CR's January 23, 2026 Times Standard Article: The Power of Higher Education to Counter Misinformation

Published on Jan 20 2026

There has been a lot of talk of late about George Orwell’s classic novel 1984. I first read 1984, a fable about totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive control, as an undergraduate student in the late 1970s. The book centers on the fictional state of Oceania, led by a dictatorial leader who employs thought police and constant propaganda to restrain individuality, impede independent thinking, and keep people in a perpetual state of fear. This fictional leader also utilizes political operatives to manipulate facts and distort the truth. Those who fall out of favor with his regime disappear from history with all evidence of their lives expunged. 

At the time, I felt that Orwell’s book, published in 1949, was a satirical work of dystopian speculative political fiction. However, recent events, along with conversations with several CR students who recently explored Orwell’s book for the first time, have led me to reconsider. The Trump administration’s deployment of misinformation and political rhetoric echoes the dynamics Orwell warned against, making the novel feel less speculative and more instructive than I once believed.

I am deeply appreciative for my discussions with the College of the Redwoods’ students who read the book and articulately juxtaposed Orwell’s fictional state of Oceania against what we see happening in the United States today. The students pointed out that our country demands that we be well informed and that we act with courage and determination. 

Famously, Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” When you can rewrite history, you can influence what generations of students learn about their society. This has become an official policy of the current administration, as evidenced by this Executive Order Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History which directs federally funded institutions to remove content the administration has deemed ideologically damaging.

In response, institutions like the Smithsonian have faced pressure to revise exhibits, most visibly by removing references to President Trump’s impeachments from the National Portrait Gallery and, more broadly, by softening or narrowing interpretations of slavery and systemic racism. These actions illustrate precisely what Orwell warned against: not the erasure of history outright, but the quiet reshaping of the past through omission, emphasis, and control over how history is told.

Largely due to these misinformation and disinformation campaigns, we now find ourselves in a place where the country cannot agree on simple facts. We see this in the two-sided debate over what happened on January 6, 2021 at the nation’s capital and again with the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Even considering video evidence, some view the incident as murder, while others, including the administration, interpret it as justified self-defense.

As a nation, I believe this bifurcated understanding of our own history is a very dangerous place to be. When a nation cannot agree on what happened or how to understand its history, that division undermines shared understanding, trust, and informed decision-making in the present. It is part of what Orwell was warning about. It is interesting how, a book published nearly seventy-five years ago, from the perspective of recovering from the devastation of World War II, feels more relevant today than ever before.

Fortunately, I also believe there is a way out. Research on misinformation consistently affirms that higher levels of education, particularly college and university experience, are associated with lower susceptibility to believing and sharing false information. Studies examining “fake news” find that individuals with more education demonstrate stronger evaluative skills, greater media literacy, and a higher likelihood of questioning the credibility of sources rather than accepting claims at face value. One study by the Penn State Bellisario College of Communications reports a clear negative relationship between educational attainment and susceptibility to fake news, concluding that education strengthens critical analysis and reduces vulnerability to misleading or manipulative content.

In contrast to Orwell’s warning, Malcome X said, “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Higher education can serve as a counterweight to a repressive government. College of the Redwoods believes that it is our responsibility to push back on the ideology of ignorance and to provide well-educated leaders who have the expertise to lead a diverse society into a bright future. 

I trust that if we are free to honestly and critically examine the past, we will become something better and remain, as President Reagan said in his farewell address to the nation, “a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”