Right of Way Outrage

I stumbled onto a story yesterday completely by accident, I am sure it is too little for MMFA or any other group on the lookout for proto-fascism in our midst. However, it is just one little tile in the mosaic of virulent nationalism and scapegoating that is essential if you want to plow under a rotting republic in favor of a dictatorship. Check out this headline:

Florida man ordered to remove American flag display draws huge support

 Contrast it with the original source:

Hundreds of flags line Cape Coral roads

Basically, the manager of a hardware store put up a bunch of little flags on the public right-of-way grass between the street and sidewalk, someone complained that it violated a city ordinance, and the city asked him to move them back onto private property... about 6 feet. This incident has 2 amazing similarities to 1984. First, that "hundreds" of people turned out to further violate the ordinance and put up a shitload more flags in exactly the way the telescreen announcer on Airstrip One constantly repeats how "workers spontaneously demonstrate to show their gratitude and joy." Second, is that the original story has disappeared down the memory hole. Originally, there was a segment from the Ministry of Truth (fox news) where they interviewed the guy involved and he admitted voluntarily removing the flags... until the patriotism police showed up and put up almost one hundred times more flags. Now, anything that might indicate that this incident began as a simple and easily resolved disagreement between an individual and the city is gone. In its place is a confrontation between unfeeling, unaccountable government mindlessly enforcing arbitrary rules and the patriotic masses standing up to the tyranny of right-of-way ordinances.

Wow, in Oceania it took dedicated effort by a huge bureaucracy to collect all copies of newspapers or other documents, destroy the item that the Party wished to change, and reissue them. Now with a few clicks the job can be done by one or two individuals in a few moments!

Orwell is rolling in his grave.