Orwell's Two Minutes of Hate from 1984 is happening in real time

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George Orwell's book Nineteen, first published shortly after the conclusion of the Second World War in 1949, seems more relevant now than ever before. One concept presented in the book is the practice of “Two Minutes of Hate” — a chance for the characters in the book to vent their hatred towards a scapegoat.

The same idea has been playing out in the real world recently, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau questioning whether Canada should “tolerate these [unvaccinated] people” and French President Emmanuel Macron vowing to “piss off” (or perhaps even worse) the unvaccinated citizens of his country.

On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra examined Orwell's Two Minutes of Hate and reflected upon how that idea is happening now, right before our eyes.

Because you had to feel anger about your life — it was so dark and dreary and sad and impoverished and uncomfortable, everything about it was miserable, naturally you had to hate something, and you definitely couldn’t hate anything official, anything that caused the misery, certainly not the government, let alone Big Brother, so your hatred was encouraged — as long as it was directed outwards.

Same thing happened in Orwell’sAnimal Farm— when there was a setback, it was blamed on saboteurs and underminers, never the pigs.

So much of Orwell’s warnings have come true. And that includes the Two Minutes Hate.

For Ezra's full monologue, and full episodes of The Ezra Levant Show every weeknight, become a subscriber to RebelNews+.