Thoughtcrime

From Metapedia

Thoughtcrime is the concept orginially conceived in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In Orwell's novel the government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects, labeling disapproved thoughts with the term thoughtcrime or, in Newspeak, "crimethink".

In the book, Winston Smith, the main character, writes in his diary: “ Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death. ”

In modern media the term thoughtcrime is used to refer to crimes (allegorical or legislative) whereby the alleged "criminal" commits a crime not by action but by expressing their thoughts in some way. Real world thoughtcrimes are punishable by measures as severe as death. For example apostasy (the "crime" of changing your religion) in Saudi Arabia is punishable by death by stoning. Even in western countries where freedom of thought is considered a fundamental value, still there are cases where it is possible to incur in penalties of the law for saying or thinking something.

[edit] Thought Police

The Thought Police (thinkpol in Newspeak) were the secret police of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four whose job it was to uncover and punish thoughtcrime. The Thought Police used psychology and omnipresent surveillance to find and eliminate members of society who were capable of the mere thought of challenging ruling authority.

Orwell's Thought Police and their pursuit of thoughtcrime was based on the methods used by the totalitarian states and competing ideologies of the 20th century. It also had much to do with Orwell's own "power of facing unpleasant facts," as he called it, and his willingness to criticize prevailing ideas which brought him into conflict with others and their "smelly little orthodoxies." Although Orwell described himself as a democratic socialist, many other socialists (especially those who supported the communist branch of socialism) thought that his criticism of the Soviet Union under Stalin damaged the socialist cause.

The term "Thought Police," by extension, has come to refer to real or perceived enforcement of ideological correctness in any modern or historical contexts.

One could argue that long duration involuntary psychiatric treatment in the developed world is akin to the state 'punishing' people for thought-crime. You don't need to do anything wrong, you just have to think the wrong thoughts.