’t. That’s on me.”
The 2016 election was the former Secretary of State and First Lady's second attempt at running for President. Though she won the popular vote by almost 3 million, she lost the White House, in a largely unexpected result. Ms Clinton dedicated What Happened to her campaign team, who "worked their hearts out for a better, stronger, fairer America."
So far, 15 dates are confirmed on Ms Clinton's book tour, which begins in Washington DC on 18 September, and will see her travel across the US and Canada. Ticket prices run as high as 3,000 Canadian dollars for front row seats, signed copies of the book and a meet-and-greet for two.
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