If you’ve spent any amount of time participating in online political discourse, you’ve likely seen comparisons between the creeping threat of fascism, the shameless manipulation of truth, and the use of doublespeak by political leaders to “1984.” And of course “1984” in this context refers to the multi-platinum selling album 1984 by American rock band Van Halen.

I’ll admit, I didn’t initially understand why so many people were saying things like door-to-door ICE raids and attempts to rewrite American history were “just like 1984.”

But after some digging, the parallels between our political climate and 1984 become obvious. In fact, it sometimes feels like “Diamond” David Lee Roth consulted a crystal ball and observed the world of 2026 before penning classics like “Drop Dead Legs.”

For instance, a closer examination of the lyrics to “Jump” shows many similarities with the male loneliness epidemic. Young men, standing alone with their backs against the metaphorical record machine asking “who said that?” and receiving nary an answer, before deciding they “might as well jump” headfirst into the alt right pipeline.

Then there’s “Panama.” You might think it’s about David Lee Roth getting horny over a fast car. Yet when he sings “hot shoes, burning down the avenue,” it’s an obvious reference to Trump’s recent intervention in Venezuela. “Model citizen, zero discipline” naturally refers to captured President Maduro, and “you’ll lose her in the turn, I’ll get her, ah! Uh-oh!” signifies Trump’s desire to enrich himself through the country’s oil reserves.

And sure, Panama and Venezuela are, like, two different places. But it’s only a two-hour direct flight between them, so they’re practically the same country.

“Hot for Teacher” was almost certainly inspired by former Dalton School physics teacher Jeffrey Epstein. And then there’s “House of Pain.” Which, if I’m being honest, has nothing to do with politics, it’s just a kick-ass song.

Honestly, it’s a shame Texas and Iowa have banned 1984. If anything, they should be teaching it in schools! And for what it’s worth, the smoking angel baby on the album cover is definitely sporting a Trumpy hairdo.

The signs are obvious if you know where to look! But interestingly, many online users are seemingly unfamiliar with 1984 as a classic rock album, only knowing it as political shorthand.

Worse yet, many of them ignorantly conflate Van Halen’s work with some lesser band. I can’t even tell you the amount of posts I’ve seen mentioning both 1984 and “2+2=5,” in the same breath. The latter is, of course, a Radiohead song! Not VH!

I mean, come on! How can you be so shameless to reference 1984 without ever having listened to it? Rolling Stone even named 1984 one of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Like, maybe pick up a book and try learning something for once, people!

Alas, the low-information, American populace prefers to instead engage in divisive and unproductive conversations at the behest of the ruling class, who actively keep us uninformed and thus easily confused and controlled. To quote DLR on the 1984 single “I’ll Wait”: “You’ve got me captured, I’m under your spell, zippity-bop!”