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Orwell's literary career took off during his time in Spain, where he initially sought to document the Spanish Civil War as a journalist. However, he soon became a participant in the conflict, fighting against Fascism. His experiences exposed him to the stark contrasts between reality and the distorted representations of events in the press. This first-hand observation of misinformation deeply influenced his philosophical outlook on truth and history.
Orwell famously noted, “No event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper,” drawing attention to the systematic distortion of objective reality. He believed that the abandonment of factual accuracy could lead to totalitarianism—where individual freedoms are sacrificed in favor of state control.