What's more depressing is this was completely predictable, totally avoidable, but half the country welcomed this wave of oppression with open arms.
And this half of the country that gets their news from exactly one news source will either never hear about these events or see them repackaged as wins.
“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.“
The modern paraphrasing could use price of eggs but otherwise have the same structure.