The freedom to think and hold unorthodox views is increasingly being threatened in western society by elitists who believe that radical measures must be taken to control people’s thoughts.
Those who do not conform to societal norms may face consequences such as limited career opportunities and financial discrimination. Even platforms that claim to support free speech are suppressing certain perspectives by banning or shadowbanning accounts.
Those who dare to challenge the dominant narrative may be labeled as “thought criminals” and face punishment for contradicting the conditioning they receive from various sources including education, media, politicians, and corporate entertainment.
In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the concept of “thoughtcrime” refers to the idea that people can be punished for their thoughts, particularly those that contradict the ruling government’s ideology. In the fictional society of Oceania, this ideology is known as Ingsoc (English Socialism) and is enforced through the use of Newspeak, a language that limits the ability to express dissenting ideas. The government in this society exerts control over the thoughts, words, and actions of its citizens, punishing those who harbor politically unacceptable thoughts, also known as “crimethink.”
Unfortunately, we seem to have reached a point where we can be punished for our thoughts, even those that exist solely within our own minds. This is reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984, where the concept of “thoughtcrime” described the punishment of people for their politically unorthodox thoughts. An example of this is the recent arrest of a woman in the UK for thoughts that she was thinking privately.
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, director of the U.K. March for Life and a charity volunteer, was arrested by police after being caught praying silently outside of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, England. Vaughan-Spruce, a Christian, was approached by police and asked if she was praying. When she responded that she “might be praying silently,” she was arrested. In a statement, Vaughan-Spruce said, “It’s abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police, and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind. Nobody should be criminalized for thinking and for praying, in a public space in the UK.”
Remember the British woman who was arrested for praying silently? She’s been charged.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 28, 2022
Despite being taken into police custody, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was subjected to interrogation rather than being released. The authorities seemed determined to uncover any “evil thoughts” that she may have had and ended up charging her on four counts as a result. It seems that they saw her as a “vicious thought criminal.”
Although Isabel Vaughan-Spruce maintains her innocence, the reality is that anyone who thinks thoughts that are not authorized by the government is now considered a criminal in this society. Intelligence agents are constantly on the lookout for these “thought criminals” on social media platforms, as evidenced by the Twitter Files which showed that the FBI made numerous requests to ban accounts for expressing unauthorized thoughts, a clear violation of First Amendment rights. It seems that this practice was ongoing and occurred repeatedly.