When a Coin Becomes a Message, A War That Could Reshape the Global Economy, & Iran’s Violent Message to Its Citizens
March 24, 2026
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: It’s Orwellian…appropriate, under the circumstances.
Coined Message: Probably not what was ever meant by “Stay gold.”
Video Break: Here’s why it’s called March Madness
Enormous Stakes: The economic risks of a long war.
Too Young to Die: A teen wrestler and two others executed in a public square.
What I’m Watching: One Battle After Another
Jukebox Playlist: The Byrds “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
Kareem’s Daily Quote
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
— Attributed to George Orwell
It’s starting to feel like my mission in life these days is to take very good quotes that are widely attributed to someone or other, and say “No, so-and-so never actually said this.” Which is the case here again with George Orwell. Orwell scholars have searched his novels (like 1984 and Animal Farm), along with essays, letters, and journalism, and the line doesn’t appear in any verified source. But it does capture Orwell’s themes of dissent and truth vs propaganda. Which makes the quote sound Orwellian.
What Orwell actually said was, “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” But by now you’re probably thinking, Kareem, this is your newsletter, you could have written it any way you chose; so why didn’t you just use the correct quote in the first place?
Because in a sense, a misattributed quote is like a society drifting off course. It’s almost that…but it’s not. It’s good enough to pass, and it fits the bill, so why quibble? How big a deal is it anyway that George Orwell never said what we say he said? Facts become optional. Authors’ words are fabricated…not all of them, maybe, but just enough to muddy the waters. And anyone who insists on saying what’s real suddenly looks like a big fat troublemaker.
So let’s break down the real quote. “In a time of deceit.” Surely we’re living in such a time. As for “telling the truth is a revolutionary act”—it seems like such a stretch, but let’s look at our present circumstances. Anyone who dares go against the status quo is called a radical, a communist, or worse, and is threatened with fines and jail time. And if you don’t think we’re “there” yet, let’s not forget that a beloved director and his wife were accused of sowing the seeds of their own murder via “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” It doesn’t get any weirder or more degenerate than that.
This Orwellian pattern shows up every time a country decides that party matters more than reality. It’s the harmless “white” lie; it’s a good story that smooths over an uncomfortable fact; it’s a leader who discovers that withholding the truth get easier by the hour. But when the rich and powerful build lies upon lies in order to continue to gain fame and wealth and remain in power, the truth becomes not only inconvenient but dangerous.
It threatens to topple the power structure. It becomes a revolutionary act.
And once a society reaches that point, the people who insist on telling the truth stop being seen as honest or principled. They’re painted as disloyal, negative, or disruptive. They “aren’t patriotic.” They “don’t see the bigger picture.” It becomes easier to attack the person pointing out the problem than to confront the problem itself. Truth‑tellers become the enemy not because they’re wrong, but because they’re right in a way that exposes the stories people are invested in believing.
The irony is that most truth‑tellers aren’t trying to tear anything down. They’re trying to keep something standing—usually the idea that a society should be anchored in reality, not fantasy. But admitting the truth would mean admitting that the drift happened in the first place. And truth becomes something people fear instead of something they rely on. At that point, all we can hope for is that while most of us are watching the parade, a few will point to the Emperor and call out that he’s totally naked.
