Pretty sure that Orwell knew perfectly well what was going on in the oh so liberal West. 1984 was basically disclosure:
> Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. (https://www.george-orwell.org/1984/12.html)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Pseudohistory_Theory