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Deb S's avatar

I have a “1984 was not intended to be an instruction manual” T-shirt. It would amaze me when people would say things like, “I graduated in ‘85!” with a big grin on their face. I would just sigh and say, “I graduated in ‘83” - and then I would just watch the confusion on their face. (I would stop short of encouraging them to go back to school, because they clearly didn’t learn enough.) However, once in a while, I would get a knowing nod or wink from someone, or they would come up and whisper, “love the shirt”. They restored my faith in mankind.

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Doug's avatar

I was working a really dull electronic assembly job in '83, so I brought my Walkman to work and my little headphones and listed to the (essentially) audiobook of 1984 read on NPR radio. So ironic that NPR ended up interpreting it as an instruction manual... That was back in the days before NPR got the majority of its funding from NGOs - it was much more "listener-funded" back in the day.

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Doug's avatar

And in support of that last comment, I offer the following article:

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

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SadieJay's avatar

Yeah, it was and is like a secret club. Just leave me a note under the 3rd rock by the tree on the corner. Dead drop and all that. I do not discount the fact that despite people 'waking up' it just might come to that.

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Politico Phil's avatar

LOL... It took me a second - Duh! Inside joke for smart people!!

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Deb S's avatar

🤣 In fairness, it’s harder to understand from a comment than it is to understand by actually experiencing it. But the cognitive dissonance was always amusing!

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Deb S's avatar

This is the one hubby got for me:

https://www.amazon.com/1984-Supposed-Instruction-Manual-t-shirt/dp/B07PCWJKFB

I’ve pretty much worn all the lettering off. Probably time for a new one! 😉

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