To the final point of the essay, "Newspeak", I find it extremely discomforting at the many words in recent public discourse which surface frequently and whose meanings have been stretched beyond all recognition. Words such as "racism/racist" on the one side, or "anti-semitism" on the other, have taken on new meanings so thoroughly divorced from their textbook denotation and common sense that it's become impossible to have any dialogue around related topics that doesn't end in indignation and frustration. (For more examples of hot newspeak, look to Twitter.)<p>The effect is, of course, that the national conversation is split into two groups that now fail to have meaningful communication with one another. Whether you attribute this to the intentions of any particular group is up to you, but make no mistake, great resources and coordinated effort have been expended to bring us to where we are.<p>Perhaps the most disappointing part of all of it is that for all the ideologues (of all persuasions) trumpeting on social media, not one seems to ever address essential definitions. Day in and day out, the words are mis-used and no one asks what is meant by the words, each of us feeling that our individual conception is the intended one.