There is a huge difference between intelligence and base cunning.
Do you think it takes a brilliant mind to come up with that basic-ass mob bullshit? Trump does the same thing. And we have professors on record saying he was the stupidest person they have ever taught (or possibly encountered? Can’t remember the exact wording).
I don’t think I implied it’s anything new. Nor was I trying to say he predicted the future per se. It’s been years since I’ve read it, but I don’t think the section was just about newspeak. I didn’t mind that stuff.
I recall there being a whole section where he kind of steps away from the narrative for a bit and basically writes an essay about controlling people through language. I just remember being like “lol yeah right, controlling thoughts with language? Impossible and boring… bring back Winston” when I was in my teens.
Reading it again as an adult, it didn’t particularly ring true to me at the time either. It wasn’t until I experienced 2015-now that I thought back to it and recognized how wrong I was.