Wow, This Is Just Like 1984

Confirmed 133,636

Part of a series on Nineteen Eighty-Four / 1984. [View Related Entries]

About

Wow, This Is Just Like 1984 refers to a trend on Twitter in which users ironically compare a situation to George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984," or an intentionally irrelevant/made-up piece of media, in order to mock people who compare modern-day censorship to the novel.

Origin

On January 8th, 2021, Donald Trump Jr. posted a tweet^[1] comparing the banning of Donald Trump on Twitter to the censorship in the novel "1984," saying, "Free-speech no longer exists in America." (shown below). The tweet gained over 124,000 likes and 42,000 retweets in 3 days.

Some commenters criticized Trump Jr. for the tweet, doubting that he's ever read the book and denying the comparison (examples shown below, left and right).^[2]^[3]

On January 9th, @cableknitjumper tweeted,^[4] "omg this is just like George Orwell's Animal Crossing" intentionally mistaking the name of the novel to joke about people comparing the modern political situation with "1984" without any direct evidence, or even reading the book (shown below). The post gained over 310,000 likes and 33,400 retweets in 2 days.

Spread

@Cableknitjumper's tweet inspired a trend on Twitter, where Twitter users apply the phrase "this is just like" followed by a similar, comical reference to the original tweet. On January 9th, 2021, @ditzkoff made a tweet^[6] following the trend, garnering over 10,600 likes and 1,200 retweets in 2 days (shown below, left). On the same day, @ObsKenobs made a tweet^[5] following the trend referencing Star Wars, garnering over 6,500 likes in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On January 10th, Shoe0nhead tweeted,^[7] "he is ignoring my DM’s this is Orwellian this is 1984" garnering over 33,100 likes and 1,700 retweets in 1 day (shown below, left). On the same day, @InternetHippo tweeted out jokingly comparing the current political situation to the American Revolutionary War, garnering over 9,000 likes and 1,500 retweets in a day (shown below, right).