> "Murderers deserve their death penalty even if they are innocent."

But consider: Does any sane person believe that? And if not, why complain about it in a song?

The lyrics say pretty clearly that some innocent people are convicted of murder and get the death penalty (because the jury has mistakenly found them guilty). But the death penalty continues in spite of those mistakes. Why? One good reason is that the public in general isn't concerned enough to demand the abolition of capital punishment. Seems pretty obvious to me. (Recently they've successfully demanded recreational marijuana in Colorado and weak gun laws just about everywhere: because those are issues they really care about.)

"Dialectics" isn't even related to "doublethink."

Marxist "dialectics" means the supposed absolute power of materialism to shape events. The "Hegelian dialectic," on the other hand, is the process by which conflicting ideas ultimately resolve into a new idea that's closer to the truth.

Before Hegel, "dialectics" simply referred to logic, and that's why both Hegel and Marx use the word.

"Doublethink," on the other hand, is George Orwell's word for smugly and incoherently believing two contradictory things at the same time. For example: "He's completely innocent *and* he committed murder! He committed murder *and* he's completely innocent! Awesome! What's for dinner?"

Just reverting to my teacher mode.