Sir, – George Orwell published his book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 75 years ago. The book is about England under a dictatorship, and he described the introduction of Newspeak, a version of the English language with such a limited vocabulary that dissent would be impossible, as there would be no words to express it.
Adjectives were reduced to “good” and “ungood”.
The modern version of Newspeak goes further, and replaces all such descriptive words with “unbelievable” or “incredible”.
We speak of looking at an unbelievable view or watching an incredible game.
Ann Ingle: Deliberately going out of my way to move for no particular reason has never appealed to me
Gerry Thornley: How about an alternative look at Ireland’s Six Nations win over England?
Is Ireland anti-Semitic, an outlier of tolerance or in the middle ground?
How risky is it to buy a second-hand EV?
The cry of “I don’t believe it!” now means “I am amazed/ delighted/disappointed/ horrified (and I do believe it)”.
In an era of misinformation, disinformation and lies, it is dangerous that we are losing the ability to say we think that something is untrue.
MICHAEL PEGUM,
Donnybrook,
Dublin.
