During an interview with Chuck Todd of NBC's "Meet the Press," counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said White House press secretary Sean Spicer's comments about the size of the crowd that attended the inauguration of Donald Trump were "alternative facts."
>> Merriam-Webster says Kellyanne Conway described false statements as 'alternative facts'
People quickly pointed out the problematic language, and Merriam-Webster issued a tweet to clarify the definition of the word "fact."
Many criticized the term "alternative facts," comparing it to the government propagandized "newspeak" language found in George Orwell's popular dystopian novel "1984."
According to SparkNotes, "Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts -- the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language."
Orwell wrote that it "means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them."
The novel focuses on omnipresent government surveillance, propaganda and public manipulation.
It surged nearly 20 spots to No. 31 on Barnes & Noble's Top 100 book bestsellers list Tuesday afternoon.
According to CNN, sales of "1984" also saw a sales spike in 2013 when Edward Snowden revealed details of the National Security Agency's surveillance program.
Similar news was made in August after Gold Star family member Khizr Khan, the father of the late American Muslim soldier Humayun Khan, asked Trump if he had ever read the Constitution.
Khan held up the document while speaking at the Democratic National Convention, saying that he would lend Trump his copy.
Sales of the U.S. Constitution skyrocketed after Khan's speech.
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